Austin Aries: There’s a big vision for 205 Live; it doesn’t happen overnight

If 205 Live is struggling, Austin Aries, who has been challenging for the Cruiserweight championship over the past couple months and doing his damnedest to bring prominence to the division, has an idea of why.

As he told Busted Open Radio on Sirius XM:

"With 205 Live I think the main thing that people have to keep in mind and understand is that there's a big vision for this. It doesn't happen overnight. It's still really in its infancy stages and there's going to be growing pains, and there's going to be figuring out the right formula, and I think you're exposing a bunch of new people, myself included, to a larger new audience. It takes time for characters and people to get acclimated with the Universe and to find where they fit in. I guess I preach patience with it in that and in the bigger picture we're really taking steps in the right direction. It's maybe just not maybe as quick or not exactly what other people thought it should be or how it should be presented but with what we're doing we've got a lot of cool things going on. There's a lot of talented guys who haven't had a chance to really be spotlighted yet and I think they're going to start to and that's going to really hopefully shake some things up and get some fresh match-ups and some more excitement into what they like to call the most exciting hour in sports entertainment."

He’s got a good point, of course. The cruiserweight division was never going to be a big hit right from the get go, especially considering WWE has traditionally been a big man promotion. An entire show dedicated to smaller, more versatile wrestlers was always going to need some time to grow into itself. The hope is it would find an audience along the way.

The current criticism is centered around whether or not that can happen in the future if it isn’t happening now. WWE doesn’t appear ready to give up anytime soon, so we’ll learn eventually if Aries is right or misguided.