Shane Helms met great success within WWE's Cruiserweight division a decade ago, and he has some ideas as it pertains to the modern day iteration standing out.
When speaking to the Pancakes and Powerslams podcast, Helms opened up about his opinions in regards to the WWE's new age cruiserweight division and the talent being too cookie cutter.
“[205 Live] doesn’t have the star power that the main roster has. If somebody does get popular in that division they take them out and sending a message to the audience that this division isn’t as important. They never seem to capture the magic of how it happens in MMA and Boxing. In MMA and Boxing, their biggest stars are 30-40 lbs smaller than me. WWE has struggled with that. I’m not talking about just small guys, usually smaller guys in that division against other guys. They’ve done great things obviously with myself, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, Finn Balor, but imagine how great that 205 Live division would be if AJ and Finn Balor were in it, but it has to be presented as an important division or else AJ and Finn Balor wouldn’t want to be part of it, and I can almost assure you that they don’t. If it’s presented as second tier then nobody wants to be on the B-Team, on the Junior Varsity; everybody there wants to be on the main side and be viewed as important so WWE has to present it as important. Guys there also have to step up. There are a lot of guys look exactly like 40-50 guys on the Indies. There isn’t any standout looks or personalities. Enzo [Amore] is at least bringing about attention, and that is what this business is about. It’s about bringing on attention.”
You can check out the full interview at this link, and see Fightful.com's archive of Shane Helms Podcasts at this link, including his Royal Rumble and WrestleMania experiences.
