For way too many years, WWE has been a promotion about big guys, and that is because it is an attribute that Vince McMahon searches out when he is looking for superstars. Even the smaller of world champions over the years have been bigger guys, with Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart both classified as smaller champions, and both men stand over six feet tall.
However, there have been exceptions over the years, such as Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles, but mostly the smaller guys are kept on shows like 205 Live, where they achieve great success in the cruiserweight division. When most of these wrestlers move up to the main roster, they flop. Here is a look at five 205 Live wrestlers who succeeded on the main roster and five who failed.
10 Success: Buddy Murphy
Buddy Murphy is not what most people think of when they look at the 205 Live superstars. He is 5'11" and weighs in at 227 pounds, which is a good 22 pounds heavier than the allowed cruiserweight level.
Despite that, he slimmed up and ended up holding the title for 183 days. He moved on to the main roster and is now one of Seth Rollins' top followers and is working top matches on Monday Night Raw.
9 Flopped: Lio Rush
Lio Rush was immensely talented in the ring, and he is as arrogant and cocky, giving him an excellent wrestling persona. However, that was also what rubbed many people the wrong way when he moved up to the main roster.
WWE put him as Bobby Lashley's mouthpiece, and Rush was a heat magnet. The problem is that he also had heat backstage, and he is now out of WWE at the age of 25.
8 Success: Kalisto
Kalisto is one of the WWE superstars who were successful before 205 Live ever existed. He was a former NXT tag team champion with Sin Cara and a two-time U.S. Champion, which is more than most cruiserweight in WWE achieved.
He has since become the WWE Cruiserweight Champion before moving back to the main roster and taking part in Lucha House Party, where he is always competing for the tag titles.
7 Flopped: Akira Tozawa
In what has to be one of the most disappointing 205 Live stars when it comes to the main roster, Akira Tozawa just can't catch a break. He looked fantastic on the 205 Live roster in NXT. He was part of the Cruiserweight Championship tournament and won some hard-fought matches along the way.
What makes no sense is his treatment on Monday Night Raw. At the same time that Tozawa was tearing it up in the Cruiserweight tournament, he was losing on Raw and looking like enhancement talent. It also didn't help that Jerry Lawler always buried him on commentary.
6 Success: Angel Garza
Angel Garza was not in the 205 Live division for very long. Garza signed with WWE in 2019 and won the Cruiserweight Championship eight months after he signed.
However, due to the suspension of Andrade on Monday Night Raw, WWE needed to make a fast change and called up Garza to replace him. Since then, Garza proved to be a legit star and has remained on Raw one of its more successful wrestlers ever since.
5 Flopped: Drew Gulak
This pick might be controversial based on the start of Drew Gulak's run on Friday Night SmackDown. He came from NXT, where he was a top star and did PowerPoint presentations in WWE on the main roster, acting like a goof. He never won and was often squashed.
However, that all changed when Daniel Bryan helped put him over and made sure than fans knew how talented Gulak was. While Gulak was playing second fiddle to Bryan when it came to booking, he got the push he needed to finally make fans take notice and has recently re-signed with WWE.
4 Success: Mustafa Ali
Mustafa Ali looked like he was going to be a star when he came up from 205 Live. He has an extremely positive attitude and is someone that WWE has used to help push social issues to their fans through vignettes.
However, outside of the Money in the Bank appearance last year, he hasn't done hardly anything. This fact is even more disappointing because he was in line for a significant push in 2019 before his injury forced WWE to move Kofi Kingston into the push, which resulted in Kofi winning the world title.
3 Flopped: Tony Nese
Tony Nese was almost like two peas in a pod with Drew Gulak when they were working in 205 Live. They started as goofs, following the lead of Enzo Amore and doing his bidding.
However, when WWE fired Amore, they proved they were better wrestlers than he ever dreamed of being. Nese had a 77-day reign as champion and then moved to the main roster, where he lost almost every match in which he competed.
2 Success: Cedric Alexander
There are rumors that Cedric Alexander is unhappy in WWE. He was one of the most exciting stars coming out of the Cruiserweight Classic, a guy with great charisma and a fantastic move set.
Fans of his from Ring of Honor know how great Alexander is, but he remains mostly forgotten in today's WWE. Despite that, when he appears on Raw, he is almost always the best performer on the show and never fails to entertain, as he waits for his chance.
1 Flopped: TJP
It seems almost hard to believe that TJP won the Cruiserweight Classic Tournament and was the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion for 205 Live. The problem early on was that he didn't seem to live up to his babyface persona.
When he turned heel, it seemed more natural, but he struggled in appearances on Raw, and fans didn't seem to care. Less than three years after winning the first Cruiserweight title, WWE released TJP.