WWE News: The 205 Live Gauntlet tonight will determine a #1 contender for the Greatest Royal Rumble
What's the story?
The WWE Cruiserweight Championship will be defended on Friday at the Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. General Manager Drake Maverick announced via social media today that there will be a match to determine the #1 contender on tonight's 205 Live.
In case you didn't know...
Alexander defeated Mustafa Ali in the finals of the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament at WrestleMania 34 to become the eighth person to hold the championship since it returned to the WWE at the conclusion of the Cruiserweight Classic in September of 2016.
The heart of the matter
Take a look a the official announcement from Drake Maverick below:
Right after SmackDown Live tonight, the main event of 205 Live will feature a five-man gauntlet match to determine the #1 contender. The five men who will get a chance to face WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander at the Greatest Royal Rumble are: Kalisto, TJP, Drew Gulak, Mustafa Ali, and Tony Nese.
Of the five men in the field, two have been WWE Cruiserweight Champion before in TJP and Kalisto. TJP won the aforementioned Cruiserweight Classic to become the first champion of the current era; while Kalisto defeated Enzo Amore in October of 2017 to win the title.
What's next?
The Greatest Royal Rumble is just around the corner when it airs live from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27th, on the WWE Network. There will be a 50-man Royal Rumble match to go along with a total of seven championship matches.
Author's take
Considering there are two championship rematches from WrestleMania on the Greatest Royal Rumble card (Brock Lesnar v. Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura v. AJ Styles), the easy pick would be to go with Mustafa Ali for another WrestleMania rematch, but I'm going to go with TJP here.
It's been a while since TJP has been in the championship picture, plus he's known all around the world in his days before the WWE. I think they'll save Gulak and Alexander for a regular pay per view, possibly even Backlash.