Last week on 205 Live: The Brian Kendrick almost had a Drew Gulak pinned until Jack Gallagher interfered and caused a disqualification. Daivari won a showcase match. Lucha House Party soundly defeated Mike Kanellis and TJP in what could have been the blow off to their feud.
Big ups to Mustafa Ali for making a splash on Smackdown Live against the WWE champion The New Daniel Bryan! Very exciting to see that there is life outside the 205 tank. Reminds me of Finding Nemo. 205 Live is the dentist office and Mustafa Ali went down the drain into the great blue ocean.
Cold Open
Drake Maverick welcomes us to the show. He tells us about Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy at TLC and how tonights episode effects that. Drake chooses both Buddy and Cedric’s opponents for tonight. This is a one-ups-men-ship style night. Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy vs. Gran Metalik.
Buddy Murphy vs. Gran Metalik
- The crowd doesn’t react much to the entrances or the feeling out process. I was hoping that reactions would be stronger due to the fact that Lucha House Party are featured more on Raw recently, and Buddy Murphy has appeared on a few pay per views.
- Metalik hit a flip over the top rope to the floor on Murphy and there was a wee bit of noise from the audience.
- The pace is picking up and there are bigger moves being performed. The crowd is waking up a bit. You can tell because after every big move Metalik stops the attack and chants “Lucha” but the crowd doesn’t join him. Every time.
- Murphy was able to catch Metalik in midair with a suplex in a spot that will never NOT impress me. The timing and strength needed for that is ungodly.
- Murphy slows the match down a bit by targeting the left shoulder of Metalik. Who has blue K-tape on it. Makes Buddy look smart and vicious and adds some sympathy to Metalik.
- Metalik hits his comeback and has quite a flurry before ending in a cradleshck for two. The crowd is sitting on their hands which is an absolute shame. These dudes are having a fantastic showing and the sound doesn’t match it.
- If two wrestlers that the crowd knew did the match move for move this crowd will be molten hot. That shows you how important character investment is.
- The better this match gets the more upset I get at the lack of crowd support. Buddy Murphy is able to finish Metalik off with some pumphandle into a twisting Samoan drop.I
Akira Tozawa and The Brian Kendrick are backstage with Drake Maverick. Drake lets them know that next week they will team together in a street fight vs. The Submission Commission. Which consists of Jack Gallagher and Drew Gulak. Brian says his new outlook on life is to help raise up 205 Live. Akira says that Brian also needs a new look. Tozawa also mentions that Drake lost the tag team titles. Akira’s English is really f’n impressive.
Drew Gulak and Jack Gallagher say they will win the street fight.
Daivari says all wrestlers care about is retweeting compliments and dressing up as superheros. Ariya says he is back in 205 Live to bring the fight and get rid of the flash. Hideo shows up to shake Daivari’s hand and both these men are ready to kick the everloving shit out of this division.
Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander
- Okay, remember that thing about character investment? This match is what I am talking about. What in the blue hell is Tony Nese’s character? The premier athlete? Like that is just a name, there is nothing behind it. What does Tony do? He counts his abs…. THAT IS IT! How can I even get behind that? How does that even make me feel anything? This was someone who desperately needed NXT but the majority of 205 Live skipped the developmental brand after the CWC and are learning as they go with little to no direction. It’s a travesty.
- The crowd wakes up a bit for Cedric and claps and chants “Let’s Go Cedric”. So that’s nice.
- After a nice little back and forth that ended with a gorgeous dropkick by Cedric the crowd clapped a bit and are louder than they have been all night.
- I am still thinking about Tony Nese’s character while Cedric is getting stopped left and right from jumping off the top rope. If Ricochet gets called to 205 Live, he has more abs than Tony. What happen’s to Nese then? Like Lio Rush might have more abs than Tony now. Also, Tony has to constantly keep those abs.. How strict of lifestyle would that be? Imagine if he goes back to the indies and goes on a Boogie Woogie Man run? 76 year old Tony Nese WILL NOT have eight abs. This stresses me out!
- Why if your name is Nese, do you talk about your abs. LIKE YOU’RE NAME IS A DIFFERENT SPELLING OF KNEES! The puns are all there for the taking and you over here counting your abs Tony Nese?!?
- As Tony works a chinlock on Cedric, I can’t help but think. Did Joey Abs have knee based offense? That would be something, wouldn’t it?
- Cedric hit some clotheslines. Then he sets Nese up in the corner by hitting a low dropkick. Cedric runs to the other side of the ring, jumps over the top rope and runs back on the apron towards Nese hitting Tony with a kick in the head. Vic Joseph says Cedric has “no wasted motion”. The disconnect is strong there. That move was ALL wasted motion.
- Nese hits Alexander so hard Cedric spits in the air except the spit doesn’t go in the air, it goes in Cedric’s hair, which made me gag. There is a nice falsie fest going on for a little bit before we get some flippy divies.
- Nese misses a 450 and Alexander went for a pin that Nese reversed. That leads to another pin attempt. The crowd is finally into this a little bit!!
- Cedric wins with a Lumbar Check after kicking out at two from a HORRIBLE pin attempt. Cedric went for a Lumbar Check and did the normal fall on his back motion he always does. Except Tony flipped out and then pinned Cedric for two. Like how is that even a nearfall? It’s cool though. The match ended two moves later.
And I’m Like… That was a fun match but it was hard for me to focus. Eight ab’d character and all. Buddy Murphy came down after the match was over and tried to fight Cedric but Alexander got the best of Buddy. This match at TLC will be fantastic! 205 Live was only two matches long but I really enjoyed it. They just need some f’n characters for me to get behind. I can only be interested in so many matches that feature dudes only “trying to win”.
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