Last week on 205 Live: Humberto Carrillo defeated TJP in TJP’s last match with WWE. Ariya Daivari destroyed local enhancement. Cedric Alexander and Mike Kanellis had an amazing match which Kanellis lost, cause of course he did.
Cold Open-
Drake Maverick welcomes us to 205 Live and walks us through the eight man tournament which will crown a number one contender for the Wrestlemania cruiserweight championship match. Buddy Murphy is calling this the Buddy Murphy Classic. I think Humberto is going to win. He is featured on 205 and NXT regularly and is a face while Murphy is a heel. Seems like the only answer. What’s crazy is Drake Maverick says Brian Kendrick has never had a match at Wrestlemania.
Kalisto vs. Tony Nese
- Kalisto gets a backstage Twitter promo that airs during his entrance. He and Lince Dorado are getting better at promos. Kalisto is also wearing some sort of spiked cape/jacket, which is new. It looks pretty cool.
- Here comes Tony Nese, dude isn’t even counting his abs. I know I rag on Tony for having the lamest gimmick of “I have a lot of abs” but now that Ricochet is on the main roster, Tony has no gimmick at all. He lost his “I have the most abs”. I honestly know nothing about the Tony Nese character, and he has been on the show for almost three years!
- I like that we haven’t seen the tournament brackets. It make the matches less predictable. Usually, tournaments have heel/face matches, so if a good guy wins a match, you can bet the bad guy will win the other one so the alignments are the same in the next round. We don’t know who faces who in round two so it makes round one more exciting.
- This match is a whole lot of “feeling out process” with some spots thrown in in between the tests of strength, counter wrestling and small strike battles.
- Kalisto does a torpedo style suicide dive and the crowd gives zero reaction. They already sat through a whole ass Smackdown, which probably had a few suicide dives. That really hurts 205. Most of the main roster has some sort of high risk move, so by the time the cruiserweights come on, the crowd has seen most of everything. Not to mention there is very little star power on 205. So many obstacles work against this show.
- These guys are going all out in this match; counter wrestling, high flying, brawling outside of the ring, submission wrestling and strikes. The only thing missing is noise from the audience.
- There isn’t much in terms of story other than they are evenly matched. One crucial mistake will cost you the match.
- Kalisto is hitting top rope sentons, tornado DDT’s and basement-rana’s, pinning Nese after every move. All nearfalls. Kalisto does his “lucha” taunt to the crowd and Nese uses that as his opportunity to turn the tide of the match.
- The obligatory 205 Live “fighting on the top rope” spot happens. This one ends with Nese hitting a spider suplex followed by a missed 450 splash. OUCH!
- Now Kalisto goes to the top rope and hits a 450! Tony gets his foot on the rope at two to save the match. The crowd is waking up to this match.
- We have a signature move battle, back and forth dudes hitting big moves for nearfalls. They are evenly matched throughout this entire bout. Back and forth nearfalls. This could give Savage/Steamboat a run for it’s money with nearfalls.
- Nese finally gets the win with a Running Nese into the corner. Tony advances in the Buddy Murphy Classic.
And I’m Like… 205 Live has two matches per show. The show is an hour, meaning the matches are usually near the twenty minute mark. When wrestlers are given that amount of time, they are allowed to draw the crowd in and invest. With everything 205 Live has going against it, it’s really inspiring to see that the roster can still pull through.
Gallagher and Carrillo are watching footage from Humberto’s match last week. Jack is trying to give Humberto advice about choosing ground wrestling over top rope maneuvers.
A recap on Mike Kanellis’ struggle to get a win. That cuts to the Kanellis’ arguing about last weeks match. Drake says Mike and Maria should go home and be ready for a match next week. They are excited to finally get a win.
The Brian Kendrick vs. Drew Gulak
- The story going into the match is Kendrick has had a 15 year career in WWE and never had a match at Wrestlemania. Joseph asks Nigel what it feels like to wrestle and never wrestle at Wrestlemania. That cuts deep.
- They start off with a slow pace, lots of trepidation in their movements.
- The counter wrestling has morphed into submission wrestling. Both men are trading holds to wear down their opponent. A lot more methodical than the first match. This is what you call a “scientific match”.
- This match is evolving from one style of wrestling to the next. Counter wrestling, to submission wrestling to now some strikes. Gulak is initiating every change in the match. Kendrick is able to wrestle every style and when he gets the better on Drew, Drew changes it up. Now that Kendrick can out wrestle Gulak, Drew is doing joint manipulation.
- Brian shows fire and tries to fire back but now Gulak is on the defensive and is able to counter. Some Irish whips are happening for the first time, picking up the pace of the match.
- Drew is beginning to get frustrated because Gulak is exhausting all of his options and Kendrick is still kicking out.
- Kendrick reverses the Gu-Lock into a pin, Drew kicks out but Brian is able to turn that into the Captain’s Hook. They are trading finishers right now.
- Gulak is able to fight out of the Captain’s Hook by fish hooking Kendrick’s mouth. Both men are fighting to stand up. If this was in front of an indie crowd, they’d all be clapping and pounding the mat.
- Gulak gets a gross version of the Gu-Lock bending Kendrick backwards. Kendrick’s arm drops three times and Brian Kendrick loses.
And I’m Like… This was a completely different match from the first one and just as good. 205 Live has one of the most pure wrestling rosters in WWE and it shows. This was a hard nosed in your face match, wrestling at its finest. This is my favorite type of wrestling and I can’t put it over more. Drew Gulak is the king of smashmouth wrestling. Love it.
Next week is Humberto Carrillo vs. Oney Lorcan. SPEAKING OF SMASHMOUTH! Plus Cedric Alexander vs. Akira Tozawa.
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