Previously on 205 Live: Noam Dar gained a victory over TJP, Wale was a guest commentator and made fun of TJP and Lucha House Party won a bout against Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy. It was a very blah show.
Cold Open
Drake Maverick opens the video package running down tonights card. The Brian Kendrick vs. Akira Tozawa. Tozawa was attacked before his match by Jack Gallagher, Drew Gulak and Brian. The main event is Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy. What is exciting is Buddy Murphy singles matches. The dude has been on an amazing singles match streak.
Akira Tozawa vs. The Brian Kendrick
Brian and Gallagher make their way to the ring doing an Aaron Sorkin walk and talk. They ran down the Toronto crowd and told Akira he should have walked away instead of demanding retribution.
Tozawa begins the match by chasing Kendrick to the outside and then laying two punches. One to Brian and one to Jack, knocking Jack out. Tozawa is a house of fire with laser focus. He was doing a great until Jack Gallagher tripped up Akira giving Kendrick the advantage.
Brian lays on the offense in his typical ruthless fashion. Putting his forearm over Tozawa’s cheekbone. vicious strikes to the nose and holds that are meant to wear Akira down. Tozawa is able to fight off Kendrick and seems to be in control after a dive to the outside, only to be distracted by Jack again.
Brian, even with the outside help, still can’t hold the advantage in this match. Akira is relentless in his attack and chose to work on Brian’s leg. The crowd is all but dead for this. The men are working their asses off though and putting on a solid match.
Tozawa is able to wake the crowd up a bit when he hits his top rope senton finsher. It was a good match but suffered from typical 205 opening match problems. The crowd sat through an entire show already with everyone they came to see. This is the show that comes after Smackdown! Live and has very few names the majority of the audience are invested in.
We get clips from previous weeks highlighting the feud between Lucha House Party and Buddy Murphy and Tony Nese. I didn’t realize this feud has been almost over a month long now with a match between the warring groups every week.
Buddy Murphy and Tony Nese have a backstage interview. We are told that this feud has been for most of the summer. During the promo the mic cuts out or maybe my soundbar did. Basically Tony and Buddy are sick of playing around.
Hideo Itami vs. Michael Blaise
During Hideo’s entrance we get a twitter promo from Itami where Hideo laughs while apologizing for injuring Mustafa Ali. When the match starts Hideo runs and attacks Blaise with running attacks and strikes.
Commentary puts over how Itami’s signing was a huge moment that Hulk Hogan was at. That Hideo was a main eventer in Japan but that didn’t transfer to America. Commentary really putting over how Hideo isn’t the man he once was and isn’t the main event competitor. It’s crazy how Itami is putting a whooping on Blaise but all commentary says is how Hideo was respected and was amazing in Japan but in WWE not so much.
Hideo has the match won but he keeps pulling Michael’s head up to stop the three count. Itami is laughing sadistically while commentary is finally paying attention to the action in the ring and telling that story. Before Hideo can dole out any more damage Ali shows up in street clothes and slowly rolls his sleeves up.
Ali charges the ring but Itami bails out and the barrier of the ring ropes holds Mustafa back. Ali is seething mad screaming “you want some respect? Fight me! You’re a coward” Itami walks to the back through the crowd.
A replay of the beating of Akira Tozawa by Gulak, Gallagher and Kendrick. This time the package highlights Gulak and Cedric having a battle of wits. Then Kendrick charging the ring as Gulak bails and Alexander was held back by the rope barrier while screaming “I’m right here! Where you going?” I feel like I saw something like that before…
Cedric cuts a selfie promo offering Gulak a chance to fight him next week.
Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy
Lucha House Party enters last and they are a kaleidoscope of colors with pinatas and noise makers. They are the most extra group in WWE.
The match starts with a “Buddy Murphy” chant. That’s surprising and welcomed. Buddy is a star, he is constantly getting 20+ minute matches that have the crowd invested by the end. Nigel makes a great call by saying Buddy Murphy was getting the advantage from Kalisto while they were in a “not much of a test of strength.”
Three minutes in and we have a top rope huricanrana that draws applause from the crowd. Kalisto takes Murphy and Nese out with a flip over the ref and the top rope. This leads to a stand off with LHP and Nese and Murphy. The ref ain’t having it and gets everyone but the competitors out of the ring. He doesn’t throw anyone out of the ringside area though.
Commentary really putting Murphy over as a can’t miss superstar with Nigel going so far as to say “every match he has is a classic.”
Both men fight to the outside. Kalisto ran off the apron to dive onto Murphy but Buddy caught Kalisto in a suplex position. It was quite the spectacle. The ref is upset with Lince Dorado and Gran Metallik because they pushed Buddy Murphy. Tony Nese is still allowed at ringside though.
That doesn’t last long because Nese tripped up Kalisto and the ref threw Tony out too. The crowd made a bit of a pop for that. This match is now one-on-one.
There is so much that happens after that. Back and forth sequences with counters and strikes and suplex catches. It ends with the crowd chanting “this is awesome.” Classic Buddy Murphy match, start with a dead crowd and end with “this is awesome” chants.
A great nearfall happens after Kalisto hits Murphy with a superkick which knocks the spit out of Buddy. Buddy’s spit went into the crowd as was evident by the ladies in the front row leaning out of the way and the group around the ladies laughing.
The match goes into the final act when Buddy throws Kalisto off the apron head first into the commentary table. Buddy breaks the count of the referee so Murphy can continue punishing Kalisto. After a second break of the count, Kalisto is able to monkey flip over the barricade.
Buddy gets in at nine but while Murphy is half way through the ropes Kalisto hits a spike hurricanrana. Murphy kicks out at two and the crowd is quiet at first and then just starts applauding. It was a cool little moment that lead to another “this is awesome” chant.
Nearfalls are traded with the crowd counting along with every pin. Then they break out in a “205” chant. This match is truly special. I mean Buddy Murphy is a god of wrestling on 205 but Kalisto is worth is weight in gold in this match.
Buddy Murphy wins the match after hitting Murphy’s Law. It was kind of a lackluster reaction from the crowd because Buddy got off of Kalisto right as the ref counted three so some of the crowd thought Kalisto had kicked out. That match was the bee’s fucking knees. Way better than last week. Hail Buddy Murphy.
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