By John Moore
WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network
Aired live from San Diego, California at Valley View Casino Center
This week’s 205 Live had a cold open recapping Titus O’Neil trying to recruit Akira Tozawa to the “Titus Brand”. The recap video ended with Titus O’Neil announcing that Akira Tozawa will be getting his title shot against Neville at The Balls PPV as well as the new name of his brand being “Titus Worldwide”…
John’s Thoughts: I wonder if Vince changed the name because LaVar Bell annoyed him with the Big Baller Brand hype backstage before Raw?
Vic Joseph and Corey Graves checked in on commentary. Joseph and Graves are wearing different suits this week at least but Joseph still is creepily wearing the haircut of Graves. Graves hyped a Neville promo where he’ll address his upcoming title defense against Tozawa. Joseph hyped Cedric Alexander vs. Ariya Daivari. They cut to Dasha Fuentes who was interviewing Jack Gallagher. Fuentes asked Gallagher how he’s going to bounce back against Brian Kendrick later on after losing last week to Anthony Nese. Jack said he let his gentlemanly manner cloud his judgement in not expecting Nese’s cheating. He said he’s prepared this week as he made his entrance…
After Jack Gallagher made his entrance. His entrance theme played again as Brian Kendrick came out dressed as Gallagher and even wearing a fake mustache. Kendrick said it was just like looking in a mirror. Mate. But he’d be ashamed looking at this look in a mirror. Kendrick called Gallagher a cartoon/caricature. He said Jack has grown stale and is a joke. Kendrick called the umbrella ridiculous and said Gallagher was an embarrassment. Kendrick said the worst part is that Jack doesn’t realize that he’s an embarrassment. Kendrick said Jack should be the laughing stock of all of England. Kendrick then went on to call England an embarrassment. Kendrick said England’s a laughing stock. Kendrick said Jack was no James Bond. He said Jack was a pint sized, pale imitation of William Regal and he’s not laughing.
John’s Thoughts: Well… I thought Pete Dunne was a clone of William Regal, but that’s besides the point. A joke, embarrassment, and a caricature. That sounds like 205 Live booking in a nutshell. If I remember correctly, Brian Kendrick did a similar promo to this when he first debuted in TNA when he went face to face with Austin Aries. This time Kendrick went from looking like Orlando Bloom to looking like the SNL version of Justin Timberlake.
1. Jack Gallagher vs. “The” Brian Kendrick. Graves pointed out that Kendrick has been gone for a while. Kendrick channeled Low Ki at this point and wrestled in a full-on suit. But unlike Ki, he didn’t have a floppy tie. Gallagher escaped the initial headlock from Kendrick. Kendrick kept up momentum with a shoulder block. Gallagher blocked a kicked and locked in a side headlock of his own. Gallagher then did his signature handstand boot to fend off Kendrick. Kendrick called Gallagher stupid to bait him in. Gallagher managed to win the next offensive sequence with a body scissors. Kendrick turned the tide with a knee to the jaw of Gallagher.
Kendrick gave Gallagher an Irish whip and a fist to the corner. Kendrick added another Irish Whip with added power. Gallagher came back with knees and a shortarm forearm. Kendrick countered with a backtoss. Kendrick grounded Gallagher with an elbow. Kendrick hit Gallagher in the gut with the Umbrella for the DQ.
Jack Gallagher defeated The Brian Kendrick via DQ in 3:04.
Kendrick aggressively beatdown Gallagher with the umbrella. Kendrick tossed his broken umbrella into the crowd and picked up Jack’s umbrella to continue the pummeling. Kendrick maintained a hacking motion until the referees broke it up. Kendrick’s theme played as he made his exit.
John’s Thoughts: Nice work by Kendrick there and this was more of the old Kendrick that I saw as a former “Current” WWE World Champion back in the early 2000s (look it up, Jim Ross actually made the call of Kendrick winning the WWE Championship for a few minutes in the Championship Scramble). This wasn’t old man veteran Kendrick or “Wizard of Odd” Kendrick. This was aggressive asshole Kendrick and Asshole Kendrick is best Kendrick. Gallagher is a great foil and low key has the potential to be similar to NXT Bayley in being a genuine babyface with a quirkiness.
Drew Gulak was interviewed. Dasha showed Gulak clips from Ali’s win from last week. Graves pointed out that it must have been embarrassing for Gulak to lose to a wrestling hold. Gulak claimed that Ali just got lucky. Gulak said that upset just proves his point. Gulak said in order to beat such a high-caliber athlete Ali had to result to using a wrestling hold. Gulak said it was well worth it to take the loss and prove his message in “safe and sound, feet on the ground”. Mustafa Ali walked in and shook his head. Ali said he doesn’t understand why Gulak doesn’t like exciting high flying moves. Ali said the real reason behind Gulak’s campaign is that high flying is something that Drew can’t do. Ali gave Drew a patronizing and exaggerated thumbs up…
2. Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak. Corey Graves hyped up Mustafa Ali’s Lucha Libre back ground from Chicago. Yelled on the megaphone before the match. By the way, Drew Gulak’s theme sounds like stage music to a Sonic The Hedgehog stage. Gulak and Ali jawed at each other to start off. Gulak gained the upper hand early on with a high guard. Ali tried to counter with his agility but Gulak overpowered Ali with a strong right hand. Mustafa Ali came back at Drew when Drew tried to brag with a few chops. Ali went for a springboard crossbody but flew right into the Knee of Gulak. Drew Gulak body slammed Ali on the ropes.
Drew Gulak followed up a chinlock with a strong lariat. Gulak gave Ali a snap suplex into the turnbuckle. Joseph called it “what a maneuver”. Ali stopped Gulak’s momentum with a tilt-a-whirl tornado DDT. Ali took down Gualk with a headscissors. Ali staggered Gulak with a roundhouse which set up for a successful rolling neckbreaker. Gulak pushed Mustafa Ali off the top rope and he was oddly put in position to do a high-flying move. Gulak teased a high-flying move and claimed he could do it. GUlak did the hand signs and missed a Superfly Splash. Mustafa Ali countered by beating Gulak with a Magistral rollup.
Mustafa Ali defeated Drew Gulak via pinfall in 6:53.
The commentators recapped Drew’s failed superfly splash. Ali stood tall as he celebrated. Vic Joseph reiterated that Drew Gulak was beaten at his own game. Graves and Joseph then hyped up the Neville promo advertised for this episode…
Noam Dar tried to apologize to Ariya Daivari for accidently throwing Daivari’s bag in the river. Dar asked Daivari to take his anger out on Cedric Alexander whose true fault it was. Dar then went on to talking about how expensive Daivari’s bag was. Daivari said $15,000 means nothing to him, it’s peasant. Noam Dar was relieved and said he was broke. Dar complained about Alicia Fox facetiming him everywhere including in the bathroom. Alicia Fox’s theme played via ringtone and Dar picked it up. Daivari hung up on Fox for Dar. Daivari said he doesn’t want Dar’s money but Dar still owes him. Daivari then smashed Dar’s phone into pieces against the wall…
John’s Thoughts: I feel a bit better about Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali this week than last. They still wrote the non-wrestling part totally wrong because they should have had Gulak steal Ali’s thunder after last week’s match by claiming that Ali has to resort to Gulak moves. The match they had on this episode was fun and it’s interesting seeing Gulak actually being pretty interesting. I’m not sure where the go from here though, but at least Gulak’s political character is catching on.
3. Cedric Alexander vs. Ariya Daivari. Daivari came to the ring without the turban and sunglasses. Daivari and Alexander had a chain wrestling sequence to start. Daivari gained the upper hand with some chops. Alexander turned the tide with a headscissors. Alexander gave Daivari a shoulder to the gut and hit his signature springboard clothesline. Daivari caught Alexander with a right boot. Alexander caught Daivari with a forearm. Daivari came back with a hip toss into the turnbuckle. There are a lot of wrestling throws into the turnbuckle on this episode.
Alexander went to ringside. Daivari kept in pursuit and hit a darting dropkick to ringside from the apron. Alexander went for a handstand elbow but went right into the rear naked Choke from Daivari. Alexander got the rope break. Alexander caught Daivari with a stiff back elbow. Alexander nailed Daivari with a handstand jumping roundhouse for the close nearfall. Alexander went for a springboard move but was distracted by Noam Dar who ran in. Daivari tried to take advantage to no avail. Alexander got a nearfall off a small cradle. Alexander gave Dar a right hand and jawed at him. Daivari hit Alexander with a hammerlock clothesline for the victory.
Ariya Daivari defeated Cedric Alexander via pinfall in 5:00.
Dar sold the shot to the teeth. As the commentators cut to replays, Noam Dar pummeled Cedric with punches in the ring. Noam Dar grabbed a microphone for a promo. Dar called to Alicia Fox. He said he know’s Fox is at home recovering from injury and she wants to facetime with him. Dar said he is sure that the Cedric Alexander chapter is oooooooverrrrrr. Dar said it was now time to move on and focus on love. Dar then channeled Rocky by saying “Alicia Fox, we did it”. Neville was shown making his way to the ring…[C]
John’s Thoughts: This was your standard WWE undercard fare, complete with possible parity booking. Cedric will get his win someday soon. I also sense that this is going to lead to Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann vs. Noam Dar and Ariya Daivari. I hope not! Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander need to stay far far away from each other. Move Noam Dar to Raw or something, because this feud ran it’s course months ago!
Neville made his way to the ring as the commentators hyped Neville vs. Tozawa at the flaming balls event. Neville soaked in the heat. He said in two weeks at Great Balls of Fire he will defend his WWE Cruiserweight Championship once again against the the next so called challenger. Neville said said this time the individual is unfortunately someone who has been misguided and misled. Neville said he doesn’t thing this person doesn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation they find themselves in. Neville said this is someone the delusional WWE Universe things stands a snowballs chance in hell at beating Neville. Neville said this man is Akira Tozawa, the Wonder Kid.
A mild “ha!” chant started which Neville called cute. Neville told the crowd to not fool themselves in thinking that Neville is concerned with the white noise known as Titus O’Neil. Neville said Titus Worldwide was just smoke and mirrors. He said he only sees another little lamb being led to the slaughter. Neville said he knows Tozawa likes to give lessons, but Neville likes to give warnings. Neville said in two weeks, at Great Balls of Fire, Tozawa shouldn’t show up because if he does Neville promises he will smack Tozawa in the face with the cold hot realization that Tozawa doesn’t belong in the ring of Neville, and he’s not close to the Neville Level. He told Tozawa to ask all who came before him. Neville said Tozawa is going to get hurt.
Akira Tozawa made his way to the ring in a suit. Neville yelled at Tozawa and called him a flavor of the month. Tozawa said Ha. This caused the crowd to follow him. Neville asked Tozawa if he knows English. Tozawa responded with ha! Tozawa channeled Low Ki even more by kicking out Neville wearing his suit. This one does have a floppy red tie. Neville retreated up the ramp as Tozawa led “ha!” chants.
John’s Thoughts: Who would have known that Neville had the ability to carry a WWE style ten minute promo segment? The guy’s talented all around. It was also cool to see a non-Titus O’Neil related segment for once even though I’m starting to warm up to it. I’m still not going to further judge it either way since I am starting to grow on Titus as Tozawa and Crews’s babyface mouthpiece. Just as long as Titus keeps his WWE Superstars undercard comedy far away from it. By WWE 205 Live standards, this was a good show. Still not close to the quality of the fun Cruiserweight Classic shows, but we shouldn’t expect that kind of show at this point. I’ll have more thoughts in my All-Access 205 Live Audio Review later today.
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