By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)
WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network
Aired live on February 12, 2019 from Toledo, Ohio at Huntington Center
The show started with a recap of the ongoing rivalry between Tony Nese and Noam Dar. We saw Dar’s promos backstage where he talked about wanting to face Nese, with the background of Nese’s attack on Dar in the parking lot from a few weeks ago. No real mention of anything else, so all the focus is clearly on this No DQ match between Tony Nese and Noam Dar tonight.
1. Jack Gallagher vs. Lince Dorado. Lucha House party came out and cut a promo to hype up the live crowd. They talked about how cold it was and I think they actually did an admirable job considering the dimmed lights seemed to indicate a sparse crowd. Kalisto and Lince Dorado invited Gran Metalik to sing, but right before the silent Luchador was to start Drew Gulak and Jack Gallagher came out to interrupt them.
Drew Gulak hopped on commentary to fill up the dreaded four-man commentary booth. Meanwhile, the match got underway with Gallagher using a wrist lock and small joint manipulation to control Dorado and keep him down. Dorado utilized a kip-up to get off the grounds and springboard off the ropes to whip Gallagher loose with an arm-drag.
Dorado then wrapped an arm lock of his own, before Gallagher reversed it and positioned himself as the superior grappler of the two. Dorado gave up on going hold for hold and instead bounded Gallagher off the ropes and hit him with a Tilt-a-Whirl backbreaker.
This couldn’t keep Gallagher down for long however, as he got right back up and retorted with a Gutbuster to Dorado. Gallagher tried to follow up by whipping Dorado to the ropes, but the Luchador caught him with his feet and hit a flipping Snapmare on him to throw him out of the ring. Dorado tried to follow up with a suicide dive, but Gulak propped Gallagher up and moved him out of the way. With this recovery time, Gallagher turned the tables upon his return to the ring and caught Dorado in a tree-of-woe for a few strikes before locking in a few alternating submission moves once more.
We saw Gallagher getting frustrated a little and hit Dorado with some strikes before grabbing an abdominal stretch. With the crowd behind him, Dorado managed to hip toss Gallagher over the top rope and follow up with a top rope Plancha to knock him down by the commentary table. Gulak teased getting involved but thought better of it.
Gallagher rolled back into the ring and got caught with a cross body, but managed to kickout at two. Gallagher tried to force a grappling exchange, but Dorado rolled through and hit him with a kick and a pair of Moonsaults. Dorado didn’t go for the pin and instead tried for a third, allowing Gallagher to counter with his knees and lock in a single-leg Boston Crab.
Dorado didn’t get caught in it for long, quickly rolling out and Monkey Flipping Gallagher. The two exchanged strikes after this with Gallagher attempting a pinfall after hitting a rope-rebound headbutt. Gallagher attempted to follow up with a big corner kick, but Dorado dodged and hit a handspring stunner on Gallagher, although it was only enough for a two count.
The two got slowly to their feet and exchanged uppercuts, with Gallagher getting knocked into the corner. Dorado tried to lift him up for a superplex, but Gallagher scouted it and hit a sunset flip instead, getting the pinfall victory.
Jack Gallagher defeated Lince Dorado via pinfall.
Anish’s Thoughts: This match was enjoyable. It was a nice reminder that the cruiserweights don’t have to rely on solely crazy high flying moves to tell a great story. I think Gallagher especially looked good, and his grappling style coming out on top gave himself some credibility.
Throughout the match, Gulak was actually rather entertaining on commentary, and the 4-man booth was essentially a three man with Aiden English barely speaking throughout the match. Gulak put a lot of time specifically addressing Humberto Carrillo, who he and Gallagher are clearly trying to take on as a client.
After the match, we saw Kayla Braxton interviewing Humberto Carrillo about Gulak and Gallagher’s interest in him. He said that he was asked about their animosity to Lucha Libre but said in Spanish: “I am very proud to represent my family, my culture and the people of Mexico” before switching to English and saying that if two of the best wrestlers on 205 Live want to train him, he should at least listen.
After that we saw a promo from Ariya Daivari saying that he came to 205 to serve himself. Daivari said that he fights his fights alone and that he needs to become Cruiserweight Champion. I liked this promo as it gave Daivari some necessity and a goal to achieve rather than to be a heel just floating around.
We went to break and came back to another promo, this time by Mike and Maria Kanellis. Maria said that every loss is a step closer to success as it’s all about learning.. Maria said that they have had success wherever they have gone and that once Mike Kanellis gets an opportunity at ‘The’ match, everybody will remember his name.
2. Noam Dar vs. Tony Nese in a No Disqualification match. Dar entered the rind first and Nese came out marching to the ring with a purpose. As soon as Nese got in the ring, Dar jumped him as to not allow Nese to try and gain any advantage. Dar immediately hit a Northern Lights Suplex and tried for a pin, but Nese kicked out at two. I thought this was stupid because Dar’s whole motivation for asking for a No DQ match was to hurt Nese.
Either way, Dar got into it after this, whipping Nese into t he barricades and dislodging the steel steps to set up for something. Dar then placed Nese groin first on the barricade and used the Steel Steps as a pedestal to clothesline Nese right off the barricade. Dar then threw Nese at the ring post and manipulated his fingers, using the steel ring connecter to pull back on Nese’s knuckles. In frustration from this, Nese chopped Dar hard and turned the tables by tossing him into a barricade. He then rolled Dar back into the ring before pulling out a chair to slot Dar in the abdomen,
Nese then set up the chair next to the ropes and hung Dar’s head on the chair with his legs on the middle ropes and hit a Moonsault on the hung up Scotsman. Nese didn’t relent and picked the chair up and went to work, using it to put pressure on Dar’s chest. With the focus on Dar’s mid-section, Nese then slammed Dar onto the chair and went for a cover, but only got the two count.
Props to Dar for selling his chest and abs so well here, making it really seem as if Nese had him where he wanted. Nese smacked him with a spinning back kick to continue the assault before trying to follow up with a a flying cross body, Dar dropped to the ground to force a miss and followed up on Nese with a Dragon Screw. Nese tried to head to the top rope to build space but Dar just knocked him off and followed up with an exploder suplex into the corner.
Nese kicked out of the subsequent cover attempt and rolled out of the ring and tried to crawl away. Dar chased him outside the ring and brought out a bunch of chairs and a table, which really got the crowd excited. He tried to use one of the chairs to smack Nese, but was countered with a kick and when Nese tried to rush him, had to settle with backdropping Nese onto the pile of chairs on the floor.
Dar got up and rolled Nese into the ring, but only got a two count. Dar brought a chair into the ring and whipped the prone Nese’s left knee into it repeatedly before locking in a heel hook. Nese looked like he might have tapped but managed to grab a hold of Dar’s fingers and wrench on those to force Dar to release. Nese held onto Dar’s hand and hit him with a pumphandle slam onto the steel chair, although only managed a two count.
Both Superstars took their time getting up, and slowly exchanged strikes once they were up. Dar managed to pick up the chair as Nese threw a punch, forcing Nese to injure his hand. Dar saw this and followed up by locking in a Fujiwara armbar with a chair on Nese’s arm as extra leverage (because of course submissions work that way.)
Nese rolled out and survived the horrible Fujiwara armchair, and rolled out of the ring to try and escape. Dar followed Nese out of the ring once more and set up a table leaning awkwardly on the barricade. Nese had enough time to recover however and whipped Dar into the steel steps before dislodging them himself. He teased using the stairs in combo with the table, but shooed the table away and tried to set up to slam Dar onto the steps.
Dar countered with a trip and tried to go to the apron, but Nese recovered quickly and hit him with a rising palm strike. Dar then caught Nese in an armbar, but Nese picked him up and powerbombed him onto the steel steps. Nese didn’t reposition his arm however, and got caught in another armbar before picking up Dar again on the steps and powerbombing him through the announce table. Nese took to long moving Dar back into the ring, therefore Dar kicked out and frustrated Nese further.
With Dar clearly fatigued in the corner, Nese attempted a running knee strike, but Dar dodged, forcing Nese to seemingly hurt his knees. Dar took advantage of this by heading to the top rope and stomping on Nese’s knee. For some reason, Dar didn’t follow up with his KNEEbar finisher, and instead chose to use an ANKLE lock.
This error in judgement allowed Nese to crawl to the ropes and right out of the ring. Dar tried to follow him out there, but Nese found a chair and slugged Dar in the gut. He then set Dar up next to the ringkeeper’s are barricade and hit him with his running knee strike finisher to break the barricade and seemingly knock Dar out in devastating fashion. The crowd chanted this is awesome and peaked here, with Nese slowly dragging Dar’s unconscious body into the ring for the three count victory…
Tony Nese defeated Noam Dar via pinfall.
After the match we saw a recap of Akira Tozawa’s WWE Cruiserweight Championship match qualification from last week, before heading backstage for the contract signing. Drake Maverick was there to mediate between the two. Tozawa signed first and before Murphy signed he cut a promo saying Tozawa should take a selfie with the title belt right then because he wouldn’t get another chance to be so close to it. Murphy said that he has no competition on 205 Live and that his competition is with history as he looks to become the greatest Cruiserweight of all time. Tozawa retorted and said that Murphy thinks he’s unstoppable, but that it is his time now. With that the show closed on Murphy and Tozawa facing off…
Anish’s Thoughts: This match was great. It seems like one of those matches that might be a title eliminator of sorts for the future. Nese and Dar worked really hard and told a great story with Dar just getting too ahead of himself to pick up the victory. Nese looked extremely resilient and pretty strong, especially with that big move at the end. I see it being featured on many of WWE’s “Best Barricade break” lists for some time to come.
Overall this was a great show and I think WWE did a good job of not making this feel like a regular filler show. The main event especially was fantastic and I think a fair few stories got moved forward this week, including Gulak, Gallagher, and Carrillo’s as well as Nese and Dar’s and those of the Kanellis’s, Ariya Daivari, and the title picture.
Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom with Jason Powell and Will Pruett discussing the All Elite Wrestling rally in Las Vegas, the potential fallout from the partnership with Mexico’s AAA promotion, Kenny Omega signing, and much more.
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