By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)
WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network
Aired live on March 26, 2019 from Uncasville, Connecticut at Mohegan Sun Arena
The show started with a recap of Tony Nese’s victory over Cedric Alexander last week to earn a WWE Cruiserweight Championship match against Buddy Murphy at WrestleMania 35. We also saw a recap of Murphy’s betrayal of Nese to end last week’s show…
Before the first match kicked off, the broadcast team of Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Aiden English checked in and stated that the main event would be Cedric Alexander vs. Ariya Daivari… Ring entrances for the opening match took place…
1. “Lucha House Party” Kalisto, Lince Dorado, and Gran Metalik vs. Drew Gulak, Jack Gallagher, and Humberto Carrillo. The match started off with Carrillo exchanging arm drags and takedowns with Gran Metalik. The two seemed evenly matched, with Carrillo and Metalik handspringing about the ring to a stalemate. Carrillo walked back into the corner and Gulak tagged himself in while expressing his annoyance at Carrillo’s Lucha Libre style.
Metalik tossed Gulak out of the ring and LHP faked a dive to the outside before taunting Gulak from in the ring. LHP then used some quick tags to get Lince Dorado into the ring. Dorado hit Gulak with a big cross body block. Dorado continued to control Gulak until Gallagher pulled Dorado off the apron and slotted Dorado with some strikes on the outside to turn the tables.
Gallagher and Gulak then used quick tags to keep Dorado cut off from his partners, at one point Gallagher was pushed off by Dorado and he managed to tag in Metalik. Gallagher took control back immediately however and tagged in Carrillo, who hit Metalik with a springboard kick. Gulak expressed his annoyance and tagged himself in to show Carrillo how to kick someone without using the ropes.
Gulak and Gallagher tagged in and out quickly again to stomp on Metalik and keep him from tagging out. They let Carrillo get back in the match and he promptly smacked Metalik with a running dropkick. Gallagher and Gulak asked for the tag, and when Carrillo tagged out, Metalik was able to catch the two with a springboard elbow to escape and tag in Kalisto.
Kalisto battled with Carrillo, hitting him with a basement rana to knock him out of the ring, setting he and his partners up for tandem dives to the outside from LHP. All of the men made it back into the ring resulting in bunching around a corner that led to a tower of doom spot, followed by all six men hitting each other with big moves in sequence to leave everyone on the floor.
Carrillo was the first to his feet and managed to knock Kalisto to the ground. He went to the top rope to try for a high flying maneuver, but Gulak motioned him off allowing Kalisto to catch Carrillo with the Salida Del Sol and grab the pinfall victory.
Lucha House Party defeated Drew Gulak, Jack Gallagher and Humberto Carrillo.
Anish’s Thoughts: This match was short and fit the bill to continue the story between Gulak, Gallagher, and Carrillo. LHP managed to keep the crowd hooked with some fun comeback sequences while Gulak and Gallagher focused on berating Carrillo, making sure this match didn’t get too bogged down in that narrative. Overall, it was a crisp match that got the show off to a well paced start.
Backstage, Mike and Maria Kanellis bragged about their victory against Akira Tozawa last week. 205 Live general manager Drake Maverick joined them and said that Kanellis should be thanking him for stopping Tozawa from coming after him. He booked a rematch between the two and said that next time, The Brian Kendrick would be in Tozawa’s corner…
A Buddy Murphy from the WWE Performance Center aired with him taunting Tony Nese. Nese showed up behind him and started a brawl before they were pulled apart…
2. Ariya Daivari vs. Cedric Alexander. Before the match, Oney Lorcan’s music hit and he came to ringside to watch from ringside. As the match got underway, Daivari hit Alexander with a big arm drag and a shoulder block to get the initial advantage. Alexander didn’t stay on the back foot for long however, counterattacking with some big strikes and a dropkick to knock Daivari to the floor. He got a little distracted looking at Lorcan however, and this allowed Daivari to whip Alexander off the apron and take control of the match. Daivari wailed on Alexander in the corner before hitting him with a lariat and locking in a chin lock.
Daivari wrenched on Alexander’s face and wore him down for a while, eventually Alexander countered a back suplex attempt by flipping out and tried to rally. Daivari wouldn’t let it be however, hitting Alexander with a superkick and a pull-down attack to try for a pin, but only got the two count. Daivari hesitated following up, allowing Alexander to run Daivari out of room and catch him with a clothesline.
Alexander then caught Daivari with a springboard kick, but only got the two count. Alexander went to the top rope to follow up, but Daivari caught him off guard and hit a big goriconoclasm. Alexander kicked out however and the two got to their feet striking, both men fell exhausted after a back elbow and Daivari was forced to kick out when Alexander landed on top of him.
Daivari and Alexander exchanged strikes again, with Daivari attempting a devil lock lariat, but Alexander reversed and he tossed himself and Daivari out of the ring. Alexander folloed up with a suicide dive, landing in front of Lorcan. Oney distracted Alexander by yelling that Alexander stepped on his jacket, giving Daivari the time needed to roll up Alexander on the distraction to get the pinfall victory.
Ariya Daivari defeated Cedric Alexander by pinfall.
Anish’s Thoughts: Another good match, nothing huge to speak about however. It makes sense that Daivari got the victory, even if it wasn’t the cleanest. Alexander doesn’t look bad in defeat, as Lorcan was clearly the cause of it. A good match overall with Daivari being really intense and Alexander really selling the idea of Oney Lorcan as a new threat on 205.
This episode of 205 wasn’t stellar like the past few have been, but it was good enough and it makes sense that 205 is on a little bit of a transition as we head into WrestleMania. The show was nothing to write home about tonight, but it was fun enough and kept some storylines moving along. I hope they have something more substantial planned for the show before Mania and the path of 205 after.
Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest Eric Bischoff discussing whether there are similarities in Vince McMahon’s WWE booking and Verne Gagne’s booking of the AWA during its dying days, a network shakeup that could potentially be an issue for All Elite Wrestling, Eric’s WrestleMania week show with Tony Schiavone in New York New York, and much more.
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