By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)
WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network
Streamed live on April 16, 2019 from Montreal, Quebec at Bell Centre
The show started with Tony Nese narrating a recap of his WrestleMania title win as well as his defense against Buddy Murphy last week. Nese said it was time to look to the future and defend the title on the most competitive brand in WWE…
Anish’s Thoughts: I feel like this will be a moniker going forward. I don’t hate it though, anything as long as they don’t call it the ‘Cruiserweight Experience’
The 205 Live opening aired… The broadcast team was Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Aiden English. Drake Maverick sat in for the opening match and said that if this is Cedric Alexander’s last match then he and the other cruiserweights want to thank Alexander for everything he’s done…
1. Gran Metalik vs. Ariya Daivari vs. Mike Kanellis (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. Akira Tozawa in a four-way. Before the match started, Kalisto and Lince Dorado came out with Metalik. The Lucha House Party trio hyped the crowd up from the stage and declared that Gran Metalik would tear the house down because it’s Lucha time. Kalisto and Dorado went backstage after the promo. Metalik and Tozawa knocked Kanellis out of the ring to start before quickly engaging in a series of arm drags and rope flips. Tozawa whipped Metalik out of the ring and as he prepared to hit a suicide dive, Ariya Daivari entered and hit him with a clothesline.
Daivari spent too long taunting however, allowing Kanellis to get in the ring and spread the wrestlers apart. Kanellis and Daivari at a point formed a temporary alliance, each picking one of the faces to wail on in separate corners of the ring. Daivari and Kanellis hit an Irish-whip spinebuster on Metalik and attempted to follow up with a superkick on Tozawa, but Kanellis hit Daivari by accident, allowing Tozawa to fight back and force a wedge between the two.
The two heels argued on the outside and as Kanellis tried to reenter the ring, Daivari hit him with a powerbomb and went in the ring to wrestle Tozawa himself. Tozawa and Metalik managed to get rid of Daivari for a quick second and locked up, but Kanellis interrupted them again and forced Tozawa and Metalik to hit Kanellis with tandem top rope maneuvers, followed by one from Daivari on Metalik in sequence to leave all four men down.
Daivari and Metalik got up first and wrestled to the ropes, where Metalik dumped Daivari on the apron and hit him with a head scissors to the floor. Tozawa followed them up with a suicide dive on all of them and tossed Kanellis back into the ring. Kanellis and Tozawa grappled for a bit, but they both gave up on it and exchanged chops. Tozawa feigned and hit Kanellis with a kick and then a German suplex to follow up. He set Kanellis up and went to the top rope, but Maria Kanellis distracted him, allowing Mike Kanellis to go to the top rope. The two wrestled there, but Tozawa pushed Kanellis off and went for the Senton Bomb.
Kanellis got the knees up and hit Tozawa with his Neckbreaker finisher. He went for the cover, but Metalik hit a dive followed by Daivari throwing Kanellis and Metalik over the top rope to cover Tozawa and get the pinfall…
Ariya Daivari defeated Akira Tozawa, Mike Kanellis, and Gran Metalik in a four-way by pinfall.
Promos aired with Oney Lorcan and Cedric Alexander hyping up their match…
Anish’s Thoughts: Really fun match. All four men got a pretty even amount of time to shine and it highlighted all of their characteristics. I liked the through-line throughout the entire match in which Tozawa and Metalik kept trying to wrestle one on one but the heels ruined it. it was a good way to build heat for them and eventually allow Daivari to look cunning and get the win. The Lorcan and Alexander promos were pretty standard promos that set the scene and definitely made Lorcan seem like more of a face than he had been acting like up until tonight, I could see Lorcan being moved into more of a face role as Alexander slides up to the main roster.
2. Cedric Alexander vs. Oney Lorcan. The two started off by feeling each other out and trying to grab ahold of each others limbs. Alexander got Lorcan’s legs for a second, but Lorcan twisted out of it and they wrestled for back control. Alexander grabbed Lorcan’s neck and muscled him around but Lorcan was able to break some space and hip toss Alexander and grab a headlock. Alexander struggled out of the headlock after a while and forced Lorcan to hit him with an elbow to keep control.
Lorcan then whipped Alexander from corner to corner before hitting some uppercuts. Lorcan whipped Alexander to the ropes but he dodged up and over a charging Lorcan and swept him off his feet and hit a dropkick. Alexander and Lorcan then went chop for chop before he tossed Lorcan over the top rope and went for a suicide dive.
Lorcan sidestepped and rammed Alexander’s head into the LED board on the apron skirt. He then tossed Alexander into the ring and whipped him corner to corner, following up with clotheslines. Lorcan then grabbed back control and attempted the half-and-half suplex. Alexander muscled out and tried to build space, but Lorcan hit him with a kitchen sink knee and went for back control again.
The crowd chanted “CM Punk” for lord knows what reason, considering this match was great so far. Alexander responded by sliding out and hitting Lorcan with a basement dropkick and a series of quick moves to get the crowd back into the match. Lorcan attempted to derail Alexander’s momentum by hitting a diving headbutt straight to his knee from the top rope, but Alexander dodged and hit a Michinoku driver.
Lorcan kicked out of the cover and attempted the neutralizer kick but Lorcan dodged and hit Alexander with a wheel kick and a clothesline, but only got the two count. Lorcan picked Alexander up for the half-and-half suplex again, but Alexander muscled out once more, forcing Lorcan to lock in a Boston Crab. Alexander made it to the ropes and forced Lorcan to pick him to the top rope to look for a big maneuver.
Alexander knocked Lorcan out of the ring and followed up with a dive to discombobulate Lorcan. Alexander then tossed Lorcan back into the ring and tried for a cross body, but Lorcan countered with an uppercut as he dove in. Both men got to their feet on the apron, where they exchanged strikes. Lorcan knocked Alexander to the ground, but Alexander fought back. After exchanging kicks on the apron. Lorcan then hit Alexander with a devastating combo of a half-and-half suplex on the hardest part of the ring, followed by a lariat and one more half-and-half suplex in the ring to get the pinfall victory.
Oney Lorcan defeated Cedric Alexander by pinfall.
Anish’s Thoughts: A really great match, while Alexander and Lorcan did gain the crowd’s interest and respect by the end, I have no idea why they were ever chanting ‘CM Punk.’ Both men went from grappling to high flying and striking seamlessly, really testing each other with Lorcan winning out and seemingly giving Cedric his farewell on 205 Live. Overall this was a great 205 Live episode. I found it odd that Tony Nese opened up the show talking about finding new challengers, but then didn’t feature on the show itself. Either way the matches were pretty good and I think everyone who wrestled ended up looking good. I’m glad Daivari got the win as they clearly want him to be taken seriously, and I’m glad Lorcan is warming himself up to the audience so that he can essentially fill the spot as a face that’s been left by Alexander leaving.
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