By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)
WWE 205 Live on WWE Network
Streamed live on February 14, 2020 from Vancouver, British Columbia at Rogers Arena
The show kicked off with a recap of the great NXT match from this week where Angel Garza was defeated by Lio Rush, thereby making Rush the next contender for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship… The broadcast team was Jon Quasto and Aiden English…
Anish’s Thoughts: The move to make Rush the No. 1 contender definitely surprised me, as I thought we would see Devlin feud with Garza first.
Before the first match, the Singh Brothers came out in their home country of Canada in Vancouver Canucks jerseys to a rather raucous reaction, including the crowd holding up Bollywood signs. The Singhs started to cut a face promo thanking the crowd in Vancouver and referencing Wayne Gretzky. But of course, they turned it on its heads, making fun of Vancouver and revealing they were wearing LA Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys…
1. Samir Singh and Sunil Singh vs. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. In the midst of the Singhs’ promo, Lorcan and Burch interrupted and began brawling with the Singhs using their wiles to isolate Lorcan in the ring and get the match started for real. Samir and Sunil wore down Lorcan with chin locks and double team maneuvers, keeping him away from his corner.
Samir found himself against a struggling Lorcan, having to shoulder block him to the ground and reapply the chin lock. Lorcan eventually fought out and managed to elbow Sunil on the apron and toss Samir out of the ring to tag in Burch. The Englishman rushed the ring and took control of both Singh Bros. Lorcan and Burch tried for tandem finishing maneuvers, but the Singhs managed to slither out and hit a double superkick.
The Singhs then hit Burch with the ‘Bollywood Blast’ elbow backbreaker combo, however Lorcan managed to break up the subsequent cover. Lorcan then took himself and Samir out of the ring, allowing Burch to hit Samir with a middle rope dropkick. Burch called for Lorcan and made the tag. The two hit Samir with a hold up Spike DDT, and got the pinfall victory.
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch defeated The Singh Brothers.
After the match, Brian Kendrick and Ariya Daivari came out and distracted Lorcan and Burch, allowing The Singh Bros to jump them. All four heels then started romping on the two faces and Daivari and Kendrick introduced some steel chairs into the beatdown. Daivari and Kendrick rammed their heads onto the chairs and celebrated on top of their fallen foes…
Anish’s Thoughts: This was a strangely put together segment. While the match itself followed a standard formula, given that The Singhs made so much fun of Vancouver and seemed to get some legitimate heat, it might have made more sense to have a longer comeback for the faces to really see the Singhs be punished. Overall, though, it did get the job done and Burch and Lorcan look like a dynamic and effective tag team.
Two video promos hyping up the abilities of both Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza aired and advertised a match between the two for next week. We also saw a backstage interview from NXT with Lio Rush in which he said that Jordan Devlin is not ready for him. Rush said he is the best cruiserweight in the world and that all other cruiserweights are irrelevant. It was also announced that Lio Rush would take on Jordan Devlin on NXT for the title this week…
Kendrick and Daivari were in the ring. Kendrick cut a promo on Vancouver, making fun of poutine and maple syrup and all sorts of Canadian things. Kendrick said that they applaud the Singh Brothers for their actions. Kendrick then welcomed whoever their opponents would be. Tony Nese walked out and introduced his partner Mike Kanellis, who was returning to 205 Live…
2. Tony Nese and Mike Kanellis vs. Ariya Daivari and Brian Kendrick. Daivari and Kendrick started the match by trying to jump Nese and Kanellis. Daivari managed to isolate Nese in the ring and tried to wear him down but got distracted by the Canadian crowd. This gave Nese enough time to bring the fight to Daivari and sweeping him off his feet.
Nese then tagged in and out with Kanellis with the two hitting Daivari with some double team maneuvers, before Kanellis chopped Daivari in the corner. Nese eventually was able to hit Daivari with the hotshot before attempting a springboard moonsault, but Kendrick pulled Daivari out of the way, turning the tables.
Kendrick grabbed a chin lock on Nese although he couldn’t maintain control for too long as Nese wriggled and writhed. This prompted Kendrick to attempt Sliced Bread No. 2. Nese managed to rebound off the turnbuckle and get to his corner to tag in Kanellis. The returning Kanellis was able to rush Kendrick and hit him with a strike combo followed by a stiff spinebuster. Kanellis only got a two count from this however and couldn’t follow up as Kendrick and Daivari distracted the referee, allowing Kendrick to toss Kanellis to the outside where Daivari smacked his arm on the barricade.
Daivari then rolled Kanellis into the ring and he and Kendrick switched back and forth wearing Kanellis down with submission maneuvers. At one point, Daivari and Kanellis exchanged a double clothesline leaving them both down. They then both tagged in their partners, with Nese getting a second wind and wiping out Kendrick and Daivari with swift clotheslines, dropkicks and a tope to the outside and a moonsault to Daivari on the inside.
This only got Nese a two count, prompting him and Kanellis to hit a pumphandle driver and stomp combo. Kanellis tried to get the cover, but Kendrick broke it up with the Captain’s hook. Daivari then locked Nese in a sleeper hold, but Nese pushed them onto Kendrick and Kanellis, breaking up all submissions.
Daivari then rolled to the outside, but Nese chased him there with a tope and rolled him into the ring and hit the 450 splash. He went for the cover, but Kendrick broke it up. Kanellis and Nese then tried to hit Daivari with a double superplex, but after some struggle, Kendrick was able to get Nese in position for a frogsplash by Daivari. This only got a two count, frustrating Daivari and Kendrick, prompting them to pull out some steel chairs.
As they wound up to batter Nese with steel chairs, Lorcan and Burch walked out all bandaged up. This distracted Kendrick enough for Nese to roll him up to get the pinfall victory…
Tony Nese and Mike Kanellis defeated Brian Kendrick and Tony Nese.
It was announced that Lorcan and Burch will face Daivari and Kendrick in a No DQ match next week…
Anish’s Thoughts: There were some odd circumstances at play. We hadn’t seen Mike Kanellis since he asked for his WWE release. Plus, it was a heel on heel matchup. But it was definitely a good match, as Daivari and Kendrick played the true heel role, while we saw Nese and Kanellis fighting up for a lot of the match.
Honestly I’m a little perplexed as to what the long term implications of Kanellis’s return will mean, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a case of WWE simply needing someone to team with Nese to put on a good match before Burch and Lorcan came back to get their revenge.
Overall this was a strange show, just because while the matches were good, they both took a roundabout way to move the stories on 205 Live forward. The whole show essentially revolved around Lorcan and Burch’s rivalry with Daivari and Kendrick, which gave the show a unique feel if anything. The crowd definitely helped and I think that tipped this show from middling to rather good to watch.
They’ve been trying out Kanellis and Nese as a regular tag team on the NXT house show tours for the last few weeks.
Kanellis would be a really good babyface, if they’d get behind him. They basically emasculated him as a heel. He needs something totally fresh, and his story writes itself. He could be a valuable asset, if WWE would quit being dumb about it.