By John Moore
WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network
Aired live from Chicago, Illinois at the Allstate Arena
The opening teaser focused on some of the build towards Enzo Amore and Cedric Alexander. The show re-aired the Dasha Fuentes interview between Enzo and Cedric from last week. The clip also aired highlights from Drew Gulak vs. Cedric Alexander…
Drew Gulak was shown pacing in the locker room looking at his smartphone. Cedric Alexander walked in and asked if Gulak was awaiting a call from his boss. Gulak had a funny line asking Alexander why he thought Sasha Banks would be calling him, and deservingly so the crowd laughed. Gulak said he’s waiting for his best friend, Enzo, to call. Cedric question whether he was truly a best friend when Enzo called Gulak a sugar plum fairy on Raw. Gulak said Alexander shouldn’t worry about Gulak’s relationship with Enzo and worry about surviving the tag match later on in this show. Alexander talked about the quiet locker room reminding him about a Christmas movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, without Enzo. Gulak said Enzo gave him a wonderful life. Alexander noted that Gulak would no longer be made fun of, Gulak would get his PowerPoints, and Gulak won’t have to dress as an elf. Alexander said 205 Live would be actually better without Enzo for Gulak. The 205 intro aired…
Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness checked in on commentary. Joseph talked about possible disputes in “The Zo Train”. 205 Live had Christmas graphics. They announced Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari for later on in this show. Hideo Itami made his entrance. Highlights aired of the Itami vs. Kendrick match from the night before. Nigel McGuinness talked about how brutal the GTS was. Joseph verified that Kendrick gained a few injuries including a nose fracture. Jack Gallagher made his entrance. Gallagher said that Itami isn’t a stranger to cruelty. Gallagher said Itami’s knee is Oxford educated and it went into the skull of Brian Kendrick. Gallagher said he could hear Kendrick’s orbital bone shatter. Gallagher said he was going to teach Itami and the Chicago “Pillocks” a lesson tonight. Joseph wondered what a “Pillock” was…
1. Hideo Itami vs. Jack Gallagher. Nigel talked about how he has faced a ton of opponents but he always feared wrestling Hideo Itami. Gallagher did a disrespectful slap to Itami. Itami came back with a stiff slap. Itami hit rapid fire kicks and punches. Itami demanded that Gallagher “respect [him]”. Gallagher went for an ankle lock but ate a boot to the face. Itami followed up with several kicks and a guillotine leg drop. Gallagher used the apron to pull the rug from under Itami and gained a bit of an advantage. Gallagher gloated in front of the crowd. Gallagher maintained a bit of an advantage in the corner with some knee strikes of his own. A “This is awful” chant started.
John’s Thoughts: I wonder if that chant is due to heat towards Gallagher or if it’s due to how this show is gawd damn awful? I’ll go with saying that his show is awful.
Gallagher soon gained some good heat from his methodical offense. Nigel went into a little bit of history for Hideo including mentioning that he was the young-boy (Japanese vernacular for apprentice, or Padawan in Star Wars lingo) of Kenta Kobashi. Hideo gained breathing room after a dragon screw legwhip. Hideo initiated some quick offense. Hideo did a tornado ddt onto the ropes and a flying clothesline. Itami hit a backfist combo. Gallagher dodged the hesitation dropkick. Gallagher locked in Kendrick’s Captain’s Hook. Itami got the rope break and backtossed Gallagher. Hideo hit Gallagher with a hesitation dropkick in the corner. Itami locked in the Rings of Saturn to pick up the submission win.
Hideo Itami defeated Jack Gallagher via submission in 7:37.
Itami shrugged and complained with people in the center of the ring. Itami continued to yell “Respect me!”. Vic Joseph then cut to the same Enzo Amore vs. Tony Nese video package that they aired last week…
John’s Thoughts: I don’t mind the “respect me!” thing but he does have to tone it down a bit. One time at most would be great but he did it about five times in this match. Over two, and it has the potential to be his “I am groot” and expose his limited English a bit. That said good match between the two. I hope that the Rings of Saturn is just adding another tool to his repertoire and not WWE banning it due to injuring Kendrick. Another notable observation from this match is the crowd getting restless at a point. Gallagher was gaining good heat, but there was also bad restless heat from the Chicago crowd. Let’s see how they do throughout the show.
Dasha Fuentes interviewed Tony Nese about the “Lesson” Enzo Amore gave him. Nese said he wants to give Enzo and the Zo Train a beatdown but part of him knows that Enzo is a global superstar. Nese said his career has only gone up since he joined the Zo Train. Akira Tozawa had a goofy grin on his face and asked Nese if he was on the train or off. Nese came out of nowhere with a right hand stiff punch and then walked off… [C]
John’s Thoughts: That sick looking right hand might have been the best thing Tony Nese has ever done on 205 Live. He’s still established as a j-brone on the show, and the remedy to that would be to overhaul his look along with his character if they are going to take him seriously. 205 Live also needs strong heels so I don’t thing a babyface turn would do this show any favors.
Tony Nese made his entrance and did a modified version of his unnecessarily long entrance. He talked about Tozawa by the end of it but it was still mostly inaudible. Akira Tozawa sold jaw pain…
2. Akira Tozawa vs. Tony Nese. Tozawa entered the ring and smothered Nese with punches. Nese took advantage of the rope break to land some kicks on Tozawa. Joseph sounded like he was told in the headsets to tell everyone how “aggressive” Tony Nese is now. Tozawa came back with a fakeout punch on Nese. Tozawa hit a penalty kick and running senton. Tozawa worked hard to get a “ah” chant started. Nese tied up Tozawa during a Suicide Dive attempt. Nese mocked the “ah” chant.
Nese continued to lay in some offense on Tozawa. Nese hit consecutive legdrops on Tozawa. Joseph pointed out that Enzo and Nese have made it vague as to whether Nese is still on “The Zo Train”. Nese dominated for a sequence. He did end up doing different moves than he usually does. Nese locked in a side bodyscissors hold with punches. Tozawa tried to hulk up but Nese took down Tozawa with right hands. Tozawa gained breathing room by hitting Nese with a suplex. Tozawa punched Nese outside and hit a successful and very horizontal Suicide Dive. It was nice. Nese hit a pumphandle Michinoku Driver on Tozawa.
Nese and Tozawa traded kicks and had mostly a stalemate with Nese getting a rollup. Tozawa hit a Trouble in Paradise on Nese. Tozawa went for his finisher the top rope senton but Nese came back with a rising palm strike. Nese hit “The Running Nese” (pun on Knee) in the corner for the clean win.
Tony Nese defeated Akira Tozawa via pinfall in 6:49.
John’s Thoughts: Another random win from Tony Nese and for now I’m just going to take it as meaningless. That’s just the attitude you should take for Nese wins because they never stick. This is 205 Live. What do you expect? I did like that Nese didn’t perform his formulaic offense in this one and instead shifted to stiff right hands and kicks. Why didn’t they overhaul him and instead have him retain aspects of what made him a jumping j-brone on this show? Shades of gray crap I assume. This “Chris Masters Junior” act isn’t going to cut it. I’ll give them a little chance. Have him beat Mustafa Ali next week and maybe a local enhancement guy the following week. Then have the announcers make a big deal out of it.
Nigel noted that Enzo Amore is in Madison Square Garden. Joseph said there’s a rumor that Enzo is also on a date tonight. They cut to the Enzo Amore and Nia Jax Mistletoe segment from Raw where Alexa Bliss cockblocked Enzo. Joseph hyped up the main event match… [C]
Ariya Daivari and Drew Gulak made their entrance. Gulak pointed out how everyone likes to make “best of…” lists during the New Year season. A pocket of fans chanted “PowerPoint”. Gulak called for his PowerPoint but was interrupted by Cedric Alexander as usual. Alexander came out with Mustafa Ali. Alexander pointed out that Ali is from Chicago for the cheap pop. Ali got a huge chant and Drew shut them off. Ali and Alexander cut a promo down the ramp by talking about how rich Ariya Daivari doesn’t seem like the type to get along with a blue collar hard worker like Drew Gulak. Ali and Alexander mocked Gulak’s PowerPoint by acting like a couple of goobs. They continued to cut a mocking promo that wasn’t all that good. Alexander proposed the possibility of Enzo choosing Nia Jax over the Zo Train. Rudy Charles started the match.
3. Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari vs. Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali. Ali and Daivari started off the match. Daivari yelled at the crowd that “Chicago sucks!” to gain some cheap heat. Gulak and Ali kept Ali in their corner. Gulak gave Ali a running knee. Ali hit a back body drop to tag in Alexander for some tandem offense. Nigel talked about how Gulak is showing “aggression”.
John’s Thoughts: I guess the buzzword that WWE thinks means you should take someone seriously is “aggression”. Sadly, I don’t think it’s working. Especially when the aforementioned wrestlers aren’t being drastically aggressive.
Ali and Alexander dominated a bit. The heels gained an advantage by sending Ali’s head into the ropes. The crowd started an organized “Ali” [clap clap] chant. Daivari kept Ali from hope by giving him a strong spinebuster. Ali managed to flip away to tag in Alexander for the hot tag sequence. Daivari tripped Alexander from his handstand. Gulak booted Alexander to the outside. Joseph said that Daivari and Gulak have a goal to weaken Alexander.
Rudy Charles managed to stop the double teaming. Alexander hit Gulak with a springboard Paydirt. Ali made the hot tag this time and took care of Daivari. Ali hit a rolling X-Factor on Daivari. Gulak broke up the pin attempt. The heels regained momentum. Drew Gulak yelled and stopped Daivari from going to the top rope. Alexander hit the Lumbar Check on Gulak while Ali hit the inverted 450 on Daivari for the win.
Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander defeated Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari via pinfall in 8:52.
The babyface team celebrated. Joseph hyped up Enzo Amore vs. Cedric Alexander for the championship for next week…
John’s Thoughts: Eh, while we’ve gotten some standout matches in recent weeks due to the wrestlers changing things up a bit, this match was back to the old WWE main roster undercard formula of match working. This was worked like a time filler and it was in the main event. The action was solid, but nothing we’ve haven’t seen before. The Nese vs. Tozawa match stands above this one in being different of sorts. This match also does nothing to get anyone excited for Enzo vs. Alexander on next week’s Raw. It might have even hyped it up as a piss break or Monday Night Football break (and then watch the viewers be pissed when they find out that there’s no MNF next week).
Another notable story from this episode is the restless and tepid crowd reaction. The wrestlers got some reaction but they were noticeably fishing really hard for them. It’s not their fault, it’s the bad booking of this show. 205 Live still sucks. I’ll have more thoughts in my Audio Review and trust me they aren’t positive. I would overall just recommend, check out the Gallagher vs. Itami match if you want some semblance of decency.
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