By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
WWE 205 Live Hits
Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese: A part of me dreaded this matchup on paper due to the fact that this match has occurred in meaningless form somewhere between five and 20 times already. Nese was the resident enhancement guy on 205 Live back in the day and I had to review a ton of those painful shows. Thankfully, this is new 205 live. The result was still the same, Nese lost, but Nese looked great in defeat and both men managed to pull out some creative counters.
Buddy Murphy vs. Gran Metalik: Speaking of resident enhancement guys, Gran Metalik was the one babyface who lost matches on 205 Live on a weekly basis back in the day so this match had a similar bullt-in preconceived bias. It’s that preconceived thought that made the match that delivered that much better. This was a good match. Metalik still had little chance of winning but he did manage to get some good nearfalls in especially after Murphy kicked out of the Metalik Driver finisher.
Ariya Daivari and Hideo Itami: There was a little bit of a feeling of deja vu here with Daivari cutting a similar promo to what Eli Drake has been saying in Impact Wrestling, where they talk about pro wrestling missing “real men”. Where’s Silas Young to point out that he is the only true “last real man”? Anyway, Daivari is off to a good start with his long awaited reboot. He looked great in getting the ref stoppage last week and he’s doing a solid job as a character. His promo may sound a bit like he’s line reading, but he read the lines well and didn’t come off as a cartoony version of Shawn Daivari’s “rich Persian” gimmick. As for Hideo, he’s been really good in the ring and on the mic recently. He didn’s say much here, but he has had some backstage promos and has done good in his heel delivery. Unlike Shinauke Nakamura and Asuka, who struggle with broken English, Itami’s english is sounding pretty fluid. I am looking forward to the Daivari and Itami pairing. Hopefully their success lasts longer than Mike Bennett and TJP’s faux-New Kingdom.
Brian Kendrick: A lot of my criticisms of Kendrick in recent weeks were addressed here while not fully, but they were acknowledged. Kendrick hasn’t done much to redefine himself since the babyface turn. He came off as insincere here, but that’s the great part. It’s a mystery as to if this is is going to lead to Tozawa falling, or if Kendrick really has changed. Kendrick presumably wearing Tozawa gear next week should be fun. While it may not be for some, I get a kick out of Tozawa’s cheesy Vince McMahon impersonation. It was a nice and harmless jab at Drake Maverick’s Authors of Pain run on Raw.
WWE 205 Live Misses
None: This is not saying that this was a perfect show. 205 Live still feels a step below the main shows. There wasn’t anything in this show that could be considered as a Miss. It was just a solid and straightforward wrestling show.
Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest Konnan, who discusses his return to the ring for MLW in Miami on Friday and shares the crazy story of how he started in pro wrestling.
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