By Anish Vishwakoti, ProWrestling.net Staffer, (@AVX_9001)
WWE 205 Live on WWE Network
Streamed live on February 21, 2020 from Glendale, Arizona at Gila River Arena
The show started with a video recapping the ongoing rivalry between Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Daivari and Brian Kendrick that set up their No DQ match as the main event… The broadcast team was Jon Quasto and Aiden English…
1. Joaquin Wilde vs. Raul Mendoza. This was a rematch from last week where Wilde won, giving Mendoza a chip on his shoulder going into it. They locked up to start with Mendoza arm dragging Wilde and grabbing a hold of his wrist. Wilde and Mendoza then engaged in a long hold sequence with interlocked hands, using monkey flips and arm drags to try and gain the advantage. Wilde and Mendoza then had a running exchange in which Wilde won out with a slightly awkward arm drag.
Wilde followed up with a moonsault and went for the cover, but only got a two count. Mendoza took a powder and reentered the ring slowly. Mendoza and Wilde locked up again, with Wilde eventually ending up countering a suplex attempt by Mendoza and subsequently slapping his chest. Mendoza was able to take advantage right after however, heading to the apron and rocking Wilde with a springboard dropkick to the outside.
Mendoza followed up with a suicide tope and tossed Wilde back into the ring. Mendoza then hit Wilde with a running dropkick and propped him up on the top rope to try for a super back-plex. Wilde struggled out and reversed however, hitting Mendoza with a sunset flip powerbomb, although it looked a little sluggish and didn’t hit completely right. Wilde then hit Mendoza with consecutive clotheslines and then propped Mendoza on the top rope and pushed him to the outside.
With Mendoza on the outside, Wilde nonchalantly walked off the ring post with a roling senton to the outside. Wilde rolled him back into the ring and after faking out Mendoza with a dive, forcing him to his back, Wilde hit a splash in the ring, which earned him a two count. Wilde changed up his strategy, going for a standing guillotine, but Mendoza was able to counter with a suplex and hit a moonsault.
Mendoza then changed his strategy, using an version of the Indian deathlock, after spinning Wilde around to try for a submission. Wilde was able to escape and put up some struggle against Mendoza, managing to hit him with a lungblower. Wilde then tried to follow up with the double eat-defeat, but Mendoza caught it and rolled him onto his back and hit him with a running scissors kick to get the pinfall victory…
Raul Mendoza defeated Joaquin Wilde.
Anish’s Thoughts: This was a good match, however it was not a great one and especially when comparing it to the match these two had a couple of weeks ago. This match was noticeably not as good. Part of that seemed to be because the crowd was not very into it, and they had a couple of awkward spots during the match, which was strange because in past weeks they looked to have pretty good chemistry. It just seemed like a night where everything didn’t clip in this opening match, but overall it wasn’t a bad match and I can see what they’re trying to do, I just hope that it doesn’t go the same way as so many instances of 50/50 booking in WWE go.
After the match, we saw a recap of Jordan Devlin’s title retention against Lio Rush on NXT. We also saw a post match interview with Lio Rush in which Tyler Breeze congratulated him for a great match, but Rush told him to “get the hell out of his face”…
2. Samir Singh (w/Sumil Singh) vs. Tyler Breeze. After the Singh Brothers made their long and dance laden entrance, Samir proceeded to dance in the ring as well. Breeze was not fazed however and locked up with him, with Samir hitting Breeze with some elbows to start off the match. Samir took too long dancing in between strike though and got caught by a dropkick running in. Breeze then hit Samir with a back suplex, which forced Samir to the outside.
Breeze then followed up with a slingshot cross body and rolled Samir back into the ring to try for a cover. Sunil distracted Breeze and got Breeze to chase him around the ring and then back in where Samir slotted him with a clothesline. After some brawling, Samir went to the top rope and hit Breeze with a diving elbow before grabbing a head lock to wear Breeze down.
After a reversed Irish whip, Breeze was able to catch Samir with a kick on the top rope. He couldn’t take advantage just yet however as Sunil distracted him again and allowed Samir to push him off the top rope. Samir then confidently dove upright into Breeze, but got caught coming down with the Supermodel Kick, which allowed Breeze to get the pinfall victory.
Tyler Breeze defeated Samir Singh.
After the match Breeze hit Sunil with a Supermodel Kick too, which got just as bland of a reaction as the rest of the match…
Anish’s Thoughts: Unfortunately this match just did not click, it felt like loading up default characters on WWE 2K and getting them to engage in the most basic match possible. Breeze had been getting great reactions on 205 Live, but today it just was not there and the fact that the Singhs have not really had a direction for so many months did not help.
A recap of Mike Kanellis’s return to 205 Live was shown. This was parlayed into the commentators announcing the idea of the give vs. five NXT against 205 Live originals tag team match that would occur in a couple of weeks, with Tony Nese and Lio Rush being captains…
3. Ariya Daivari and Brian Kendrick vs. Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in a No DQ match. The match did not get underway in the ring, it got underway on the ramp when both teams ran at each other and started brawling all across the rampway and slowly made their way to the ring. Burch got the better of Kendrick and they brawled to the audience area, meanwhile Daivari got the better of Lorcan and tossed him into the ring where the match finally started.
While Kendrick and Burch brawled in the audience, Lorcan and Daivari spilled out by them and Lorcan hip tossed Daivari into Burch and Kendrick. The two bald, burly faces then isolated Kendrick and rolled him into the ring. The two tried to cover him quickly, but Kendrick kicked out. Before they could do more damage, Daivari entered the ring with a steel chair and hammered Burch and Lorcan.
Daivari then seated Burch on the chair and tried to ram him with a knee, but Burh got out of dodge and forced Daivari into the chair. Burch then motioned to Lorcan in Dudley Boys fashion to get the tables, much to the delight of the crowd. Lorcan and Burch grabbed a table and set it up on the outside. They attempted to toss Daivari through it from the apron, but Kendrick pushed them both off him and grabbed Lorcan himself.
In rather speedy fashion, Kendrick stepped onto the apron himself and picked up Lorcan to drive him through the table, Death Valley style breaking it apart at ringside. With Lorcan and Kendrick down, Daivari then tossed Burch over the announce table and pulled out a ladder from underneath the ring. Daivari then rolled Burch back into the ring and with the ladder wedged in the corner, attempted to Irish Whip Burch into it. Burch was quick enough on his feet however and reversed it, sending Daivari into it face first.
Burch then stood the ladder up and ascended it, but before he could dive onto Daivari, Kendrick got on it himself and hit a Russian leg sweep from the middle of the ladder. Daivari then made use of the downed Burch, setting up the Ladder again and scaling it with a prone Burch in front of him and landing a splash from the top rung of the steel.
Daivari tried for the cover, but only got a two count as Lorcan was able to break it up. Kendrick and Lorcan then got into it, with Kendrick yelling at Lorcan to get up and slug. Lorcan was more than happy to oblige and waded through Kendrick’s fists to hit Kendrick with multiple chops and a running European uppercut, sending Kendrick to the outside.
Lorcan took too long to capitalize however and Daivari was able to get into the ring and fight him. Kendrick then entered as well and the two pushed Lorcan to the side and attempted to suplex Burch onto the chair. Just before they could pull this off, Burch reversed and pushed Daivari to the outside and Kendrick onto the chair. Lorcan then caught Kendrick with a chair seated Blockbuster.
With Daivari on the outside and Kendrick rocked, Burch and Lorcan got Duct tape from under the ring and taped Kendrick to the ring post. Now that Kendrick was unable to move, Lorcan and Burch propped Daivari on the announce table and hit him with the Implant DDT onto the announce table, which bounced rather than broke. Finally, Burch and Lorcan hit Daivari with another in the middle of the ring and got the three count victory, with Kendrick looking on helplessly.
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch defeated The Brian Kendrick and Ariya Daivari.
Anish’s Thoughts: This was a really fun match and looking at this on its own it might have made for an awesome show. Burch and Lorcan used the standard Table, Ladder and Chair combo in really interesting ways, making for a great journey from weapon to weapon, and what seemed to be a good blow off match for this feud.
Apart from the main event though, the rest of the show was nothing to write home about. The opened lacked a little something, and the second match lacked a lot of everything, leaving the crowd a little dull, when they could have been in much better mood for that main event to make it a great show.
Overall, it was middling today and more than anything, I’m starting to get the idea that we are not going to see the NXT Cruiserweight Title on 205 Live at least for a while. Maybe things will change once someone who is not on NXT UK is champion, but 205 almost seems like an advert for whatever cruiserweight match will take place on NXT nowadays. This hasn’t made the quality of the show suffer week to week too much yet, but it I would be wary of it in the future.
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