WWE 205 Live Review 02/28/17 by Mark McAllen
The fourteenth episode of 205 Live is here! This week’s episode comes from the Xcel Energy Center in Sant Paul, Minnesota.
The opening video package highlights the cruiserweight tag team match from this week’s Raw which saw Neville and Tony Nese take on Jack Gallagher and TJ Perkins. The babyface team of Gallagher and Perkins won once Neville purposely didn’t help his partner Nese get out of a submission hold locked in by Gallagher.
Neville will be defending his Cruiserweight Championship against Gallagher at the Raw exclusive pay-per-view, Fastlane, this Sunday.
Tom Philips interviews Gallagher backstage. Philips asks Gallagher what he expects from Neville’s “Fastlane Address” tonight. Gallagher pretty much says that he expects Neville to talk a lot of trash, but in a more eloquent way. Gallagher says that this Sunday at Fastlane, the winner of their match won’t be whom Neville expects.
We get a nice opening pyro display as the commentary team of Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” Austin Aries welcome us to the show. Graves lets us know that tonight Neville will “hold court” as he makes a “Fastlane Address” regarding his defense of the Cruiserweight Championship this Sunday.
As Noam Dar makes his way to the ring, Graves reminds us that Dar will be in action this Sunday during Fastlane’s Kickoff Show. Dar will be teaming with (The) Brian Kendrick to take on Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa.
Noam Dar (w/Alicia Fox) vs. Lince Dorado
The bell rings, but before both men get started, a delivery guy walks down the ramp with flowers in his hand. It seems like the delivery guy is heading for Alicia Fox. This distracts Dar, and while he’s distracted Dorado tries rolling him up for a pin attempt and the win, but Dar kicks out right away. The delivery guy does end up handing the flowers to Fox.
Back in the ring, Dorado hits Dar with a spinning back kick. Dorado heads to the top turnbuckle and nails Dar with a diving crossbody. Dorado chops Dar’s chest and hits him with a springboard moonsault. Fox is briefly shown at ringside eating the flowers… not kidding.
Dar gains control by tripping up Dorado, then works on his left arm. Dar keeps Dorado grounded with a rear chinlock while Fox starts throwing her flowers one by one into the crowd. “We want flowers” chants from the crowd. Dorado escapes Dar’s chinlock and hits Dar with a backbreaker followed by an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Dorado hits Dar with a handspring stunner for a two count.
Dorado heads to the top turnbuckle to try and finish things off, but Dar gets out of the way and hits Dorado with a running kick for the win after four minutes.
Winner by pinfall: Noam Dar
Evaluation: The only time Noam Dar doesn’t lose is when he faces Lince Dorado. I wrote that sentence before the match even started because I knew Dorado was losing the second he made his entrance, despite the really cool entrance and ring attire he had on tonight. The match was nothing special. It was rushed and more of the attention was put on what was happening outside the ring. Dorado has pretty much had the same match during his last three or four outings at least. He dominates most of the match, hits his handspring stunner, looks stunned when his opponent kicks out at two, heads to the top turnbuckle to try and finish things off, but misses as his opponent quickly hits their finishing move and wins. On a side note, I think Dar’s finishing move is pretty lackluster. A kick to the head doesn’t seem like it should be able to put another wrestler away, especially after seeing the move sets we do from the cruiserweights.
Post-match, Fox gets in the ring with the remaining flowers that she didn’t eat or throw away to the crowd. Dar gets on the mic and takes credit for getting Fox the flowers, although he looked confused when the delivery guy came out to give her the flowers. Dar says the flowers can’t compare to Fox’s beauty… and that’s the segment.
Evaluation: This will lead to the real person who got Fox the flowers revealing himself, which could lead to yet another love triangle storyline, or we can get a secret admirer story which could extend this even longer. Either way, please let it not drag on too long.
Tozawa/Kendrick Exchange
Austin Aries is in the ring with a mic as he welcomes Akira Tozawa for an interview. Aries shows a clip from two weeks ago, when Tozawa turned down Brian Kendrick’s offer to be his protégé. Aries asks Tozawa why he rejected Kendrick. Tozawa says he respects Kendrick, but says he wants to make it on his own… in perfectly understandable English might I add. Aries says he understands that, and then shows Tozawa clips form the last few weeks of Kendrick attacking Tozawa.
Aries said that Kendrick is on a mission to show Tozawa some respect, then asks Tozawa what he plans to do about it. Tozawa: “I want to fight. I want to fight, right now.” Tozawa then leads the crowd in war cry chants as Tozawa typically does. Kendrick comes out and tells Tozawa that Tozawa doesn’t understand who he’s dealing with. Kendrick calls Tozawa a selfish brat who turned down a golden opportunity to be his protégé. Tozawa keeps trying to talk, but Kendrick cuts him off and says that Tozawa’s next lesson is that if Tozawa wants to talk to him, he better learn English first. Kendrick taunts Tozawa before saying “class is dismissed” and leaves.
Evaluation: That was a great segment to help build this rivalry. Tozawa kept things short, simple and showed a lot of fire. Kendrick did a great job of acting like a jerk in taunting Tozawa, cutting him off, making fun of the people of Minnesota and then insulting Tozawa’s English. Kendrick was getting good heat from the crowd and were really behind Tozawa whenever he spoke. Kendrick does a great job of talking down to Tozawa in a demanding tone and Tozawa seems to be naturally sympathetic and easy to get behind. I’m really liking where this feud is going.
Tony Nese, Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari vs. TJ Perkins, Mustafa Ali & Cedric Alexander
Ali and Nese kick off the match. Ali shows off some good athleticism before tagging in and out with Perkins and Alexander. All three men work on Nese’s left arm, leading to Perkins locking in a cross arm breaker. Ali and Gulak break up the submission before all six men start going at it. Nese takes the action outside as he rams Perkins’ back into the announce table.
Nese rolls Perkins in and tags in Daivari who barely does anything before tagging in Gulak. Gulak puts Perkins in a Gory Special submission move that looks brutal. Gulak tags back in Daivari who nails Perkins with a big clothesline for a two count. Perkins tags in Ali while Daivari tags in Gulak. Ali dominates Gulak and delivers his signature rolling neck breaker.
Ali starts heading up the top turnbuckle to hit his inverted 450 splash, but Gulak pulls Ali down, gets him in torture rack position and launches him to the mat. Gulak goes for the cover, but Alexander breaks it up. Daivari takes out Alexander, before getting tossed outside the ring by Perkins. Alexander dives over the top rope and onto Daivari and Nese at ringside.
Back in the ring, Ali hits Gulak with a tornado DDT followed by an inverted 450 splash. Ali goes for the cover, but Daivari puts Gulak’s foot on the bottom rope without the referee seeing it. While Ali’s attention is diverted by Daivari, Nese German Suplex’s Ali into the turnbuckle. Gulak tags in Nese at the same time Ali tags in Perkins. Gulak takes out Perkins, resulting in Perkins sitting in the corner. Nese hits his finishing running knee attack on Perkins for the win after eleven minutes.
Winners by pinfall: Tony Nese, Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari
Evaluation: Solid match, but again, nothing too memorable. That’s the main problem with a lot of these cruiserweight matches. Everyone just pretty much hits the same handful of signature moves they’ve been showing since episode one of 205 Live, and that’s it. Nothing stands out. However, that’s not really a problem specific to the cruiserweight division as we see it a lot on Raw and Smackdown too. On a side note, the crowd was hot for Daivari throughout the match since he’s from Minnesota.
A video package is shown hyping up Austin Aries’ cruiserweight division debut.
Neville’s “Fastlane Address”
Neville makes his way to the ring for his “Fastlane Address.” Neville says everyone is in need of a cruiserweight lesson. He said everyone forgot about the greatest cruiserweight on the face of the earth, himself. Neville said he changed the landscape of 205 Live, yet hasn’t received any gratitude. Neville calls Jack Gallagher a side show act and says he’s going to obliterate him at Fastlane.
Gallagher interrupts Neville as he makes his way to the ring dressed in a suit and carrying his umbrella. Gallagher calls Neville’s “address” a meltdown. He says maybe it would be better if he got Neville some tea and biscuits. A “tea and biscuits” chant broke out from the crowd. Neville tells Gallagher that if he keeps pushing him, he’ll make an example of Gallagher tonight. Neville says the ring belongs to him. Gallagher says it belongs “to all of them” (points to the crowd, cheap pop).
Gallagher said it’s about time that Neville leaves, and Gallagher tackles Neville. Neville gets out of Gallagher’s grasp, but Gallagher dropkicks Neville and nails him with a vicious headbutt. Neville escapes to ringside, using the barricade to hold himself up. Gallagher heads outside the ring as well and hits Neville with a big running kick to the face, tossing Neville over the barricade.
205 Live goes off the air with Gallagher in the ring, staring down Neville.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this episode of 205 Live was pretty average. I really liked the Tozawa/Kendrick segment and enjoyed Neville and Gallagher’s brawl to end the show. However, the matches ranged from poor to nothing special.
I can’t wait for Aries to officially return to the ring and be a part of the cruiserweight division. We’re getting closer. I expect him to have a match at WrestleMania.
I included a lot of my thoughts on the show in my evaluations throughout the review, so that’ll be all for my final thoughts.
_________________________________________________
That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for reading and if you like this review feel free to share it with your friends.
Picture used above is courtesy of WWE.com.