BRM Reviews the 12/5/2018 205 Live

[Big Red Machine]

DREW GULAK (w/Jack Gallagher) vs. BRIAN KENDRICK (w/Akira Tozawa)- 7.5/10
An excellent match for the time it got (8:49 according to CageMatch.net, though watching it I would have guessed it had gone at least thirteen), ending in a disappointing DQ when Gallagher ran in and attacked Kendrick after Kendrick managed to hit Gulak with Sliced Break #2. Tozawa (who had previously been run into the post by Gallagher) tried to make the save but got laid out as well.

DRAKE MAVERICK SITS DOWN WITH BUDDY MURPHY- fine
Maverick notes that when Murphy and Cedric Alexander face off for the Cruiserweight Title as a result of Cedric pinning Murphy last week, no one will be in front of his hometown crowd (Cedric won in North Carolina, Murphy in Australia). Murphy made comments intended to stir sh*t up between Cedric and Mustafa Ali. He then suggested that they each wrestle next week against opponents of Drave Maverick’s choice. Maverick liked this idea.

ARIYA DAIVARI vs. CLAY ROBERTS- squash
Daivari wrestled in street clothes instead of his gear. They showed us Hideo Itami watching the match backstage. Daivari kept hitting the Pepsi Twist, then pulling Roberts up at two. He eventually just started hitting Roberts with a clothesline, then picking him back up and hitting him with another very quickly until he finally picked Roberts up and Roberts just fell right back down and the ref called the match for Daivari via stoppage. That was pretty cool.

MUSTAFA ALI PROMO- good.
At this point I’m pretty sure they’re building up to Ali vs. Cedric at Mania, with one of them turning heel in the lead up to it.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS CEDRIC ALEXANDER- good
He made fun of Murphy’s attempts at turning him and Ali against each other, referring to it as “third-rate mind games.” He wasn’t wrong.

NOAM DAR SELFIE PROMO- fine
He’s angry with Murphy for costing him a match a few weeks ago, and says he wants a match against Murphy, even if the title isn’t on the line.

TORNADO TAG TEAM MATCH: Lucha House Party vs. TJP & Mike Kanellis (w/Maria Kanellis)- 7/10
Vic Joseph let us know that Gran Metalik isn’t here because he is on the WWE Live event in Chile tonight. Nigel McGuinness disputed this, claiming that TJP told him that Gran Metalik is actually getting plastic surgery right now.
The babyfaces got shined up until Kalisto got distracted by Maria grabbing one of Lucha House Party’s piñatas. Yes, really. There was also a bag full of miniature piñatas that I guess were supposed to be treated like thumbtacks or something. Shouldn’t the referee be getting them out of the ring because they’re foreign objects? Tornado Rules are not no DQs. TJP got superplexed into them. They didn’t break or anything so I don’t even know what the point of them was. The referee made no attempts to get any piñatas away from everyone, and when one was thrown in Maria’s face, she bumped like it was a chair. Basically, the focus on this stupid sh*t towards the end really hurt a match I had otherwise been enjoying and had very much been anticipating. This was quite disappointing, and made me want to scream at whoever came with the idea for Lucha House Party to have a piñata in the first place.
On the other side of the competence spectrum there was a point where Kanellis brought out the mask that TJP stole from Lincé Dorado a few weeks ago and put it on his hand before punching Dorado in the face.

TONY NESE PROMO- good
He’s the guy facing Cedric next week, and he reminds us all that the last time he faced Cedric Alexander in a singles match, he beat him. The verbiage was good, but the delivery had an unfortunate “I’m trying really hard but I’m just not there yet” off-brand intensity substitute that brought down what would otherwise have been an excellent promo. It very much reminded me of Roderick Strong circa 2008-2009.

This was a pretty good episode of 205 Live, but was brought down by a disappointing main event. Hopefully everyone has learned their lesson from this and we never lose another match to idiotic piñata spots ever again.