BRM Reviews the 1/29/2019 205 Live (great)

[Big Red Machine]

MIKE KANELLIS vs. KALISTO (w/Lucha House Party)- 7/10
Maria Kanellis provided guest commentary for this match. Vic Joseph immediately decided to “congratulate” her “on competing in the women’s Royal Rumble.” Hooray for participation trophies!
The camera kept cutting to Maria on commentary. We didn’t miss any action, but we came close several times. Maria did a good job of pushing their angle (which is that Mike is getting unfairly passed over whenever an opportunity comes up.
Bennett was aggressive but Kalisto managed to score a win via roll-up. The announcers seemed to be pushing the idea that he was overconfident because he wasn’t going for too many pinfalls, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary, and that certainly didn’t seem to play into the finish because he went for pins after all of the big stuff he hit towards the end.

DREW GULAK & JACK GALLAGHER PROMO- They’re telling Humberto Carrillo to be “safe and sound; stay on the ground.” They have offered to be in Carrillo’s corner for his match next week so that they can coach him. These guys really feel like they’ve regressed to pre-Hunter 205 Live.

ARIYA DAIVARI & HIDEO ITAMI PROMO- very good

TONY NESE & NOAM DAR BRAWLED IN THE PARKING LOT EARLIER TODAY- It was broken up by wrestlers and road agents. This was very well done.

KAYLA BRAXTON GIVES US AN UPDATE- She first tells us that it was Nese who attacked Dar and thus Nese has been suspended. She then told us that Dar has sustained no injuries. She just so happened to be standing next to the locker room door and caught Buddy Murphy on his way out so we got…

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS BUDDY MURPHY- very good
Murphy combines the usual “I’m a champion who keeps winning” promo with approval of Nese’s attack on Dar and some comments to keep the relationship between him and Drake Maverick adversarial.

AKIRA TOZAWA (w/Brian Kendrick) vs. HIDEO ITAMI (w/Ariya Daivari)- 8/10
Tozawa wins despite repeated distractions from Daivari, with the final one resulting a miscue between Itami and Daivari that took Daivari out and also let to Tozawa hitting his big finishing sequence for the pin.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Daivari helped Itami up, but then nailed him with his hammerlock clothesline thing and left him for dead. This was done well, and was necessary with Itami’s now-confirmed departure from WWE.

Another GREAT episode of 205 Live!