BRM Reviews the 2/12/2019 205 Live (NESE VS. DAR!)

[Big Red Machine]

LUCHA HOUSE PARTY PROMO- bad
Now they’re goofballs on this show, too, and laughing off The Drifter’s cowardly assault on Kalisto with a weapon. What the f*ck, Hunter?!

JACK GALLAGHER vs. LINCÉ DORADO (w/Lucha House Party)- 7/10
Drew Gulak came out with Gallagher but provided guest commentary rather than seconding Gallagher. Whoever produces the show (does Kevin Dunn do Hunter’s stuff?) decided that hearing Gulak’s voice was not good enough and we had to cut away from the action to look at him at least once every forty-five seconds.
Gulak calling Lincé Dorado “Lindsay Dorito” made me giggle. Also, he made Aiden English look like a complete and total clown every time Aiden tried to challenge him on anything. Can we please have Percy Watson back?
This was a solid wrestling match that told the story of Lincé often having the advantage but some high-flying thing would go wrong, which was not only reinforced on the finish, but also plays into the “Drew Gulak wants to recruit Humberto Carrillo” story by once again giving Carrillo some evidence that Gulak might have a point.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS HUMBERTO CARRILLO- LOVED IT!
They actually pitched to her so she could tell us that Drake Maverick has ordered Noam Dar and Tony Nese confined to their locker rooms tonight so that they don’t start fighting early, but Carrillo happened to walk by so she asked him what he thinks about Gulak’s attempts to recruit him. He said it made him feel “fortunate.” Kayla asked him about Gulak’s proven hostility towards Lucha Libre, to which Carrillo answered that he is very proud of his Lucha Libre abilities, but if two of the best wrestlers in the promotion want to offer him some training, he should at least hear them out. This was a very human and reasonable approach for Carrillo to take, and thus I was pleasantly surprised to see it on WWE TV.

ARIYA DAIVARI PROMO- the promo was very good character stuff, but I didn’t like the odd camera cut and shift to black and white. It felt like something someone did because they thought it was “artsy” rather than something that actually had an artistic purpose to it.

MIKE & MARIA PROMO- GREAT!... And also REALLY WEIRD. This was exactly the sort of promo you’d expect a babyface to cut about how hard work pays off and you can learn from your losses and solider on until you get that big win… but these two managed to sound like complete and total heels while cutting it.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Tony Nese vs. Naom Dar- 8.75/10
205 Live ALWAYS delivers when they advertise a gimmick match!
These guys told several different stories of body parts getting worked over, made great use of the no DQs environment, and had a finished that I absolutely adored because it was one of those spots that even though it was the biggest spot in the match, it was the sort of spot that business has evolved away from using as a finish simply because it happened outside of the ring and the time takes to get someone back into the ring is always used as an excuse to turn a big spot into a false finish. Hopefully this finish is the first step in an attempt to reeducate fans to make certain spots feel like plausible finishes again.

MURPHY-TOZAWA CONTRACT SIGNING- decent
This wasn’t bad or anything, but it wasn’t great either, and came off totally flat after that OUTSTANDING no DQs match.

Yet another AWESOME episode of 205 Live. Hunter is our savior! All hail Triple P (Proud Papa Paul).