BRM Reviews the 5/14/2019 205 Live (awesome... and with an amusing dose of irony mixed in)

[Big Red Machine]

SHOW OPENING- Drake Maverick explains that because we are in the UK, he has invited wrestlers from NXT UK onto the show tonight. He ran down tonight’s card (Nese vs. Ligero and the four-way they announced last week) and we got some brief highlights of everyone involved, as well as a plug for the Cruiserweight Title match at the PPV.

Byron Saxton has joined the commentary team for tonight, replacing Vic Joseph. He came off like an authentic human being with real emotions instead of Vince McMahon’s sock-puppet.

FATAL FOUR-WAY MATCH: James Drake vs. Jack Gallagher vs. Humberto Carrillo vs. Mark Andrews- 7.75/10
James Drake did not have his NXT UK Tag Team Title belt with him. Gallagher is still using his heel music. He did use his umbrella again, though... and while doing his dive he managed to throw it so that it hit the camera perfectly. It was pretty cool.
The match had lots of great four-way action. Carrillo rolled Gallagher up for the pin, and- after a tense moment- Gallagher showed him respect after the match. I was a little surprised that they did this finish here instead of having one of the NXT UK guys get pinned to milk Gallagher vs. Carrillo for another singles match.

ARIYA DAIVARI PROMO FROM INSIDE A TANNING BOOTH- good
He says Nese is dumb for flying to the UK and wrestling a match he doesn’t have to, just a few days before their title match. He, by contrast, is relaxing, getting a tan and a message, and getting some good workouts in so that he can be at 100% for the PPV match.

SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS TONY NESE- meh
This wasn’t Nese’s chance to respond to Daivair’s promo, and he wasn’t very good. The delivery was not good at times, and some of his words (it’s “tradition” for NXT UK and 205 Live to face off? Really?) were a little overdramatic.

LIGERO VIDEO PACKAGE- meh

LUCHA HOUSE PARTY PROMO- dull
They’re wrestling the Singh Brothers next week.

LIGERO vs. TONY NESE- 8.25/10
Another awesome 205 Live main event. Ligero is a good technical Luchador, but I just don’t see it in him charisma-wise.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Ariya Daivari LIED! He’s here tonight... and he slipped out of the crowd and took out Ligero, then won his brawl with Nese and laid him out with a Hammerlock DDT onto the belt. A great go-home angle.

Another typically awesome episode of 205 Live. One thing that I have to note, though, is that- without even mentioning the damn thing once and possibly not even on purpose because my guess is that this show was booked several weeks in advance, but this episode of 205 Live was the first show to actually follow the rules of the Wildcard Rule without any confusion of any sort. There were three outside wrestlers, all of whom were specifically invited to appear on the show, just like the original formulation of the rule. I think there is a certain irony in the show least likely to use Vince’s dumb new gimmick being the only one to use it without changing the rules on the fly or having discrepancies.