BRM Reviews the 12/13/2016 205 Live (why this show will fail without a new timeslot)

[Big Red Machine]

DREW GULAK vs. JACK GALLAGHER- 5/10
Okay… that f*cking knot spot needs to never be done again. If you want to win the match then why would you take ten minutes and just kick the other guy in the tuchus when you could go around the stomp away at his head and win via referee stoppage? Actually, now that I think about it, isn’t that knot situation a literal example of being “unable to defend yourself?”
Gallagher won, which shows you that even on the Cruiserweight show, they’ll often put the wrong guy over. Mauro said that Gulak had considered being a philosophy teacher before signing with WWE. I’ll pretend that’s a reference to Catchpoint.
The reference that Mauro made during his match that is most likely to get him in trouble, however, was his incorrect description of Gallagher headbutt as being like that of Katsuyori Shibata. I say that this was incorrect because unlike Shibata, Gallagher actually sold that this hurt him.

RICH SWANN & TJP BACKSTAGE- I hated this SOOOO much. It doesn’t only feel scripted, but it feels so entry-level that it feels phony. Does anyone really believe that TJP needs to point out to Swann that being friends doesn’t mean he won’t try his hardest to win the title from him? THEY’RE PROFESSIONAL COMBAT ATHLETES. Also, it’s completely unnecessary for this feud. This is the sort of thing that everyone loved the Cruiserweight Classic for getting away from!

GALLAGHER & DAIVARI BACKSTAGE- I… I think I simultaneously love and hate Jack Gallagher’s character. More accurately, I think I hate the tone of the character, but love Gallagher’s portrayal of it.

MUSTAFA ALI PROMO- typically ignorant WWE crap. We’re not going to have Muslim characters who are terrorists anymore. Instead, our Muslim characters will be all about showing everyone how they’re definitely not terrorists.

LINCE DORADO vs. MUSTAFA ALI- no rating, bad segment.
Stuff happened that resulted in a double count-out. I guess Ali is the heel because he got upset after the match and responded to an offer of a handshake with violence, but got punked out anyway. This felt like it was an angle for the sake of an angle. Ali was bland, even in his anger.

NOAM DAR & ALICIA FOX BACKSTAGE- I think he was trying to hit on her. Their dialogue was overly-scripted and bad. I also don’t like that Dar seems to actually be trying to steal Alicia from Cedric. I thought the whole point of his promo last week was just him being a dick for the sake of being a dick.

TJ PERKINS VIDEO PACKAGE- Completely unnecessary. At this point there is absolutely no one who is watching 205 Live who doesn’t know the TJP character already. Also, he came across as kind of unlikable here.

TJ PERKINS vs. RICH SWANN- 7.75/10
Kendrick came out to do commentary on this match because I guess WWE figures we need to hear someone repeat the same things we’ve been hearing every week for a month on TWO shows now.
The match was great (especially for the time it got), but it was completely unnecessary for these two to face off here. TJP didn’t need a win over Swann to make anyone think he could win, so all we did was make the champion tap out.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- even more pointless.
Kendrick came down to be a jerk so he got superkicked, then TJP told Swann he could have done the same to him but didn’t.

The main event saved this show from being bad, but this episode convinced me that this show’s current taping schedule will doom it.
Going live after the equally live Smackdown means that the show has to START at 10 pm, when people (especially people who made quite the drive to go) are going to want to be heading home quickly. To keep the show shorter so that they don’t end up with an empty arena match, they can do (and seem to be doing) two things:
1) Keep the matches shorter. This obviously hurts the show by lowering the quality of the matches.
2) Show stuff that can be taped beforehand and rush the matches into the ring and air them on a short delay (which I think may have been done tonight). This means lots of pre-tapes, which will make the show feel either full of filler video packages or full of Raw-esque backstage segments, which is bad because a) WWE’s scripting makes for low-quality segments, and more importantly b) it will make the show feel too similar to Raw.
The Cruiserweight Classic was so well-received because of the quality of the matches and how different the presentation was from what we were getting in WWE. Going live after Smackdown is preventing 205 Live from doing the very things that led its creation in the first place.

[cero2k]

This show was taped on monday tho, before RAW, because they did tribute to the troops on tuesday. I don't disagree that if they return to tape after Smackdowns, it will be doomed

[Big Red Machine]

This show was taped on monday tho, before RAW, because they did tribute to the troops on tuesday. I don't disagree that if they return to tape after Smackdowns, it will be doomed

Well... it felt that way still.