BRM Reviews the 11/28/2018 205 Live
Posted: Nov 30th, '18, 02:41
NOAM DAR vs. MIKE KANELLIS (w/Maria Kanellis)- 2/10
This match went less than four minutes, but it still accomplished what it needed to, which was to give time for Maria to run Lucha House Party down on commentary, then have Gran Metalik and Lincé Dorado come out on the ramp to cause a distraction (to both Mike and the referee) so that Kalisto could come out of the crowd and attack Bennett, essentially doing the same thing to Bennett that Bennett did to them last week. Dar capitalized on this and hit Kanelllis with his finisher for the win.
KENDRICK & TOZAWA BACKSTAGE- an excellent little training segment.
DREW GULAK & JACK GALLAGHER PROMO- Not good
Gulak was standing behind a podium and using big words for the sake of it. I am greatly worried that Vince is sticking his hands back into proverbial 205 Live booking cookie jar or whatever. Gallagher will face Kendrick next week and vows to make him tap out.
HIDEO ITAMI vs. A JOBBER- excellent squash
This is Itami’s first appearance since losing his Falls Count Anywhere blow-off match to Mustafa Ali last month. This made him even more angry than usual, so he just PUNISHED this jobber. The only problem with it is the goofy new finisher they gave him. Why can’t he just kick someone’s brain out?
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- interesting
Itami keeps beating up the jobber until Ariya Daivari makes his return from injury by coming out and having a stare-down with Itami… and then predictably turning and attacking the jobber as well. They beat the jobber up together, then Itami said that he respected Daivari and they shook hands.
The execution of the segment was fine, but this pairing feels odd and forced, and I think grumpy, bitter, bastard Hideo Itami works much better as a singles act with no friends of any kind than with a tag team partner.
MIKE & MARIA WALK IN ON TJP & DRAKE MAVERICK ARGUING BACKSTAGE- very good segment
TJP seemed to be trying to convince Maverick to give him a title shot, but Maverick won’t because, among other things, he lost to Gran Metalik last week. They argued, with TJP finally bringing up Maverick’s “problem on Raw,” to which Maverick responded with a sarcastic “that’s real mature.” I loved this phrasing because of the subtle disapproval of the whole thing, and inherent plea for us to just pretend that Drake Maverick on 205 Live is like a split personality from the guy we see on Raw and we should just ignore the stupid sh*t Vince does with him when we’re watching him on Hunter’s show.
Mike and Maria showed up yelling about the finish to Mike’s match. TJP reiterated that he has previously beaten all three members of Lucha House Party and “took their mascaras” (I HOWLED with laughter at that line) so he was done with them, but Maria reminded him that he owed Mike a favor for them helping him in this feud. Maria said she wanted to embarrass Lucha House Party in one of their own specialty matches, so she insisted that Drake Maverick book a Tornado Tag Team Match next week. Maverick liked the idea so he booked the match.
On its own this was all good, but I really liked the way that it could easily be used to set up a feud between TJP and Mike Kanellis, depending on whether they win or lose and/or who takes the pin. Actually, pretty much any result from next week’s match could be used to get us to that feud, which is pretty darn cool, IMO.
MUSTAFA ALI & CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. TONY NESE & BUDDY MURPHY- 8/10
The usual tag team formula leads to the usual excellent from 205 Live’s main event scene. Cedric picked up the win for his team by pinning WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy, signaling the end of his rebuilding phase after the losing streak that started with him dropping the title to Murphy at Super Show-Down, and setting these guys up for one more title match.
A great episode of 205 Live. It wasn’t as good as usual in the ring, but the main event was awesome and everything that happened served a storyline purpose.
This match went less than four minutes, but it still accomplished what it needed to, which was to give time for Maria to run Lucha House Party down on commentary, then have Gran Metalik and Lincé Dorado come out on the ramp to cause a distraction (to both Mike and the referee) so that Kalisto could come out of the crowd and attack Bennett, essentially doing the same thing to Bennett that Bennett did to them last week. Dar capitalized on this and hit Kanelllis with his finisher for the win.
KENDRICK & TOZAWA BACKSTAGE- an excellent little training segment.
DREW GULAK & JACK GALLAGHER PROMO- Not good
Gulak was standing behind a podium and using big words for the sake of it. I am greatly worried that Vince is sticking his hands back into proverbial 205 Live booking cookie jar or whatever. Gallagher will face Kendrick next week and vows to make him tap out.
HIDEO ITAMI vs. A JOBBER- excellent squash
This is Itami’s first appearance since losing his Falls Count Anywhere blow-off match to Mustafa Ali last month. This made him even more angry than usual, so he just PUNISHED this jobber. The only problem with it is the goofy new finisher they gave him. Why can’t he just kick someone’s brain out?
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- interesting
Itami keeps beating up the jobber until Ariya Daivari makes his return from injury by coming out and having a stare-down with Itami… and then predictably turning and attacking the jobber as well. They beat the jobber up together, then Itami said that he respected Daivari and they shook hands.
The execution of the segment was fine, but this pairing feels odd and forced, and I think grumpy, bitter, bastard Hideo Itami works much better as a singles act with no friends of any kind than with a tag team partner.
MIKE & MARIA WALK IN ON TJP & DRAKE MAVERICK ARGUING BACKSTAGE- very good segment
TJP seemed to be trying to convince Maverick to give him a title shot, but Maverick won’t because, among other things, he lost to Gran Metalik last week. They argued, with TJP finally bringing up Maverick’s “problem on Raw,” to which Maverick responded with a sarcastic “that’s real mature.” I loved this phrasing because of the subtle disapproval of the whole thing, and inherent plea for us to just pretend that Drake Maverick on 205 Live is like a split personality from the guy we see on Raw and we should just ignore the stupid sh*t Vince does with him when we’re watching him on Hunter’s show.
Mike and Maria showed up yelling about the finish to Mike’s match. TJP reiterated that he has previously beaten all three members of Lucha House Party and “took their mascaras” (I HOWLED with laughter at that line) so he was done with them, but Maria reminded him that he owed Mike a favor for them helping him in this feud. Maria said she wanted to embarrass Lucha House Party in one of their own specialty matches, so she insisted that Drake Maverick book a Tornado Tag Team Match next week. Maverick liked the idea so he booked the match.
On its own this was all good, but I really liked the way that it could easily be used to set up a feud between TJP and Mike Kanellis, depending on whether they win or lose and/or who takes the pin. Actually, pretty much any result from next week’s match could be used to get us to that feud, which is pretty darn cool, IMO.
MUSTAFA ALI & CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs. TONY NESE & BUDDY MURPHY- 8/10
The usual tag team formula leads to the usual excellent from 205 Live’s main event scene. Cedric picked up the win for his team by pinning WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy, signaling the end of his rebuilding phase after the losing streak that started with him dropping the title to Murphy at Super Show-Down, and setting these guys up for one more title match.
A great episode of 205 Live. It wasn’t as good as usual in the ring, but the main event was awesome and everything that happened served a storyline purpose.