BRM Reviews the 2/14/2020 205 Live

[Big Red Machine]

THE SINGH BROTHERS GET SOME CHEAP HEAT- Well… they’re hometown guys but they’re also heels, so you’ve got to bury the local sports team. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan came out to fight them because… um…
(Obviously the were booked in a match. I get that. I just don’t understand why they charged out as if there was some sort of grudge here.)

DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN vs. THE SINGH BROTHERS- 4.5/10
The babyfaces won clean, then got jumped from behind by the Singh Brothers after Ariya Daivari and Brian Kendrick came out and caused a distraction. They got beaten down by all four heels, but mostly Daivari and Kendrick, who they are feuding with. Chairs were used copiously, continuing that motif of this feud. Some idiot fans decided that chairs were not enough for them and thus decided to chant “WE WANT TABLES!” after the heels had finished beating the babyfaces down.

RAUL MENDOZA VIDEO PACKAGE- good
He’s facing off against Joaquin Wilde next week.

LIO RUSH INTERVIEW AFTER THIS WEEK’S NXT- good
They’re building to match for the Cruiserweight Title next week on NXT. Devlin had a response on Twitter. I’m extremely excited for this match.

BRIAN KENDRICK & ARIYA DAIVARI PROMO- bad
After several video packages and a commercial break, these two are STILL standing in the ring… and I’m okay with that in this case. Why?
1. This was not a planned interview and the heels have just done something that management is probably not very happy with, so them being forced to wait until there is an open spot in the show makes sense.
2. Kendrick acknowledged that he had been forced to wait (and was rather annoyed by it), which makes the whole thing feel more natural, as opposed to the contrivances we get on the main roster.
Kendrick got even more anti-Canadian cheap heat. We’ve had two promos tonight, and both have been cheap-heat promos taking a shot at the same local sports team.
Kendrick and Daivari are doing a “we’re 205 Live originals” gimmick. Daivari appears to have changed personalities to be more bombastic, which is a shame because it makes him seem a lot less dangerous than he used to. Kendrick said that they are contractually obligated to compete tonight so he asked for their opponents to come out, leading into…

ARIYA DAIVARA & BRIAN KENDRICK vs. TONY NESE & MIKE KANELLIS- 7.25/10
This is a heel vs. heel match, right? I’m not going crazy?
This was Kanellis’ big return to TV after a long absence since all of the… drama. No Maria in sight at the moment, so we’ll see what happens with that.
These two heels teams had a great match together that was spoiled by a frustrating ending when Kendrick and Daivari got frustrated and grabbed some chairs, but were then distracted by Burch Lorcan coming out all taped up, which allowed Nese to get the win via roll-up. Burch & Lorcan charged the heels and managed to get the chairs away from them and beat them up with the chairs, marking the second week in a row that these same babyfaces have beaten these same two heels down with chairs. Hopefully next week’s no DQs match is the blow-off so this feud can end.


This was an okay episode of 205 Live. Its main flaw was that the constant focus on Daivari/Kendrick vs. Burch/Lorcan made it feel like that was the only thing going on on the whole brand.