WWE: 205 Live Review - January 8th, 2021

WWE: 205 Live

January 8th, 2021

Commentary - Nigel McGuinness & Vic Joseph

1) Ashante Adonis vs. Ariya Davari

Simple little match here. Davari is the veteran heel. He works the leg of Adonis and Adonis sells it well all match. Davari gets a good false finish out of a figure four, but Adonis reverses it and ends up hitting his super kick style finisher "long kiss goodnight" for the win.

Match rating - **1/4

William Regal appears onscreen to announce that 205 Live is included in the NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament and matches start next week!

2) Curt Stallion & August Grey vs. The Bollywood Boys 

Decent little match to get both teams more established heading into the tag team tourney. Stallion & Grey looked great together and hit some wild stuff near the end of this match, I'm excited to see what they do in the tournament. And subsequently, they get the victory here!

Match rating - **1/2

WWE: 205 Live Review - January 1st, 2021

WWE: 205 Live

January 1st, 2021

Commentators - Nigel McGuinness & Vic Joseph

WHOA, hello! Here's my every 4 months or so 205 Live Review. It all began just because the six man tag main event peaked my interest so let's just review the whole thing it's only two friggin matches. 

Mansoor competes to open the show, but first! Cameras followed him back to Saudia Arabia on his trip home for the holidays. 

1) Jake Atlas vs. Mansoor

I love Jake Atlas. This was a super well worked match. Atlas targeted the neck of Mansoor and Mansoor targeted the leg/knee of Atlas. They kept focus on both of those things all match and kept me into it from bell to bell so I'd say that's a win. Atlas hits a big brainbuster for a two count and goes to the second rope only to eat a dragon screw from Mansoor followed by a pinning combo with the leg wrapped up for the three count. 

Match rating - **3/4

2) Curt Stallion & Ever-rise vs. Ariya Davari & The Bollywood Boys

This was a fuckin hoot! I just saw a six man tag and figured it'd be worth a look and it sure was. Everrise is the former 3.0, a Canadian team that I used to watch on the Indies years ago so seeing them again was a blast, as was this match as a whole. These guys showed they deserve some opportunities on NXT for sure. With Everrise and The Bollywood Boys being in the upcoming Dusty Cup, it also built some excitement for that. Stallion & Everrise win a super fun trios contest. Nothing to write home about, but for something on this show to actually feel like it has some life to it is a feat in itself.

Match rating - ***

WWE: 205 Live Review - October 9th, 2020

WWE: 205 Live Review 

October 9th, 2020 

This is the 200th episode of 205 Live. 

1) Ariya Daivari vs. Jake Atlas

WWE: 205 Live Review - March 20th, 2020

WWE 205 Live Review 

March 20th, 2020 

Last week, Team NXT Cruserweights defeated the 205 Live Originals in a 10 man elimination match. What's next? 

1) Danny Burch vs. Joquain Wilde 

Burch was eliminated first last week so he's a little disgruntled. Side note: I love his theme music. ANYWAY these two put in a pretty decent showing here. Cool spot with Wilde diving off the railing in the "crowd" onto Burch. Other than that, this was pretty routine. Burch gets a singles win which is surprising but I guess it was needed coming off being eliminated first last week. 

Match rating - **1/4

They take a look back at the 5 on 5 elimination match from last week and run down what all happened. And then cut to the tech truck where JOHN CENA was watching live last week!! Epic. 

2) Isaiah Swerve Scott vs. Oney Lorcan 

Between these two, they hold claim to four of the eliminations last week so this almost a clash of the alphas. Lorcan took a different approach than normal and tried to wear down & ground Swerve with holds, particularly targeting the leg. Swerve fought from underneath and was finally able to get a break with an insane lariat that turned Lorcan inside out. This allowed Swerve to start flying around and doing what he does best and it ends up leading him to victory. This wasn't bad but had no real fire behind it. It was almost like the most basic run through of how to work this style of match. Swerves double stomp at the end looked great though. 

Match rating - ** 

WWE: 205 Live Review - March 13th, 2020

WWE 205 Live 

March 13th, 2020 

Orlando, FL 

205 Live Originals vs. NXT Cruserweights 

1) Tony Nese, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher, Ariya Davari, & Mike Kanellis vs. KUSHIDA, Tyler Breeze, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch & Isaiah Swerve Scott 

This entire show is devoted to a story that could have been so much bigger if it had been promoted on a larger platform. Recently, William Regal decided to spread the Cruiserweight Title to NXT thus adding outsiders to the originally 205 Live exclusive division which leads us to this. A match where the 205 Live Originals fight for their supremacy against the new NXT Cruserweights. Tony Nese and Lio Rush are the team captains, but Jack Gallagher took out Lio Rush in an attack so Team NXT has a hole to fill. The other four men come out and their mystery partner is .. ... KUSHIDAAAAAAA. Awesome surprise. This is real fun from the jump. Danny Burch is first out after shit breaks down into an all out brawl and the Singh Brothers toss Nese a camera and he hits him with it behind the refs back for the pin. Next out is Tyler Breeze via a pinning combination by Jack Gallagher. Team NXT is down 2 until 205 team leader Tony Nese gets eliminated thanks to dissension between he & Jack Gallagher. This also costs them the elimination of Mike Kanellis as Gallagher head-butted his own partner Nese AND Kanellis out of frustration. It's now 3 on 3 with Kendrick/Davari/Gallagher against KUSHIDA/Lorcan/Swerve. Swerve gets tagged in and manages to eliminate both Kendrick & Davari with a roll up. They assault KUSHIDA and Lorcan before leaving to try to help Gallagher who is now left on his own. He goes ape shit and throws Swerve over the announce table and eliminates Lorcan with a stiff elbow shot to the jaw. However, the numbers are too much and KUSHIDA & Swerve team up and take Gallagher down. Fucking great finish with Swerve popping Gallagher's arm and throwing him into KUSHIDA's signature arm bar which Gallagher taps to immediately. This was real solid despite having no audience. KUSHIDA and Swerve stare down to close the show as they know they will have to clash eventually. 

Match rating - ***1/4 

WWE: 205 Live Review - February 21st, 2020

205 Live

February 21st, 2020 

No clue what led me here but god damn let's get into it. Actually I do know what led me here, I heard the main event between Oney/Burch and Kendrick/Davari was very good and I love two of the parties involved so figured may as well review the whole show.

1) Joaquin Wilde vs. Raul Mendoza 

Wilde is the former Zema Ion. He still has the airhorn in his theme music which I love. This was a lot of fun. Amidst the lukewarm crowd, these two had a solid match modeling the style in great fashion. Simple simple stuff but I enjoyed it. Call back to their last match with Mendoza catching himself before getting hit with Wilde's finisher again and uses the opportunity to hit his own move for the win. 

Match rating - ***

2) Tyler Breeze vs. Samer Singh

The Singh brothers are the heels and Breeze is the babyface. This was.. here. Only lasted a few minutes so it's virtually harmless but it means nothing so why even talk about it. Breeze wins. WOO.

Match rating - *1/4

3) Brian Kendrick & Ariya Daivari vs. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch - No Disqualification Match

Now this is what I came here for! Super solid main event that played off the story well. Kendrick hit a fucking death valley driver on Lorcan off the apron through a table - a spot that's worth a viewing of this match alone. The finish is creative and extends the story of Davari being guided by Kendrick and unable to get the job done without him as Lorcan & Burch tie Kendrick's leg to the post and finish off Daivari for the win.

Match rating - ***1/2

WWE: 205 Live Review - February 6th, 2018

The best thing that I got out of Raw this week was being made aware that 205 Live had started a tournament with a ton of stacked matches. This week's episode in particular has two matches I'm highly interested in. Particularly the main event which features Roderick Strong making his 205 Live debut against Hideo Itami. NOSTALGIA.

-Video package highlighting Daniel Bryan bringing out Drake Maverick (Rockstar Spud) as the new GM to announce this tournament is shown to start the show.

1) Kalisto vs. Lince Dorado

The lucha house party explodes here with this one on one contest and the stakes are high. I feel like this tournament could pull 205 Live out of the slump it's been in because of that fact, to be honest. The commentators said it really well when saying that every match feels like a title match. This is literally all these cruserweights' only chance to get to WrestleMania. There's 16 men and only two of them will get to hit the grandest stage. That's a recipe for some awesome matches. None the less, this was a fun opener that bordered on being just that and being more. It was structured like a main event style match, but compacted into 10-12 minutes, if that makes sense. Dorado hit all his signatures only for Kalisto to roll to the outside to avoid being pinned. Dorado finally gets Kalisto back inside and gets stunned with a salida del sol, but manages to kick out which really gets the crowd into things for the final minute or two stretch. In the end, a sick reverserana and one more salida del sol puts Dorado away.

Match rating - ***1/4

-Akira Tozawa faces Mark Andrews next week

-Drake Maverick is backstage and lights a fire under the ass of Tony Nese & Drew Gulak, calling them out for being a joke and wasting their potential. They face each other next week. That could be lit.

2) Roderick Strong vs. Hideo Itami

YES. This is good stuff. Strong & Itami slugged it out in a match totally different than it's a predecessor, thus showing that 205 Live can & does have variety. Roddy still has that special vibe to me that he's had since 2015 so I enjoyed this probably a lot more than others, but I'm still reviewing/rating it from an unbiased perspective. But yeah, this was exactly what you'd expect from a TV style main event from these two. They didn't tone down their style so to speak however they didn't go all the way out either. More like just enough to leave you wanting to see them lock up again. Last few moments had me gasping and they brought the crowd into it as well. Strong gets the shocking victory with the end of heartache. ROD DOG TO MANIA BABY. One step closer.

Match rating - ***3/4