Previously on 205 Live, the quarterfinals of the Cruiserweight Championship tournament began, as presumptive favorite Cedric Alexander defeated TJP, and Roderick Strong defeated Kalisto to set one of the semifinal matches.
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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE 205 Live for March 6th, 2018.
Pop Punk’s Not Dead
The evolution of Drew Gulak continues. “I haven’t event opened Microsoft Office in WEEKS.” I feel like this isn’t a battle for the cruiserweight championship, but a battle for Drew’s very soul.
So, hey, Green Bay crowds, huh? I know the match started slow and had Drew controlling the pace, but man, the crowd weren’t giving them anything. I like the new, focused Drew Gulak for the same reason that Dean Malenko was my favorite of the WCW cruiserweights. When everyone is flying around like Blitzkrieg, it’s nice to have the change of pace of someone just expertly destroying someone limb by limb.
The match wasn’t perfect, though, and was still one of the lesser matches of the tournament. I know it’s been a common refrain since 205 Live started, but if they would just let Mark Andrews wrestle like he can instead of having to do a WWE-but-smaller style. This should have been a true juxtaposition of styles, with Gulak’s new found intensity being the thing that pushed him over the edge and able to ground the high flyer for good. Either way, Drew Gulak takes his rightful place in the semi finals.
Best: Team Kent-AH AH AH
As was previously reported, there is a plan to introduce tag team titles to 205 Live. I don’t know if they are going to do another tournament for those belts after this tournament concludes, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they did.
I wished when Drake Maverick asked Hideo and Akira “I suppose you’re wondering why I put you in a tag team” they would have just Jim Halpert’ed the camera. But regardless of the reason for their pairing, they do make for a fantastic team. Hideo is Hideo, and Tozawa has enough goofy charm to play off of him. They looked pretty impressive in their jobber squash match against Scott James and Nemeth Alexander (who is currently the most interesting Nemeth in the WWE.)
Besides Itami and Tozawa, you have the Lucha House Party, and The Brian Kendrick should be back soon and can re-team with “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher. I’d say you can’t have a tag team division with just three teams, but I’ve also watched WWE television in the last five years, so I would be wrong.
Best: The Best Kept Secret Is Out
Mustafa Ali is becoming my favorite wrestler in the company. This match was fantastic. It’s telling the greatness of Ali that he got a terrible Green Bay crowd up and chanting for him – a man from Chicago.
Buddy Murphy looks like a star, too. A quick Best for the editors for leaving in Drake Maverick flubbing his line and starting over in a PRE-TAPED segment for Murpy’s weigh in. The version on WWE Youtube is the correct version, but the version that went out over the network included Spud pulling a Psycho Sid.
I’m a sucker for some good ring psychology and this match had it and then some. Ali plays the scrappy underdog to a T, and I thought the story of this match was going to be “how much of a beating can Ali withstand before pulling out an upset flash victory.” And Murphy looks massive. I don’t know if they weigh in was gimmicked, because he looks huge. There were so many great spots in the match, but the most important and impressive one was that 450 to Buddy Murphy’s arm.
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/971235355981680640
I love a spot that’s so good it makes you’re whole body wince when watching it. After that we had a master piece in working the arm. Ali knew that Murphy couldn’t hit his finish (renamed Murphy’s Law) without the use of that arm (unlike the TJP/Cedric Alexander match, where TJP worked Ced’s leg the whole match until he hit a lumbar check perfectly fine for the win.)
I’ve said for a while that Ali is the best seller in the company, but Murphy was pretty damned great as well. Little things like not being able to get him over with a suplex so adjusting mid move and throwing Ali to the outside – the stuff that makes you watch and say think that he’s really hurt and really trying to do these moves. That’s what I like about wrestling. Plus Murphy kept finding every reason to spike himself like RVD taking a DDT. That facebuster became a crown-of-the-headbuster.
The finish was perfect. After getting his arm destroyed during the match, Murphy goes to hit his finish but isn’t physically able to. Ali is able to take advantage and get a quick pin. Ali looks smart and moves on, Murphy takes the loss but looked dominant for most of the match. I care more about Buddy Murphy in two matches in 205 Live than I did during his entire NXT run. This might have been the match of the tournament for me.
Next Week:
It’s semifinal time. Cedric Alexander faces Roderick Strong in a back breaker bonanza and Drew Gulak faces Mustafa Ali in a rematch of their classic 2 out of 3 falls match. Winners go to WrestleMania.
