Previously on 205 Live, Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann took down Jack Gallagher and The Brian Kendrick, Drew Gulak continued his quest to turn 205 Live into a Drewtopia, and Cruiserweight champion Kalisto defeated Enzo Amore in a tag match before their title match at TLC.
At WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, Enzo defeated Kalisto with a thumb to the eye to become a two-time Cruiserweight champion, and the next night on Raw, Kalisto pinned the champ.
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And now, the best and worst of 205 Live for October 24th, 2017.
Best: The Gentleman With A Plan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEB-jRVgtBs?rel=0
The tag match between Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann vs Noam Dar and Tony Nese wasn’t bad enough to warrant a worst, but it wasn’t good enough to get a best either. If I were to rank all the roster of 205 Live, Tony Nese and Noam Dar would be the bottom two. On the other hand, I’m loving the Alexander and Swann team, and I think they would do fantastically well on the main roster mixing it with the rest of the tag division on Smackdown.
My problem with the match is that too much of it was the heels keeping Swann from making the hot tag and keeping him isolated in their half of the ring. I know that is tag team wrestling 101, but the crowd couldn’t have cared less about Nese and Dar. I did like the Premier Athlete and Noam Dar’s bicycle sit-ups corner attack, but this match really dragged in the middle portion.
The real Best goes to the post-match promo from Gentleman Jack Gallagher and The Brian Kendrick. Since turning heel, Jack Gallagher has become on of the most compelling characters to me. He is able to come across as menacing — a proper gentleman who has no qualms just headbutting you to death. We’ll see where this is going next week, but I think there’s a good chance that Rich Swann turns on Cedric instead.
Best: Drewtopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbRU3WkDio?rel=0
First, a retroactive Worst for me for totally missing the (power) point on Drew Gulak last week. Over the week I went back and watched every Gulak segment since he first started the No Fly Zone shtick, and seeing the gimmick evolve and Drew completely own the character, well, I can admit when I was wrong. Drew Garlic is okay.
Drew hits the ring to lament the fact that his scheduled power point presentation at TLC was cancelled by the “powers that be” (Vince Russo strikes again!) and stages a protest. In lieu of the Cruiserweight Championship match, we’re going to all the way back to slide number 1 of Drew Gulak’s Plan For A Better 205 Live and work our way through slide 277. We get halfway through the first slide before Gran Metalik rule-breakingly interrupts and the match is on.
Metalik is breaking rules left and right, jumping and flipping and generally avoiding the ground game as much as possible. He hits a missile dropkick, a moonsault to the outside, and a springboard splash, while Drew’s offense is all hammerlocks, chin bars, and punches to the head. Gulak is eventually able to lock in a dragon sleeper for the victory, and afterwards attempts to stop Gran Metalik from ever going off the top rope by breaking leg. This brings out a returning Akira Tozawa, who makes the save and promptly breaks the no chanting rule.
Best: The Zo Train Keeps On Rolling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk4hBRIrYDA?rel=0
First, a Best for Kalisto cutting a backstage promo without totally Kalisto-ing it up. “It was a dream come true, then it was a nightmare, but I’m taking back what’s mine” was basically Kalisto’s “Hard Times”
It’s not shown in the Fan Nation video, but the highlight of the segment is “Daivari Dinero” doing the pre-match promo for Enzo, whose voice is still missing. I’m a sucker for a good “your team sucks” diss, and “Bucks and a championship is something [Milwaukee] knows nothing about” is right up there. Don’t sleep on the Greek Freak, Daivari.
As for the match, well, it definitely happened. Enzo is never going to be confused with Neville in the ring, so we’re never going to talk about his matches in terms of being a technical masterpiece. My highlights of the match were:
- That Windmill Driver by Kalisto on the apron.
- Vic Joseph reminding us that Kalisto can’t win the title by being counted out.
- The finish, which saw Enzo lightly pushing the referee with his boot to draw the DQ
After the match, Kalisto put the beatdown on Enzo before being stopped by the refs. I don’t know where they go from here. I assume we’re going to get a Zo Train versus Team Lucha Survivor Series match. If they’re ready to move on from Kalisto in the title hunt, then Mustafa Ali is the obvious next challenger.
