Hello You!
I decided to put the Hardcore TV reviews on ice, mainly because I don’t think anyone was actually reading them. Seeing as 205 Live is probably the only show that super-reviewer Tommy Hall doesn’t recap around here, I decided I’d try it out for a few weeks and see what everyone thinks.
Recaps going forward will probably be up on Wednesday evenings at the earliest because the show is on pretty late in the UK and I have things like sleeping and a regular day job that I have to contend with. Whenever I’ve watched 205 Live I’ve tended to enjoy the wrestling on it quite a lot, though the crowds can sometimes be pretty dispiriting, so I’m optimistic going in to this.
Anyway, let’s take a look at 205 Live for 25/06/2019
The event is emanating from Portland, Oregon
Calling the action are Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness and Aidan English
We open up with a recap of the pre-show from Stomping Grounds, where WWE Cruiserweight Champ Tony Nese lost his Title to Drew Gulak’s Spartan cousin. We then cut straight to a Gulak promo to camera in a darkened room, where he says the pillars this show is built on are weak and that everyone is going to feel his wrath. He seems to be going for an evil NXT Tomasso Ciampa styled deal with his gimmick actually. Tonight it’s Tozawa Vs Nese, with the winner facing the Champ at Extreme Rulz.
Opening Match
“Gentleman” Jack Gallagher Vs Mike Kanellis w/ Maria Kanellis
Jack’s bemused look when The Kanellis’ music hit is great, I love the little touches like that. Good on them for trying to give Kanellis more of a serious gimmick, let’s see if he can back it up in the ring. Jack out wrestles Kanellis is the early going and gets a cheeky school boy for two. Kanelli doesn’t know what to make of the old headstand in the corner trick and gets drop kicked outside. However, Maria distracts Jack out there and that allows Kanellis to send him into the ring post.
Kanellis hits something between a suplex and brain buster on the outside and then rolls in to try and win by count out. They tease that Jack is going to be counted out, but he manages to roll back in, only to find some Kanellis stomps waiting for him. Kanellis works Jack over for a while, getting a hard Irish whip into the corner before setting his English foe up for a superplex. Jack fights back however and knocks Kanellis down to the mat, but when he tries to follow up with a dive from the top he finds nothing but feet in the pool.
Kanellis uses this opportunity to deliver a fireman’s carry into a Michinoku to his dazed opponent, but Jack is able to kick out at two, as the crowd are starting to get a little invested in this. Both men trade strikes, which ends with Kanellis getting a super kick and then going for a school boy with a strategic grab of the tights. The referee sees the attempt at cheating however and stops counting, which leads to argument between he and Kanellis. This allows Jack to hit a desperation head butt to pick up the win.
WINNER: JACK GALLAGHER
RATING: **1/2
Enjoyable match there which allowed both men to have control at different points and get their respective characters over. Always nice to see my fellow Englishmen pick up wins as well!
The Kanellis’ are very unhappy post-match, and it looks like Mike is “done”, as he storms off into the crowd whilst Maria doesn’t seem to know what to do. Nigel blames all this on Drake Maverick as Joseph sends to a promo with Tony Nese in the locker room. Nese cuts his own promo saying that he takes back control tonight by having a match with a man he’s always respected in Tozawa. Nese addresses Gulak directly, saying that he pinned Tozawa and not him to win the belt.
Next up Tozawa (In a Ricochet shirt) adds his own promo from another locker room, where he says he won’t let his opportunity tonight slip through his fingers and that he will go on to become a 2 time Cruiserweight Champ.
COMMERCIAL
205 Live Commissioner Drake Maverick is on the phone in his office trying to contact Mike Kanellis, but his call goes straight to voicemail. He leaves a diatribe and calls Mike unprofessional.
Match Two
Humberto Carrillo Vs Rob Rollenbeck
Oh wow, I think we might be getting a squash match! I don’t know why that made me so excited, but it did. Kind of sad how a squash match is so fresh and different these days that I actually get pumped to see one. Carrillo does flips to befuddle Rollenbeck and gets some nice babyface styled arm drags and dropkicks.
Rollenbeck gets some token offence but ends up eating a handspring back elbow followed by a springboard head butt for two. Carrillo gets a missile dropkick next, although he barely made contact because Rollenbeck looked too scared to take it and was backing away something fierce, before following up with a nice flippy splash thing from the top for the pin.
WINNER: HUMBERTO CARRILLO
RATING: SQUASH
The finish looked good but Rollenbeck was a pretty underwhelming enhancement wrestler.
We get clips from last week, where Ariya Daivari got himself intentionally DQ’ed against Oney Lorcan and left him laying following the conclusion of the bout. We then go to Daivari, who is with Sarah Shriver. Daivari says that the attack was revenge for Lorcan busting him open and costing him matches. Lorcan jumps him mid promo however, screeching like Luna Vachon, yelling “How does it feel?!?!” over and over as security breaks them up. I like how both men got changed into their wrestling gear just for that one segment.
COMMERCIAL
We get a promo to camera from La fiesta de la casa de la lucha, or The Lucha House Party for you Gringo’s out there, where they announce that they have a match with The Singh Brothers next week, under tornado rules.
Main Event
Winner Gets A Shot At Drew Gulak At Extreme Rulz
Tony Nese Vs Akira Tozawa
I always felt they could have tagged Nese and Chris Masters together actually, as Nese kind of looks like a shorter version of The Masterpiece. You could grate cheese on those abs for chuffs sake! Nese takes it to Tozawa to start but Tozawa rallies and sends him outside, where he follows with an incredible cannonball attack off the apron. Tozawa goes for something off the top back in, but takes too long and Nese is able to catch him with a kick for two.
Nese works Tozawa over in aggressive fashion and then goes to a body scissors. Tozawa fights out of that and tries to hurk Nese into a fireman’s carry but he can’t quite manage it and that allows Nese to regain control and go to a waist lock. It’s rare you see guys actually work a waist lock as an actual hold like that. Tozawa manages to fight out and once again goes for the fireman’s carry, this time succeeding in lifting Nese into a face buster.
Nese bails outside, at which point Tozawa follows with a big suicide dive to send Nese careening backwards over the announce table. Back inside we go, where Tozawa heads up with a front missile dropkick for two. Crowd are actually getting a bit in to this, as Tozawa goes to a flying octopus, only for Nese to counter it to a modified slam for the double down. Nese runs wild on Tozawa and gets a big dive to the outside, followed by a Quebrada back inside for two.
Both men fight their way to their feet and trade chops, which ends with Tozawa just straight up punching Nese. Nese recovers and goes for the Meltdown, but Tozawa slips out and gets a spin kick for two. Tozawa heads up top, but Nese stops him with a strike and tries a superplex. Tozawa fights Nese off however and tries a sunset powerbomb, but Nese manages to block it. This leads to a Canadian Destroyer from Tozawa for two however and he heads up for a seated back senton, but Nese rolls out of the way and both men are down.
This has been a pretty gosh darn entertaining match, anaemic crowd reactions aside. Bless those who are at least trying to make some noise though by yelling “Baa” at Tozawa. Both men trade pin attempts, which ends with Nese powerbombing Tozawa into the corner for two, thanks to Tozawa getting his foot on the rope. Tozawa gets a snap German Suplex for two, but runs into a super kick and German from Nese. Nese tries double knees in the corner, but Tosawa is able to dodge it and goes for the octopus again, but Nese is able to block it this time and delivers an inverted sit down piledriver type move for the win.
WINNER: TONY NESE
RATING: ***1/2
This was a bit sloppy in places but was still a lot of fun. I would have personally gone with Tozawa as the winner, as he seems like the more popular of the two, but they kind of had to give Nese at least one chance to try and regain his Title, so the result made sense.
Nese offers a handshake post-match and both men hug.
In Conclusion
This was a very easy show to watch and I liked the logical story telling. The only downside with these shows is the crowd, as they don’t even seem to be paying attention most of the time and it’s a genuine shame because the wrestlers are doing good stuff in there.
I really don’t see why they can’t just tape the show prior to Smackdown or, if that isn’t feasible, just tape the shows at Full Sail ala NXT. At least if they did that they’d have a crowd who would be invested and would actually get behind the wrestlers.
Nese doesn’t especially enthuse me as the guy who is supposed to be the top babyface of the brand, which he technically is at the moment if this show was anything to go by, but I think it’s highly unlikely that he wins at Extreme Rulz so it’ll be interesting to see who they go with next. On commentary they were talking about how both Gallagher and Carrillo used to be associated with Gulak, so I could see one of them challenging him following his battle with Nese.