205 Live – January 3, 2017: A Bad Gut Feeling
205 Live
Date: January 3, 2017
Location: Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves, Austin Aries
I’m starting to get attached to this show and a lot of that is due to Neville. This heel character has been outstanding so far and it’s easily the best thing he’s done so far in WWE. It needs to lead to a Cruiserweight Title win over Rich Swann at the Rumble but I have a feeling they’ll keep it on Rich for the sake of….I’m not sure really. Let’s get to it.
We open with a long recap of Neville vs. Swann last week with the champ losing a non-title match.
Opening sequence.
Swann is injured so tonight it’s TJ Perkins filling in against Neville.
Tajiri vs. Sean Maluta
Tajiri still looks so strange without the goatee. Maluta grabs a headlock to start and hits a good looking headbutt. For some reason Maluta charges into the corner, earning himself a Tarantula. Some VERY hard kicks to the head drop Maluta and the handspring elbow puts him down again. The Buzzsaw kick ends Maluta at 2:52. This was basically saying “Hey, remember Tajiri? Here he is again.”
Post match here’s Brian Kendrick to welcome Tajiri back. He’s so glad to see someone who takes this serious and thinks they can take this show over. They shake hands but Tajiri mists him. Aries: “That’s not kale juice!”
Neville is tired of how he’s been treated and all the discrimination against him over his accent and looks.
Video on Tony Nese.
Jack Gallagher vs. Tony Nese
Before the match we get a recap of last week’s Gentleman’s Duel and all its glory. Nese has Gulak in his corner. Gallagher spins out of a wristlock and bounces out of a headscissors. We get the headstand in the corner with Jack jumping out because he’s that awesome. Not that it matters though as Ariya Daivari comes in for the DQ at 2:25.
Daivari destroys Gallagher post match.
Cedric Alexander wants Alicia Fox to be a little more careful. Kissing ensues.
Mustafa Ali vs. Noam Dar
Ali grabs a hammerlock to start and follows with a good looking spinwheel kick to the jaw to send Dar outside. As they come back in, Dar scores with a dropkick to the side of the head. It’s time to start in on the arm as the fans are way quieter than they probably should be for a cruiserweight match. We hit an armbar with a knee on Ali’s face until he grabs a tornado DDT to put both guys down. A neckbreaker keeps Dar in trouble until Ali flips right into a Fujiwara armbar. That’s reversed into a crucifix, followed by a kick to the face and that sweet inverted 450 for the pin on Dar at 6:20.
Rating: C+. This was a snappy little match and that’s the kind of thing this show needs. Well, aside from a better timeslot and more personalities but you get the idea. Making Ali a face is an interesting idea and I’m glad they’re doing it instead of just going with the simple idea. Not a bad match here and it worked fine.
Dar says he wants Fox because she’s always welcome in his corner.
Video on Akira Tozawa.
Neville vs. TJ Perkins
Neville now has the angry, slower music. Before the match, TJ says he’s going to deal with this bully with a punch to the face. Perkins won’t shake hands either and it seems to work fine here as a headscissors puts Neville down. A Rey Mysterio wheelbarrow bulldog and another headscissors sends a frustrated Neville to the floor.
Back in and Neville goes with the classic KICK HIM IN THE HEAD style, including a missile dropkick for two. That means a chinlock and for once it’s fine to go to a replay here. The middle rope Phoenix splash misses though and TJ can speed things up to take over for the first time in a good while. A corkscrew plancha and a high crossbody give TJ two. The super hurricanrana gets the same as the fans are starting to get into this. Perkins kicks him down again but gets crotched on the top. One heck of a superplex puts TJ away at 11:34.
Rating: B-. I love Neville’s psychology here as it doesn’t make sense to have him do all the flips that are going to pop the crowd. A superplex isn’t a huge move but it looks good enough to feel devastating. I’m still digging the heck out of the character and this was the kind of victory that Neville needs: beating the top names and being just a few steps ahead of them no matter what.
Overall Rating: C+. I’m liking this show quite a bit more lately now that they’ve actually figured out a formula instead of just going all over the place with whatever they feel like doing at the moment. This was a good way to help build Neville into the monster heel who should take the title soon enough, though again I think it’s going to be Swann retaining on gut instinct alone.
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