205 Live – January 10, 2017: I Need To Quit Forgetting To Post These

205 Live
Date: January 10, 2017
Location: Raising Cane’s River Center Arena, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves, Austin Aries

With less than three weeks before the Royal Rumble, it’s pretty clear that we’re getting Neville vs. Rich Swann for the title at the pay per view. All we’re waiting on now is the official announcement and there’s a good chance that it’s going to be set up here. We’ve also got the ongoing issues of Cedric Alexander vs. Noam Dar over Alicia Fox. Let’s get to it.

The opening recap looks at Dar vs. Alexander with Cedric coming this close to blaming Fox for his losses and Dar being all creepy as he tries to steal her.

Opening sequence.

Cedric Alexander vs. Noam Dar

It’s amazing how much good a story can help out a match like this. Well that and Alicia Fox being on camera too. Before the match, Dar says the kiss from Alicia last night didn’t deter him and he’ll have her soon enough. Feeling out process to start with both guys being a bit tentative until Cedric just punches him in the jaw.

Noam isn’t sure what to do so they head outside with Cedric firing off some chops. An elbow to the face makes Alicia very happy but Dar is smart enough to kick Alexander in the chest while he tries a Tajiri handspring. Dar works on the arm due to all the strikes he’s had to deal with so far. A cross arm choke keeps Cedric in trouble before Noam splashes the arm.

We hit another armbar for a bit until a hard elbow drops Dar. Cedric tries to go up but springboards into a Fujiwara armbar (on the wrong arm but nice try). The arm is crushed under the steps until Alicia gets in Dar’s way, allowing Cedric to hit one heck of a baseball slide. Now the springboard clothesline works a bit better and Cedric kicks him in the face for good measure. Alexander goes up top for a moonsault but Fox pulls Dar out of the way. As Alicia looks very confused, Dar knees Cedric in the face for the pin at 12:35.

Rating: B-. Well that was odd but in a good way. They’ve gotten me to the point where I want to see what’s going to happen with the story and I really didn’t expect that. Fox could be awesome as the woman who switches sides by turning on Alexander but I’m not sure if that’s where they’re going. That makes the story just a bit better, which is a surprising touch.

Fox slaps Dar and leaves with Cedric as she still looks confused.

Akira Tozawa is coming soon. That’s a good thing.

Brian Kendrick vs. Sean Maluta

Kendrick is annoyed at Tajiri for spraying the mist last week and promises to take it out on Maluta. Sean actually grabs some rollups for two and a basement dropkick puts Kendrick on the floor to set up a flip dive. Back in and Maluta is sent into the buckle so Kendrick can grab a cobra clutch. That doesn’t last long and Maluta gets in a reverse DDT but misses Rolling Thunder. A gordbuster and Shining Wizard give Maluta two more but his frog splash (because it’s always a frog splash, 450 or shooting star) hits knees. The Captain’s Hook makes Maluta tap at 4:43.

Rating: C+. Maluta continues to be someone with a lot of potential which hopefully he’ll get to build on someday. The idea of Kendrick being all cocky and almost losing because of it was the right call. Then again the idea of Kendrick in general tends to completely deflate me as he’s just not that interesting but such is life in WWE.

Alexander yells at Fox and breaks up with her. Fox gets all whiny and freaks out because no one breaks up with her. This is some combination of bad and amazing but I’m not sure which is better.

Here’s Jack Gallagher for his parley with Ariya Daivari. Gallagher lays down his umbrella (named William) and offers Daivari some tea or biscuits but Daivari wants to get to the point. Jack thinks his honor has been besmirched and asks for negotiations to begin. Daivari thinks Gallagher wants to surrender because people like Jack are always going to lose. Gallagher: “Pardon?”

Apparently Gallagher is fine with these negotiations not being peaceful so they agree to an I Forfeit match to wrap up their feud once and for all. Daivari signs but throws William, meaning the jacket comes off. Gallagher: “I hope the Queen isn’t watching.” The brawl is on until the referees come out to break it up.

Rich Swann vs. Tony Nese

Non-title. They start fast for a change with Swann flipping over Nese and dropkicking him out to the floor. Nese shows some intelligence by dropping Swann ribs first across the barricade to take over. A bodyscissors sets up a gutbuster for two and Nese squeezes the ribs again. Rich gets up and pops him in the face a few times before a hurricanrana gets two. Nese sticks to the game plan though with a legsweep and stomp to the ribs. Swann grabs a tiger bomb for two and the spinning kick to the head ends Nese at 7:32.

Rating: C. Swann needed a clean win like this and that’s a good sign going into the title match against Neville, which is all but guaranteed at this point. Nese is a good choice for a dragon to be slayed and that’s what we got here. It’s still not a good sign for his title reign when Neville is this hot as a heel but it’s been nice while it lasted.

Post match Neville comes out to challenge Swann, who insults Neville’s ears in response. Neville says he’s not getting in the ring with Swann unless it’s a Cruiserweight Title shot. Swann is fine with that and says name the time and place. That would be the Royal Rumble so Swann says it’s on to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. The important thing about this show is the idea of actually setting something up for the future. It’s not just a bunch of random matches anymore as they’re advancing stories and making things a little more interesting than the old six man tags that dominated the early episodes. I’m not dreading the show anymore and I’m starting to look forward to seeing where some of this stuff goes, which is a very positive sign.

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