205 Live – February 7, 2017: The Mary Poppins Drop
205 Live
Date: February 7, 2017
Location: Key Arena, Seattle, Washington
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Austin Aries, Corey Graves
It’s time to find out who is next to challenge King Neville, whose original challenger Rich Swann has gone down with an ankle/foot injury. Therefore tonight we’ll be having a five man elimination match to crown a new #1 contender. That has some potential and could make for a good main event so let’s get to it.
We open with a look at the five participants in tonight’s main event with each one getting to say about what you would expect them to say.
Opening sequence.
We open with some breaking news: Tony Nese is injured and out of the match so we have a qualifying match for a replacement.
Ariya Daivari vs. Mustafa Ali
The winner is added to the main event. Feeling out process to start with neither being able to hit much early on. Then again that’s something you often see in a cruiserweight match. A spinning heel kick gives Ali two and it’s time to head outside since the inside stuff wasn’t exactly thrilling. Daivari drives him hard into the barricade for an eight count before it’s off to the chinlock back inside. Ali gets planted with a spinebuster but avoids the frog splash, allowing him to grab a neckbreaker for two. A quick tornado DDT sets up the inverted 450 to give Ali the pin at 5:50.
Rating: C. This was all it needed to be and Ali going forward is interesting as he’s a face replacing a heel in the big main event. Daivari continues to be one of the least interesting characters I’ve seen in a very long time so Ali, who is only moderately more interesting, is definitely the right call.
Gran Metalik arrives next week.
Lince Dorado vs. Brian Kendrick
Before the match, Kendrick talks about how he’s the gatekeeper of the division and wants to crush dreams (now I can go with this one). That doesn’t include Akira Tozawa though because there’s potential there. Dorado starts fast and sends Kendrick outside for an Asai moonsault. Back in and Kendrick scores with a leg lariat to take over, only to get caught in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Dorado speeds things up with a high crossbody and the handspring Stunner for two. At attempt at the mask doesn’t deter Dorado but the shooting star….kind of grazes Kendrick’s knees, setting up the Captain’s Hook for the submission at 4:40.
Rating: D+. I still don’t get the appeal of Dorado aside from having a standard luchador running around. His matches aren’t bad but I’d like a little more than generic flips and dives. At least he isn’t pushed as anything special and Kendrick gets to set up some stuff going forward.
Post match Kendrick calls Tozawa out but gets Tajiri and the mist to the eyes instead.
Neville isn’t worried about any of his potential opponents. The disdain in his eyes make this speech even better.
Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Noam Dar vs. TJ Perkins
Elimination rules here and the lights flicker for a bit at the start. Dar gets surrounded early on and Cedric clotheslines him out to the floor. The other four pair off with Ali and Perkins getting the better of it. Jack runs Dar over on the outside and Cedric sunset flips Perkins for two. That leaves Dar and Cedric to slug it out in the ring with Noam getting the better of it but getting dropkicked outside by Gallagher.
Ali gets LAUNCHED over the top with a backdrop and everyone goes down. That means it’s time for William III and the Mary Poppins Drop (thank you Austin Aries) takes everyone down. Dar takes out Jack’s knee back inside but the Lumbar Check gets rid of Dar at 5:18. A snappy looking C4 gets two on Ali but Perkins catches Cedric on the top. Dar crotches Cedric for good measure and the Detonation Kick gives Perkins the elimination at 7:44.
Perkins gets caught in an electric chair from Gallagher, followed by a high crossbody from Ali for two. Ali’s neckbreaker drops Gallagher but the inverted 450 misses this time. Perkins slaps on a cross armbreaker and Ali taps at 9:43. That leaves us with Gallagher vs. Perkins for the title shot and TJ goes straight for the already injured knee.
The kneebar goes on but Jack holds on and gets all the way to the ropes for the break. Jack doesn’t need his knee for the corner headstand and one heck of a headbutt gets two. Both guys are down and it’s another headbutt into the corner dropkick (a bit of a stretch with the bad knee) to give Gallagher the pin and the title shot at 13:57.
Rating: B. This is becoming the standard for the main event on this show and that’s a good thing with a still relatively new show. Gallagher was the right call as he’s not likely to be more than just a one off challenger until the big Wrestlemania title match, whatever that’s going to be. I had a lot more fun with this than I was expecting and it did everything it needed to do.
Neville comes out for the staredown to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. We’re firmly to the point where this is one of the more entertaining shows all week as they’ve figured out the formula almost to the letter. Just have some entertaining matches and advance the big story in the end. They keep things going for about fifty minutes a week, meaning the show doesn’t overstay its welcome. That’s often how things are best in wrestling and it works very well here too. Good show, but that’s the standard anymore.
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I’m hoping the yearly cluster ladder match is for the Cruiserweight belt. There is no clear top contender, so throw a few at Neville, while getting some much needed oohs and ahhs from the crowd during the high spots these guys can do better than the heavyweights.