205 Live – December 5, 2018: Get Out The New Camera Angles
IMG Credit: WWE
205 Live
Date: December 5, 2018
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, Percy Watson
Last week saw Cedric Alexander pin Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy in a tag match, which should set him up as the next challenger to the title. With a pay per view coming up, the timing couldn’t be much better. As for tonight, we have the Lucha House Party vs. Mike Kanellis and TJP in a Texas Tornado match. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Drake Maverick previews the show, which works very well every week.
Opening sequence.
Drew Gulak vs. Brian Kendrick
Jack Gallagher and Akira Tozawa are at ringside. The empty seats are AWFUL this week with far more red seats than people visible, meaning we start with the lower camera angles. Nice idea, but it just shows how bad the problem is around the arena. Gulak takes him to the mat to start but can’t get him anywhere. More grappling gives us a stalemate so Gulak nails him with a clothesline to take over.
A modified half crab (with Gulak pulling back on the foot instead of wrapping his arm around) starts in on Kendrick’s knee and Gulak takes him down by the leg for good measure. Kendrick tries a full nelson of all things, followed by a tiger suplex of all things for two. That just earns him a powerbomb into a regular half crab as Gulak’s logical moveset continues. It’s off to a headlock as Gulak moves towards the neck for a change.
With that not being as weakened, Kendrick fights up so it’s another leg hold to cut him down again. A front facelock keeps Kendrick in trouble but he flips out into the Captain’s Hook. That means a crawl over to the ropes for the break so Kendrick goes with a dragon suplex for two instead. A quick trip to the floor goes nowhere but Gallagher sends Tozawa into the post for a distraction. The rollup gives Gulak two and Sliced Bread #2 gives Kendrick the same as Gallagher comes in for the DQ at 8:49.
Rating: C. Technically fine but I still have no reason to care about what these people do. The feud has been going on for weeks now and it seems like they’re in about the same places they were before. That’s the case with the opening match around here most of the time, but it doesn’t make things any more interesting.
Gallagher and Gulak destroy Tozawa and Kendrick post match.
We look back at last week’s tag team main event.
Maverick sits down with Buddy Murphy, who isn’t worried about facing Cedric Alexander in a rubber match. Murphy cuts him off and says he’s glad to face Alexander one more time. Besides, Mustafa Ali is the tougher opponent. That sounds manipulative to me.
Ariya Daivari vs. Clay Roberts
Daivari is in street clothes and is all aggressive to start with stomps in the corner. A kick to the head has Roberts in more trouble as Hideo Itami is watching from the back. The hard standing clothesline gets two and a hammerlock lariat is good for the same, with Daivari pulling him up both times. Three more clotheslines knock Roberts silly and the referee stops it at 1:48 before Daivari can do it again. Good idea, but it’s still Ariya Daivari hitting a bunch of clotheslines. Maybe it gets better, but they’re facing an uphill climb.
Itami seems pleased.
Mustafa Ali is down after losing but he’s getting back up, which is the harder part. He’s rooting for Cedric, but he’s coming for the title no matter who has it.
Alexander isn’t letting Murphy get into his head and wants his title back.
Noam Dar wants Buddy Murphy too and the title doesn’t even need to be on the line.
Lucha House Party vs. TJP/Mike Kanellis
Tornado tag with Kalisto and Lince Dorado for the Party, without Gran Metalik around. Maria is around though and that’s a good thing. During his entrance, Kalisto puts a hat on a young girl’s head and she looks LIVID in a funny bit. TJP gets sent outside to start and Kalisto’s splash off Dorado’s shoulders (after a little balancing) connects with Mike. Both villains are put on the floor so Dorado can hit a dive off the post to take them both out. Kalisto pulls a noisemaker out of a Christmas sack before grabbing a tornado DDT for two on TJP.
Mike gets in a spinebuster on Dorado on the floor but Kalisto kicks him in the face. That’s a little too much offense though and Maria grabs the pinata and threatens to destroy it. The distraught Kalisto gets taken down and Mike gets in a good shot. TJP kicks the pinata away and hits his half of a double clothesline on Dorado. Now it’s time to pull out a spare mask and hammer away a bit more, followed by an elbow drop for two. Yeah he covered off an elbow drop and was surprised as the kickout. I don’t get it either.
Kalisto gets a bit too close to getting back in so Mike knocks him into the barricade. Dorado is back with a double Golden Rewind, followed by Kalisto with a springboard high crossbody to TJP. The hurricanrana driver is countered into an STF and it’s time to go for Kalisto’s mask. As TJP goes for the eye, we see a replay of Mike hitting a Russian legsweep off the apron on Dorado. You don’t see WWE cameras missing things like that very often. With the mask not working, it’s time for the kneebar on Kalisto, who eventually makes the ropes. TJP gets caught up top and Kalisto’s knee is fine enough to superkick an invading Mike.
A top rope hurricanrana sends TJP into Mike and Dorado is back in to help things out. Another superkick to Mike sets up the Super Crazy triple moonsaults for another near fall. The masked guys yell at each other a lot and it’s time to bring in the Christmas bag, which is full of mini pinatas. Dorado has to fight out of a bunch of suplexes onto the pinatas and it’s time to fight over who gets tossed from the corner onto them.
A double superplex finally puts TJP onto them but Mike makes a very fast save. TJP powerbombs Kalisto for two more and now he wants the BIG pinata. Maria and Kalisto get in a fight over the thing until he throws it at her, knocking him off the apron and onto Mike. The springboard Salida Del Sol into the shooting star press finishes TJP at 14:17.
Rating: C+. At first I wasn’t really feeling this one as it was all kinds of carnage and insanity….and then I realized that was the point. It’s called a Texas Tornado match for a reason and the match was fun as a result. This was an entertaining match with all four guys getting involved, plus Maria as a bonus. I could go for fewer pinatas next time, but at least what we got was entertaining with the right ending.
We get a preview of next week’s matches.
Tony Nese is ready to finish Cedric for good next week.
Overall Rating: C. The main event helped but this was a show that didn’t exactly showcase some of the more entertaining wrestlers on the roster. It helps that we’ll be getting Ali, Murphy and Alexander in the next few weeks though and that’s a great sign for the show going forward. This wasn’t a bad show or anything, but it didn’t have quite the pop that it needed.
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