205 Live – March 19, 2019: The Problem Remains
IMG Credit: WWE
205 Live
Date: March 19, 2019
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, Aiden English
The tournament concludes tonight and we’re going to have a new Wrestlemania match set. This wee will see Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese for the right to challenge Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight Title in a match that totally won’t be on the Kickoff Show. Other than that, Mike Kanellis is running out of chances to prove himself worthy of being on the 205 Live roster. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Drake Maverick recaps the tournament before tonight’s final.
Opening sequence.
Here are the Kanellises for a chat before Mike’s (now with no hair) match. Maria says he’s the greatest wrestler in the world and better than the best. Mike is about to prove everyone wrong, including whoever his opponent is.
Mike Kanellis vs. Akira Tozawa
Tozawa is a mystery opponent. Mike grabs the arm and is immediately driven into a rope for the break. An aggressive fight over a lockup gives us a standoff as the announcers talk about whether Maria is a benefit or a problem. Tozawa misses a kick to the head so he settles for one to the chest into a backsplash for two. Back up and Kanellis nails a superkick for a delayed one, followed by a suplex into a chinlock. Tozawa slips out and hits a Shining Wizard into a missile dropkick for two. The Octopus stretch has Maria pacing and screaming but a side slam gets Mike out of trouble.
A spinebuster gives Mike two of his own and a super Samoan driver is good for the same (that’s a big move for only a near fall). Mike grabs his head and screams a lot but Maria tells him to calm down and put Tozawa in his place. Tozawa nails a spinning kick to the face and goes up but Maria offers a distraction. That’s enough for Mike to roll over and the raised knees block the top rope backsplash. Mike Rolls the Dice for the pin at 9:28.
Rating: C-. This is the kind of Mike Kanellis that could have gone somewhere years ago (though he needs a much better finisher) but it’s a little late. Maybe this is the story that could get him somewhere for the first time, though I don’t exactly have high expectations. The haircut helps a bit, but I’m really not seeing it in him more often than not.
Mike and Maria celebrate quite a bit.
Cedric Alexander says he’s confident because he punched his ticket to winning a tournament like this last year. Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy come in with Tony saying he and Cedric have won and lost against each other before. Cedric says that’s true but he’s won the title before and never had to be a sidekick to be close to the title.
Murphy doesn’t mind and talks about all the times he’s beaten Cedric, which he’ll do again at Wrestlemania. That gets a laugh from Cedric, who says there’s a chance Tony will win. What a great statement from a good guy. “Yeah well I might not win!” That’ll teach him. Nese says he knows he’ll be champion one day, with Murphy looking a little nervous.
#1 Contenders Tournament Finals: Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese
The winner faces Murphy at Wrestlemania. Nese takes him down by the arm to start and armdrags him into an armbar to keep control. Alexander can’t quite headscissor his way out as they have a lot of time here. A sunset flip gives Nese two and Alexander bails to the ropes, which you don’t see from him very often. We get a quick standoff with Nese going right back to the arm.
Back up and Alexander goes with the speed, including a flip over Nese, but a leg lariat gives Nese two more. We’re in the armbar again though this one doesn’t last as long as Alexander snaps off a dropkick. A chinlock slows Nese down a bit (you don’t hear that one too often) but he’s right back up with a trip, only to miss a Lionsault. The fans are loudly behind Cedric here (mainly because Nese is a tweener at best, and that’s a major stretch) so Nese kicks him in the head twice to calm them down.
With Cedric trying to go a bit too fast, Nese takes the knee out and Alexander is down on the floor. Back in and Nese gets two off a jumping legdrop before going to another chinlock. Cedric throws that off as well and nails a pair of dropkicks for a breather. The Neuralizer knocks Nese silly and the springboard Downward Spiral gets two. Nese blocks the Lumbar Check and a sitout pumphandle powerslam gives him two of his own.
Cedric gets caught in the ropes and a double springboard moonsault knocks him out of them for another near fall. The running knee misses in the corner and Cedric goes up, only to take a running shot to the face. Tony loads up a superplex to the floor but Alexander hits him back for a double knockdown to avoid a bad case of crashing. They both dive back in at nine and it’s a slugout with neither being able to get the better of it. Both try superkicks but get their legs intertwined for a different kind of visual.
Alexander’s second superkick connects for two and he loads up a superplex, which is broken up in a hurry. Nese sends him outside for the Fosbury Flop and it’s the 450 for….two. That one surprised me a bit. Alexander’s Spanish Fly gets two more and so does the Lumbar Check. That’s a very rare kickout as I only remember one or two people kicking out of that. A second attempt is countered and Nese knees him in the head. The running knee in the corner sends Nese to Wrestlemania at 22:21.
Rating: B+. The time helped this a lot and it was the kind of match that should have closed a tournament like this. Nese winning isn’t the most thrilling result in the world and having him as the hometown boy at Wrestlemania is only going to get him so far. It’s a very good match and Nese looked good, but there’s a reason that Nese has been in the spot he’s been in for so long. It might make sense on paper, but I’m not sure how well this is going to work in reality.
Post match Alexander is stunned but shakes Nese’s hand. Cedric leaves and Buddy Murphy comes out and hugs Nese before kneeing him in the face. Murphy poses over him to end the show.
Overall Rating: B+. They managed to nail two stories in this one show and that’s better than you usually get around here. The problem here is obvious though: Kanellis, Nese and Alexander, the three people this show focused on, aren’t very interesting. We’ve seen Nese and Alexander for a long time now and there isn’t anything about them to draw interest. Kanellis is slightly better because he has Maria and is a bit fresher, but none of them are anyone I would go out of my way to see. Murphy on the other hand comes off as a star and I really, really hope he gets to the main roster soon, as he’s more than outgrown this place.
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