205 Live – April 12, 2019: Please Don’t Go Because The Rest Of The Talent Isn’t Great
IMG Credit: WWE
205 Live
Date: April 16, 2019
Location: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Commentators: Aiden English, Nigel McGuinness, Vic Joseph
It’s a new era for the show as both Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy have been moved up to the main roster, meaning we need some new names to step up around here. In theory that should be Tony Nese, but who can come up with him? Oney Lorcan seems to be a likely candidate too, which isn’t the worst idea in the world. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Tony Nese welcomes us to the show and talks about doing the impossible at Wrestlemania. Then he did it again two nights later when he won the rematch with Buddy Murphy. It’s time to look to the future though and that means he needs a new challenger. Maybe it’s Drew Gulak, Kalisto or Akira Tozawa. Or maybe someone new that he isn’t expecting. Either way, he’ll be ready and we’ll see who steps up tonight.
Opening sequence.
Drake Maverick is on commentary.
Gran Metalik vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Mike Kanellis vs. Ariya Daivari
Before the match, the Lucha House Party greets the fans in French for a nice touch. Daivari bails straight to the floor so Metalik and Tozawa go after Kanellis instead. With Kanellis on the floor as well, the good guys trade flips until Tozawa kicks Metalik to the floor. Daivari comes back in to break up the dive but here’s Metalik with a springboard missile dropkick.
A double high crossbody sets up the Octopus on Metalik with Kanellis and Daivari making the save. The villains set up the soon to be broken alliance with Kanellis throwing out suplexes. A spinebuster puts Metalik on the floor but Tozawa is right back up to hammer on Kanellis. The Samoan Driver gives Kanellis two as Daivari pulls him out for the save. Kanellis isn’t happy so Daivari powerbombs him on the floor.
Back in and Tozawa’s spinning kick to the head gets two on Daivari, leaving us with a showdown between Metalik and Tozawa. Metalik gets sent outside so Tozawa hits a Shining Wizard on Kanellis but gets taken down by Metalik, who gets frog splashed by Daivari for the near fall. Back up and a running hurricanrana from Metalik sends Daivari to the floor, followed by Tozawa’s dive onto everyone else.
Kanellis elbows his way out of Tozawa’s German suplex attempt so Tozawa hits his hard right hand. Now the German suplex can connect but Maria blocks the top rope backsplash. They fight on top until Tozawa knocks him down, only to have the backsplash hit knees. Metalik springboards back in with an elbow to Tozawa but Daivari steals the pin at 11:11.
Rating: C. If they’re really building towards Nese vs. Daivari, they’re dumber than I thought. That’s one of the least interesting matches I can imagine and they need something a lot better than that. Daivari is better than he used to be and that song has been in my head for two days, but egads man, be more interesting.
Oney Lorcan talks about how Cedric Alexander has led 205 Live for years. Tonight, Oney is taking his spot.
Cedric says his legacy is all that remains and he wants to be remembered for everything he put into 205 Live. Oney better put in everything he has.
Oney Lorcan vs. Cedric Alexander
Feeling out process to start with Oney’s attempt at an armbar getting him tripped down to the mat. The grappling goes to Cedric with a front facelock until Oney switches over to a headlock. Back up and Alexander flips forward for the anklescissors and a trio of dropkick puts Lorcan down for the first time.
An enziguri sends Lorcan outside but the suicide dive is sidestepped for a crash into the barricade. Lorcan hits some running clotheslines in the corner and it’s off to a waistlock. That’s finally broken up and Cedric hits a dropkick to the back of the head. The springboard Downward Spiral gets two, followed by the Michinoku Driver for the same as Cedric can’t believe the kickout.
Lorcan blocks the Lumbar Check and the Neuralizer is blocked with an elbow to the back. A powerbomb into a half crab stays on Cedric’s back but he makes the rope, as heroes tend to do. Lorcan gets knocked off the top for the running flip dive but he’s fine enough to uppercut the springboard clothesline out of the air. The chop off goes to the apron with Lorcan hitting the half and half on the apron. Another one back inside finishes Alexander at 18:15.
Rating: B. They did the right thing here by having Alexander lose, even if it was a fairly predictable result. Lorcan is one of the best things about this show anymore and there’s a chance that he could be a star on the show for a good while. The show needs some fresh talent and Lorcan is as good of an option as they have.
Post match Lorcan shakes his hand and leaves so Cedric can have the big sendoff to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. 205 Live is in a hard shift at the moment and they need to do something to make up for the lack of talent. The problem is I don’t see that coming anytime soon as the show is far from the highest priority to the company. If they build up some people so be it, but the show is going to be treated the same no matter what.
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I give Triple H credit for wanting to go the route of giving fans alternatives to the WWE’s main product. The problem with 205 Live is really the same as it is with any sort of cruiserweight/junior heavyweight/light heavyweight division in pro wrestling today: it’s redundant because of how many top level talents are running around out there who are legitimately, or at least quite close, to being cruiserweights in actual weight. Over the last 5 to 15 years, we’ve had guys like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Xavier Woods, Finn Balor and several others become upper mid-card to main event level stars in WWE despite most of them legitimately weighing, at one time or another, probably in the 195 to 205 lbs. range.
In America, it’s never been overly popular to restrict pro wrestlers into weight limits. Yes, it’s done in legit combat sports but it’s just never caught on here. After all, you’ve seen guys like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho become legends as “heavyweights” despite their cruiserweight origins. For almost a decade, Finn Balor was a cornerstone of New Japan’s Junior Heavyweight division and WWE just recently signed Kushida to NXT, a guy who is also a heavily prominent junior heavyweight in Japan.
Still, maybe 205 Live is the only place for a lot of these wrestlers to be seen considering how behind the times Vince McMahon can be at times. He’s never been a particular fan of really small wrestlers, he’s alleged to have even made some pretty shitty jokes during the Attitude Era and 2000s about importing Ethiopian wrestlers to fill up the Cruiserweight Division.
I’m confused is this show developmental now? Or is it still all the small guys with the exception of Balor Bryan and anyone interesting