205 Live – August 14, 2020: Take A Look At Greatness

IMG Credit: WWE

205 Live
Date: August 14, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Drew Gulak

The show was starting to come together but then they brought back Ariya Daivari and my soul was stabbed all over again. For the life of me I still don’t get why he is treated as such a big deal around here but he is going to be around here no matter what until the end of time. Hopefully the other stuff on here works a bit better. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Legado del Fantasma vs. Ever Rise

Santos Escobar is here with Legado and this is the result of an open challenge from Ever Rise. Raul Mendoza and Matt Martel start things off with Martel cranking on the arm. It’s quickly off to Chase Parker to continue the arm pulling but Joaquin Wilde tags himself in for a quick DDT. The chinlock is on in a hurry and Martel starts what sounds like a DEFENSE chant.

Mendoza takes him down into a chinlock and pulls Parker down to cut off a comeback attempt. Parker fights up and shoves him into the corner though, allowing the hot tag off to Martel. Everything breaks down and Mendoza gets a blind tag to snap Martel’s throat across the top. The Russian legsweep/kick to the face finishes Martel at 5:49.

Rating: C-. Not terrible here but Ever Rise suddenly being faces isn’t going to make them any more interesting. If it means we don’t have to hear them talk any more, it’s at least an improvement though. Legado racking up wins is a good idea, as you need Escobar’s lackeys to be strong. Just try to find anything more interesting for Ever Rise. It can’t be that hard.

We look back at Ariya Daivari’s amazing, incredible, earth shattering return last week.

Ariya Daivari vs. Jake Atlas

Daivari hides in the ropes to start (although in a very exciting way of course). Atlas grabs a headlock takeover and Daivari can’t get out immediately, giving us a rather fascinating display of flailing limbs (only he could make that work). Vic talks about Daivari being a 205 Live original, which must be a compliment and not an indictment against him for not being able to get anywhere other than the lowest show in the company for almost four years.

Daivari gets in a neckbreaker over the middle rope and hammers away in the corner. We hit the armbar (and a THRILLING one at that) on Atlas, followed by a forearm to cut him down again. Atlas fights up anyway and it’s a German suplex into an enziguri for two. Daivari’s hammerlock lariat misses and Atlas knees him in the face. The Blockbuster connects but Daivari bails to the floor.

That means a suicide dive but Daivari gets in a cheap shot and unhooks the turnbuckle pad (cheating is acceptable when you’re that fascinating). The referee doesn’t allow it (pest getting in the way of greatness) so Daivari pokes Atlas in the eye and hits a hammerlock lariat (real wrestlers can win a match with a clothesline) for the pin at 9:21.

Rating: D+. More of the same that we’ve always seen from Daivari, without the one good looking move that he has in the Persian splash. I’ve ranted about Daivari enough over his time here and while that doesn’t make it any easier, it does make me wonder who in the world he has blackmail on. You would think there was SOMEONE else in WWE to push over him but apparently this is as good as we can get. We’re just that lucky I guess.

Overall Rating: D+. This was the flat show that I’ve been expecting over the last few weeks as there is no reason to believe that this show’s warm streak is ever going to continue. They either don’t know how to make it work long term or they would rather just go with the bare bones stuff that they do here. Nothing to see here, with the focus being on making Daivari a thing. Again. After it worked so well all those other times.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

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