WWE 205 Live – February 7th, 2017

Howdy!

Tonight, we’ll determine a #1 Contender for Adrian Neville, as we’ll have a 5-Way Elimination match between Jack Gallagher, Tony Nese, TJ Perkins, Noam Dar, & Cedric Alexander!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

WWE 205 Live – 2/7/17

Video package airs to hype up our main event tonight.

We are LIVE from the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington! Your hosts are Mauro Ranallo, Austin Aries, & Corey Graves. Aries immediately tells us that last night during the melee on Raw, Tony Nese’s abs (accompanied by Tony Nese) were injured and he’s unable to medically compete tonight. But, Graves tells us, we WILL deliver our main event as promised, and the winner of our first match will fill that last spot; that match will be between Mustafa Ali & Ariya Daivari!

And it’s the music of Ariya Daivari! Once again, I must question going through Tehran to reach Minneapolis. There has to be a quicker way. And here comes Mustafa Ali! They have something really good with Ali, both with him and with his character, especially considering the current political climate. I’m sure that they’ll continue to handle it with the sensitivity that a character like this needs.

What? I’m sincere, as I’m pretty sure that Vince has forgotten this show is still on the air at this point.

Ariya Daivari vs Mustafa Ali

Handshake is accepted by Daivari. Lockup and Ali goes for a single leg that takes Daivari to the corner, we get a clean break and reset. Go-behind by Ali, Daivari reverses and grabs a standing side headlock, Ali shoots him off, Daivari with a shoulderblock to drop Mustafa. Daivari runs the ropes, Ali tries a hiptoss, clothesline attempt by Daivari is ducked into a waistlock by Ali, Ali runs him to the ropes then somersaults backwards when Ariya grabs the top. Nifty. Ali comes off the ropes and snaps off a ‘rana. Kick by Daivari is caught by Ali, spinning heel kick by Ali! That gets two as Daivari rolls out to the floor. Ali goes after him through the ropes, but Daivari avoids it and drives him to the barricade with his shoulder. Neckbreaker by Daivari on the floor to Ali! Daivari rolls in and looks for the countout, but Ali beats it back in at nine, so Ariya stomps away. Snapmare by Daivari, then a diving forearm to the back of Ali. 1, 2, no! And we hit the chinlock. Ali fights up, Daivari comes off the ropes and goes behind Ali, reverse DDT by Daivari! 1, 2, NO! Ariya shoves Ali off the ropes and hits a forearm to the back, does it again, but takes too long and Ali fights back. Forearms and chops by Ali, he comes off the ropes, spinebuster by Daivari! Ariya puts Ali in position and goes up, frog splash misses! “No water in the pool!” sayeth Mauro, and that call makes me smile every time he does it.

Ali catches Daivari charging in with a shoulder, then flips over the top of him and runs the ropes, clothesline by Ali! Elbow by Ali! He sends Daivari to the corner, reversed by Ariya, Daivari charges, Ali moves to the apron and Daivari eats the post. Kick to the face from Mustafa, Ali somersaults in with a neckbreaker! 1, 2, NO! Daivari drops to all fours on the mat to trip a charging Ali into the middle buckle, hammerlock by Daivari into a short-arm clothesline! Somewhere, Kazuchika Okada is saying “hmmmmm….”. That gets two. Daivari tries to put Ali on the top rope, Ali flips out of that and leaps off the second buckle into a tornado DDT! He drags Daivari to the corner, inverted 450 splash! 1, 2, 3. (Mustafa Ali over Ariya Daivari, pinfall, 5:51)

WORTH WATCHING? – It was okay, but nowhere near what these guys can actually do, at least in the case of Ali. There was almost zero question of who was going over here, as Daivari is just dead in the water after the Gallagher feud. I’d say NO, this one was on the side of mediocre you don’t want to be on. Daivari dominated a lot of the match, which was kind of a surprise to me as Ali is clearly the guy you want to be pushing. I was less than impressed by the pacing of the match relative to the time it got, but that inverted 450 is an AMAZEBALLS finisher and still freaks me out every time I watch it, plus the crowd gets into it and that makes him stand out where its sorely needed. Ali has all the tools and should be the next big thing to come out of this division, although that would probably mean we need a first big thing, but still. I like his work a lot and would like to see him get a bit of a shove.

Post-match, Ali celebrates as we see that Ali has joined the other 4 guys on the graphic, as he’s in the main event.

Video package for Gran Metalik, who debuts next week!

Ad for Elimination Chamber on Sunday.

WWE celebrates Black History Month – here’s a quote from Jackie Robinson! We’re progressive!

And we’re back to the music of Lince Dorado! The Golden Lynx makes his way to the ring as Mauro tells us that Dorado thinks rather highly of his ability to hit the Shooting Star Press. “I’m a man with a plan!” That can only mean one thing, and that is that we’re about to be joined by his opponent, one “The” Brian Kendrick! He makes his way out with a mic in hand. “I am THE Brian Kendrick, and I am the Gatekeeper here at 205 Live!” What does that mean? Well, it means that when they send in the clowns, it’s Kendrick who’s there to snuff out their dreams! Young upstarts, legends like Tajiri – every single time, Kendrick is there to snuff out their dreams! There is one exception, though – Akira Tozawa! He sees potential in that young lad, so he hopes that Akira is watching in the back, because if he is, The Brian Kendrick might be willing to take him under his wing and Tozawa can become his protege! Oh boy!

“The” Brian Kendrick vs Lince Dorado

Handshake is accepted. Dorado flips around a bunch to start, so Kendrick tries to kick him in the face. Heh. Doesn’t work, though, and Lince gets the waistlock. Snapmare attempt by Kendrick, Lince flips all the way through and lands on his feet. Dorado off the ropes and he drops Kendrick on his FACE with a headscissors – that looked kind of awkward, that did. Brian rolls out for a quick breather, Dorado leaps to the apron, avoids a sweep attempt by Kendrick and kicks him in the side of the head. Dorado off the second rope, GORGEOUS moonsault by Dorado. We’re talking beautiful layout, everything. Back in now, and Dorado goes up, leaps over a charging Kendrick and rolls through, but turns around and charges right into a back heel kick by Kendrick. That gets two for Brian. Kendrick with forearms to the back of Dorado, cross-corner whip and a biiiigggg back body drop by Brian. That gets one.

Kendrick sets up in the corner and charges Dorado, but runs right into a back elbow from Lince. Dorado with palm strikes now, he runs into an elbow from Kendrick off the ropes, ducks a clothesline from Brian and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Brian! Kendrick musters up another charge, but eats a boot from Lince, and Dorado follows that up with a ‘rana, then an overhead suplex on Brian. Dorado charges and gets alley-ooped to the apron, then sends Kendrick’s head to the buckle and hits a kick before going up, high crossbody by Dorado! Kendrick rolls through for the pin, 1, 2, NO! Lince goes for a suplex, but Kendrick gets out of that and they go to the ropes, Dorado shrugs Kendrick off, they run the ropes, Dorado with a handspring into a Stunner! 1, 2, NO! MAN, people have been kicking out of that move lately, I gotta say. Dorado goes up now, but Kendrick catches him up there, Dorado shoves him off, Shooting Star Press by Lince, Kendrick got the knees up! 1, 2, NO! Dorado catches Kendrick with a quick crucifix, but Kendrick kicks out at 2 and applies the Captain’s Hook to get a (very fast) tapout. (“The” Brian Kendrick over Lince Dorado, submission, 4:37)

WORTH WATCHING? – I’m not sure that anything involving Kendrick is worth watching these days. He looks out of place against a lot of these guys. I really enjoyed him during the CWC, but I’m not getting much from him on this show. NO, I’d skip this as well. Less than 5 minutes of Dorado basically showing off, then having to tap out in about 5 seconds with his feet practically under the bottom rope isn’t my idea of a good match. I do think there’s something in Dorado, but him doing jobs to Kendrick where he gets to show off for a brief minute aren’t going to do it. If you want to put Dorado over, do that. Don’t give him the symbolic victory bullshit.

Post-match, we see some replays before Aries gets in the ring with a mic to interview Brian. Aries is here with an exclusive one on one, post-match interview with Brian Kendrick! They exchange pleasantries before agreeing that the honor of being in the ring with Austin is the most important thing, as Aries asks Kendrick what made him flip-flop his opinion on a guy like Akira, considering how much Kendrick hates all the other new guys? Well, Kendrick says, most of the new guys are just riff-raff, undeserving of the opportunities they’ve been given, but Tozawa is somebody special – they’ve formed a bond in the last week! Hey, why should Kendrick speak for him – Akira, why not come on out? Music plays, but it’s not the music of Tozawa – that’s the music of Tajiri! Kendrick anxiously looks towards the entranceway as Tajiri…..is right behind Kendrick! Brian realizes it and turns around; he eats a face full of mist for his trouble! Crowd chants for “ECW!” as Kendrick screams in agony as I scream in joy. Tajiri’s back!! Woo-hoo!

Tomorrow night on NXT, it’s Bobby Roode’s GLORIOUS championship celebration!

Talking Smack is up next! Daniel Bryan is back along with Renee Young, and they’ll welcome Baron Corbin, John Cena, & Nikki Bella.

We’re in the back with Neville! What does he think about the main event tonight? “Let’s be clear. That’s what this is about. An opportunity to stand across the ring from the king!” But make no bones about it, that’s all this is – an opportunity. A fleeting moment to stand before him before the bell rings, until you realize that you’re out of your depth. He proceeds to run down the 5 men in the main event before saying that whoever wins, they’ll stand before him as an inferior, and they’ll be forced to bend a knee and pay respect to the King of the cruiserweights.

They seemed to have dropped the whole “America hates me” thing with Neville for right now, and I’m A-OK with that. “I hate all of you and I’m the best” is more than enough and he’s killing it just doing that.

And that’s the music of Jack Gallagher! He’s out with William the Umbrella, and he’s followed by Noam Dar, who makes his way to the ring sans Aliiiicaaa Fooooxxxxxx. Cedric Alexander is out next, and Mustafa Ali follows him, which leaves us TJ Perkins to bring up the rear. This could be pretty good.

TJ Perkins vs Cedric Alexander vs Mustafa Ali vs Noam Dar vs Jack Gallagher (w/ William) – #1 Contender’s Fatal 5-Way Elimination match

Dar decides that the best way to begin is to go from person to person to tell them how much they suck, and that goes about as well as you might expect, with the other 4 ping-ponging him with rights before Cedric sends him to the floor, and now we’re off. Gallagher and Alexander in one corner, Perkins and Ali in the other. TJ sends Ali cross-corner, Alexander tosses him in the air and Ali comes down with a dropkick to send Gallagher to the floor. Perkins sends Alexander to the corner, Alexander reverses, Perkins over the top as Cedric charges, Ali grabs Perkins for a belly-to-back, TJ flips out of that, Ali catches a charging Cedric with a right, then turns and charges into a boot from TJ. Ali and TJ hit an assisted tilt-a-whirl ‘rana on Cedric that probably sounded better on paper than it looked, sending Alexander to the floor. TJ with a spinning back kick to Ali now, but he gets tripped coming off the ropes by Dar, who in turn eats a running European uppercut from Gallagher. Basement dropkick by Ali sends Jack back down to the floor, TJ and Ali do a sequence that ends with TJ getting a waistlock on Ali, who runs them into the ropes, where Cedric comes back in with a sunset flip over the top on TJ for two.

Alexander follows with a headscissors takeover and dropkick on TJP, and now Dar is back in and they exchange right hands. Spinning back kick by Cedric, he goes for a handstand and Dar kicks him off that. That gets two, and Jack sneaks back in the ring and rolls up Dar for two. Off the ropes, shoulderblock by Dar puts Jack down, but Jack catches Dar with his legs off the ropes and takes Noam over, sending him to the floor. Ali charges now, so Gallagher backdrops him over the top rope and sends him into the other 3 guys on the floor (well, really only one of them, but the other two are kind enough to take a bump like an Oregon basketball player and hit the ground), and now Jack goes and gets his umbrella. Sigh. He opens up the umbrella and goes to the top rope, he jumps onto all 4 guys from the top to the floor! Alright, FINE. It was funny. Too much of that shit and it’s trouble, but once in awhile, okay.

Jack tosses Dar back in now and rolls him up for two. Dar reverses a wristlock and kicks Jack in the shins to break, then stomps away. He pauses to pose for the crowd, and that’s more than enough time for Cedric to come back in the ring and hit the LUMBAR CHECK~!, which puts Dar away. Cedric Alexander eliminates Noam Dar. Ali back in now, Cedric catches a kick and looks for another Lumbar Check, but Ali escapes that with chops, Ali charges, standing Spanish Fly by Alexander! 1, 2, NO! Perkins comes in and tries to catch Cedric, but Alexander rolls through for two. Alexander off the ropes on the handspring, roundhouse kick by Cedric to the head of TJP! Cedric with a shoulder to the gut of TJ in the corner, Alexander to the apron, jumping kick to TJ, Down the Line kick to Gallagher! Cedric Alexander is EN FUEGO! Alexander goes up, but TJ is back up and he meets him at the top, Alexander sends him crashing back with a headbutt, Cedric perched on top, Noam Dar is back and he crotches Cedric on the top rope! The refs escort Dar to the back, but the damage has been done as TJ grabs Cedric off the top and hits the Detonation Kick for the pin. TJ Perkins eliminates Cedric Alexander. Bummer.

Jack back in now, but he runs into an elbow from TJ, Perkins goes up and ends up in the electric chair position on Jack’s shoulders, Ali runs to the top, high crossbody onto TJ off the shoulders of Gallagher! 1, 2, NO! I think I might have given Ali that one. Ali with a clothesline on Jack, then a European uppercut in the corner. Cross-corner whip is reversed by Jack, but Ali goes to the apron on a charge from Jack and kicks him in the face, Ali somersaults in with the neckbreaker! Ali goes up now, inverted 450 MISSES! Perkins catches Ali with a cross-armbreaker now, and Ali has nowhere to go but tap city. Good showing by Mr. Ali tonight; I think they might actually realize they’ve got something with him. TJ Perkins eliminates Mustafa Ali.

And then there were two. Crowd chants for Jack as TJ starts us off with a running elbow to the corner on Gallagher, TJ off the ropes and he runs right into a headbutt from Jack! Jack off the ropes, TJ dropkicks the leg of Gallagher to send him crashing to the mat. Perkins follows that with a kick to the back of Jack’s leg, as we’re focusing on the leg of Gallagher that Dar went after earlier. Another kick to the back of the leg by TJ. Perkins goes for another kick, Jack catches the leg, Perkins flips over and wraps Gallagher up in the kneebar! Jack rolls for the ropes and makes it. More kicks to the leg from TJ, as Jack’s knee is damn near destroyed. A third kick and Jack collapses. He manages to get to his feet enough to hit a headbutt to send TJ to the corner, Perkins attempts to send him to the apron but Jack is ready and does a headstand on the second rope. He leaps off over TJ, but the leg is gone and he stumbles right into the Detonation Kick by TJP, but hits the ropes off that and fires a huge headbutt when he bounces back towards TJ! 1, 2, NO! Both guys slowly get back to their feet, nose to nose. TJ goes for the Detonation Kick again, Jack elbows out, headbutt sends TJ to the corner! Gallagher backs up, runs across the ring and hits the corner dropkick (OH PLEASE) to eliminate TJ and win the match. Fuck you, 205 Live. (Jack Gallagher over TJ Perkins, Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, & Mustafa Ali, pinfall, 13:56)

WORTH WATCHING? – This was really good most of the way through, but that ending left a sour taste in my mouth. So the narrative of the end of the match seemed to be that Perkins was exploiting the kick to the shin from Dar earlier in the match; okay, fine. So TJ just beats the HOLY FUCK out of the leg, including the following sequence: dropkick the leg, kick the leg, kick the leg, kneebar the leg, kick the leg, kick the leg, kick the leg, Jack jumps off the top and lands on his leg to hurt it again, then he ignores everything and just wins the match. That was all in less than four minutes of match time. And Gallagher’s finisher is him running across the ring and, not only that, hitting a dropkick which ostensibly would use the wounded knee to propel with force. I mean, look – I’ll buy that the babyface gets fired up and ignores the pain to a certain extent to win a match, but it has to make sense within the narrative they present. For example, had Jack just caught TJ with a headbutt out of nowhere and fallen on top for the pin, that would have been just fine. It would have fit the story. Had Jack shown off how cunning he is, one of his actual character traits, and won with a different move not using the leg to showcase his wrestling ability and acumen, that would have been just fine. Instead, they wanted to make Jack superman, which is not who he is nor the character that he’s portrayed. I disagree strongly with the choices that were made for the finish of this one.

The rest of the match was pretty fun, with Cedric getting a nifty segment in the middle to show off; I really thought he was going to win this, as I figured that Gallagher was the guy to take it off Neville in the end; that may end up being Tozawa, I suppose. Everyone was fired up and did good work, and Ali also got to last until the Final 3 and look good along the way, which was a good thing. I’m going to go with a YES on this one, because the first 10 minutes were really aces, but man, that ending.

Post-match, Jack celebrates as we watch some replays, and there’s the music of Neville! He makes his way out to the top of the ramp and has a staredown with Jack, and we’re done for the week on 205 Live.

FINAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Forgettable most of the way through with a decent main event that did a lot right and, in my opinion, one thing very wrong, the show at least had a decent purpose in giving Mustafa Ali some time to shine along with showcasing Cedric Alexander as well. The middle stuff with Kendrick and Tajiri is nothing, but the main is worth a look.

As always, thanks for reading this thing I wrote,

Rick Poehling
@MrSoze on Twitter