‘WWE 205 Live’ Review (June 26th 2018)
Here is the WWE 205 Live review for Tuesday June 26th 2018:
Match #1: Akira Tozawa beat Tony Nese
The whole idea here was that two great wrestlers with egos to match tried to show-up each other. Nese was in power for most of the match, with a torture rack as an early high-light from the former TNA Wrestling X-Divison competitor. It’s remarkable to see how well Nese was booked and promoted by Gabe Saplonsky in EVOLVE, yet in Vince McMahon’s WWE, Nese may as well be a shallow breath. Tozawa has been great since arriving in the WWE, but has been allowed to be as badly promoted as Tajiri or Funaki were. How can a guy who pulls off a Running Rana or Shining Wizard in a span of just a few minutes, all while appearing as aggressive and confident as Tozawa does, not get more of a push into the main event? Is Vince really that put out by a short wrestler, that he can’t see the value of a fierce fighter kicking the life out of, say, Braun Strowman? I’ll tell you this, people like Strowman, who is getting better, need the kind of challenge of wrestling much better, more tenured wrestlers like Nese and Tozawa. How can either competitor from this bout be set to succeed in any part of the card if they are being kept in what could be called “the holding pattern”? I like having the cruiserweight division, but we keep seeing that the members of this roster are just trading the spots in an imaginary ranking system, instead of gaining traction for the hard work they put in, like with this match. I mean, we’ve got a match here that features Gut-Busters, German Suplexes, Missile Drop-Kicks and the like and such. I don’t even know if their promoter even intends on any-thing happening for their careers outside of being randomly asked to do this match again in a month because they’ve already run out of pairings? Boy, have I gone out on a limb describing this thing. Just keep in mind when watching this, that as good as these guys are here, Nese and Tozawa have no guarantee beyond their wildest dreams that their boss even cares about all of the effort these guys just put into this fight. Before I blow my lid, let me just say that Tozawa hit a Senton off the top turnbuckle for the win. In any other promotion, that would lead to a hell of a lot more than what they are getting now.
Match #2: Lio Rush beat Dewey James
For a match that was meant to be the debut of one of wrestling’s great aerialists, Rush sure did a lot of stalling. As a match, this wasn’t much, but it did show-case his arsenal of kicks, as well as his fantastic variation of the Frog Splash, called the Final Hour. Rush had a lot of charisma here and will do very well on 205 Live.
Match #3: Main Event – Drew Gulak, Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher defeated The Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado) – Tag Team Elimination Match
This match was notable for giving Gulak the rub, which is not some-thing Vince normally does for a wrestler that isn’t a cartoon character. In a match filled with numerous dives from the luchador trio, it was the feud between Gulak and Kalisto that was the heart of the fight. The action was, largely, the typical WWE main event offense that is fun at the time, but quickly forgotten. There were more Drop-Kicks here than you could count (actually, you could). It’s a shame that Kendrick is not doing more, not just here, but in the entire company, as he’s got a tremendous mind and a wealth of knowledge on how to do moves properly. Like I said earlier, Strowman needs new people to wrestle that have more knowledge than he does and Kendrick is a great candidate for that. Then again, why can’t people like Kendrick get a real crack at a Strowman, instead of just being fed into him? I’m still of the mind that Vince would love to feed the entire Cruiserweight division to his monthly monster fetish, whether it be Strowman or Reigns or who-ever else, just so said giant could look good for a minute. I can’t forget about Gallagher, who was one of the few wrestlers to actually benefit from Vince McMahon booking 205 Live. Gallagher deserves so much more than being second to any-one, but that is the hard part about being in a division that hasn’t quite figured out the formula yet. As far as wrestling goes, the story of the night was Gulak’s Gu-Lock submission finisher getting a push of its own tonight, by submitting not one, but two fighters. Kalisto, Gulak’s final opponent after all others were eliminated, has struggled to match the relevancy of the man his new gimmick is modeled after, that being Rey Mysterio, but his performance tonight was yet another reminder that he can be that good, if he’s allowed to be. Gulak and Kalisto are a good pair and I hope they will get to continue their feud, because a luchador versus and anti-aerialist is too enticing to ignore for long.
News of the Night:
- A Cedric Alexander/ Hideo Itami feud is being teased for the WWE Cruiserweight Title. The two had a shoving match and all that stuff so, by WWE standards, must fight each other. A nice detail about this feud is that Cedric asked for Itami as a challenger, so at least there will be some respect booked to happen, at some point any-way.
- Mustafa Ali will fight Buddy Murphy next week, in a No Disqualification Match.
Please don’t forget to come back here this Friday night to read the first WWE Week in Review column, where we’ll look at the best and worst of the WWE’s matches, angles, promos and etc. We’ll also name the five best matches of the week, as well as any major pieces of news about the WWE to come out.
I’m Nathan Favel and I’ll see you soon.