The Story So Far: 205 Live is a weekly column that catches you up on the previous weeks of 205 Live and its storytelling, so if you miss a week (or what to just jump into the show for the first time), you have a summary of where the storylines are at and where they’re headed.
Last week’s 205 Live once again saw terrific wrestling, as the brand builds on three growing feuds. The opening match between Tony Nese and Gran Metalik was able to get the crowd into it, and rally showed off some beautiful high spots, despite a sloppy spot or two. The feud between the Lucha House Party and Nese & Buddy Murphy, while creating some great matches, is in desperate need of a blow off. The Tornado Tag Team match from a few weeks ago sure felt like it, but we got a roll up finish that lead to a Murphy versus Kalisto match. I understand that was important for Murphy to get a win before being announced as challenging for the Cruiserweight title in his hometown of Melbourne at Super Show-Down, which is great and logical, but last week we got another match up, and this week yet another with Murphy versus Metalik. Honestly, I’m so pumped for this match that I don’t care that this feud has over stayed its welcome. But between now and Super Show-Down they need to pull the trigger on some kind of 2 out of 3 Falls or No DQ match to finally end this. It’s not that the feud needs to end this week, but we definitely need to have an end in sight soon.
The title scene is clustered as well. At first I was a big fan of having two challengers chase the champion Cedric Alexander. It seemed like a cool way to layer the storytelling, and convey that Alexander has a lot of pressure as champion. But Alexander doesn’t seem concerned at all with Murphy, even though his title match is the one being promoted, and has all his attention focused on Drew Gulak, whom he defeated on the SummerSlam Kick-Off Show, once again via roll-up to continue the feud. Gulak has since been harassing Alexander, so all the Alexander stuff is revolving around Gulak. While I’m not a fan of Murphy being ignored by the champion he’s challenging, we’ll see if this plays into a title change at Super Show-Down. Perhaps if they want to change the belt in Melbourne, the story will be that Alexander has been overlooking him from the get go, and that’s why Murphy was able to get the better of him. That would make sense, but at least have Alexander say SOMETHING about his challenger in the build. All of this is obviously building to a rematch with Gulak, and whether that match will be a Triple Threat with Murphy, or before or after Super Show-Down is yet to be seen. One of the best things about 205 Live has been the logical booking, and while they haven’t flown off the rails, there are still areas that need tightened up in terms of sensical storytelling, so that this show doesn’t lose one of the most charming things about it.
Recent returnee Noam Dar scored another win over a jobber tonight (CLASH Champion and Michigan indie wrestler James Alexander), this time with Lio Rush looking on, as those two continue to build to their match. I really like the use of job matches in this show. Sometimes, a guy just needs a win. Dar is coming off of winning a feud against TJP, and Rush off of beating Akira Tozawa twice. Look to Rush to ultimately win this feud, even if he drops of the matches along. They’re building Rush as a top challenger for Alexander’s title down the road, once he’s done with Gulak and Murphy. I really believe that even if Alexander drops the belt to Murphy in Melbourne, its only a blip in his reign, and he’ll win it back shortly, as the real match they’re building to is Cedric Alexander versus Mustafa Ali at WrestleMania next year for the Cruiserweight crown. Ali, who has a bone to pick with Hideo Itami, has been on and off with a storyline injury, and was informed by 205 Live GM Drake Maverick that he won’t be wrestling until Maverick is certain his health is up to par. I totally disagree with this decision. I understand this is meant to build sympathy and rapport as a person that works so hard, even overcoming injuries. But Ali gets over best by wrestling. He has a better chance of getting people on his while in the ring, doing cool moves, and winning matches, not being on sixty second segments. Time will tell if his time away derails him or heats him up, but sadly I think it’s leaning towards the former.
This week, we’ll see Metalik take on Murphy, which has a chance to be one of the best matches of the week in all of WWE programming, and a main event of Alexander and Akira Tozawa versus Gulak and Jack Gallagher. Tozawa defeated Gallagher two weeks ago, and Gallagher has been a crony for Gulak for months now. We’ll see if Gulak other henchman, The Brian Kendrick, can manage to stay uninvolved in the contest. If Gulak gets a pin or (more likely) a submission here—especially if its on Alexander—look for a title match between the two in the coming weeks.
