{"id":26228,"date":"2018-09-19T17:03:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T21:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=26228"},"modified":"2018-09-19T17:03:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T21:03:54","slug":"the-story-so-far-205-live-9-19-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/09\/19\/the-story-so-far-205-live-9-19-18\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story So Far: 205 Live (9\/19\/18)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>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\u2019re headed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gran Metalik vs. Buddy Murphy: WWE 205 Live, Sept. 11, 2018\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DlLErAVWQu4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Buddy Murphy<\/strong> has been one of the highlights of <em><strong>205 Live<\/strong><\/em> this year. Since he came up in February from NXT, he has put on some of the best matches on the brand. His most recent wins came against <strong>Kalisto<\/strong> and <strong>Gran Metalik<\/strong>, both good bouts, as he and <strong>Tony Nese<\/strong> have been in an unnecessarily elongated feud with <strong>Lucha House Party<\/strong> (which still has no blow off in sight). He\u2019s been kept strong, with Nese eating up the pins when their side loses. This was all done to position him as a real contender when he challenges <strong>Cedric Alexander<\/strong> for the Cruiserweight Championship in Murphy\u2019s hometown of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia for <em><strong>Super Show-Down<\/strong><\/em> on October 6th. Yes, Murphy was picked merely because he\u2019s Australian, but that doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t also deserve it. He\u2019s been very consistent in the ring, although his promos could use some work. It\u2019s been somewhat of an odd build for their title match, because Alexander has been preoccupied with <strong>Drew Gulak<\/strong>, whom Alexander defeated on the <em><strong>SummerSlam<\/strong><\/em> Kick-Off Show. Gulak, however, has been pestering Alexander since, and after submitting <strong>Akira Tozawa<\/strong> in a tag match, <em>205 Live<\/em> General Manager <strong>Drake Maverick\u00a0<\/strong>finally granted Gulak a rematch, set for this week. While some have suggested that Alexander will lose to Gulak this week, so that Murphy, who will obviously be the babyface in Melbourne, will have a heel to play off of. But Alexander\u2019s title reign has been kept strong all summer, and there hasn\u2019t been nearly enough build for either a loss to Gulak this week, or a loss to Murphy in Melbourne to make sense.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak collide for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kyFuZ6Jmcdo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However, this is the WWE. Plans change all the time. Something that they were planning for months could have changed yesterday, and in this company the build isn\u2019t always the best indicator of what\u2019s to come. This brand\u2019s saving grace is that generally the lack of continuity on the main roster is kept at bay for <em>205 Live<\/em> because <strong>Triple H<\/strong> is seemingly left to his own devices, and he has booked a solidly consistent show for almost the entirety of his regime. But with Australia being a market apparently targeted for growth, <strong>Vince McMahon<\/strong> could step in and cause a Murphy win despite the build. While I don\u2019t think we will see a title change in the coming weeks, there is a better chance of Murphy winning it in Australia than Gulak this week. Ultimately, the long vision still looks to be <strong>Mustafa Ali<\/strong>. He lost to Cedric Alexander for the Cruiserweight Championship on the <strong>WrestleMania<\/strong> Kickoff Show earlier this year, and they\u2019re telling a year-long story of redemption for Ali. So for the time being, Alexander will remain champion, to help build that blow off next April. I do not think he\u2019ll be champion the entire year, I believe that he\u2019ll drop it at some point and regain it a few weeks later, but right now <strong>Lio Rush<\/strong> is a safer bet for that transitional reign than Gulak or Murphy. Ali is recently returned from his kayfabe injury, and is chasing around Hideo Itami, to whom he lost due to his injury a few weeks ago. Look for a rematch between them in the coming weeks, with an Ali win. Likewise, Lio Rush is embroiled in a feud with the Scottish Supernova <strong>Noam Dar<\/strong>, and this week the two have their first of what is sure to be a string of matches. Rush is still undefeated in <em>205 Live<\/em>, so it\u2019s unclear if he\u2019ll drop his first loss in this feud or if he\u2019ll sweep Dar, but either way Rush is sure to win the feud, to continue to develop him into a top heel, if not THE top heel, of the brand.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cedric Alexander &amp; Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak &amp; Jack Gallagher: WWE 205 Live, Sept. 11, 2018\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pTZd5zHUR7Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This week will open with the aforementioned Rush versus Dar match, and will no doubt be concluded by Alexander versus Gulak for the Cruiserweight Championship. Typically, each episode of <em>205<\/em> Live has three matches: a match to further a non-title feud, a jobber match, and a match to promote the title picture, in that order. This week, they may cut the jobber match to give the championship match more time, which Alexander and Gulak are both good enough to use that time wisely in building a terrific match. Jack Gallagher has been Gulak\u2019s right hand man for months now, so expect him to get involved somehow, but in the end, Cedric Alexander will retain and will begin to look ahead to Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019re [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":26305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[316,2,3],"tags":[299,1703,69],"class_list":["post-26228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-205live","category-featured","category-wwe-universe","tag-205-live","tag-buddy-murphy","tag-cedric-alexander"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}