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Live From the 205 (10/10/18): Cracks in the Armor

205 Live continues to impress. After Cedric Alexander suffered a huge loss in Melbourne last Saturday, he doesn't get to bounce back—instead, his ego is getting the better of him.

It's another lean and mean episode of the Wednesday night 205 Live, with two longer matches instead of three. They didn't waste time setting the scene for the former Cruiserweight c\Champion: Buddy Murphy is understandably not booked on this episode, taking some time off in Melbourne presumably as a reward for winning the title. Buddy's butt buddy training partner Tony Nese is already throwing shade at Cedric, so the first thing Cedric does when he gets back is challenge the mouthy Nese.

Everyone knows this is a bad idea. Cedric's likely still jetlagged from the trip from Australia, and they probably did a live event on Monday night. Cedric's only friend on the roster Mustafa Ali even warns him to not take on the match. But because Cedric is full of hubris, he goes through with it anyway.

Lo and behold: Cedric loses.

It was really, really close, and up 'til Nese scored the one-two-three on his 450 I was expecting Cedric to pull it off with some last-minute Lumbar Check heroics. I'm really glad that wasn't the case.

So if Cedric's going to take the title back somehow, starting him on a hero's journey is a much better way to go about it than immediately start steamrolling everyone in his path. For the first time in a pretty long time, perhaps since his round two exit in the Cruiserweight Classic, Cedric Alexander is starting to become compelling again.

If there's anything I can count on 205 Live to do, it's that even when it's not perfect from top to bottom, it can still be agile enough to course-correct. There are weird story beats in this episode in particular, but where it really mattered, the show came through. If you really miss some old-fashioned good wrestling in the WWE, always turn to this show.

205 Live 10/10/18 Grade: A strange yet good opening match and a solid main event make up this show. I wish there were more segments in the middle to advance other plotlines, but this is still an episode you should catch. A solid B+

Short stops

  • Okay, time to address the other elephant in the room: yes, Mike Kanellis is now officially a cruiserweight, and I can honestly buy it. If we can buy Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy—two guys who cut weight to be on this show (well, Cedric, not really sure about Buddy)—we can definitely buy Kanellis, who has been shredding ever since he got sidelined from SmackDown, as under 205. I just hope Drake Maverick runs the whole weigh-in charade as well, and he probably will, if they're going to push Mike as a cruiserweight. Seeing Maria on the show is just icing on the cake.
  • Then to the other elephant: is the show so starved of midcard faces that Lince Dorado, who is in the middle of another feud, had to answer Lio Rush's open challenge? Rush has already gone through Akira Tozawa and Noam Dar, and... that's about it. Mustafa Ali's still tangled up with Hideo Itami. It was a good match, but couldn't it have been someone from NXT for a one-off? Oh well, at least we know people aren't only relegated to their own feuds.
  • But who is Mike Kanellis feuding with exactly here? Lince Dorado? The division in general?
  • What does it also say for Ariya Daivari that Mike gets to debut on the show before he gets to come back? And after he had one teaser video?
  • Speaking of Ali and Itami, Drake has announced that their next match is Falls Count Anywhere in a couple of weeks. That's... kind of underwhelming, but it works for their style.

205 Live Rankings as of 10/11/18

This week's episode brought us a couple of big movers and shakers. The Smarkometrics Experience Xtreme can handle all this new information.
  1. Buddy Murphy (no movement) — It's been less than a week, and he's still champ. That's good.
  2. Lio Rush (#4 last week) — By default, Rush gets the #2 spot due to Cedric's loss and Rush himself never really losing his match against Lince Dorado.
  3. Drew Gulak (no movement) — Gulak has Akira Tozawa next week but you know Brian Kendrick is going to get involved in this one.
  4. Cedric Alexander (#2 last week) — Cedric's lucky there wasn't a third match on this show, because he would've fallen lower had someone else won.
  5. Tony Nese (new) — Beating a guy who was just the Cruiserweight Champion a week ago? Nese is hot stuff right now and I hope this momentum continues for him.
  6. Mike Kanellis (new) — We don't know what Mike and Maria want with 205 Live but they made quite the statement. I do hope that the next debut is a babyface, though.
  7. Lucha House Party (#6 last week) — The good news is Lince Dorado didn't technically lose. The bad news is they don't send out a new threat to TJP.
  8. Mustafa Ali (#7 last week) — Ali is at least around to stand by his homeboy Cedric.
  9. Jack Gallagher (#10 last week) — Gallagher reestablishes himself as absolutely cold-blooded by standing by Gulak and what they did to Kendrick. It may even have been a callback to the fact that he and Kendrick were originally feuding in the first place.
  10. TJP (#5 last week) — Nothing new from TJP after his triumphant mask theft last week, and I expected him to say something after he took the loss. Hope he shows up next week.
    Photo from WWE




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