205 LIVE
One of the more interesting things in WWE’s 2017 was the existence of 205 Live. Debuting in late-November 2016, 205 Live was to be a weekly showcase for the dozens of impressive competitors weighing 205 pounds and under that WWE had brought in for their Cruiserweight Classic tournament over the summer. Excitement and skepticism were both in the air as the show debuted. WWE had done so well with the Cruiserweight Classic and the talent roster was impressive, with more to come. But, also – WWE was doing it. And WWE can be weird.
Problems with 205 Live quickly became apparent – most notably, that it was taped and aired live after SmackDown in front of a typically deflated crowd filled with WWE casual fans who weren’t that into these guys, and that it featured less cool crazy high-flying cruiserweight action and more Main Event/Superstars-level “work a hold, kid” type of matches.
205 Live did have some awesome talent, including Neville who had a career-defining year, Austin Aries who made the first quarter of 2017 his own, Drew Gulak who has somehow ascended to one of WWE’s most entertaining weekly characters, and Mustafa Ali and Akira Tozawa who crushed it even when given trash to work with.
But 205 Live also had goofy and forced stories, little heat, a weak roster of heels, and too many formula singles matches. It almost immediately became less “Cool! A show with all cruiserweights!” and more “WTF is NXT Redemption doing back on the air?”
Despite all this, quite a few in-ring gems appeared on this show. And my top 25 from 2017 of those are listed below.
1. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (205 Live 3/28/17)
In the months following his debut, Tozawa was the most fun guy to watch in wrestling. He developed a ton of signature moves in his early squashes, and starts this out by just BOOTING KENDRICK IN THE FACE and hitting all of them with a ton of intensity. After he does that this match becomes a gritty war, with Kendrick desperately trying to apply the Captain’s Hook and both guys just fighting and fighting for control – elbowing, slapping, whatever they can do. Tozawa hits a pump kick towards the end here that’s worth $9.99 by itself.
2. Mustafa Ali vs. Neville (205 Live 3/21/17)
This has so much good stuff to it, even if it’s got a little feel of that 205 Live apathy. The early stuff wasn’t your usual hold-trading and wristlocking but worked around Neville being cocky and Ali being all fired up ready to prove himself. Then they take it to another level with big bumps by both guys and some glorious high spots. Neville’s King of the Cruiserweights run was SO good – crisp, intense, making his opponents look great, and little subtle things that make me like him all the more. Check out his massive bump on Ali’s tilt-a-whirl DDT, or him aggressively shaking his fingers to make sure he wasn’t paralyzed after Ali’s springboard Spanish Fly. Ali was a mad man here too, great stuff.
3. 2/3 Falls: Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak (205 Live 7/18/17)
A really great match, though a common theme with many of these matches is it was hindered a bit by the heat vacuum that is 205 Live. Regardless, this has some massive bumps by Mustafa Ali, tons of great spots from both guys, and I liked how it really did feel like a contrasting styles type of match, with Ali doing things like a big somersault plancha and Gulak doing things like grabbing a cravate and just throwing Ali into the turnbuckle.
4. Cedric Alexander vs. Neville (205 Live 1/24/17)
These two will have an epic match one day. This was not it, but it was a great god damn tease. Good stuff from start-to-finish… trying to out-wrestle each other early, and Neville working on his (at the time) new bad guy persona where he’s confident early on, annoyed when he loses control, and seething when he gets it back. The finish here is hot stuff, with a possible screw-up actually adding to how good it is.
5. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Neville [c] vs. Akira Tozawa w/ Titus O’Neil (205 Live 8/22/17)
My favorite of the slightly underwhelming Neville/Tozawa series. This had all the cool stuff a cruiserweight match has but was also based in reality – lots of selling, Tozawa his shoulder and Neville the absolute disgust that he has to be in here wrestling this guy right now. Neville works Tozawa’s shoulder for a lot of this and one way he does it is by MOONSAULTING TO THE OUTSIDE DIRECTLY ONTO IT.
6. WWE Cruiserweight Title #1 Contender Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match: TJ Perkins vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Noam Dar (205 Live 2/7/17)
Hot crowd, crazy fast pace, sweet spots, big near falls… one of the first 205 Live matches that actually felt like a great cruiserweight match, and the rare multi-man Elimination Match where each fall didn’t seem sudden.
7. Street Fight: Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (205 Live 5/23/17)
One of my favorite things about WWE in 2017 was Tozawa and Kendrick having this epic in-ring feud in front of crowds that at first don’t really care, and by the end of the match really really care. This was their fourth and final match of their feud and was an awesome closer. Kendrick always ups his game when working with Tozawa, you know the puro mark in him is having a ball doing these snug matches matches based on two guys at different stages in their career who want to out-man each other. I think my favorite spot here was Kendrick covering Tozawa’s mouth with tape and putting on the Captain’s Hook. Wild stuff.
8. Cedric Alexander w/ Alicia Fox vs. Noam Dar (205 Live 1/10/17)
This is like 15 minutes and it isn’t the most exciting match in the world but everything is all sweaty and hurty and physical and both guys’ sell their exhaustion really well and I liked it a lot. It also has Cedric going after Dar’s LIPS at one point, which is just the best.
9. Lince Dorado vs. Neville (205 Live 7/4/17)
Amazing Neville squash… he just methodically kicks Lince’s ass as he stares down the guy he’s feuding with (Tozawa) outside, like a new age British Kawada. Lince throws in a few neat moves before Neville powerbombs his ass and stretches him to death. Effective professional wrestling is the best professional wrestling.
10. Mustafa Ali vs. Noam Dar (205 Live 1/3/17)
Just such a solid match, one of many awesome performances by Mustafa Ali that nobody really cared about. It feels like they have to really work for every hold early which is something missing from WWE TV, and Dar had finally started bringing the skeezy fuck act to his ring work here and it delivers. Dar works the arm while Ali sells his ass off and gets in a couple awesome spots, including the astonishing reverse 450.
11. I Quit Match: Cedric Alexander vs. Noam Dar w/ Alicia Fox (205 Live 7/11/17)
Crap feud, crap presentation, awesome match. This is completely fascinating to watch, as for all intents and purposes it’s a completely awesome brutal epic I Quit Match in front of an audience that did not give one single shit. I mean these two just go AT IT and have a really solid, gritty match to deafening silence. It was like a lost Empty Arena Match. Amazing.
12. Gran Metalik (debut) vs. Drew Gulak (205 Live 2/14/17)
A pitch perfect TV match and fine example of what Gran Metalik (and Gulak) brings to the table. Metalik had the one flub early but chopped and flew his way back into the crowd’s hearts and they were going nuts for him by the end, chanting “yes we can” in Spanish and flipping out for the big dives. Gulak dropkicking Metalik right at the start was great stuff too.
13. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (205 Live 5/9/17)
Another great Tozawa/Kendrick match. An observation that came to mind here is that this is Regal vs. Finlay with more flying. Big shots, beautiful counters. Tremendous.
14. Gran Metalik vs. Drew Gulak (205 Live 10/24/17)
Here’s a guy who has an arsenal of beautiful moves doing those beautiful moves on a guy who takes beautiful moves so effortlessly and awesomely. The Metalik Driver setup countered with a Dragon sleeper is SOOOOO NICE.
15. Rich Swann vs. Oney Lorcan (205 Live 4/4/17)
In Which Oney Lorcan Appeared on 205 Live. Oney Lorcan is one of my favorite people to watch wrestle. He just fucks people up. Here he fucked Swann up, and then Swanny got a run, and I enjoyed all of this.
16. Cedric Alexander & Gran Metalik vs. Tony Nese & Drew Gulak (205 Live 8/15/17)
Another wonderful random Gran Metalik match that’s well worth watching. The guy is a freak while Gulak is awesome taking all his stuff. Plus, Cedric gets in some cool stuff too.
17. Cedric Alexander & Rich Swann vs. Noam Dar & Tony Nese (205 Live 10/24/17)
Stuck in all the 205 Live apathy, you forget why Cedric and Swann got signed by WWE in the first place. This is a great showcase for their (brief) tag team – both guys are so effortless in their movements, with Cedric bringing the hits and Swann bringing the dives.
18. WWE Cruiserweight Title #1 Contender Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match: Austin Aries vs. TJ Perkins vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Tony Nese (205 Live 3/14/17)
This was a solid if not somewhat uninteresting 5-way Elimination Match – it had good action and neat exchanges, but never really felt like it peaked. Lots of little highlights here though… Aries vs. TJ, Tozawa’s bullet tope, Aries’ bump from the top to the floor, Nese driving Aries through the barricade, and Aries’ sell of the Bully choke.
19. WWE Cruiserweight Title #1 Contender Fatal 4-Way Match: Austin Aries vs. TJ Perkins vs. Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali (205 Live 4/4/17)
This was like an ROH Four Corner Survival, a match I dug while it lasted even if it kind of runs together with a lot of other similar matches. Non-stop fun stuff here though.
20. Rich Swann vs. Neville (205 Live 6/20/17)
Neville is a cock, while Swann wrestles like its’ the match of his life. It’s good. This one felt weirdly realistic for a match that had a moonsault in it.
21. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (205 Live 4/4/17)
A strong follow-up to their epic the week before, with Tozawa continuing to look like one of the best guys in the world. Great strikes, charisma, shit for the crowd to chant… awesome performance by this guy.
22. Rich Swann & Cedric Alexander vs. Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher (205 Live 11/14/17)
This is a match that had me very conflicted. On one hand, it was them trying to have an epic heated brawl when there is zero heat to this feud. But it just kept going and ended up feeling like a straight-up fight. And by the time it’s over it felt like everybody had just been through a war.
23. Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs. TJ Perkins (205 Live 4/11/17)
A really well-worked match that I just wasn’t wrapped up in for the full 15 minutes. Jack does a great job selling the leg here.
24. Rich Swann vs. Johnny Ocean (205 Live 4/11/17)
Johnny Ocean is a jobber who is loud, has charisma, and got chants against him – WHAT A WRESTLER. A silly fun match, with one-half of 3.0 getting squashed on WWE TV and being awesome doing it.
25. Akira Tozawa (debut) vs. Aaron Solow (205 Live 1/31/17)
A perfect debut for Akira Tozawa, who hit and struck his way into the crowd’s heart and busted out a bunch of impressive spots including his bullet tope and a snap German.
MAIN EVENT
There were quite a few solid matches you may have missed if you weren’t keeping up with WWE’s Main Event, though I would not blame you for not keeping up with WWE’s Main Event. On the contrary, I’d commend you.
Most of these barely made Honorable Mentions for the Top 25 WWE Matches of the Month on this very website. But, there’s some OK stuff if you’re into that kind of thing, and the top 10 are legitimately worth checking out.
I track all Main Event Matches Worth Watching HERE.
1. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. The Revival (Main Event 6/28/17)
This was a legitimately great match that people would be talking about if it opened a pay-per-view. Gallows & Anderson (especially Gallows) play big time babyfaces, while The Revival work like they never left. It felt very WCW syndication, just a good solid match with everyone playing their roles, heels bumping big, a lot of fun little moments (mostly from Dawson), and Gallows clearing the ring at one point like he’s Road Warrior Hawk or something.
2. Sin Cara vs. Rusev w/ Lana (Main Event 2/8/17)
Here are two guys who are never pushed but always deliver when they’re in any position to. This is fun big guy/small guy stuff milked for all it’s worth. It follows the basic formula but they do enough unique stuff to make it stand out, including a sweet spot where Rusev catches a Cara tope and slams his face to the floor.
3. Dana Brooke vs. Nia Jax (Main Event 5/17/17)
You read that right. This is way better than it had any right to be. Hot crowd, Dana being sympathetic, some sweet cut-offs by Nia Jax. Jax blocking Dana’s handspring elbow by just pushing her was the best. Nia Jax and Dana Brooke are no Cutie Suzuki or Bison Kimura, but this is the match that proves something magical is happening in that Performance Center.
4. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Drew Gulak & Tony Nese (Main Event (4/12/17)
This is so good! Drew and Metalik just tear it up here, with some of the most mind-blowing wrestling I’ve seen in WWE in a while. Metalik & Lince make for a fun team and Drew & Nese take and react to all of it like champs. Plus, Drew catches Metalik at one point and just powerbombs his ass into the barricade.
5. Mustafa Ali, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari (Main Event 3/29/17)
This is just 5-minutes long but they packed in a lot – Metalik has a fun run on Nese, Ali takes some big bumps, and they wrap it up real nice. A pretty match.
6. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari (Main Event 4/19/17)
Another one from Metalik – seeing him doing all his wild shit on WWE TV is a treat. There is a great spot here with Metalik trying to reverse somersault into something, Nese lifting him with a powerslam, and Metalik reversing with a tornado DDT, leading to a hot tag.
7. Cedric Alexander vs. Brian Kendrick (Main Event 6/28/17)
A snug-ass match between Cedric and Kendrick, with Kendrick laying his beatdown in until Cedric just cracks him with an elbow and goes on a run.
8. Kalisto vs. Scott Dawson w/ Dash Wilder (Main Event 7/5/17)
Stocky old school guy vs. athletic Lucha guy is a classic wrestling thing. This is the Scott Dawson Show – pulling the apron for assistance, tearing at Kalisto’s mask so he can trap his arm and drop a knee, reacting to everything. Kalisto meanwhile makes for a fun spectacle around it.
9. Lince Dorado vs. Brian Kendrick (Main Event 1/25/17)
Cool flying by Lince + Kendrick playing a classic base for it all = neat! Lince was a damn magician here – baseball slide to a rana on the outside, big quebrada on the inside, a sweet quick rana to a running Kendrick, the handspring stunner for a nice near fall. Kendrick, meanwhile, looks like a pro – slowing it down when it made sense, catching everything well, and doing a neat spot where he trapped Lince’s foot in the steel under the apron and hit a baseball slide. Cool finish too.
10. Rhyno vs. Kalisto (Main Event 6/21/17)
Rhyno vs. Kalisto is the kind of thing this list is made for. These two get thrown out there cold good guy vs. good guy and instead of Rhyno heeling it up he decides to be an absolute goofball and it is incredible. He WOOOO’s, he yells I’M THE MAN! He does the LU-CHA! LU-CHA! thing! He does a god damn truck horn taunt and yells “RHYNO FOREVER!” Plus he takes a flying headscissors and a frankensteiner and puts Kalisto over clean. So unique, and so beyond the typical Main Event trash. God bless Rhyno.
11. Sin Cara vs. Bo Dallas (Main Event 2/1/17)
Admitedly, it’s possible I have gotten by Sin Cara vs. Bo Dallas matches messed up, and that’s OK. Life is short. Regardless, this is a gem – it goes like 5 minutes but they pack a lot in – big armdrags from Cara, big kneedrops from Bo, a rope-assisted neckbreaker, tope, springboard elbow, springboard moonsault, that weird deadlift fireman’s carry thing Sin Cara does, and a Swanton Bomb to finish it off. Even Bo’s chinlocks felt like highspots. This is a good wrestling match.
12. Kalisto vs. Elias (Main Event 8/9/17)
Here is a match that wouldn’t have been out of place in Jim Crockett Promotions… a basic tall mean heel working an arm, the undersized babyface flipping around and ultimately falling. A fine enough match.
13. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Tony Nese & Drew Gulak (Main Event 4/26/17)
Another good one from these fellas – they have a formula and it works: flying, beatdown, hot tag, more high flying. There were dueling moonsaults on the floor here!! It also has Gulak laughing out loud and turning around into a kick to the face.
14. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak (Main Event 4/5/17)
A match between the two great hopes of 205 Live at this time before 205 Live had no hope yet. Tozawa was just a blast to watch during the spring, a breath of fresh air with a ton of awesome signature spots, including the best tope in wrestling. Gulak meanwhile was coming into his own as a subtle piece of shit who is fun to watch get beat up.
15. Gran Metalik vs. TJP (Main Event 5/24/17)
The Cruiserweight Classic finals rematch taking place around eight months after the CWC, and ending up #15 on best MAIN EVENT matches this year really tells you everything you need to know about WWE’s cruiserweight experiment. This is absolutely nothing you need to go out of your way to see but it’s still pretty good. Some of the early stuff was SO blistering fast and beautiful that ya don’t have time to realize none of it makes sense, which is really ideal cruiserweight professional wrestling. It’s real formula, but it’s also real fast-paced. It’s fine.
16. Lince Dorado vs. Drew Gulak (Main Event 5/3/17)
Gulak taking Lince’s spots is a thing of beauty – Lince looks like a star, while Gulak reacts to it all like a total goof – cackling, smirking, swinging wildly. Lince does a moonsault towards the end and Gulak puts booth boots up and it is SWEET.
17. Kalisto vs. Tony Nese (Main Event 12/27/17)
Kalisto and Tony Nese decide to go balls out on Christmas Day and it’s a pretty good time.
18. Kalisto vs. Apollo Crews (Main Event 7/26/17)
Kalisto and Crews have good chemistry, though they really needed Titus O’Neil shouting on the outside like their epic on the Extreme Rules Kickoff to put this one over the top. This was like a couple of buddies doing themselves some flying-based wrestling sequences and it was all good fun but I don’t think it moved anybody one way or another.
19. Mickie James vs. Emma (Main Event 8/2/17)
This is alright because these are two god damn professionals. But then somebody fucked the finish as Emma dropped Mickie into the middle turnbuckle kind of lightly and then she pinned her and just won. It was weird. Weird stuff in wrestling is fun though.
20. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Brian Kendrick & Drew Gulak (Main Event 8/2/17)
This was a fine little tag match in the strange over-controlled environment that is WWE Main Event. Metalik continues to be of the only guys on the WWE roster that hits moves that just have me flipping out.
21. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado vs. Drew Gulak & Tony Nese (Main Event 9/27/17)
A fun tag, just not as high-end as the others. Metalik does his amazing shtick, Nese catches a Dorado springboard crossbody, Doardo hits what I think was supposed to be a springboard Shooting Star Press but ended up a springboard senton. Tony Nese points to his abs, or something.
22. Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews w/ Dana Brooke vs. The Revival (Main Event 12/27/17)
It’s like one of ten Revival tags this year. Love it.
23. Gran Metalik vs. Brian Kendrick (Main Event 11/22/17)
A solid match that I wanted to be so much more. Metalik does a sweet arm-hook sunset flip and they get a sweet near fall off an elbow drop, so there’s that.
24. Akira Tozawa vs. Brian Kendrick (Main Event 12/6/17)
Definitely their weakest match this year, though it’s handicapped as it’s far removed from their feud and on MAin Event. These two still have good chemistry though and always bring the good credible wrestling. Everything feels like a struggle, Tozawa’s big spots connect, and Kendrick plays the skinny jerk keeping him down.
25. Sin Cara vs. Bo Dallas (Main Event 2/22/17)
A short match with two guys trying their asses off. This has got Sin Cara flying around and dropping a Swanton off the apron and Bo Dallas being aggressive as all hell. The crowd got into it!
