Don’t have the time to keep up with WWE’s colossal amount of weekly programming? Not willing to sit through Mojo Rawley really sinking in a chinlock? We’ve got you covered.
Here are the best matches from WWE’s weekly offerings beyond RAW, SmackDown, and NXT: the Top 25 for 205 Live, the Top 15 for NXT UK, and the Top 15 for Main Event.
205 LIVE
1. No DQ Match: Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 7/3/18)
The PPV trifecta (Cedric/Ali, Cedric/Buddy, Buddy/Ali) is more known and has received deserved praise, but this match and the Cruiserweight Title tournament defined a resurgence of sorts this year for 205 Live.
This was a match that made me wonder if Buddy Murphy has something on WWE management. He is the only guy on this 120-man roster that they will allow to do the wildest stuff: bumps on top of his head, suplexes off of stairs, a Spanish Fly from the barricade to the commentary table. Leave it to Ali to take advantage of Murphy’s blank check and play along to create an incredible wrestling match. These two artists got 20 minutes to do whatever they wanted and told a classic story with Ali playing underdog and doing crazy dives versus Murphy being this spectacular juggernaut of a human man.
2. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Round 1: Mustafa Ali vs. Jack Gallagher (205 Live 2/20/18)
So much complex professional wrestling goodness. Ya don’t see something like this in WWE all the time. I loved how it went from sweet hold-trading early, then moved into a shoving match, then moved into good guy getting worked over by bad guy, then moved into a match that seemed like it might end by ref stoppage. Gallagher played just a mean piece of trash heel so well and Ali is such a great likable underdog, selling and firing up like a professional and also taking some insane bumps to the floor.
3. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Round 1: Kalisto vs. Lince Dorado (205 Live 2/6/18)
SO. MUCH. FUN. It felt as close to a WCW cruiserweight match as 205 Live has gotten – not everything hit, but the stuff that did was gorgeous and the rest of the chaos was incredible to watch. That springboard reverse rana, man! It got real hectic towards the end too, like both guys really really needed the win.
4. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Round 1: Hideo Itami vs. Roderick Strong (205 Live 2/6/18)
This started a bit suspect but got so good – intense, snug work and counters that just willed the quiet crowd into This is Awesome chants. And these weren’t some bullshit This is Awesome chants – on 205 Live, you’ve got to work for those. Roddy’s selling here was tremendous and made this feel like a match he absolutely needed to win.
5. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Semi Final: Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak (205 Live 3/20/18)
One part great cruiserweight match, one part straight-up brawl between two fellas who wanted to go to WrestleMania. It had all the mesmerizing professional wrestling these two are capable of with the added bonus of a bunch of punches to the head. Gulak beats ass, Ali bumps like he’s some kind of modern day Sabu, and they throw a bunch of epic moments in there and get the most out of every single one, from Ali’s big somersault plancha to Gulak just chucking Ali around on the floor.
6. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Semi Final: Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong (205 Live 3/13/18)
This had a Dream Match feel with both guys showcasing everything they’re capable of, but it didn’t feel empty like some Dream Matches do. It had sweet hold trading and mat wrestling, big time urgency, and a couple epic moments to top it off. They did the whole “he has an answer for everything” thing so well and every big spot looked and felt spectacular. Cedric strung together so many moves here that all his flying around looked like completely legitimate offense too, like he could’ve won a bar fight with a springboard clothesline. The crowd was pretty quiet for a lot of this but there’s an insane bump Cedric takes that you can just feel everybody go “Oh, I should probably pay attention now” all at once.
7. Gran Metalik vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 12/12/18)
Buddy Murphy and Gran Metalik had a decent but disappointing match earlier in the year and here they had what was basically the PPV match – Metalik got his shit in including a crazy hurricanrana off the barricade, while Murphy again freaked people out with his insane suplex catch. They did some hot near falls near the end including a Metalik Driver kickout, and the crowd was eventually buying everything these two were selling. It felt like a BOSJ semi final or something – great stuff.
8. Kalisto w/ Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado vs. Buddy Murphy w/ Tony Nese (205 Live 8/28/18)
Such chemistry. Such insanity. Such a completely different feel from everything WWE is putting out these days. And it’s always special when these 205 Live guys actually have a crowd chanting not just This is Awesome, but 2-0-5. These two freaks just pulled out all their STUFF, highlighted by a billion wild hurricanrana variations and Buddy deadlift catching Kalisto with a vertical suplex not just once but twice.
9. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Cedric Alexander [c] vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 5/29/18)
Just two fellas tearing the house down and making a eerily quiet 205 Live crowd go, “HEY! These two are really good!” Great counters, great build to Cedric’s comeback, great strikes. Really intense and desperate finish. Plus Cedric’s mom is in the front row and she’s wearing a purple homemade Cedric Alexander t-shirt.
10. Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 4/3/18)
An excellent match that’s even more impressive because it was between two guys with no real story. It felt like a classic 2005 ROH match, just two guys going buck wild to get noticed and doing a bunch of cool junior heavyweight shit along the way. Buddy is a beast and Kalisto is an insane person.
11. Tornado Tag Team Match: Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado) w/ Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy & Tony Nese (205 Live 8/21/18)
A spectacular spot-driven match, with some insane car crash sequences that were strung together beautifully. Murphy felt like he was straight-up auditioning for Dragon Gate at points. Let these boys do this on a show people care about and we might have something.
12. Fatal 4-Way Match: Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. TJP vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 3/27/18)
Whoa! WHAT!? That was cool. Oh my – WHAT!? How? WHAT!?!?! I’VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE! This was fun: TJP’s wacky double submissions, Kalisto flying around like he wanted a last minute Mania spot, Buddy working like he wanted somebody – anybody – to notice him, and an impressively unique tower of doom-type spot towards the end.
13. Tag Team Street Fight: Brian Kendrick & Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak & Jack Gallagher (205 Live 12/19/18)
This was a wild match with less high-flying spots and more guys choking each other with wire and microphone shots to the head. Tozawa’s chucking chairs at guys heads, Gulak is getting tied up and taking chops, Gulak is rolling Tozawa in an office chair into a Gallagher boot, and we are all having a good time. There were also a lot of screams of agony and instances of guys just charging into another to save their partner.
14. Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 5/8/18)
And here’s another example of Buddy Murphy getting the silent 205 Live crowd to give a crap. Some jaw-dropping spots by Ali too – the tilt-a-whirl rope DDT and backflip to the floor are incredible. Buddy powerbombing Ali and just killing his arm dead at the finish is special stuff as well.
15. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Quarterfinals: Kalisto vs. Roderick Strong (205 Live 2/27/18)
10 minutes of greatness – Roddy takes Kalisto’s stuff like he was born to take it and they bust out a bunch of neat Power Guy vs. Lucha Guy spots, highlighted by Roddy x-plexing Kalisto onto the commentary table, which got the second ever 2-0-5 chant.
16. WWE Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Round 1: Cedric Alexander vs. Gran Metalik (205 Live 1/30/18)
A great kick-off to the Post-Enzo Cruiserweight Title Tournament, with both guys taking their time and milking their shit before they got to the craziness. And boy was it crazy. This match also features the FIRST ever 2-0-5 chant.
17. Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy (205 Live 6/5/18)
Good match, intense strikes, jaw-dropping spots. There’s some structure with Buddy working over Ali, but this was all about Buddy taking a reverse rana and apron X-Factor on his head, Ali’s tilt-a-whirl DDT to the floor, and a few other phenomenal things that popped even the tired 205 Live crowd.
18. Mustafa Ali vs. Hideo Itami (205 Live 8/7/18)
Itami threw kicks. Ali was selling. There was a powerbomb. A tornado DDT to the floor. Ali went for the 054 but basically collapsed on the buckle, and Itami followed it up with three vicious running dropkicks to KO his ass. Good wrestling.
19. Falls Count Anywhere: Mustafa Ali vs. Hideo Itami (205 Live 10/24/18)
Love these two, but they had here what was a pretty standard WWE gimmick match. There are some incredible spots like the tornado DDT off propped up steps and a 450 splash to the outside through a table, but Itami was also yelling about respect a lot.
20. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Cedric Alexander [c] vs. Drew Gulak w/ Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher (205 Live 9/19/18)
This lost me a bit at the start but it is also a match with a roll-through suplex from the ring to the floor and the skill it takes to hit that well is undeniable. Plus they used all their signature spots well and the finish was really intense.
NXT UK
1. Mark Andrews vs. Fabian Aichner (NXT UK 12/5/18)
Top shelf wrestling – Aichner is a complete wrestling freak, just this insane athlete who pulls off jaw-dropping power spots so easily he practically smiles through them. Andrews meanwhile hasn’t been paired with a guy like this on WWE TV in a while and he was ready to play. The Aichner suplex lift into a powerbomb catch countered with an Andrews rana was incredible.
2. WWE U.K. Tile: Pete Dunne [c] vs. Jordan Devlin (NXT UK 11/28/18)
A wild and crazy match between two grumpy young men who stretched and hit each other in the confinements of modern day indy wrestling insanity. There were Spanish Fly’s on the floor and reverse ranas and triangle choke counters of moonsaults, but there was also a spot where Devlin went for a standing moonsault, missed, and Dunne stepped on his hand to keep him from moving, then stomped on his hand a bunch.
3. Danny Burch vs. Sam Gradwell (NXT UK 10/31/18)
This is a strike-filled sprint before two Big Tall Boys and it is awesome.
4. WWE U.K. Title: Pete Dunne [c] vs. Danny Burch (NXT UK 11/6/18)
Everything was snug, joints were snapped, and at the end of the day it was a match based around each guys’ fingers hurting where they’d pull on each other’s fingers to transition to offense and that’s very cool. It wasn’t as high-end as I hoped considering my deep love for both, but it was very very good.
4. WWE U.K. Title: Pete Dunne [c] vs. Noam Dar (NXT UK 10/17/18)
A strong, heated Pete Dunne title defense with Noam Dar looking credible for the first time in his WWE run.
6. Tyler Bate vs. Joe Coffey (NXT UK 11/28/18)
They got some time here and kept it high energy for pretty much all of it. Bate entering the ring, throwing his dukes up, and just throwing jabs as the bell rang was an excellent way to start a wrestling match.
7. Bomber Dave Mastiff vs. “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman (NXT UK 12/5/18)
This was exactly what it needed to be, a fun big boy match brought up by Boar just bringing it. I loved him running into Mastiff like he was Bret Hart working Yokozuna.
8. NXT UK Women’s Title Tournament – Semi Final: Toni Storm vs. Jinny (NXT UK 11/21/18)
Toni Storm has been tasked with selling for most of her matches and Jinny was a willing participant here in beating some ass. There’s some nice back-and-forth towards the end too.
9. Trent Seven vs. Zack Gibson (NXT UK 11/14/18)
Trent Seven is very good at selling and then getting people into the comeback. He did that here.
10. NXT U.K. Women’s Title Tournament – Final: Toni Storm vs. Rhea Ripley (NXT UK 11/28/18)
Toni storm is over as hell until Rhea’s strategy secures her a championship.
11. Bomber Dave Mastiff vs. Damien Weir (NXT UK 11/6/18)
Bomber Dave Mastiff makes the camera shake when he enters the arena. He is also capable of a fun, efficient squash match. He did that here.
12. Saxon Huxley vs. Joseph Conners (NXT UK 11/28/18)
This was a pretty cool match where they cut the bullshit and went at it with a straightforward brawl. If it had more than a week build it might be Really Good as opposed to simply… Good. Conners barely did any chinlocks – I repeat, Conners barely did any chinlocks.
13. Eddie Dennis vs. Sid Scala (NXT UK 11/6/18)
This is a match of two fellas who know their characters and wrestle like them – Eddie the awkward gangly psychopath and Scala the baby-faced boy just happy to be here. I wish NXT UK ran more matches like this vs. the formula-fests they usually do.
14. Toni Storm vs. Dakota Kai (NXT UK 11/7/18)
These two brought it: strikes, big German suplexes, and a cool spot where Kai trailed Storm to setup a kick to the face.
15. Trent Seven w/ Tyler Bate vs. Joe Coffey w/ Wolfgang and Mark Coffey (NXT UK 12/12/18)
A match with a lot of Joe Coffey leg work but also one where they got a legitimate near fall off a superplex and – in a world filled with them – pulled off a legitimate countout tease. Trent Seven is super over so this kind of worked.
MAIN EVENT
1. Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs. The Revival (Main Event 11/7/18)
It’s kind of an indictment of Main Event hat its’ top match of the year was smoked by a random RAW tag on Christmas Eve, but here we are. This is still very good, basically a sprint version of a great Revival tag. Lots of fun tag combos and as per usual Gable is running around like a man possessed. The Shatter Machine at the end is a keeper too.
2. Breezango vs. The Revival (Main Event 5/2/18)
You stick The Revival on Main Event a lot, they’re gonna do something cool once in a while. This is just good old-fashioned tag team wrestling, a fun use of four guys being available to play instead of two – lots of ducks and dodges and double teams. They milked sunset flips, Dawson was a dick, and Breeze took a beating. Very nice.
3. Tyler Breeze vs. Mojo Rawley (Main Event 11/7/18)
A match where they went beyond the usual Main Event formula and succeeded – Mojo aggressively stayed on Breeze and Breeze kept kicking out or countering his finishes. The finish is actually a callback to earlier in the match too. Wow!
4. Zack Ryder vs. Curt Hawkins (Main Event 5/9/18)
The two bros get a hometown crowd, pre and post-match promos, and 10 minutes to play. That 10 minutes featured a Frankensteiner and them pulling off an actual Hawkins near fall too. This probably has the best Rough Ryder ever too – Ryder just kills poor Hawkins.
5. Dana Brooke w/ Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews vs. Alicia Fox (Main Event 1/10/18)
Alica Fox is incredible here, bumping and shit-talking her way through a really solid match with Dana Brooke. She also throws a sliding kick that sends Dana hurdling to the outside that is so good.
6. Mustafa Ali vs. TJP (Main Event 1/17/18)
Lightning fast matwork that popped the crowd + TJP being an aggressive little shit + really really cool finish = good wrestling.
7. Gran Metalik vs. Tony Nese (Main Event 2/21/18)
An excellent Metalik showcase, and we don’t always get that. He does a rope-walk rana here that just flips the crowd out.
8. Ember Moon vs. Ruby Riott w/ Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan (8/29/18)
This was a match that would’ve made for a fine Kickoff Match, and that’s not a knock. They played to their strengths, got the crowd into it, and didn’t really even do all that much. Seeing Ember and Riott in a straight-up match was cool too.
9. Zack Ryder vs. Mike Kanellis (8/1/18)
A match where I bet Ryder and Kanellis went up to D-Von Dudley and said, “Come on, man – let us do some stuff.” Witness two barely used guys try their hardest to have a good match on the show nobody’s watching. A missile dropkick is countered with a powerbomb and a Kanellis superkick leads to a hot near fall.
10. Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali vs. Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari (Main Event 4/4/18)
This here is a match where Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali teamed up on Main Event just a few days before they wrestled for the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania. It’s very good too – Ali is selling and popping the crowd, while Cedric does a great hot tag. Nese and Daivari make for solid opposition too.
11. Akira Tozawa & Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari (Main Event 1/10/18)
This took place during a period where Main Event would air these 205 Live matches and completely cut out any heel beatdown, which sometimes hurt the flow but sometimes eliminated the weakest part of the match and got right to what you want – babyfaces flying all over the place. With the beatdown cut this ended up a fun fast-paced version of the match these guys usually do.
12. Tyler Breeze vs. Mojo Rawley (Main Event 10/3/18)
The first half of this is the usual stuff, but towards the end Mojo went for the Pounce and Breeze countered with a sweet leg takedown into a half crab and the crowd was like, “Let’s do this” and totally got into the last few minutes. Neat!
13. Chad Gable vs. Curt Hawkins (Main Event 7/11/18)
This is a smooth, moderately energetic Main Event match done by two guys who perform wrestling maneuvers very well. Hawkins taking Gable armdrags is a good time.
14. Chad Gable, Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. The Revival & Mike Kanellis (Main Event 7/18/18)
A stupid fun 6-man tag – Gable vs. Dawson gives Alpha vs. Revival flashbacks, Rhyno does a karate kick, and Kanellis bumps like he wants someone to compliment him about it.
15. Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs. The Revival (10/24/18)
They cut The Revival beatdown but it was also the most Revival-ey match in a long time when it aired. Lots of cool complex multi-person sequences too.
