By Mark Worral@Hoohoowozza
This week’s 205 Live emanates from the Capital as London plays host as the WWE continue with their UK Tour! The UK is very prevalent too as tonight’s show introduces us to some of the new signings of British talent that the WWE has secured as they continue to panic with the recent World of Sport television tapings taking place in Norwich!
General Manager Drake Maverick opens up the show with an introduction and illustrates the two matches that will be taking place on the show that features very heavily with talent from the UK division as well as 205 Live roster stars. We are then ‘treated’ to a rundown of the five UK division roster members making an appearance on 205 Live with a somewhat description, albeit small of each wrestler. We are informed that Joseph Connors has a missing left ear and reached the quarter final of the first UK tournament back in 2017. James Drake exited that very tournament in the opening round, but is one half of the Progress tag champs! (Fortunate that he is a champion in Progress I guess!) Flash Morgan Webster hurt his shoulder and ankle in the UK tourney qualifiers! Tyler Bate was the first ever UK champion! Oh, and Kenny Williams! (ICW connection!)
FATAL 4-WAY MATCH
KALISTO v TJP v KENNY WILLIAMS V TYLER BATE
Before the match begins Tyler Bate cuts a promo promising to put on a show for the UK audience as well as finding some payback against TJP for his cheating in his defeat against the aforementioned in their Cruiserweight tournament match earlier in the year! In fact it is the rivalry between Bate and TJP that is the focus of the match, and to be fair both of them performed excellently in front of a somewhat lacklustre crowd that were, when heard clearly behind the 21 year old from Dudley. Bate was definitely back in WWE’s good books here and put in a solid performance although Kalisto attempted to put this one away immediately rolling up the former UK champ from the off. TJP did not really want any part of Bate pulling him out of the ring as he tussled with Kalisto, securing a pendulum style Boston crab which Kalisto found an escape. Kalisto himself would fly into the arms of Kenny Williams, who struggled to begin with and looked extremely awkward catching a leaping Kalisto! However, Williams would find his feet as the commentary team really tried hard to
hype up the young Scotsman. Bate finding his feet finally had a chance to unleash on TJP as he felt his world spinning with Bates patterned aeroplane spin as he used TJP has a weapon to keep the other opponents at bay. Although TJP was great, and that showed locking all three in a trifecta submission hold. It would be Bate securing the win, and favour, as TJP took the three count as he succumbed to the Tyler Driver. Good opener with Bate and TJP shining with TJP looking like his previous best, this would be an excellent rivalry to continue with as there is some really good chemistry between the two.
A segment highlighting Buddy Murphy airs next as we see the recent attack from the Australian on the Cruiserweight champion Cedric Alexander. Murphy goes on to explain his actions citing that he has been in the WWE for five years and is a former NXT tag team champion! Take that away and he has done nothing. He continues to say that everyone as luxury handed to them, he has not and they have not gone what he has gone through and he is in 205 Live to make a statement! It is also announced that Buddy Murphy will have his shot at the title against Cedric Alexander on 205 Live in two weeks time.
SIX MAN TAG MATCH
CEDRIC ALEXANDER/MUSTAFA ALI/FLASH MORGAN WEBSTER v JAMES DRAKE/JOSEPH CONNORS/DREW GULAK
Before the match begins both teams cut a promo with Flash Morgan Webster declaring to Cedric and Mustafa that he has arrived and 205 Live just got a touch of flash. However the opposing team had Drew Gulak conducting a team building exercise stating that his team were some of the best mat technicians in the business! I found myself wondering if Gulak even knew who he was teaming up with!!!
This match struggled not only for me but for the crowd too. Although I have to pay credit to Webster who worked tirelessly to impress, even bleeding for the cause which saw the official reaching for his gloves! Gulaks team were all over the place, so Gulak called for a spot of team building which seem to work for a while as his team took some control working on a bloody Morgan Webster who managed to scramble a tag to Ali, who seems to be the main focus of 205 Live of late, regardless of him not being the champion! While he unleashed this seemed to open up the match with all six getting involved, however, and although Gulak would catch a flying Alexander and put him into an ankle lock, Alexander would once again find Ali with a tag and surprisingly Gulak would fall victim to the 054 as Ali picked up the win. Gulak was a class above his teammates and it showed, and even though Connors seemed to have found a taste of crimson also, he did not show much! Flash took his opportunity and made it his own and he worked excellently throughout, hopefully enabling him another spot on a WWE show.
If anything this episode of 205 Live was a lot better than the previous show from the UK back in November when Enzo basically crucified any British talent appearing in the ring that night. Also interesting to note that both matches found 205 Live talent taking the fall and not the UK guys. Maybe the WWE finally got it right and kept the hometown boys strong!
Enjoyable show with Bate and TJP really shining and Morgan Webster giving a great performance, although having watched the show I could not help but feel that the main 205 Live roster members, apart from Bate and Webster were slightly a cut above technically than their British counterparts!
