TV Review: WWE 205 Live #6 - TJ Perkins v Neville 2

On 3rd January, WWE aired the first 205 Live episode of 2017, highlighted by "The King of the Cruiserweights" Neville taking on former Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins. The episode also featured Tajiri, Noam Dar, Jack Gallagher, Tony Nese and Mustafa Ali, but would that be enough to kick-start the brand's year? 

Neville continued to be featured prominently this week, defeating TJ Perkins to give him his 4th win in a row since returning at Roadblock: End of the Line. This was a very watchable outing, with the roles of each clearly defined, with Perkins attempting to use his speed, whilst Neville wrestled smart, taking his time and using his savvy to take control at numerous points throughout, whilst also always having his eye on hitting his new superplex finish. The two paced the action well across the twelve minutes, knowing when to turn up the heat and placing the more impressive spots (eg. Perkins' springboard Frankensteiner) at the right points to drive the contest forward. I would have liked to see more of the pair duking it out with strikes and reversals, like was when The Fil-Am Flash went for the TJP Clutch and got caught with a tasty German suplex, as the pair have the potential to produce something special in this style. The finish was handled well with Perkins selling a leaping enziguiri as if he'd been knocked out, leading up to a superplex where it seemed like Neville was having to heave a deadweight up and over, having clearly already earned the win. As enjoyable as this match was, it must be noted the pair could be having matches above this level together if given the right opportunity, making it a shame that WWE has already given them two bouts together, therefore devaluing any potential future clashes.

The shows only other notable match was Mustafa Ali pinning Noam Dar in a strong match that managed to grab the initial indifferent crowd. Both men deserve heavy praise for managing to win over the Jacksonville audience, having the confidence to weather the early storm and build something that was both engaging and exciting by the time of the final bell. Whilst it won't be in the discuss for Match of the Year, or even Match of the Month, being able to connect with audience through wrestling, especially one that seems to have decided it isn't interested, is a skill that should see both Dar and Ali well in their WWE runs. The contest was fairly simple in it's execution with The Scottish Supernova working a no-nonsense style early doors, focusing on Ali's arm, before a comeback (all with Ali selling wonderfully), a handful of near falls for each, before Ali picked up the upset win with a beautiful imploding 450 splash. The pair took their slim six minutes and work within the boundaries to create a match that benefited them both, you can't really complain about that!

Any Other Business...

• Tajiri defeated Sean Maluta – Jack Gallagher defeated Tony Nese via Disqualification after Ariya Daivari interfered. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.25/10

205 Live earns itself a relatively low rating because of the simple fact that it didn't make the most of it's 45 minutes. Despite two good matches, the rest of the show ended up coming across as a budget version of WWE's other weekly programming. Backstage segments, short matches or run-in finishes, it just doesn't feel like it's own entity yet. The brand needs to start using it's time on Monday Night RAW to build any stories it wants to tell, before utilising this time to create exciting and entertaining match ups that can create a buzz among the demographic that is mostly likely to be seeking it out online. Overall, my opinion on 205 Live is not bad, could do better.

Review - James Marston 

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TV Review: WWE Cruiserweight Classic #5 - Kota Ibushi v Cedric Alexander

With the Second Round getting underway, as Kota Ibushi, Gran Metalik and Tajiri looked to make it to the Quarter Finals, would the action of the Cruiserweight Classic begin to heat up even more? 

DDT's Kota Ibushi and ROH's Cedric Alexander put the 1st Cruiserweight Classic on the map, making everything that had came before it feel like a mere warm up, going out into Full Sail Arena and lighting it up with a 15 minute belter. Considering it was the pair's first match ever involving the other, this was spectacularly smooth, fast action that built to a wonderful crescendo following a number of near falls for both men. Every single move was hit with a real purpose, whilst the even relatively simple moves like a diving clothesline were made believable near falls thanks to the bumping abilities of both men. The urgency that both brought to their performance can only act to lift the tournament in the prestige stakes, as both looked desperate to stay in the tournament.  

The pair showed that they are accomplished at a number of different styles and capable of pacing a contest to get the most out of themselves and the crowd. The early portion of the contest saw them work a technical style, with Ibushi focusing on Alexander's arm, before working through some strong-style strikes, beautiful high-flying moves, whilst also weaving in some quality storytelling as Alexander easily slotted into the underdog role with the crowd on the edge of their seats as he hit a superkick and a tight brainbuster for two consecutive near falls. After a flurry of moves ended with the Golden Star Powerbomb to seal the win for Ibushi, I couldn't help but think that it was a real shame for Alexander to have had only two matches on the show! I feel like that is how I should be feeling after each and every elimination in the tournament! Ibushi will face either NYWC's Tony Nese or WWE's The Brian Kendrick in the Quarter Final. 

With such a strong main event, it would be easy to overlook CMLL's Gran Metalik [Mascara Dorada] and WWE's Tajiri having a good contest in the only other match on the show. The two battled in what was a well put together, back and forth clash of styles that felt much richer than it's ten minute run time would indicate. The "everything you can do" opening followed by the Lucha-style exchange of submission holds was one of my favourite sequences of the tournament so far and was very different from most of what WWE presents at the moment. Both men got to showcase themselves once again, with some slick tightrope style moves from Metalik for near falls, whilst Tajiri's submission work looked brutal at points and made Metalik look even better when he not only withstood it but managed to escape. When it came down to it it was Metalik who picked up the win, once again with the Samoan Driver to advance to the Quarter Finals, where he will face Dragon Gate's Kota Ibushi or FSW's Jack Gallagher.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 8.08/10

As predicted the 2nd Round produced the strongest episode of Cruiserweight Classic so far with a big jump in quality above the previous best, Episode 2. Kota Ibushi upped the bar in the main event, alongside Cedric Alexander, showing why he is among the favourites to win the entire tournament, whilst Tajiri and Gran Metalik put on a bout that may become a forgotten gem of the tournament, thanks to having to share a show with Alexander v Ibushi! 

This was the first must-watch episode of tournament so far and I have feeling we'll see a few more of those before it's over. 

All content - James Marston 

TV Review: WWE Cruiserweight Classic #2 - Akira Tozawa v Kenneth Johnson

After the first episode of the Cruiserweight Classic had produced some entertaining wrestling, but been a fairly average TV show on the whole, how would the 2nd episode shape up? With Akira Tozawa, Tajiri and TJ Perkins in action, what would the CWC have in store for us next? 

The main event of the evening saw Dragon Gate star Akira Tozawa reach the 2nd round of the competition with a victory over the unknown Kenneth Johnson. Seriously, Johnson doesn't even have a cagematch.net profile, what's that all about? It confuses me even more that Johnson looked comfortable in the ring with a competitor on the level of Tozawa, never looking out of place and never looking like he was having to be carried. The bout was full of hard strikes from both men, with Tozawa getting a good opportunity to show off what he has to offer to WWE with hard chops and elbow strikes. The commentary team pushing Johnson's heart during the match helped make a couple of his near falls feel more believable, as he was being pushed as potential giant killer in the tournament. Tozawa would go to hit German Suplexes throughout the match, including a brilliant sequence that would end with Johnson flipping out and the duo doing a double clothesline spot, so it was extremely satisfying to see Tozawa claim the victory with a pair of Germans, the first a snap version before closing the match with a stunning deadlift. Tozawa will face either Jack Gallagher or Fabian Aichner in the 2nd Round.

In the semi-main, WWN's TJ Perkins knocked wXw performer Da Mack out of the competition at the earliest opportunity. It was a battle of the show boaters, with both men looking to make the victory look as easy as possible. It crowd the crowd nicely worked up when Mack would start cutting shapes or Perkins would dab in the middle of submission and it would always play back into the story of the match with the opponent taking or trying to take advantage. There was a tidy mixture of styles here, with Perkins bringing some lovely submission based offence, that he'd transition well from hold to hold, whilst both men also pulled out some big highflying moves here also. The closing moments of the bout were very satisfying as Mack would injure his knee attempting a top rope enziguiri, with Perkins latter hitting his Detonation Kick, before leg scissoring himself into position to lock on the Figure Four Deathlock, which of course is all on the knee, to earn himself the win. Perkins will now face Johnny Gargano or Tommaso Ciampa in the 2nd Round. 

In the most flippy floppy bout of the Classic so far, ACW's Lince Dorado would earn himself a place in the next round with a win over FW's Mustafa Ali. Both men impressed me here as they took the short amount of time they were given and really went for it, pulling out some big spots and keeping the action coming thick and fast throughout the match. As soon as Dorado had crashed to the outside after a knee off the apron, the match picked up and it became an exciting spot-fest, that had the crowd bouncing. A double jump super spanish fly from Ali got a wonderful reaction both for the move and then the kick out. To be honest, I was actually much more impressed with Ali than Dorado, mainly because of the horrible reverse rana that he hit, but also because the finish involved Ali missing an imploding 450 splash before Dorado hit a Shooting Star Press. As cool as the Shooting Star Press will always be it's not 450 splash, and certainly not an imploding one. Perhaps that was a slight problem in the putting together of the match. Dorado does seem to have some potential though and I look forward to seeing him in the 2nd round against either Rich Swann or Jason Lee. 

In the opening bout, Wrestle-1's Tajiri went over WR's Damian Slater in a bout that was right up my alley. It took on a different tempo to what had been seen elsewhere in the show, keeping things technical throughout, making use of Tajiri's veteran skills to keep the pacing of the outing just right. Both men would sell stiff kicks from each other superbly throughout with Slater holding his arm, whilst Tajiri would have problems with his knee throughout the bout, which would lead to both attempting various submissions. I'd have been more than happy to see this go another ten minutes or so, as I think the two would have taken that extra time and ran with it to create an extra depth to the storytelling. Slater has to be one of the first round exitees that I've been most impressed with, whilst Tajiri's still got something in the tank and will provide a brilliant victory for someone later in the tournament. The fact that he was selling his knee at the conclusion of the bout made me a happy chappy indeed. Tajiri will face Gran Metalik in the 2nd round. 

It was announced that next week, Zack Sabre Jr, Tony Nese, Brian Kendrick and others would all be competing in 1st Round action.

Results 

Cruiserweight Classic First Round Match: Tajiri def. Damian Slater in 5 minutes, 28 seconds 

Cruiserweight Classic First Round Match: TJ Perkins def. Da Mack in 6 minutes, 31 seconds 

Cruiserweight Classic First Round Match: Lince Dorada def. Mustafa Ali in 5 minutes, 56 seconds.

Cruiserweight Classic First Round Match: Akira Tozawa def. Kenneth Johnson in 9 minutes, 45 seconds

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.5/10 

This was a step-forward after last week's solid start with the Cruiserweight Classic beginning to find it's feet with four different but all entertaining matches across the hour. These first round matches are going to be made as much by the losers as they are by the showcased winners and this card seemed to have a much more solid base of exitees than we saw in the last episode. Of course, the stronger the opponent, then the stronger match you are going to get. There's a lot still to come from the competition, but WWE has certainly come flying out of the traps with this one.