The 205 Live Report Card (8/21/18): Tornado Warfare

This week in the 205 Live Report Card, Joe breaks down the tornado tag main event as The Lucha House Party take on Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy.

At this point, Brooklyn has sat through TakeOver, SummerSlam, Main Event, RAW and SmackDown but somehow, the A-show still awaits. The 205 that is live comes next, and goodness gracious me pal, thigh slaps and spike bumps are sure to excite. Now, as long time viewers will know, this week’s 205 Live is a special edition. Why? Very simple, Buddy Murphy is featured in the main event and that means that on at least 4 occasions, I’ll seriously fear for someone’s health. Pro wrestling, what a sport!

DISCLAIMER: this show is in many ways, designed for my distaste. Take all critiques with a grain of salt as frankly, they are almost all misplaced and many even come with a disgusting bias. On the bright side, if I enjoy this programme, it bodes very well for your own enjoyment. In that sense, it’s ideal.

Drake Maverick welcomed us and run through this week’s show. His teeth looked white.

TJP vs. Noam Dar

Opener time pal and it’s the rubber match but first, let’s talk commentary. Wale is here and much to your surprise, I’m happy about it. This man once shared my friend’s article, and has publicly spoken positively about Alexa Bliss, one of the bravest things any man can do. Big thumbs up pal. To the rasslers now, and TJP has a new theme as well as the microphone in his hand. He says that this match will be done quickly so that he can return to Los Angeles, California. Next he claims that Noam won’t be walking away either, as this one will be ugly.

Whilst he scared me slightly by claiming that he didn’t know who TJP was, Wale showed that he was really just working babyface, next mentioning Dar’s past with Ali..cia FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOX. After the bell, TJP did some stalling tactics early before rolling out to talk to Wale, insulting him with a dab. Dar hit a dropkick to the floor in the meantime and went to work, flurrying big and taking control. TJP then cut him off though, landing a DDT and turning the tide, soon attacking the knee as Wale spoke about his upcoming projects.

In fairness, he stopped himself rather quickly, focusing on ‘PJT’ as more holds followed. This had all become rather lifeless, but a strike exchange did pick things up soon enough, as TJP again went after Dar’s leg. Noam fired back regardless, making a big comeback that culminated in a Northern Lights Suplex for 2. An exchange of quick pin attempts reset the action though, allowing TJP to finally hook the knee-bar. Dar sold this well, even if to little acclaim, but he eventually made the ropes either way.

From there, TJP attempted to re-apply the hold within the ropes but Dar violently kicked free, swept his leg out and closed the show with his finish. Well, this was fine but by 205 standards, extremely miss-able. I really don’t have much to say, it had very little impact on me to be honest. Oh and also, to make things worse, Wale’s cameo is now complete. This means that I’ll have to actually watch the show now…very sad.

Grade: C

Some footage from earlier now, as Drew Gulak sits in the Barclays Centre and talks Cedric’s Hail Mary luck. He then asked for a rematch which Drake Maverick basically scoffed at, asking him to earn another title match.

Following, this we looked set for a match between Akira Tozawa and Colin Delaney. Before the match could start though, Kendrick and Gallagher assaulted both before Gulak arrived and demanded a microphone. He said that he tried to be reasonable but there will be no peace until he gets a rematch. From there, he began to bait Cedric, eventually bringing the champ out who looked ready to fight until Maverick halted him. Drew continued to mock him, eventually bailing when Alexander finally hit the ring. Drake was going crazy at this point which helped round out a pretty strong talking segment.

Tornado Tag

The Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik) vs. Tony Nese & Buddy Murphy

Main event time pal and the action arrived thick and fast. Brawling immediately commenced, and the babyfaces went right to work, sending Nese and Murphy to the floor. As more hangnail banter emerged from Nigel, the match was intense early, with some pretty physical brawling around ringside. The Lucha House Party then hit stereo springboard moonsaults and we are rocking and rolling pal. Off camera, Lince followed up with a hurricanrana on the floor but the heels fired back right away, flattening him on the ramp before isolating Metalik.

Or they tried to at least, initially struggling but soon catching his dive and launching him into the barricade. With Metalik in trouble, the heels refocused on Lince, going after Dorado’s damaged thumb in genuinely awesome fashion. A big knee from Buddy helped too, but Metalik quickly re-entered and run wild with his usual awesomeness. This got the best of both Murphy and Nese until Buddy caught him, scoring a dope sit-out powerbomb. Metalik was the focus of some double-teaming from there but a big dropkick from Dorado turned the tide.

He made a big comeback next, hitting some signature offense whilst also causing some errors from the heels. The crowd then focused on something else and thankfully so, as some wackiness from Dorado got messy real quick. A massive tornado DDT got things back on track from there though, and Dorado headed up top but was cut off following a Nese distraction. Some awesomeness followed as everyone hit something insane, leaving all four men floored. Murphy was up first, and quickly went one on one with Dorado, fighting up top until Nese intervened.

Nese then German suplexed Lince off the top, and ate a rope-walk dropkick for his troubles before Buddy wiped Metalik out himself. With all four men rocked, a big strike exchange commenced and the Lucha House Party came out on top, even stopping Nese’s counter in response. A salvo of moonsaults came next but Murphy broke the fall at 2.999. The crowd is now applauding the insanity they are witnessing, this is legitimately crazy. Nese looked to score another roll-up from there but instead had to make do with just a German suplex into the corner.

The Lucha House Party fired back though, with Metalik hurricanrana’ing Nese onto Buddy after Lince had face-planted. Only Metalik and Murphy remained and with a big knee, Buddy took control, disrespectfully focusing on Kalisto in the meantime. Metalik seized, snatching a roll-up before Kalisto hooked Buddy’s leg, using the numbers advantage to allow a quick win for the masked men. Kind of lame finish, but my god, what an insane match, these guys tore it up and worked insanely hard to produce a memorable main event. Buddy and Metalik were especially impressive, two of 205’s absolute finest right now.

Grade: A

Final Thoughts

The first 30 minutes of this show were rather unremarkable to me and frankly, could be easily skipped. However, this episode was elevated massively by just the main event alone. I honestly think I’d have to go all the way back to Mustafa and Murphy’s blow-off to find a 205 main event on this high of a level. Overall, this was an unbalanced show that’s last 20 minutes were truly elite, and well-worth anyone’s time. Hard to criticize it much considering that.

Grade: B+