Welcome back to the high flying retrospective, Cruiserweight Corner. This month’s look back at 205 Live includes a major title change, a debut and a landmark episode of the show. Let’s get to it.
Murphy’s Homecoming
Just after the last CW Corner was published, WWE went overseas to Melbourne, Australia for Super Showdown. I recall posing the question of whether Buddy Murphy would be embarrassed in his hometown (as seemed to be the case in WWE) or if he’d finally find his defining moment on the main roster and capture the Cruiserweight Championship. Thankfully, it was the latter as 205’s Best Kept Secret secured the win over seemingly undefeatable (now former) champion Cedric Alexander. Murphy’s win came at a pretty solid position on the card with the match going on just before a trifecta of main event calibre matches. It had all the usual beats of a great 205 match but with added ‘let’s make Murphy look really good’ moments.
Following his loss, Cedric Alexander lost to Murphy’s running mate Tony Nese on the very next episode of 205 Live which, in actuality, is a great move as it further solidified how much losing the championship meant to Alexander while giving Nese a solid push up the card. Unfortunately, they’ve rushed things once again by giving Tony Nese a huge win on the 17th October episode over Alexander, TJP, Lio Rush & Gran Metalik which is leading to a No.1 Contender’s match against Mustafa Ali (after he beat Hideo Itami). I say rushed because Team Abs are now subject to undeveloped conflict rather than having a slow burn of Nese being the jealous best friend to Murphy’s path of glory. Let’s give Ali the shot of being the hungry challenger, he deserves it.
New Home For Mike & Maria
Mike & Maria Kanellis made their presence known on the October 10th episode of 205 Live as the so far underutilised couple attacked Lince Dorado during his match with Lio Rush. Kanellis’ appearance in the purple brand came as a surprise to me and I’m assuming some others but it’s a refreshing sight to see yet another talented member of the roster finally getting a chance to shine (a la Buddy Murphy & Lio Rush) and not be left floundering on Main Event (like Chad Gable who would be GREAT on 205 Live).
It’ll be interesting to see where the Kanellis’ go from here, Mike will need a few weeks to find his feet on the show while Maria sinks her teeth into this managerial/valet role, something that hasn’t been seen on 205 since the whole Noam Dar/Alicia FAWWWWWWKS debacle.
Episode 100
I wanted to end this month’s Cruiserweight Column by congratulating 205 Live on reaching its 100th show. Not to be outdone in terms of match quality this show featured the aforementioned solid debut of Mike Kanellis defeating the ‘Golden Lynx’ Lince Dorado and a unsurprisingly blistering no disqualification match between Hideo Itami and Mustafa Ali which saw Ali pin Itami after hitting a 450 splash through a table securing the win and sending him to a match with Tony Nese next week for the No. 1 Contendership.
The future of 205 Live is bright and the only thing I ask going forward it some sort of cross-promotion with NXT. It’d be great to see stars like Roderick Strong & Oney Lorcan show up more to strengthen the roster.
That’s all for this month, I’ll be back just before Survivor Series where, hopefully, we get some Cruisers on the pre-show. How about Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, Lince Dorado, Kalisto & Gran Metalik Vs. Buddy Murphy, Tony Nese, Hideo Itami, Mike Kanellis & Lio Rush? I can
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