By Dom Van Dam
205 Live 19/03/19
G’day lads and welcome to finals time on 205 Live with this week’s episode seeing the culmination of the last month’s programming. Tonight we get the final of this year’s cruiserweight tournament as well as the next chapter in the ballad of “The Opportunist” Mike Kanellis who is all set to open the batting this week after a video rundown of the tournament so far.
Mike Kanellis vs. Akira Tozawa
Maria grabs the stick to hype and heat for her husband and continue the crusade against G.M. Maverick. She employs the triplicate “lazy, disrespectful and rude” to describe the audience in attendance (this is probably fairly accurate considering some of the live crowd’s efforts in recent weeks) and Maverick to boot. Remember that Kanellis needs to defeat his opponent here tonight or risk not being booked again by the British General Manager and it is going to be a tall task against former Cruiserweight Champion Akira Tozawa.
Fairly recently my colleague JCH who writes the NXT recap in a far more timely fashion than I write this each week asked the question; who had the most single dimensional and limited offensive arsenal in WWE. My initial thoughts were of Mike Kanellis nee Bennett who in his ROH days worked a style which very deliberately tried to avoid spectacular moves as his character was that of a future WWE superstar. So inspired by JCH (you should definitely go and have a look at his NXT recaps if you’re looking for less language analysis and more quirky, American sports references) I’ve decided to keep a bit of a tally of the manoeuvres “The Opportunist” successfully hits in this match to see if I was justified in considering his offense as limited, especially for this program.
In this match; on the way to his first, very entertaining, victory, Kanellis hit 9 successful offensive moves (not including strikes). This list included a hammerlock, sunset flip, superkick, vertical suplex, chinlock, sideslam, spinebuster, top rope samoan driver and his version of the roll of the dice to finish Tozawa off. I guess that’s not what you’d call limited as far as number of moves but there is a distinct lack of Spanish Flies and Frosby Flops.
Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese and Buddy Murphy backstage:
In recent weeks these backstage segments have laid out the narrative for matches more than the actual in ring action itself. This is no different as Murphy stands in between the two finalists for later on this evening and sets up the potential of a cracking story.
Alexander and Nese both acknowledge the fact that they can both beat each other on any given night. Nese reminds us of his narrative throughout the whole tournament where he has been more focused than ever and how he believes this has been the key to his success. Then he questions his opponent “What’s changed for you though?” What has changed for Alexander indeed? The soul’s 2019 tilt has consistently had tendencies to foreshadow a heel turn or at least a change in attitude for the winner of last year’s tournament. This is further teased here with the rhetorical question from Nese.
The champ gets involved to remind us that he has Alexander’s number and that he will beat The CA Wrestle Factory at the Pre-showcase of the immortals but it is Alexander, interestingly enough, who asks Murphy; what happens if Nese wins?
The Ranga Wrestler’s face shows jeopardy and anxiety for his title as he is left alone and the audience wonders will Murphy get involved tonight? And if so, will it be to assist his friend? Or to ensure that his match at Wrestlemania is against someone he knows he can beat? This is fantastic storytelling and I can’t wait for this main event.
Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander:
The Premier Athlete has the upper hand from Jump Street in this one but the story suggested that these boys are beginning this thing as equals and Alexander wrestlers his way back to the ascendency. It’s see-sawing action, back and forth like a table tennis ball and the crowd is somewhat split.
Tournaments are awesome; the commentary team have clearly been given the edict of reminding us of the all-important stakes every chance they get. “Wrestlemania is an intoxicating elixir,” is just one of the seemingly thousands of clichés employed to remind us what these 2 are jockeying for.
We have a huge moment in the action when both men are on the top rope, fighting for control and simultaneously land right hands for nasty falls to the apron and then to the floor. Both men scrape back in to the ring at a count of 9 though.
“I’m going to Wrestlemania!” exclaims Nese.
“Over my dead body,” retorts Alexander.
There’s an amazing striking sequence from the fellas once they are back to their feet and Yes! A frosby flop to the outside from Mr Abs. (He loves to love ‘em)
Back inside and a Spanish Fly! From Alexander and we now have our first official Bionic Elbow Classic match here on the review. That is, the first match since I started the review to contain the mythological triplicate of a flip, a flop and a fly. It’s funky like a monkey up in here for the final of our tournament.
The finishing sequence sees Nese kicking out of a Lumbar Check and laying in the Running Nese for his biggest victory to date and a guaranteed shot at the man who is eagerly coming to the ring to congratulate him.
Murphy raises Nese’s hand and then…V Trigger! The Juggernaut has beaten all comers for his title, even several challengers at once, but now at the Springtime Classic he will stand across the ring from the man who he has avoided for the past 6 months. Murphy will no longer be able to keep his friends close and his biggest threat closer, because at Wrestlemania we will see the former friends collide; Buddy Murphy vs. Tony Nese for the Cruiserweight Championship.
Until next week though champs, drink lots of water and look after your mates.
DVD
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