By Dom Van Dam
G’day lads and welcome back to the most exciting hour in free, wrestling related blog content, which is written by an Australian, who also lives on a North London Cricket Ground. That’s right dear reader; it’s 205 Live with DVD.
Previously on 205 Live:
The 205 number one contender’s tournament for Wrestlemania is now underway with the first semi-final locked in for next week after the odds-on, top weight Tony Nese began rolling downhill and booked a rematch from last year’s tournament against the 2nd of our qualifiers from last week, (an)Drew Gulak.
Tonight we begin our show with a nice little package (heard that before, wahey!) in which GM Maverick prepares us for our 2 tournament matches for this instalment. First up we eagerly anticipate the return of rookie sensation Humberto Carillo facing off against debutant, Oney Lorcan. This will be followed by 2 former champions colliding in our main event with Akira Tozawa trying to defeat Cedric Alexander for the 2nd time in about a month.
Oney Lorcan vs. Humberto Carillo
I can’t remember hearing Oney Lorcan speak too often, especially as a singles wrestler and it’s a nice surprise to open up here with a specialist video package to introduce him to a, potentially, new audience. Of course, in reality, the crossover between NXT and 205 Live viewership is probably fairly high. The video does an awesome job of hyping Lorcan as a legitimate athlete. He is no nonsense and will cross face the shattered visage from your head and leave it lying, boundless and bare on the lone and level sands which stretch far away.
In the space of a minute I went from thinking of Lorcan as the rank outsider in this tournament to believing he could actually give this thing a shake and maybe even go all the way through to a final with The Gym Bunny (Oh! A ghyme!). He presents some solid, Deano Machino Malenko promo work in the video and this, coupled with some lovely commentary work from the boys behind the desk, sells him as a Shamrockesque, fighting, Boston Irishman.
Lorcan believes that he will “adapt his style to any opponent,” and he does a good job here of grounding Carillo in the early going. He strikes hard and rides Humberto like he’s at Cheltenham.
Team Alliteration are backstage wearing homemade H.C. Woke T-shirts as the self-appointed “founding members of his fan club.”
Carillo looks eye-catching on offense, his high spots are as spectacular as ever and Lorcan sells it like a Shaun Johnson dummy, but sometimes it just looks very light and contrived in contrast to the heavy hands of Oney earlier on in the fracas.
I really spoke too soon on that one, after some of the lucha stuff started to look a little bit contrived from Carillo, Lorcan absolutely drills him with 3 slap…make that open palmed strikes to the face and HC has had enough; sending the receipt of a superkick which is stiffer than a wedding dick.
Lorcan manages to overcome it, however, with a dazzling lariat and a hardway Tazplex (called a half and half by Vic Joseph here) for the win. The fighting Irish might have started this week’s episode as an underdog, but right in time for St. Paddy’s Day this weekend, Rudy is standing tall.
Mr and Mrs Opportunity are backstage whinging about the “local talent” that G.M. Drake has scouted for Mike Kanellis to prove himself against tonight. I’m thinking that the local talent in Wilkes Barre P.A. might be different to the local talent that I’ll be scouting on the first ever Wrestling Should be Fun, Dublin away day this Saturday.
Remember if you can’t be in Dublin for OTT, you can follow @wrestlingshouldbefun on instagram for all of your St. Patrick’s Day wrestling updates.
Back to the local talent; it’s only Steve Corino’s kid!
Mike Kanellis vs. Colby Corino
The Prince of Old School gets jumped by The Opportunist before the bell and Kanellis doesn’t even allow the official to ring it. This is thrown out as a no contest and the narrative remains, Kanellis nee Bennett is winless in 2019. No mention of Colby’s dad.
Promo Pourri
Our shortest PP update ever this week. Tony Nese is “one step closer to Wrestlemania,” and Cedric Alexanderis grateful for “one more opportunity.” That’s it, nothing else to analyse, even if people actually wanted me to, and we quickly find ourselves ready for our main event.
Akira Tozawa vs. Cedric Alexander
The code of honour is followed by the 2 former cruiserweight champions, beginning this one with a handshake.
The C.A. Wrestle Factory is really giving a nod to his ROH days, sporting the black tights with silver trim like his former tag partner Caprice Coleman. Alexander’s dark tights might mark a darker attitude as he is the aggressor early.
The checker of lumbar seems to want to work a slower, harder hitting style and there are definitely hints of a nasty streak throughout. Perhaps this is foreshadowing a little “heel run” in his near future.
The crowd has thinned out more than Paul Heyman’s hair line but the percentage that have remained are getting more involved in the sizzling strikes of Alexander and the heavy head drops of Tozawa in the home stretch of this contest.
Alexander has a triplicate of unsuccessful lumbar check attempts before a fourth examination spelt out L.C. 1-2-3.
The tournament is delivering once again with this week’s action measuring up to every inch of the last. I’m already looking forward to our first semi-final next week. Until then, drink lots of water look after your mates.
DVD
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