Drew Gulak vs Cedric Alexander
Seems to be a running trend of Alexander’s 205 Live matches
revolving round him selling a body part. The Dar series has seen him selling
his arm, and here Gulak worked over his leg, following a chop block on the
floor. Really loved Cedric’s selling throughout this one: right at the start he
hits a dropkick, and goes to the floor yelling in agony, as if he’d not been
aware just how hurt his leg was. Gulak goes after the leg in a few fun, vicious
ways, really liked his dragon screw around the ropes. Alexander was really good
at putting over the leg work, even adjusting his body position as Gulak charged
him, ensuring he used the good leg to power Drew to the floor. Gulak countering
a back suplex attempt by just holding onto the headlock and grinding Alexander
to the mat was choice. Cedric does hit a split legged moonsault, but the impact
to his knee slows down the cover attempt, only getting two. Gulak chop blocking
the other leg spells the end, with a bridging suplex finishing. This was really
good.
Tony Nese vs Mustafa Ali
Ali is a guy who seems to be getting better every week.
Here, he had some great early flourishes, breaking a knucklelock by leaping to
the top rope and grabbing an attempted Nese kick to hit his own spinkick. Nese
fires back with a gutbuster, and either Ali is terrific at selling or this
really hurt him, as it seemed to bother him all match. Ali’s rolling neckbreaker
still looks great, but Nese German suplexes him into the corner and hits a
running knee to the face to win. Good, but a touch short.
Jack Gallagher vs Ariya Daivari
This is an “I Forfeit” match. I felt like I was going to
like this match more than I did, and that was mainly due to Daivari. It’s hard
to explain – I liked some of the things he did here: his side slam on the apron
looked nasty, and his continued focus on Gallagher’s back made sense with a
Camel Clutch stretched over the ropes. I liked him grinding a knee into
Gallagher’s head and then using his turban to tie up Jack, but something about
his execution felt off. There didn’t feel like an urgency to these moves, they
were interesting and innovative moves performed without any aggression. Daivari
dominated a good chunk of the bout too, so it was hard to get passed. Gallagher
was more fun to watch – even tied up, he was able to plant a few iron headbutts
to Daivari, and his flexible escape from being tied up fits with how he uses
the same flexibility to escape holds. His thrashing with an umbrella and
warning Corey Graves before throwing Daivari into the announce table both
looked painful and fit his character. Daivari’s Cobra Clutch looked good, but
Jack breaks it with an umbrella clasped in his free arm, and then locks in an
umbrella-assisted chicken wing for the win. Not dreadful, but didn’t meet the
expectations I had.
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