WWE 205 Live Review - December 6, 2016

Could The Brian Kendrick regain the gold?

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Noam Dar def. Cedric Alexander

Although Dar strikes me as a natural babyface, I'm happy to see him turn heel as he still has a shred of credibility compared to Ariya Daivari, Tony Nese and Drew Gulak. He and Alexander worked a very well-wrestled match, but the crowd sat on their hands per usual. You know a decent portion of the crowd has left the building when not even Alexander, one of the more popular Cruiserweights in the division right now, barely elicits a reaction. They were given a good chunk of time, though, so I appreciated that. Dar and Alexander feuding over Alicia Fox's affection is a simple storyline that I like a lot. It will make their matches more meaningful going forward and it will give Fox something of note to do as well.


Ariya Daivari def. Jack Gallagher

Yes, this is the third time we've seen this match in the matter of one week, but I can't complain because this has turned into a full-fledged feud between the two, and I'm glad that Gallagher is involved in a significant storyline from the get-go. It wasn't as flashy of a match as their previous two encounters, but they told a solid story with Daivari targeting Gallagher's injured knee. Daivari winning a match for once was a nice change of pace so the program isn't so one-sided.

---

Jack Gallagher works over Ariya Daivari.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann def. The Brian Kendrick

Sadly, this week's crowd wasn't as engaged or as electric for the action as last week's, but I thoroughly enjoyed the match. They did a good job of switching things up with T.J. Perkins on commetary for the match and Kendrick on offense for the better part of the bout. Kendrick getting distracted by Perkins at ringside and then eating another loss leaves the door for a rematch or possibly a Triple Threat match involving Perkins, which I'd definitely be down for. A heel turn for Perkins would also be great for him since I think that will be the role that suits him best.


Overall Show

The crowds continue to be an issue for 205 Live, so I suggest moving the show to the 7 o'clock hour and airing it prior to SmackDown Live. Sure, the arena wouldn't be completely full yet, but at least people wouldn't be leaving like they have been. Anyway, all three matches this week served a purpose, Austin Aries is awesome on commentary, and the video packages for the soon-to-be-debuting guys such as Mustafa Ali and Lince Dorado were well done. All in all, this was a better episode than last week despite the flat reaction from the crowd.

---