WWE 205 Live Review - February 26, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tony Nese def. Kalisto in a WWE Cruiserweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Quarterfinal Match

We've been seeing a rejuvenated Nese on 205 Live in recent months and it's been such a breath of fresh air for his once-stagnant character. Granted, he has always been a talented competitor, but he's much more intense now and it has made his matches infinitely more entertaining. This was a real good effort from both guys and a very well-wrestled match overall. Nese was the right call to advance, and in fact, he's my current pick to win the whole thing given his history with Buddy Murphy (thought I don't know if that's necessarily the best move since it would be heel vs. heel).

Drew Gulak def. The Brian Kendrick in a WWE Cruiserweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Quarterfinal MAtch

Gulak and Kendrick spent many months feuding last year when Kendrick broke away from Gulak and Gentleman Jack Gallagher. Since it was already known that they had quality chemistry together, I expected this to be entertaining and they delivered. The slow pace early on won't be for everybody, but I appreciated the story they told with Gulak working over certain body parts of Kendrick and applying various submission holds (of which he is a master) in attempt to put his old ally away. Similar to the aforementioned outing, I agreed with the outcome, but I'm not sure if Gulak vs. Murphy would be a compelling Cruiserweight Championship match.

Overall Show

I'm assuming that a lot like last year, 205 Live is going to continue to have a two-match format through the remainder of WrestleMania season with the Cruiserweight title tournament taking center stage. However, that is hardly a bad thing, because last year's tourney was terrific and this year's looks fantastic on paper as well. Both bouts on this week's show were entertaining and I'm looking forward to next week's two quarterfinal matches (Cedric Alexander vs. Akira Tozawa and Humberto Carrillo vs. Oney Lorcan) as well.