WWE 205 Live Review - January 22, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Humbero Carrillo def. Gran Metalik

In my opinion, Carrillo didn't make the strongest impression against Buddy Murphy last week (hell, I enjoyed his match with Johnny Gargano on NXT more), but there's no denying that he's a talented competitor and has potential. Metalik was the perfect person for him to work with off the bat because Metalik can afford to lose while making his opponent look good. This was an enjoyable matchup with a nice pace that saw Carrillo pick up his first victory on 205 Live.

Hideo Itami def. Akira Tozawa and Kalisto in a Triple Threat Match

All three of these guys will be vying for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match on the Royal Rumble Kickoff show, so this bout was meant to give viewers a sneak peek of what to expect on Sunday. It also allowed Itami to score some momentum ahead of the event. The matchup itself was fun at certain points, but it should have been better given the level of talent involved. I realize Buddy Murphy's interference was designed to send the message that there are no disqualifications in multi-man matches, but it definitely hurt the flow of this main event and they weren't able to recover. Itami was the right choice to win given he has been on a roll since his recent return.

Overall Show

Man, moving 205 Live back to after SmackDown Live (as opposed to taping it beforehand and airing it on Wednesday nights) was really dumb. I know the crowd reactions aren't drastically different, but the audience was way more tame for this show than they were even two or three weeks ago. I appreciated the hype for the Cruiserweight title match at the Royal Rumble, but it wasn't the exciting hour of wrestling it normally is. On the bright side, I thought Aiden English did well on commentary, and I can't imagine he'll be any worse than Percy Watson, so at least this new gig gives him something to do for the foreseeable future.