WWE 205 Live Review - January 3, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tajiri def. Sean Maluta

Tajiri should definitely be an excellent addition to the Cruiserweight division and I look forward to the matches he'll contest with the rest of the roster, starting with The Brian Kendrick. They should have a nice program and I'm glad they're not wasting any time in giving Tajiri something worthwhile to do. As for this match, Maluta always makes his opponents look good, and I'd be surprised if he wasn't already signed to a contract.

Jack Gallagher def. Tony Nese by Disqualification

I've been complaining for weeks about Nese's lack of character development, so I appreciated the video package that aired on him before the bout. He has a hell of a physique, but with a few more credible wins, he can be a strong heel in the division alongside Neville and Kendrick. However, the focus was on Gallagher here and Ariya Daivari's attack on him afterward was well done in helping him garner more heat.

Mustafa Ali def. Noam Dar

Ali has really shocked me in blowing me away as much as he has since arriving on 205 Live. I knew coming in that he was an amazing athlete, but his last few matches have all been excellent and this was his best outing to date. Dar deserves credit as well for looking as good as he did in defeat and I really hope they take the time to build up Ali going forward. On a side note, after billing him from Chicago (his actual hometown) last week, they were back to billing him from Pakistan this week. That was odd.

Neville def. TJ Perkins

As I've said several times in the past, Neville continues to kill it as a heel, and it seems like every week he changes something about his arsenal, mannerisms or presentation of his character. This week, he debuted a slowed-down version of his entrance theme, which sounded tremendous and is much more fitting for his new villainous persona. He and Perkins contested a better bout on this show than they did on Raw last week and each of them impressed me immensely. I also love how Neville winning with the superplex last week wasn't a one-time thing because the Red Arrow is too much of a face finisher.

Overall Show

I was happy to see WWE carry the hot momentum from the awesome episode of SmackDown Live earlier in the evening over to 205 Live. This was a very strong show featuring Tajiri's return and two back-to-back great matches. Even Gallagher vs. Nese furthered the feud between Gallagher and Daivair. 205 Live is becoming the perfect platform for the Cruiserweights to have entertaining matches while also establish their characters and stories. The only issue the program currently faces is that the crowds aren't always engaged, and I still think airing it prior to SmackDown would help with that.