WWE 205 Live Review - January 9, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Gran Metalik def. TJP

I honestly thought Metalik was Pentagon Dark for a second after a quick glance at this attire. Anyway, I know these two are capable of so much more based off their encounter in the finals of the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, but this was still a good match from them. Metalik scoring a rare win was a pleasant surprise, but the focus appears to be more on TJP's post-match meltdown and the fact he lost in this second bout back. Part of me hoped he would attack Nigel McGuinness and bring him out of retirement, but obviously, that didn't happen.

Hideo Itami Attacked Gentleman Jack Gallager

In a perfect world, this rivalry would be a great way to introduce Itami to the masses and the matches could be excellent, and so far it's been decent, but nothing they've done has been terribly exciting. This was a pretty basic segment with Gallagher saying Itami wasn't in the building, only for Itami to come out, lay some blows on Gallagher and send him fleeing from the ring. They furthered their feud, and that was about it.

Cedric Alexander def. Tony Nese

Alexander and Nese have always worked well together and this was another quality contest from them. I was actually surprised that the crowd got into the action down the stretch, so that was slightly encouraging. I got really worried Alexander was legitimately injured on that spot before the finish (after all, the Cruiserweight division is cursed), but it was just an angle with Alexander trying to prove Enzo Amore's ankle injury is fake as well.

Overall Show

As solid as some of these shows tend to be, I just can't get over how dead the crowds are for the most part. Granted, they kind of came alive toward the end of the episode, but it also doesn't help that anything important relating to the Cruiserweight division usually happens on Raw. Thus, why should anyone watch 205 Live? This was another average episode with well-wrestled bookend matches and a fine segment in the middle.