WWE 205 Live Review - March 12, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cedric Alexander def. Oney Lorcan in a WWE Cruiserweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Semifinal Match

I was highly anticipating this outing and these two did not disappoint. It was all action from bell to bell and Lorcan once again proved that he should not be overlooked any longer. Although Alexander winning seemed like a foregone conclusion, I was still pulling for Lorcan to pull out the upset victory and go all the way to WrestleMania. Of course, that didn't happen, but I hope his standout performances last week and this week were enough to convince officials that he'd be a fantastic fit on 205 Live permanently.

Tony Nese def. Drew Gulak in a WWE Cruiserweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Semifinal Match

While Alexander vs. Lorcan was the battle of the babyfaces, Nese and Gulak had their work cut out for them because of the heel vs. heel dynamic. Despite that, they have worked a ton with each other since the dawn of the Cruiserweight division back in late 2016 and even faced off in last year's Cruiserweight Championship tournament. Thus, it should have come as no surprise that this was a great match as well and that both men had strong showings. The hard-hitting nature of the bout made it that much more exciting, and Nese advancing to the finals after avenging his loss to Gulak was a good call.

Overall Show

It still bothers the hell out of me that 205 Live is back to being held after SmackDown Live, but these crowds coming alive for these tournament matches speaks volumes about the skill level of these insanely talented competitors. Similar to last week, both bouts were excellent and well worth checking out. There was also some solid storyline progression in between as well with Mike Kanellis and Ariya Daivari. My prediction is that Nese ends up winning the whole thing considering his history with Buddy Murphy and roots in New York, and although I wasn't thrilled about that originally, Nese has managed to make me care about him through his chase for the championship in the past five months. We'll see what happens next week.