WWE 205 Live Review - May 1, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Gentleman Jack Gallagher and The Brian Kendrick def. Akira Tozawa and Hideo Itami

As the commentators made mention of, Itami previously legitimately broke Kendrick's face with a GTS (which Itami has not used since) late last year, so this was Kendrick's way of getting revenge. This was a solid, well-wrestled match that received good time, but the finishing sequence and post-match aftermath was especially interesting. Itami inadvertently cost his team the victory, and then he subsequently blamed Tozawa for the loss before teasing tension with him. Hopefully Itami clicks as a heel the same way he did in NXT.

Buddy Murphy def. Liam Louie

Murphy has been gone from 205 Live for the past two weeks due to not making weight (in storyline), but he's back now that Greatest Royal Rumble is over with. What a coincidence. Anyway, this was a standard squash for Murphy and I liked that he displayed more aggression than usual. The brawl that then ensued between Murphy and Cedric Alexander was well done and set up their eventual championship clash.

Drew Gulak def. Kalisto

It's cool that they went back to this bout after Kalisto beat Gulak last week to become the No. 1 contender to the WWE Cruiserweight Championship only for Kalisto to be defeated by Alexander in Saudi Arabia. The crowd wasn't into the action early on, but they did pick up the pace down the stretch. I don't know if the "This is awesome" chants were necessary, but it was an enjoyable encounter with strong showings from both men. The finish basically coming out of nowhere was a nice touch as well.

Overall Show

Much like Raw and SmackDown Live, this show benefited from being held in Montreal where the audiences are always electric. It was a coherent hour of TV with several storylines progressing and some entertaining wrestling, but the crowd put it over the top. I thought there was a chance we might see Alexander vs. Murphy added to the Backlash card, but based off how Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali is being advertised for next week's episode (in addition to Gallagher and Kendrick vs. Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado), I don't think that will end up being the case.