WWE 205 Live Review - May 22, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Drew Gulak def. Gran Metalik

This new aggressive Gulak has been a blast to watch in recent months, as he works well with just about everyone in the Cruiserweight division and Metalik was no different. This was a very nice match from them with a great pace. Metalik often gets slept on, but the guy is excellent and I was happy he had the chance to prove that here. However, Gulak picking up a much-needed victory was the right call.

TJP def. Christopher Guy

Based off his social media comments, I guess TJP's new gimmick is that he wants to leave 205 Live for either Raw or SmackDown Live. A change of scenery would do him good, but he'd likely flounder on those shows even more than he is right now in the Cruiserweight division. At any rate, this was a solid showing from the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion. He's a skilled in-ring competitor, but I stopped caring about him long ago.

Vic Joseph Interviewed WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander

205 Live has done a wonderful job of making next week's Cruiserweight Championship match between Buddy Murphy and Alexander feel like a big deal. A video package looked at Murphy's motivations for wanting to become champion earlier in the evening while this sit-down interview with Alexander saw him come across as very likable. Next week's show emanating from Alexander's home state of North Carolina will be a cool touch.

Hideo Itami def. Akira Tozawa

Itami proved in NXT that he is much more comfortable in the heel role, so I'm happy he's finally getting the opportunity to show that in this feud with Tozawa. Despite this bout being built up over the last few weeks, the crowd was largely quiet for the contest, but they were a bit more engaged in the action down the stretch. Itami has been lacking momentum for a while now, so it was imperative that he went over here. The fact it came in clean fashion was a plus.

Overall Show

It took time, but 205 Live finally has a strong core of characters that the show can center around as well as a handful of feuds that make the show more interesting from week to week. The wrestling always delivers as well and this episode was an example of that with two above-average matches between the opener and the main event.