WWE 205 Live Review - May 30, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Noam Dar def. Rich Swann

You could have aired a replay of the Raw match these two had on Monday night and very little would have been different outside of the outcome. Swann and Dar have good matches, but the issue is that we've seen them face off so many times in the past that it's hard to care at this point. Plus, 50/50 booking does no one any favors, especially in the Cruiserweight division where virtually nobody is over. Sasha Banks and Alicia Fox fighting at ringside popped the crowd a bit, but it was a far cry from the brawl the women had on SmackDown Live just an hour earlier.

Cedric Alexander def. Corey Hollis

I liked that Alexander was given some mic time before the bout to talk about his return from injury and how he'll be making up for the lost time by racking up victories. Similar to last week, this was a straightforward squash match, though Hollis scored more offense over Alexander than I thought he would. Nevertheless, it was a decisive win for Alexander and I look forward to seeing him find direction again soon.

Drew Gulak def. Mustafa Ali

It's interesting to note that unlike most feuds in the Cruiserweight division, this program has been almost entirely exclusive to 205 Live and hasn't been furthered on Raw at all. Personally, I've been enjoying it for what's worth and this was another quality match from them. Unsurprisingly, the crowd wasn't too invested in the action, but I thought they told a solid story with Gulak taking advantage of Ali going high risk as often as he did and it ultimately costing Ali the match yet again.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville and TJP Attacked Austin Aries

While I'm glad Aries made a major deal about forcing Neville to tap out on Raw with it being the first time he has submitted since coming to the Cruiserweight division, the crowd that night didn't react to it as such, which was a shame. Despite that, this was a nice promo from Aries hyping up the Submission match with Neville at Extreme Rules and the subsequent attack from Neville and TJP on Aries and his injured knee was well done in putting heat on the heels prior to the pay-per-view. By the way, where was Jack Gallagher? What a bad friend!

Overall Show

205 Live rarely feels must-see, but by the program's standards, this was an above-average episode with a successful progression of the championship feud, a well-wrestled match between Ali and Gulak, and Alexander continuing to build momentum. Swann vs. Dar was a repeat of what we've seen countless times in the past, but at least we got a one-off appearance by Banks out of it.