WWE 205 Live Review - November 21, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Akira Tozawa def. Drew Gulak in a Street Fight

The cool thing about Gulak is that he has always been able to hold his own in the ring, but now he has a gimmick that will actually get him over with the audience. The PowerPoint presentation stuff is hilariously entertaining and I've been digging it. As for this match, it was a fun Street Fight and something different from what we're used to seeing on this show. It wasn't quite as strong as the Street Fight Tozawa had with The Brian Kendrick earlier this year, but it was still very good and they effectively utilized the extreme environment surrounding them.

Tony Nese def. Mustafa Ali

Because the Cruiserweight division lacks depth, this is a match I feel like I've seen a dozen times over the last year. Don't get me wrong, this was a really well-wrestled match and the effort was there, but why should I care about either one of these guys? I guess the idea is that Nese winning might set him for a future WWE Cruiserweight Championship match, but we all know that won't happen, and he'll likely lose his next match on Raw or 205 Live.

Rich Swann and Cedric Alexander def. Ariya Daivari and Noam Dar

I love Swann and Alexander as a tag team and I enjoyed their Tag Team Tornado match with The Brian Kendrick and Gentleman Jack Gallagher last week, but Dar and Daivari were not interesting opponents for them at all. Again, it was a case of it being a fine match, but nothing about it intrigued me in the slightest. Even Enzo Amore isn't all that great outside of his mic skills, but it's basically him on top of the division and then there's everyone else (Gulak at least has something going for him). The post-match beatdown featured all the heels attacking the babyfaces, but Enzo was the only one who really benefited.

Overall Show

Tozawa vs. Gulak had a above-average by 205 Live standards that is worth checking out, but the subsequent two matchups were mediocre at best. Easily the most newsworthy thing coming out of this episode was the announcement that Hideo Itami is 205 Live bound. Normally, that would cause concern, but the guy has been in NXT for over three years. A change in scenery was long overdue, and who knows, maybe he'll do well and boost 205 Live in the process. Time will tell, though.