WWE 205 Live Review - November 5, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong def. Ru Feng (Non-Title)

Of course the Cruiserweight champ would start making appearances on 205 Live now that it isn't even a Cruiserweight-exclusive show anymore. Can we just disband the division all together now that there's basically no Cruiserweights left? This felt like a test for Feng than anything else. He's a big dude and I thought he did well. Then again, Strong can get a competent match out of pretty much everyone. He's thriving in his current role as Cruiserweight champ, even though he doesn't have any potential challengers waiting in the wings.

Valentina Feroz def. Erica Yan

I was going to say that Feroz needed a new dance partner with Katrina Cortez being released, but I forgot that Feroz was mainly working with Amari Miller. Cortez was used randomly. At any rate, I've never seen or heard of Yan before, so we're getting to a point on 205 Live where we're starting to see wrestlers who are newer than new with minimal experience. To her credit, she had a decent showing. Thankfully, this was kept relatively brief and basic. Anything longer and it may not have been as pretty.

Grizzled Young Veterans def. Jacket Time

Yes, Jacket Time is the new team name for Kushida and Jiro. They've already been relegated to doing some stereotypical stuff in certain segments I've seen, but other than that, I actually don't hate the idea of the two teaming up. There's no Cruiserweight division for Jiro to compete in anymore and Kushida had no direction following his loss of the title, so putting them in the tag team ranks together is a smart use of them both. As for Grizzled Young Veterans, Vic Joseph noted on commentary that they've done nothing since coming to NXT, which is a shame. They've gotten a few title opportunities, but never two-on-two, and I maintain that they should've been the ones to dethrone MSK as NXT Tag Team Champions. This was a fun main event and I was shocked Grizzled Young Veterans won, albeit with an assist from Diamond Mine. Kushida and Jiro will face The Creed Brothers on Tuesday's NXT.

Overall Show

205 Live was affected by the recent batch of releases as well with some of those stars making appearances on the program lately (specifically Katrina Cortez and Jeet Rama). They aren't major losses, but they were regulars on 205 Live, so we may be seeing more fresh faces getting a shot on the show going forward such as Erica Yan. The first two matches on this episode were nothing out of the ordinary (despite Strong being in action), but the main event felt like something you would've seen on the old NXT, so I enjoyed that and made this show a bit better than usual.

SEE MORE: 205 Live Reviews