WWE 205 Live Review - November 8, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Mansoor def. The Brian Kendrick

My biggest gripe with Mansoor winning that "historic" Battle Royal back at Super ShowDown in June wasn't that he won but rather that there was zero followup on NXT. That said, it's cool to see him so soon after his victory over Cesaro at Crown Jewel last Thursday, even if it was on 205 Live. This was a pretty good match with Mansoor having a strong performance and Kendrick allowing him to shine. Mansoor winning was the right call, though it's weird that Kendrick's promo a few weeks ago never amounted to anything. Not that I'm complaining, though.

Angel Garza def. Tony Nese in an NXT Cruiserweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

(From my NXT review for this week...) If 205 Live is going to emanate live from Full Sail University anyway, I'm not sure why the show continues to exist. It would make more sense to fold it entirely into NXT, but maybe they want more time for the Cruiserweights. Nonetheless, this was a very good match with Garza continuing to shine and Nese putting in one of his better performances in recent memory. I figured Garza vs. Lio Rush for the NXT Crusierweight Championship would be saved for TakeOver, but they'll be doing it on next week's episode of NXT instead.

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush def. Raul Mendoza (Non-Title)

These two originally clashed in the main event of last week's episode of 205 Live, yet this was a vast improvement over that. It was almost like night and day. Their first match was entertaining, but it felt like they were limited by the WWE style. That wasn't the case here and it ended up being exactly what I want to see out of the Cruiserweights. Mendoza scored a ton of offense before eating defeat, and Rush delivered as always. This was fast paced, action packed, and an absolute blast for as long as it lasted.

Overall Show

For the first time ever, 205 Live emanated from Full Sail University as it was taped before NXT on Wednesday night. Granted, it wasn't technically live, but who cares? I've been petitioning for 205 Live to be moved to Full Sail since the show's start almost three years ago, so I'm happy it finally happened. It remains to be seen whether it'll be a full-time move or not (SmackDown and Raw were taped back-to-back on Friday night in Manchester, England, which is why 205 Live was bumped from the taping), but I hope it is. I wasn't a fan of Garza vs. Nese being replayed in full from NXT because it just aired two days ago, but at least it was enjoyable. The other two matches were well wrestled and benefited from the energetic atmosphere at Full Sail. Nothing was advertised for next week's episode except for Danny Burch being in action, and we already know Rush vs. Garza for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship is going down on NXT on Wednesday night.