WWE 205 Live Review - October 25, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush def. Oney Lorcan (Non-Title)

Rush actually beat Lorcan to become the number one contender to the NXT Cruiserweight Championship last month before winning the title from Drew Gulak on NXT a few weeks later. Their initial encounter was excellent, but this felt like a watered down version of that. It was perfectly fine for what it was and both guys had solid showings, but it was as formulaic as most matches we see on 205 Live nowadays.

Raul Mendoza def. Tony Nese

Mendoza has appeared on 205 Live before as well as NXT countless times. He's a hell of an athlete that excites me more than half of the Cruiserweight division and even some stars in NXT, the only issue is that we don't know much about him. This was a very well wrestled match, but the crowd sadly couldn't have cared less. Mendoza's surprise win gets his 205 Live run off to a strong start but doesn't help Nese's cause as he continues to lobby for a shot at the championship.

The Brian Kendrick Addressed the Audience

If you took a shot every time Kendrick said "professional wrestler," you'd be dead. Seriously, I think he said "professional wrestler" more times here than anyone else combined in the last decade on WWE TV. It got annoying after a while and resulted in a poor promo. He called out Drake Maverick, so I really hope this doesn't lead to a match between the two. The last thing we need on this show is a rerun of the rivalry Maverick just had with Mike Kanellis.

Isiah "Swerve" Scott def. Ariya Daivari

Daivari is as dull as dish water, always has been and likely always will be. He's still on 205 Live at this point simply so he can put others over. I realize this isn't the first time Scott has competed on 205 Live, but he should have been more dominant in his return. There was no reason for this to be as competitive as it was considering his opponent was Daivari. It was like night and day watching Scott here compared to his hot performance on NXT just two days ago.

Overall Show

Even with all the fresh faces that are being brought in from NXT, 205 Live continues to feel like a lost cause. It doesn't matter who wrestles on these shows; they are being told to wrestle a certain way, which completely defeats the purpose of having a Cruiserweight division (or at least on the main roster). As seen for the past month or so, the 205 Live guys are way better on NXT, where they're actually given a chance to showcase their skills and the people care. For their sake, let's hope the division officially merges with the black-and-gold brand sooner rather than later so 205 Live can mercifully be put to an end.