WWE Week in Review: Goldberg vs. Owens is set, Cena vs. Orton one more time

WWE 205 Live

The show begins with the news that Tony Nese is not cleared to compete in the number one contender’s match tonight. So instead of just throwing in a replacement like they sometimes do, we’re actually getting a sort of play-in match between Ariya Daivari and Mustafa Ali to decide who’ll take his spot, which I thought was a good way to go.

Unfortunately, the match itself wasn’t quite as good as it should have been. Maybe it’s just me, and I know I’ve said this before, but I just can’t get into anything about Daivari. It’s not that he’s a bad wrestler or anything but he just doesn’t bring out any emotion in me, good or bad, and that’s not a good thing. I do like Ali and I think giving him the win here was the right call.

After another advertisement for the upcoming debut of Gran Metalik, which apparently will be next week (thought they said that last week), Brian Kendrick is out and calls himself the gatekeeper of 205 Live and is set to destroy the dreams of everybody — everybody except Akira Tozawa, whom he wants to take under his wing. I’m sure that won’t end badly for him at all. And then Kendrick got himself a win over Lince Dorado in a decent match before getting back on the mic as Austin Aries came in to interview him. Kendrick says he’s formed a bond with Tozawa and calls him to the ring but the returning Tajiri is in instead and mists Kendrick. I’m very interested to see how all of this plays out. Not bad.

Neville cuts a promo on the challengers in the main event and continues to impress.

The number one contender’s main-event match is on next and our competitors are Mustafa Ali, TJ Perkins, Noam Dar, Jack Gallagher and Cedric Alexander. It took a brief moment for this to get going but once it did, it turned into one hell of a match. They were able to tell some great stories here and making this an elimination match was a great move. It allowed for more drama and more finishers and just added to the importance of it. Dar was out first after being eliminated by Cedric but got involved a few minutes later and Perkins took out Alexander. Ali had a nice showing in this match but submitted to Perkins at about the ten-minute mark and the former champ and Jack Gallagher, who really sold a leg injury throughout, are the last two. Perkins was a lot more aggressive than we’re used to seeing and he attacked the leg but Gallagher was able to fight back and pick up the victory and the chance at the title. Very, very good match.

Neville came out following the match and stared down the new number one contender and I’m so interested to see how these two get after each other. They’re just so different and maybe that’s why this choice was made. I’m looking forward to it though. This was a good episode of 205 Live. While the first two matches weren’t anything spectacular, they both had a point to them and the storylines are progressing nicely.