WWE 205 Live & MMC 02/20/18: SmackDown Was Very Bad
About Last Night is a quick reflection on the matches and segments, or random observations, from a wrestling show that sticks out to us the morning after we watch them. If you would like to get your comments featured, chime in below in our comments section or tweet us. You can also help support us on Patreon.
About The Mixed Match Challenge…
Corey Graves swiping around on his phone like he couldn’t care less has summed up how the Mixed Match Challenge has been the past couple weeks. It’s a real shame, because it started off a lot of fun. I’m hoping it’s just been because the talent involved and starting next week it picks back up.
That’s not to say there weren’t some good parts of the show this week. Charlotte Flair bringing up that Dana Brooke was her protege in NXT was a fun callback. Apollo No-Last-Name continues to be more entertaining in the ring as he’s showing more personality to go with his quick athletic style in the ring. Nia Jax giving zero fucks about Titus Worldwide at ringside and getting mad at them was also good. Overall the match wasn’t nearly as bad as last week, but outside of the arguments there weren’t any memorable moments using the more mic’d up style of this show.
About Buddy Murphy…
Buddy Murphy cut nearly 20 pounds to be able to qualify for 205 Live, and he is looking real jacked, baby. This is the best he’s looked in his WWE career, and I appreciate they even showed a video of his final weigh-in to continue to tell this story. The problem though is that while he looks good, his tattered pants were not a good look at all. He also has a Comic Sans Titantron, so it’s clear that if he’s sticking around in the Cruiserweight Division after this tournament he needs a lot of work on his presentation.
The match had some issues, namely the fact that he had a competitive match with Ariya Daivari instead of just trucking him. With his larger size, Buddy Murphy having to sell to him felt off and I couldn’t get into this match as much as I wanted to. But it does seem that, at least for this tournament, they’re putting some good focus on Murphy I’m curious to see if he’ll be one of the two to go to the finals.
About Lucha Things…
For the first time since the tournament started, we got a regular match as Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik took on a couple of jobbers in a showcase of their high-flying skill. I continue to enjoy Vic Joseph mentioning Good Lucha Things whenever Kalisto is around, as he was at ringside showing support for the rest of The Lucha Party. I’m slowly getting more into these three, and I’m willing to give them chances in this new version of 205 Live. I’m curious what direction they go for these non-tournament matches going forward, as I assume they’ll have to start incorporating storylines again soon.
About Jack Gallagher Almost Killing Mustafa Ali…
So yeah, the main event was pretty fucking wild. Jack Gallagher has gone from a cartoon character who wrestlers in suits to a badass brawler, and this match was very clear evidence of this. It started off as a standard match, but as it went on Mustafa Ali started taking some bad bumps to his shoulder. They started ramping up as things went on, including a nasty dive out of the ring that ended with Ali hitting the apron and then ending with the big spot of him hitting the barricade when he was pushed off of the top turnbuckle. Ali took a lot of punishment, and I was constantly concerned he was legitimately injured. This worked excellently and definitely put over this never version of Gallagher.
However, my one issue with the match is how Ali went from being dead and on the brink of losing with Gallagher keeping on him to getting one quick bit of momentum and winning the match handily on one sequence. It felt rushed and the fact that he stopped selling his injuries made it worse. The match was sweet, but it left a sour taste in my mouth in the closing moments.
About Round Two…
The first round has come to an end, and some of the matches coming up look like they’re going to be a ton of fun matches ahead. Drake Maverick finally revealed the brackets this week so we can get an idea where things are going, and I’m getting concerned for my man Drew Gulak. It looks like he’ll have to beat Mark Andrews and Buddy Murphy if he wants to get to WrestleMania, and these two have been getting a bunch of focus lately. On the orange side it seems pretty clear it will either be Cedric Alexander or Roderick Strong getting to the big show. But who knows, maybe they’ll throw in some fun surprises along the way, since WrestleMania is still quite a ways off.
What did you think of this week’s 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge? Let us know in the comments!
