Fun With Photoshop – 205 Live Recap – July 25, 2017

205 Live starts with a backstage interview of Neville, recapping Raw’s confrontation between himself and Tozawa where Akira was able to get the upper hand, injured shoulder and all, with Ariya Daivari then laying waste to Tozawa and standing tall over both competitors.

Needless to say, Neville wasn’t happy, which typically doesn’t end well for anybody, so I would imagine he’s going to destroy Ariya Daivari tonight.  The card is a little light tonight, but here’s what it looks like for the evening:

• Ariya Daivari vs Neville
• Cedric Alexander & Rich Swann vs TJP & Tony Nese

Ariya Daivari vs Neville

Akira Tozawa is introduced first, making his way to commentary to join Corey Graves and whoever that other guy is.  This will undoubtedly play into the decision here.

This is a big opportunity for Daivari, as a win against Neville would seem to put him in line for a title shot.  Given the 3-man nature of the current feuds around this belt, I would expect a triple threat match during the Summerslam Kick-Off Show.

Daivari seemed to work an even better match than usual with the stakes what they are.  Loads of aggression, and Neville was on his heels for the vast majority of the early going.  Neville is Neville though, so it turned around.  Neville started destroying Daivari but got distracted by Tozawa on the outside.  When he turned his back on his opponent, Ariya shoved him into Akira Tozawa and dove back in the ring to beat the count.  Ariya Daivari wins via Count-Out.  It’s not the cleanest of victories, but now he’s going to have pissed both Tozawa and Neville off even worse than he already had.  Neville seems preoccupied with Tozawa even post match, which will bite them both in the ass if it does come down to a triple threat match.  If that happens, this was a very well worked move towards that.

Video Package:  A recap of the beautiful 2-out-of-3 Falls match last week in Birmingham.  I wish I hadn’t been so distracted by the people leaving as the show was starting, because upon rewatching the match it was that much better.  Well done to Mustafa Ali, Drew Gulak, and whomever put this video recap package together.

The Brian Kendrick Hates Clowns

The Brian Kendrick hates clowns, but he seems to like using photoshop.  In an effort to show the simpletons of Richmond what he’s talking about, he presents his masterpiece to the WWE Universe in photo format.  The transformation from the standard picture of Gallagher to this image took entirely too long and ate up a lengthy portion of this hour of television.

Gallagher made his way out to the stage area to end this ordeal.  After some of his fancy words, he charges the ring and Kendrick retreats into the time keepers area and away through the crowd.  Nothing really happened here.  Just figured I would share the photo.

Rich Swann & Cedric Alexander vs TJP & Tony Nese

Backstage Interview:  Cedric and Rich Swann, they are interrupted by their opponents.  This was pretty pointless.  They should have just gone to the ring and got the match started.  All this did was remind everyone that Nese and Alexander are both pretty terrible at cutting promos.

Once we finally head to the ring, we’re reminded that Tony Nese doesn’t really have to speak, he just needs to count abs and flex.  I’m good with that.  It’s a great character.  He needs to give Zack Ryder his cape thing back, because it’s goofy looking.  I don’t know what happened to Cedric Alexander.  Bad booking?  That sh***y storyline with Dar and Fox?  That didn’t hurt Rich Swann, Swann is charismatic.  Looking back though, CA wasn’t really all that charismatic in the CWC, he just put on a display in the ring.  Now that we’ve seen it a number of times, I kind of need the rest to put this all together before I think he should stay at the top of the card like they seem to want to do.

That being said, Swann and Alexander do work well together as a team.  Not Rollins-Ambrose good, but good.  I still think that if they’re going to have this many tag team matches to keep guys on television, they could benefit from creating purple tag team belts and having a 205 Live Tag Tournament, culminating in a Cruiserweight Tag Division.

The Richmond crowd is either drunk or they’ve just abandoned all hope, as the “please stop dabbing” chant quickly devolved into “CM Punk”.  Please stop chanting for that asshole.  He’s made it clear he never intends to return, ever, and VKM probably has zero interest in bringing his garbage back into the fold.

I’ve got to give the booking team some credit though, Smackdown and 205 Live both featured 20+ minute main events.

Tony Nese is a physical wonder.  Call it what you want, a man crush if that’s how it comes across.  I don’t care.  The man basically did a kip down-kip up to dodge a clothesline.  I don’t even know if a kip down exists, but he just did it.  And he looks like Jacked Jesus.

Alexander attempted a top rope move to TJP while TJP distracted the referee.  Tony Nese came out of nowhere and tossed him off the top.  TJP locked in the roll up and won the pinfall.