The King Addresses His Subjects – 205 Live Recap – June 27, 2017

As per usual, 205 Live is in San Diego following the conclusion of Smackdown Live.  As much fun as I had with the tour through about 4% of the Beyonce catalog yesterday with my Smackdown recap, there aren’t any women in the cruiserweight division, so I’ll stick with the facts.  Hopefully I make Curt Hawkins proud.

The King Addresses His Subjects

As you may or may not have seen, Akira Tozawa and Neville shared the ring on Monday night, but were prevented from throwing down by a Titus O’Neil appearance.  Titus informed them both that there was no point in putting on a show for free, as he had just negotiated the terms of a Cruiserweight Championship Match for Great Balls of Fire between The King of the Cruiserweights and “the new Cruiserweight Champion and newest signee of Titus International” Akira Tozawa.  Cha Cha Cha Cha Chingggggggggggg.

This was the closing segment of the show, but as it was kind of the only running storyline that actually makes any sense (because that whole Dar/Fox/Alexander thing is just awful and it’s run its course) I figured I would just focus primarily on this.

Neville is freaking fantastic.  The Neville Level is seriously the bar by which all Superstars should hold themselves.  John Cena is somewhere in there, but he’s been the uber-face for so long that he really doesn’t have to do a whole lot to carry that character.  Neville has taken the idea of a hell and every move he makes and word he says is simply perfect and forwards his character at every turn.  I’ve been over this, so I won’t dwell, but he’s simply great.

Neville delivers a clinic of a promo about how he’s going to hurt Tozawa.  So here comes Akira, all dapper in his Titus Brand suit.

Tozawa basically just “Ah!”‘ed his way to the ring, and responded to everything Neville said to him with the same.  Neville went for the attack but Tozawa ducked him and Neville ended up on the floor outside the ring.  This match is going to be pretty damn great.

And there were matches, as well….

• Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs The Brian Kendrick – This was an exercise in just how good The Brian Kendrick can be.  The Man with a Plan came out to Gallagher’s music, dressed as a British gentleman and carrying an umbrella of his own.  Brian Kendrick is a fantastic wrestler, there’s no questioning that, but he’s got a bit of what makes Neville so damn good, and working an angle like he did here just made his brutal beatdown of Gallagher that much more powerful on television.  For some reason, he didn’t just get the win even though he was beating the hell out of Jack, but went for the umbrella and delivered a significantly worse beatdown with it and Jack Gallagher wins by disqualification.
• Mustafa Ali vs Drew Gulak – Match 15 between these two, but I’m ok with it as long as it keeps them both on TV.  Following a backstage confrontation during a Gulak interview with Dasha Fuentes, they take to the ring and both put on their typically great performances but Gulak makes an effort to get the win by going to the top rope for a big time splash, but he misses and Ali wins via pinfall with a roll-up.  
• Ariya Daivari destroys Noam Dar’s phone as retribution for his $15,000 bag from last week.  He also lets Dar know that he still owes him.  Keep this in mind, as that means Dar can’t take Alicia’s calls, and Ariya heads to the ring to take on Cedric Alexander.
• Cedric Alexander vs Ariya Daivari – I don’t know, I was fairly bored with this one.  Noam Dar comes to ringside and distracts Cedric.  Ariya Daivari lands the Hammerlock Lariat and wins via pinfall.  Dar would then slide in and beat on an already downed Cedric Alexander.  I’m burnt out on the entirety of this Alexander and Dar feud, thankfully tonight didn’t feature any of Alicia Fox’s shrill screeching on the titantron via facetime.