Countdown to Doomsday – 205 Live Recap and Reactions – August 15, 2017

One Man’s Celebration….Another Man’s Torment

Titus O’Neil is pretty well amped about the fact that some part of Titus Worldwide isn’t a ridiculous joke, as Akira Tozawa captured the Cruiserweight Championship from Neville on Monday Night Raw.  Now, for those of you paying attention, I was pretty well convinced that Akira’s relationship with Titus imploded a few weeks ago, but apparently they weren’t ready to cut the chord and get Titus the hell of a show he has no purpose being on to begin with.

Anyway, Titus has planned a celebration for Akira.  If I were Akira Tozawa, I’d be disappointed, as his celebration wasn’t even on the “Festival of Friendship” level and we were celebrating a championship.  On the short list of title celebrations of late that were significantly more impressive than a Titus Worldwide planned event: 1) Bobby Roode’s Championship Celebration (which featured no pomp or circumstance, just Bobby in a suit reminding us all that he’s better than us) and 2) Jinder Mahal’s Bollywood Blowout Celebration.

The entire exchange between Tozawa and Titus was weird, but Neville eventually joined the fray looking, well, tortured.  You know what they say, there’s nothing more dangerous with a man that feels he has nothing left to lose, and that’s exactly what that look is.  While Neville would take a beating when he attempts to charge the champion in the ring, he is going to remind us all that nobody is on the Neville Level come Sunday (in the preshow) when The King of the Cruiserweights reclaims his belt.  We may witness manslaughter live on the WWE Network when Neville unleashes all the hell that’s going on inside that head of his.

The Rest of the Show:

• The Brian Kendrick vs Mustafa Ali – For some reason, Ali challenged Kendrick to this match during the Smackdown broadcast.  Kendrick came to the ring without his usual swagger, as he’s now paranoid of another attack by Gallagher.  When it didn’t seem that Gallagher was coming, Kendrick reverted to his old ways, trapping Ali’s foot in the ring steps and setting up to go for the kill before the attack from behind finally came.  The Brian Kendrick wins via DQ on the Gallagher attack.  Kendrick in a backstage interview comes to the realization he has to take this to Gallagher in the only way Gallagher will understand, and challenges him to a duel.
• Ariya Daivari vs Rich Swann – This was supposed to be the rubber match between Swann and TJP, but he’s informed during a backstage interview that Daivari is now his opponent because TJP isn’t cleared for action.  Both competitors look good in this matchup, but as Swann set up for the Phoenix Splash, TJP’s music started and a seemingly injured TJP crutched his way to the top of the ramp, leading to Ariya Daivari picking up the victory via pinfall off the distraction.
• Tony Nese & Drew Gulak vs Cedric Alexander & Lince Dorado – So no, the pairing of Dorado and Alexander didn’t make a lot of sense to me either, but Gulak did get to explain that while he doesn’t like show offs, he’s ok with Nese because he’s a “show off in a good way.”  Nese has victories over both of his competitors this evening lately, but the team of Nese and Gulak ends up drawing the loss as Cedric Alexander lands the Lumbar Check and gets the pinfall on Drew Gulak.  

Not a bad showing from the slighter superstars on the WWE roster.  The matches were good, even if I felt a little cheated that Ali was just fodder to further the Gallagher-Kendrick feud.