Is there a PowerPoint Presentation for a Broken Heart – 205 Live Recap – 12/12/2017

As Smackdown Live came to a close, we move from the USA Network to the WWE Network as the Cruiserweight Division is the only hour of WWE programming this week to not be televised on WWE Week.  I won’t rant, if you’re reading this you already know how strongly I feel about 205 Live and the astounding talent in this cruiserweight division that seemingly gets better each week.

For those of you who missed it, Rich Swann has been suspended indefinitely due to legal issues.  It is our opinion at The Dark Match to not weigh in on things of this nature until people have had their day in court, but the suspension is hard to argue with given the circumstances.  If you’re going to scrub Hulk Hogan from the house that he built for racial slurs, you have to at least issue suspensions for the possibility of domestic violence.  This is already a heavy recap, and we haven’t even gotten to my broken heart yet.

Why, Drew Gulak?  Why?

Since Monday Night, tensions were mounting between Drew Gulak and Enzo, and they seemed to be heading for confrontation this evening as Enzo berated Gulak for giving “advice” to Ariya Daivari following his loss to Cedric Alexander (oh yeah, he lost to Cedric Alexander, we’ll touch on that later).  Enzo doesn’t believe that anyone but him, “the best cruiserweight on the planet”, should be the only one giving advice to The Zo Train.  Tony Nese stepped in, defending Gulak and drawing the ire of Amore.

Enzo decides that he needs to put on a clinic for everyone to learn from, and let’s the Train know that he will be doing so when he steps in the ring against Tony tonight.

Tony Nese looks defeated as he slowly makes his way to the ring.  He doesn’t count his abs or show us the mountain peaks of his flexed biceps.  He doesn’t do anything.  As Enzo enters the ring, Tony spends several minutes begging Enzo not to do this before he’s jumped from behind by Ariya Daivari.  Tony Nese wins the match via DQ.  So at least there’s that silver lining, but Enzo and Ariya laid a beating on Tony as Gulak stood outside the ring and watched.  After a while, Enzo demanded that he get in on the action and show his loyalty.  At this point, Enzo and Gulak came face to face in the moment I thought would set up Gulak’s eventual win against Cedric Alexander next Monday night on his way to a Cruiserweight Championship clash against his then former leader.

And as quickly as I was given the dream team of Team PowerPoint, Gulak joined in the attack and the three of them continued to beat down on Tony Nese.  I don’t even want to search for a Giphy.  That’s how sad I am about this.

I’m going to though, because we should all share in the sadness, and giphy will undoubtedly help me convey that.

The Other Two Matches:

Don’t take my brevity in covering these two to indicate that they weren’t quality matches.

• Cedric Alexander def. Ariya Daivari via the Lumbar Check:  Cedric Alexander has come alive over the past month, adding signs that he actually has the personality to support his flashy in ring capabilities (in case you missed it, by god go watch the Fatal Four Way Match from Monday Night Raw.  I could watch Alexander and Ali wrestle forever, and I’m pretty sure the pair would never repeat the same move twice if they were forced to).  Ariya Daivari hits an incredibly frog splash during this one, but doesn’t get the win because Gulak warned him against going to the top rope, especially with damaged ribs.  Daivari is on the cusp, hovering in that space where Mustafa Ali seems to exist just shy of the E being confident pulling the trigger on their push.  Both are phenomenal assets to the company, and Alexander is making the most of his opportunities of late.
• Kalisto def. Jack Gallagher, took an ass whoopin’:  Kalisto got a win over Jack Gallagher even though he was on the receiving end most of the match.  Afterwards, Gallagher and Kendrick destroyed Kalisto for a while, but eventually Gran Metalik would come to the rescue and run off the dastardly pair.  This was fine, and Kendrick on the microphone is a thing of beauty going into the match.  He could lead clinics on cutting a promo.

Overall:

Damn you, Drew Gulak.  And damn you, Zo Train.