BRM Reviews the 7/2/2019 205 Live

[Big Red Machine]

TONY NESE, JACK GALLAGHER, & ONEY LORCAN BACKSTAGE- Oh my Lord was this terrible. This was a post-brand split Smackdown women’s backstage segment level of bad. Horrible dialogue, wrestlers all standing in a line and turning their heads to talk to each other, and giving each other a pointless and forced pep talk because this segment with the wrestlers talking to each other really isn’t for the wrestlers but actually to hype the match up to the audience, but instead of do the logical thing and just have these guys cut a promo into the camera about what they’re going to do to their opponents we have to do it this way because we’re supposed to pretend that the cameras the wrestlers are standing in a completely unnatural formation to make sure they’re all facing aren’t actually there, because Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn are completely insane.

The announcers tell us that GM Drake Maverick isn’t here because he’s on his honeymoon. Now I’m wondering if that “the boss isn’t here tonight” message is some sort of code to let us know that Vince has taken over the show and not to blame Hunter for anything that happens.

TORNADO TAG TEAM MATCH: Bollywood Boys vs. Lucha House Party (w/Kalisto)- 6.5/10
Good action. The Bollywood Boys tried to cheat by using their award as a weapon but Kalisto prevented it. Kalisto kept the award after the match.

HUMBERTO CARRILLO VIDEO PACKAGE- good, but it felt unnecessary.

SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS MIKE KANELLIS- They handled the stuff from last night wonderfully. Bennett comes off as sympathetic, but still can’t help but blame Drake Maverick for not giving him the opportunities he feels he deserves rather than recognizing his own failure to capitalize on these opportunities. He said that Maria isn’t going to be at ringside tonight because “we’re... not exactly talking” right now. He’s furious that Drake maverick is currently on his honeymoon, happily, with his own happy wife, while Mike’s wife is very unhappy and not here with him.

Braun Strowman’s injury has been downgraded from a “possibly ruptured spleen” to a “possible separated pelvis. Now I’m no doctor... but both my best friend and my father happen to be. How do you confuse those two things?

MIKE KANELLIS, DREW GULAK, & ARIYA DAIVARI vs. TONY NESE, JACK GALLAGHER, & ONEY LORCAN- 8.25/10
Maria Kanellis was shown watching the match from backstage.
This was some excellent six-man tag team action. They told some little stories with the Lorcan vs. Daivari feud (they wound up brawling to the back towards the end) and Nese as the babyface in peril, and pushed the idea of either winning or losing the decision having big consequences for Mike Kanellis. In the end, Kanellis came very close to winning, but got pinned by the #1 contender Tony Nese.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Gulak nailed Nese with a huge dropkick right after the pinfall. Gallagher came in for the save but got attacked by Kanellis. Lorcan and Daivari brawled back down the ramp. The three pairs brawled a lot until we went off the air, with the announcers screaming all manner of clichés about all hell having broken loose and things being out of control, etc. I assume they’re going to try to tie this unusual (for 205 Live) amount of chaos at the end of the show into Drake Maverick not being here, but personally I think whoever was around backstage might have been able to get things under control without Maverick’s help if they had sent in more than two or three referees to break up three separate fights involving a total of six wrestlers. What the hell happened to security?

This was a good episode of 205 Live, but mostly off of the strength of the main event and Mike’s promo. The Bollywood Boys vs. Lucha House Party feud is quite the drag, though. It’s just dull and feels completely unimportant. Every time I see either of those teams I just get annoyed that I’m not getting more Chad Gable or Akira Tozawa or Brian Kendrick, or annoyed that they took Cedric Alexander, Buddy Murphy, and Mustafa Ali away from this show. The Singh Brothers were so much better as Jinder’s lackeys than as delusional Bollywood actors. Think about that statement for a moment.