It's the New Year's Edition of 205 Live, but it doesn't feel any special. Not only does it play out like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill episode, but we also get a *checks notes* PR effort for Saudi Arabia? Let's take a closer look.
I am offended for Curt Stallion
For those who caught last week's episode of NXT, you'd know that an NXT Cruiserweight Championship match between Santos Escobar and Gran Metalik (of the RAW roster) was mysteriously shoehorned in at the very last second by William Regal.
Before anything, I understand that this is NXT, and they've generally done a good job of making seemingly random events mean something in the bigger picture, like Leon Ruff's surprise title win. That said, I still have to say: what the fuck?
Curt Stallion won his title shot in November and is still waiting to claim it as of January of 2021. If they really wanted to put the Lucha House Party over on NXT, that's totally fine, but couldn't they at least have made the New Year's Day episode of 205 Live special by having this title match? They could've built up to the match all December—instead we got meaningless build that went nowhere when Stallion went back to feuding with inconsequential members of the cruiserweight division.
Poor Curt Stallion has to sound okay with not getting his title shot because it's promised to him sometime down the line—but if I were him and it was taking this long, I'd be worried about it ever happening. I don't see why we could've gotten his title shot out of the way before doing Escobar/Metalik at New Year's Evil. At this rate, I think they'll quietly bury it before reviving it a few months later because it's a thread they could use.
Also, from this week's main event it seems like Ever-Rise is a face team. For whatever that's worth.
Mansoorberg
Because WWE is somehow still paying tribute to Saudi Arabia, Mansoor remains undefeated. This week, Jake Atlas is the unwitting victim. It was a good match, but as a Jake Atlas fan I just wanted to see him go over—but it seems his mini-push has stalled.
The only consolation from all this Saudi pandering is that Mansoor is pulling his weight as a wrestler who's getting better every week. He's a consummate cruiserweight, able to have good matches with just about anyone, even Ashante Thee Adonis. It doesn't hurt that Mansoor watches a lot of puro and is able to work that highly physical and athletic junior style in his game. It's safe to say that he and Atlas are among the cruiserweights the show needs.
I don't know about having a really long undefeated streak, though, but he's making it work so I'm not really upset about it. All Mansoor needs now is an actual story we can get behind instead of these random matches that are just feeding his streak. And no, a Saudi PR effort is not a storyline.
205 Live 1/1/21 Final Grade: B+
*****
Romeo Moran (@roiswar) is the Editor-in-Chief of Smark Henry and one of the three hosts of the Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast. He gets by in this hard knock life through working in advertising. Smark Henry was his and Stan Sy's original vision of a watering hole for local wrestling fans. He roots for the undersized guys who hit hard, and he likes taking your wrestling questions over on his Curiouscat account.
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