Today's edition of Live From the 205 will be short as fuck because it's a one-match show. It is the 205th episode, after all, and they found a way to make it feel special despite the diminished runtime. We haven't had one of these in years, but when it happens it's always great.
Curt Stallion wins a fatal five-way
And no matter how you look at it, there probably wasn't a better result than that.
The entire runtime of 205 Live this week was devoted to the fatal five-way to determine a new #1 contender to Santos Escobar's NXT Cruiserweight Championship. While I wouldn't have put August Grey and Ashante "Thee" Adonis in this match (when you've got the undefeated Mansoor and a winning Brian Kendrick waiting in the wings), Curt Stallion is one of the more promising cruiserweights you've got in the division, so this is a good decision. (It also goes to show that being a 205 OG means jack shit here, so Daivari and Nese should probably drop that gimmick already.)
Had Mansoor been in the match, however, I probably would've given it to him. He's the better prospect at this point—but I also wouldn't be surprised if they were saving him up for a future shot on a bigger show.
All in all, I thought the match could've been even more insane and over-the-top, but this is still a WWE show, so the toned-down WWE formula still prevails somehow. (Although I might not even be sure that all five guys have the combined skillset for a match full of high spots.) But it's a good diversion from your usual format—plus it's always great to see a match that makes 205 Live matter in the bigger picture of the division—so it's worth watching.
205 Live 11/13/20 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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