This week on 205 Live, the cruiserweight division takes a break from pushing the eventual Curt Stallion vs. Santos Escobar match for the title, showing us that not even the team behind 205 Live knows when they'll be holding it. The upside is they're all in on pushing the young talent, so there's that.
The world on his shoulders
Jake Atlas is gonna be a star.
He's that good, and it's clear that the people running NXT have caught on. He works hard, has exciting matches, and brings much-needed energy regardless of whether he's on offense or taking bumps. He reminds me of another Jake, one closer to home, and this rebuilding process is them future-proofing the depleted cruiserweight division. (Ironically, though, they're probably building him up to pluck him from it eventually.)
Meanwhile, while I'm enjoying the constant punking-out of the 205 OGs, surely they can't be relegated to gatekeeping veterans forever? Tony Nese's body guy gimmick has lost all cachet with anyone watching the show, while Ariya Daivari's rich kid gimmick is only there to set up new recruits. I'd repackage them slightly and unleash them as a journeyman tag team on NXT (hell, maybe even send them to NXT UK) and let the new blood completely take over 205 Live. Anything, really.
Why does NXT hate faces?
The other match of the episode was another tag match, seemingly having implications toward this weird mess that's going on in the NXT tag team division (away from the championships). Ever-Rise faced the Bollywood Boyz, and just when I thought one team was drifting toward turning face, they both ended up being... heels, as the Singhs tried to steal the win with a camera shot. Like actually hitting their opponents with a camera.
To be clear, just in case anyone doesn't know: Ever-Rise are also heels. They are insufferable, as seen on this week's episode of NXT. Very few things about them are redeemable.
I just don't understand what's going on here. Why is no one trying to fix this by turning one team face? Is this the moment where I finally don't understand how the business is evolving? Am I getting old? Surely there's something I'm missing here, and my gut is telling me that NXT Creative is trying to let the audience decide which of them are cool and thus, cheerable. But on that note, none of them are also doing cool things? Can someone just explain this to me?
205 Live 12/18/20 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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