10/17 WWE 205 Live Report: Enzo opens show with promo, Gallagher vs. Swann, Kalisto & Ali vs. Enzo & Daivari

WWE 205 LIVE
OCTOBER 17, 2017 LIVE ON WWE NETWORK
SEATTLE, WASH.
REPORT BY ZACK HEYDORN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness

– The show opened with a video package detailing the events of Enzo Amore and his new heel posse from Raw last night.

Heydorn’s Analysis: The beat down segment from last night was well done. Enzo took the heat well and there was some tangible sympathy for Kalisto and Mustafa Ali. They should have told the audience why these cruiserweights were on Enzo’s side, but I’m hoping for that explanation tonight at some point.

– After the recap video, the show open ran and the broadcast was picked up by Joseph and McGuinness. They welcomed the audience in and then discussed the tension that is in the locker room after the beat down last night. They then plugged the main event tag team match pitting Enzo Amore and Ariya Daivari vs. Kalisto and Mustafa Ali.

– Enzo kicked the show off. He did his full intro which the crowd was split on and then jumped into the ring for a promo. He asked the crowd if people could smell the “team spirit.” Enzo gloated about the team he assembled that took out Kalisto last night and called him a coffee bean. He then said the beating he gave Kalisto on Raw would be nothing compared to what he will do to him at TLC on Sunday. He continued gloating by saying that Kalisto was a hypocrite and will be watching the “Zo” show from a hospital bed after Sunday when he will reclaim his Cruiserweight Championship. Enzo then insulted the crowd by telling them that they didn’t help him get to where he’s gotten. He then pointed to himself and said he was full of charisma and nobody else was. Enzo continued to rant on Kalisto until Kalisto’s music hit and he came running down to the ring. Kalisto hit Enzo with a massive dropkick and then attempted an SDS before Enzo countered and rolled away through the ring ropes.

Heydorn’s Analysis: I liked this segment. Really smart to keep putting Enzo at the top of the show. It flows nice coming out of SmackDown Live and shows that 205 Live has some star power. Enzo’s promo was good in building anticipation for Sunday. He was a bit long winded, but hit the important points hard to sell his match.

– The broadcast team commented on Kalisto’s chances at TLC and then cued a recap package highlighting the feud between Cedric Alexander and the team of The Brian Kendrick and Jack Gallagher. The video showed what happened on Raw last night where Rich Swann helped Alexander defeat Gallagher. Nigel then used the video to promote the upcoming one on one match between Rich Swann and Jack Gallagher.

(1) JACK GALLAGHER (w/The Brian Kendrick) vs. RICH SWANN (w/Cedric Alexander)

Gallagher came out to the ring first to a tempered pop. It was more of an uninterested reaction than a true heel pop unfortunately. The Brian Kendrick was with him and the duo had a nice chemistry together. Swann came out to the ring next and as he did, there was a video promo interview with him and Alexander. The match started off with very fast action controlled by Rich Swann. He hit Gallagher with some fast drop kicks and then a hurricanrana. Gallagher crawled to the corner to avoid further damage. As he did that The Brian Kendrick pulled Swann out of the ring. Gallagher took advantage of the cheating and locked in a rear choke. As Swann began to escape, Gallagher whipped his neck to the mat. He then stalked Swann with kicks to the back. To a chorus of “Swann” chants, Rich attempted his comeback with chops but it fell short as Gallagher went back to the kicks to ground Swann. Gallagher then attempted to capitalize on his momentum with a vertical suplex but had it countered by Swann. Swann hit the ropes to gain his own momentum but got clocked with a drop kick. Gallagher covered but only received a two count. After the pin attempt, Gallagher locked in another choke hold and picked Swann apart with vicious punches to the face.

Heydorn’s Analysis: They went for some Swann sympathy and it worked. Gallagher’s expressionless face and Swann’s great selling made this possible. The audience was cheering for Swann and chanting for him at numerous points. Good stuff.

Swann worked again to comeback with hard European uppercuts. He got a few in, but Gallagher took him down with a submission hold to the knee. While down, Gallagher kept working the knee with kicks and knee strikes. Swann got out of the hold and began beating Gallagher with his own kicks to the chest. He got more and more momentum until he worked for a cover, but only got a two count. After the pin attempt, Swann went to the top rope but was caught by Gallagher. Gallagher had Swann on his shoulders, but he escaped and hit a Tiger Driver for a two count pin attempt. After the pin, Swann knocked Gallagher out of the ring and went for a suicide dive but was stopped by Kendrick who had the ring bell in his hand. Seeing this at ringside, Cedric Alexander destroyed Kendrick and then had a nice brawl with Gallagher as well. Swann intervened in the brawl and the match ended with the ref calling for the bell as both teams beat up on each other.

WINNER: Rich Swann via DQ at 7:30.

Heydorn’s Analysis: I liked the match for what it was. Gallagher really has the heel character down and Swann sold like a million bucks. Gallagher’s precision offense really worked well and it’s something he can build on. This match existed to build for their TLC match and in that regard it did its job. It gives both teams a reason to keep fighting and shows that they really hate each other.

– After the match, Nigel and Vic promoted that at TLC the team of Swann and Alexander will face Gallagher and Kendrick in a tag team match.

– A commercial aired for TLC on Sunday that highlighted the reunion of The Shield for the first time in three years.

– Drew Gulak made his way down to the ring with his “no chants” sign. Very little reaction for Gulak though Nigel stood up to applaud. Gulak grabbed a mic and began cutting a promo by introducing himself to the audience. He called himself the father of the audience. He said it was his job to shelter the audience inside his Drewtopia. He said it’s a safe space away from top rope dives and unnecessary chanting. Gulak said that the crowd wouldn’t listen last week and he was forced to take action. With that, Gulak cued up a video of his destruction of Tozawa. He said that his attack was simply tough love. The crowd reacted to that line with a good amount of boos. From there, Gulak said he loves 205 Live too much to stand by and do nothing. He said he took Tozawa and made his chant useless. He said that Tozawa brought it all on himself. Gulak then talked about proposal number nine in his powerpoint presentation. The crowd chanted Tozawa’s war cry as Gulak went over his proposal on the big screen. Proposal number nine was, no defying authority. He said that these proposals are rules and that rules are not made to be broken. The crowd turned on Gulak and started chanting “this is boring.” Gulak said that at the TLC kickoff show he would present a special addition to his powerpoint plan. Gulak’s music then hit and he held up his “no chants” sign in the ring.

Heydorn’s Analysis: I was right with the crowd on this one. Gulak had everyone and the promo was working, but it went too long. The second it went too long, he lost the audience and the good stuff in the promo just became an afterthought. That good stuff was Gulak explaining why he had to attack Tozawa. His reasoning and this story made more sense because of the segment, but the long windedness did it no favors and brought it down in the end.

– Nigel and Vic further promoted Gulak’s segment and the Cruiserweight Championship match between Enzo Amore and Kalisto on Sunday at TLC.

– A commercial aired for WWE’s charity involvement with Susan G. Komen

(2) KALISTO & MUSTAFA ALI vs. ENZO AMORE & ARIYA DAIVARI

Kalisto’s music got the crowd popped up a bit with his lucha chants. Ali came down to the ring with Kalisto. While in the ring, a backstage recorded interview promo aired in which Kalisto said he was going to win the tag team match and beat Enzo up. Daivari then came to the ring and was followed by Amore. As they both walked down to the ring, Daivari cut a promo in his native language. Enzo seemed to be on board and enjoyed it while the audience chanted “what”. Enzo then got on the mic and did the “sawft” bit on Kalisto and Ali.

Heydorn’s Analysis: Amore was good all night overall. He needs to stop with the catchphrases though as he’s clearly working heel and the crowd is cheering him when he does them.

Kalisto started things off on his end and Enzo appeared to on his end before he immediately tagged in Daivari. Kalisto clearly wanted to fight Enzo and Daivari tapped into that and told Kalisto to worry about him instead. Kalisto obliged and nailed a kick on Daivari. Daivari got some quick offense in before Kalisto tagged in Ali. The two did some nice tandem offense on Daivari and took control of the match in their corner. After more tandem action, Ali tagged in Kalisto once again. Daivari then wrapped Kalisto up on the ropes after he got distracted by Enzo at ringside. While lying outside the ring, Enzo got cheap shots in on the champion who appeared to be very hurt. Daivari and Enzo controlled things from there. Daivari got a few more shots in before tagging in Amore who delivered hard kicks to Kalisto in the corner. Daivari tagged in again and did the same thing. Enzo then tagged in again and hit Kalisto with a sidewalk slam into a two count pin attempt. Enzo worked extremely arrogantly and taunted Kalisto before hitting him again with a stiff shot to the face. On the outside, Ali started a lucha chant which motivated Kalisto who ran the ropes to attempt a move. That momentum was slowed when Daivari pulled the middle rope down as Kalisto went to bounce off, but instead fell to the outside. Enzo tagged in Daivari who went to the outside to continue his attack. Daivari tossed Kalisto back inside the ring and continued his offense with a vertical suplex into a sleeper hold. The audience did the lucha chant to get Kalisto going but it didn’t work as Kalisto fell to the outside again. As Amore went for another cheap shot, Kalisto kicked him in the head. He worked to capitalize but after diving in the ring he was hit with a very hard Daivari clothesline. The crowd wanted Ali to tag in badly. From there, Daivari attempted a suplex which Kalisto finally countered into a DDT. The crowd chanted and cheering as Kalisto crawled to his partner. Both teams then hit the hot tag. There was a very big pop as Ali went into the ring for his offense. He hit a jumping drop kick on Amore and then a fancy kick to the ear. Ali then hit his rolling neckbreaker, but just got a two count. Ali got some nice offense on Amore during this hot tag part of the match. Then while on the top rope, Amore pushed Ali off who back flipped and then hit another drop kick on Enzo. Only a two count though. From there, Ali ran and bounced off the rope as Kalisto tagged himself in blind. Ali jumped over the top rope for a splash onto Daivari who was outside the ring. In the ring, Enzo was unaware of the tag and Kalisto capitalized with a roll up. Enzo kicked out, but Kalisto then hit an SDS on a dazed Enzo Amore for the 1,2,3.

WINNER: Kalisto & Ali at 9:23.

– After the match, Kalisto and Ali celebrated in the ring as a dejected Enzo Amore looked on. Kalisto kept his word and beat up Amore more starting with a suicide dive. From there, Kalisto mounted Enzo and delivered swift and stiff punches to the face. Amore looked stunned and scared of this. The crowd loved Kalisto’s intensity in this beat down. Cameras then faded to black as Vic and Nigel promoted TLC on Sunday once again.

Heydorn’s Analysis: A nice match that did a good job at building Sunday’s championship match. Kalisto looked like a dominant champion who wanted to exact revenge. Enzo sold his end of this well too. The match got sympathy on Kalisto throughout and he was able to overcome it in the end. Because of this decisive finish, my instincts tell me that Amore will get the belt back again on Sunday at TLC.

Final Thoughts: This show flowed much better than last week’s. Going in I wanted Enzo to address how he got his cruiserweight posse on his side. They didn’t fully do that, but they did cash in on the narrative they started in which Kalisto wanted to beat up Enzo for what he did to him on Raw. That was woven throughout the show and there was a payoff at the end. As I mentioned, because of the decisive Kalisto win, I think the Cruiserweight Championship will be around Enzo’s waist after the weekend is over. Enzo is hitting a nice stride here with his heel work. The belt will further enhance that character and keep the show’s momentum moving forward.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S REPORT: 10/10 WWE 205 Live Report: TJP vs. Swann in two-out-of-three falls match, Enzo & Daivari vs. Mustafa & Kalisto