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That Alexander/Dar match was quite good until the shit with Alicia.  While Alexander's match with Ibushi is by far his best, he was doing some really good selling and both guys were putting in some nice psychology and storytelling.  It's too bad the godawful Alicia angle is going to be what more people end up taking away from it.

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So I guess this would be a bad time to say I kind of like the Cedric/Dar/FOOOOOOOOX story?  I know that Cedric should be doing far better things than this.  But this is helping to make Dar go from unknown "overrated" guy to have an actual character other than "Scottish Supernova"  For somebody as good as Cedric I don't worry much for him.  There's always time to get him out of this and into actual title contention.  But when there's Neville/Swann on the horizon they have to do something to kill the time.  Is it the best way?  Not really, but would it be better than Cedric not being on the shows at all?

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I don't think the angle is that bad or that good.  It's fine, but it's also something that I would imagine most of the 205Live audience could not care less about.  I imagine meetings going, "Hey, the CWC was a surprise success among the hardcores, how can we make it better?  How about a love triangle angle?!?  Brilliant!"


I agree that it has helped Dar out a good bit.  I thought his last two matches have been his best WWE matches yet.

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I really like this show, and it is only going to get better when Aries, Tozawa and Gran Metalik show up.  The storylines are a little goofy, but these guys are making the best out of it.  The Alexander/Fox/Dar love triangle is silly, but Dar is getting over because of it.  Gallagher and Davari, who is perhaps the least talented person on the roster, almost lost the crowd but were able to reel them back end by the end of their segment.  Kendrick, Tajiri, Ali (who has been the revelation of the show so far), and Perkins(who may be the least over in this group) are all guys the crowd seems to be buying into.  Neville's heel turn has been the best thing on the show, and he's going to be at the top of the card for a long time.  He's a guy who I liked for a while, but this is the first opportunity they've given him to be a character and he's really excelling in the role.  Rich Swann is the most over guy with the crowd, and his bubbly babyface is a great contrast to Neville's super serious heel character.  I was a little skeptical of this show at first, but I'm 100% in now.  The only problem I'm having with the show right now is that there isn't enough time for everyone.  I don't know if they need a tag division or what, but they need to find roles for guys like Ali, Gulak, Nese, and Lince Dorado.  

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They also have guys in NXT like Lorcan and Strong, and probably some of the UK guys like Dunne, who could have runs on 205Live as well as some main roster guys like Gotch.  There's a lot of potential, to the point where I almost think they need 90 minutes/2 hours more than NXT does.

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I'm down with 90 minutes, but before they can even consider that they have to get them far away from SD tapings.  That extra half hour would die a painful death each week with those crowds, so a location just for this show would be needed.  They're also in a weird spot where they can't/shouldn't do short matches like NXT who can get away with that.  But I'm hoping there's a change like this that happens this year.  But I just see to much digging in their heels to see anything like this happen.

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5 minutes ago, JonnyLaw said:

They also have guys in NXT like Lorcan and Strong, and probably some of the UK guys like Dunne, who could have runs on 205Live as well as some main roster guys like Gotch.  There's a lot of potential, to the point where I almost think they need 90 minutes/2 hours more than NXT does.

Kallisto may be the best "cruiserweight" on the entire WWE roster, and Itami, Almas, Gargano and Ciampa are probably destined to be here too.  They have an incredible amount of cruiserweight talent right now, and they keep getting more.

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5 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

If they're sticking Almas there, he should ask for his release. That would be a criminal waste of his talents. 

Based on what you've seen from his NXT run so far, what makes you think he's going to catch on with the crowd on the main roster?  The NXT crowd is about as forgiving as any wrestling crowd ever, and he isn't getting over very well.  

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I'm well behind on my NXT viewings but if that's all they're going to do with him, he may as well go back to main eventing CMLL. I feel like the language barrier and the difficult transition going from lucha libre to WWE style are hurting him. That initial gimmick of being a really good looking guy in suspenders was a mistake too. His match with Alexander was very good and hopefully a sign of things to come. 

One of the biggest surprises with the influx of foreign stars the past year or two to wwe land is how long it's taking them to get the language. They should be in intensive language courses with the best teachers, because you don't get over in WWE without talking. Asuka, Itami, Nakamura and Almas are all still pretty limited (Nakamura less so) in this regard. I tried my hand at Japanese ages ago and I get that it's very difficult to lose an accent but they arent even close. 

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He hasn't won the crowd over one way or another from what I've seen. But he's incredibly talented and if he learns the language he has all the tools necessary to be a big star. If they're going to stick him on a failing cruiserweight show, I see that as poor asset management and a waste of his time. 

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24 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I'm well behind on my NXT viewings but if that's all they're going to do with him, he may as well go back to main eventing CMLL. I feel like the language barrier and the difficult transition going from lucha libre to WWE style are hurting him. That initial gimmick of being a really good looking guy in suspenders was a mistake too. His match with Alexander was very good and hopefully a sign of things to come. 

One of the biggest surprises with the influx of foreign stars the past year or two to wwe land is how long it's taking them to get the language. They should be in intensive language courses with the best teachers, because you don't get over in WWE without talking. Asuka, Itami, Nakamura and Almas are all still pretty limited (Nakamura less so) in this regard. I tried my hand at Japanese ages ago and I get that it's very difficult to lose an accent but they arent even close. 

NXT fans are way more forgiving of limited English from those mentioned, and it shouldn't really matter that much.  IMO Asuka and Nak in particular speak just the right amount in their interviews and it's refreshingly different.  If they learned full English and did a 20-minute promo I'd be a bit disappointed.  As for Almas, even if you have to read subtitles if he gets across the arrogant heel he is then it'll still be just as effective.

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I was thinking more of main roster limitations due to their inability to satiate Vince's need for 20 minute promos.

Almas' promo strength is in his eyes. He says a lot with his eyes, like it's this weird combination of anger and pleading.

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I hear what you guys are saying, but I hope this show catches on and becomes like NXT-plus for the smaller guys.  They get to be on Raw every week, but I honestly think that 205 live can sustain itself as a stable place where these guys can make more money than they can on the indies and get to have good matches every week.  These guys most likely won't be world champion once they get put on the show, but most of these guys weren't going to be world champion any way.  Almas has to be getting paid well, or he would have never signed.  So is he happy being just another guy on a show where he gets to work with other good to great workers on 205 Live or does he want to be The Man in Mexico?  The show is really new and is just starting to find its direction, but I'm optimistic that this is going to be something that is going to catch on.  

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I think they're going to have to change the show's name and move it to Full Sail or some other location. Taping it after Smackdown is clearly not working and even taping it before wouldn't work all that well (but still better than after). Workers came out of the CWC looking like stars in the making. Most of it was down to their performances but the atmosphere was generally terrific too and that helps a lot.

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The hard part of moving the location is that they are still going to be on Raw every week advancing storylines and if they are like the rest of Raw there may be no way to plan ahead of what is going to happen so you couldn't plan ahead and tape shows ahead of time, because Vince might decide that he wants to see something different than would change the course of the storylines.

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I would think such a move would coincide with them being exclusive to the 205 "brand" or whatever you want to call it. It's not as if the mainstream audience is lapping it up anyway and it's another hard sell for the network. You can only see these guys with a subscription.

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1 minute ago, Oyaji said:

I would think such a move would coincide with them being exclusive to the 205 "brand" or whatever you want to call it. It's not as if the mainstream audience is lapping it up anyway and it's another hard sell for the network. You can only see these guys with a subscription.

I'm a weirdo, but I generally don't care about who is watching what I'm watching.  I'm 100% OK with the entire division being network exclusive.  I got a survey where they asked what WWE product was most important to you, and NXT was #1 and this was #2.  I don't watch Raw or Smackdown, and I barely watch the PPVs.  I never miss a Takeover, and if there was a #205 Live major show, I'd never miss that.  I'm much more interested in watching an hour or two of quality wrestling a week than 5 hours of average storylines a week. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I'm fine with all my wrestling being network exclusive.  

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Smackdown has really turned the corner since former lead NXT creative Ryan Ward was called up. This week's episode wasn't the best but it's generally a very well booked program and you get to watch AJ Styles be a magic worker most weeks. At the end of January, the December 27th episode will be on the Network (I love how they're cataloging all of the RAW and SD shows on the network btw), I cannot recommend the main event triple threat enough (Styles vs. Ziggler vs. Corbin).

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13 hours ago, Charlie M. said:

I've been digging 205 Live the last few weeks but this week was pretty dull.

I still think they need to be doing more six man tags to get people on the show and show off their trademark spots.

I actually thought this was easily the best episode so far, the matches seemed to get a bit more time to breathe and I don't mind the soap opera angle although Foxy's meltdown was shocking. 

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16 hours ago, Oyaji said:

I think they're going to have to change the show's name and move it to Full Sail or some other location. Taping it after Smackdown is clearly not working and even taping it before wouldn't work all that well (but still better than after). Workers came out of the CWC looking like stars in the making. Most of it was down to their performances but the atmosphere was generally terrific too and that helps a lot.

We've been saying it would be like this before the first episode even aired. I think they knew, too, but they don't care, because it must be cheaper to do it this way.

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