WWE
Matt Willis, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

205 Live recap: Who's up next for champion Enzo Amore?

WWE

With Survivor Series in the rear-view mirror, Enzo Amore still holds the cruiserweight championship, and judging by his absence on Tuesday, it seems like he's moved on from his feud with Kalisto.

And with no Raw-branded pay-per-view until the Royal Rumble in January, we're really in no hurry to crown a new number-one contender. Instead, Amore holds his dual role as champion and manager of the leading heel faction on 205 Live -- The Zo Train.

It's an interesting mix. It allows the better in-ring performers to shine, while putting Amore's verbal skills on display. The title stays on the most-compelling character on the show, and your opinion of it rests on your priorities and what you want to get out of your weekly cruiserweight-themed wrestling show.

This week on 205 Live, we got a combination of matches between the Zo Train and the four faces currently in competition with them. After Amore and his quartet was embarrassed on the previous night's Raw, Amore dangled the carrot of a future title shot as an early Christmas gift to whoever impressed him the most.

The first match was Drew Gulak, breakout star of 205 Live, taking on his nemesis, Akira Tozawa, in a street fight. Gulak opened the night in a turkey costume, as the Gobbedly Gu-laker, but unfortunately found himself back in the turkey suit, in time out, after taking the loss.

It was a strong effort for Gulak, who controlled most of the highly entertaining match. Among the highlights was Gulak catching Tozawa on a dive attempt and suplexing him on the ramp, Tozawa suplxing Gulak through his "No Chants" sign, and Tozawa with a cannonball off the announce table.

The finish was fitting for a street fight, as Tozawa covered Gulak's head with a trash can, hit him several times with a kendo stick, rolled him onto a table and hit his ceiling-scraping senton for the victory.

The second match of the night saw Tony Nese even up the score with a victory over Mustafa Ali, who got the pinfall to beat the Zo Train the previous night.

There was no better advertisement for the positive power of a protein-packed turkey leg than Nese chowing down on one, with manners just slightly ahead of Bastion Booger, before the match, and then picking up a much-needed victory.

Nese might've said we should all be thankful for his bicep, and we should, but he should be thankful for a victory. After it seemed like another embarrassing night for the Zo Train, Nese was able to roll under the bottom rope to avoid Ali's 054 finisher, pulled Ali into the ring post, and hit the running "knee-se" for the win.

The final match of the night saw the team of Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann pull off another tag team victory, this time over Ariya Daivari and Noam Dar. The duo showed more tandem offense, and if this pairing is going to be regular, I'd still love to see them get more shots in the Raw tag team division.

There was a false finish, as Amore took advantage of the referee's back being turned to trip Swann off the top rope. A Daivari frog splash only led to a two count.

Alexander confronted Amore, but Dar came to the rescue with a wrecking ball dropkick. But upon returning attention to Swann, ate a reverse thrust kick and a Phoenix Splash for the win.

Although the Zo Train lost two of the three matches, they won the post-match brouhaha. First, they teamed up on Swann and Alexander, and then Gulak and Nese cutting off the save by Tozawa and Ali, and joining in on the beating.

It was punctuated with Amore hitting a top-rope splash on both Alexander and Swann, and begged the question, with this beating being five-on-four, who is going to play the role opposing Amore for the faces?

It could be Hideo Itami, whose arrival to 205 Live was announced Tuesday night, although Itami was playing a heel in NXT and doing a good job after his turn.

It could be a returning Neville, if his issues with WWE can be worked out.

If Amore follows through on his promise to reward his Zo Train, it could potentially be Nese, the only one to pick up a victory on Tuesday. Or, we could take the easy road and take one of the four faces who opposed the heels on Tuesday.

Hits and Misses

  • Tozawa obviously missed the memo that when you're in a street fight, you don't wear your normal ring gear. Gulak, in jeans and a t-shirt, clearly gets the spirit of the street fight.

  • In addition to wearing proper street fight gear, Gulak also had "Power" and "Point" written on his taped fists for the night. Genius.

  • Tables, chairs, garbage cans, I can understand. Could somebody explain to me why there are kendo sticks stored under the ring?

  • Ali showed some nice variation on his usual offense by turning his somersault neckbreaker into a facebuster. I like not falling into a repetitive rut when these athletes are capable of so much.

Superlatives of the Night

Move: Tozawa's cannonball senton off the announce table onto Gulak highlighted a match full of good spots.

Line: Gulak saying he was from the streets, hence the street fight, gives this slot to Gulak once again.

Match: It was a night of straightforward matches, but I found myself enjoying the opening street fight between Tozawa and Gulak most.

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