At Payback, an Austin Aries win via disqualification meant that, presumably, he would remain the No. 1 contender for Neville's cruiserweight championship and the Aries-Neville storyline would continue through at least one more pay-per-view.
With Aries picking up another win the following night on Monday Night Raw, only for TJ Perkins to target Aries' knee, it was clear that there were still more wrinkles to come.
But with the next Raw-branded pay-per-view, Extreme Rules, not coming until June 4, 205 Live has been given ample opportunity to explore that injury angle in the weeks to come. For now, it got placed on the backburner in lieu of a showcase for the cruiserweight divison's non-title feuds.
Two of those rivalries, Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak and Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann, had singles matches that were allowed room to breathe and took much-needed steps forward.
Dar and Swann filled the main event spot on the evening in match that had high and low spots, but ultimately served as the vehicle to reunite Dar with Alicia Fox (now again known as "The Beautiful Alicia Foooooooooooooooox").
One night after Dar and Swann tangled as part of a six-man tag match on Raw, they got the bright spotlight of the main event. Swann showed off his quickness and agility early, and he might be the very best in the WWE at both of those attributes; it's not just his ability to flip and fly, it's his process of seamlessly putting those moves together, and making each piece work as part of his overall approach.
There was a sloppy moment early as Dar cut off an attempt by Swann to dive to the outside, only for it to cause an awkward collision with Swann taking out Dar's legs. Corey Graves, showing why he's not only a great commentator for his quips and insight, but for his ability to sell the action, covered it up by referring to it as a "one-and-a-half leg takedown."
While his impressive in-ring abilities have often been overshadowed by the circus surrounding the ever-more-confusing Alicia Fox saga, Dar was in rare form in this match. It was all about Dar wearing down Swann and preventing the kind of high-flying showase in which Swann typically thrives. Still, Swann hit an impressive spot mid-match where he springboarded off the barricade to drop a leg on Dar, who was lying over the barricade.
The end of the match showed excellent attention to detail. Swann didn't fully connect on his finisher, the Phoenix Splash, and Dar kicked out after a momentary delay. Swann's arm, which had been beaten down all match, was in such a state that he couldn't use it to hook Dar's leg during the pinfall attempt.
Dar later knocked Swann off the top rope, and hit a Shining Wizard to pick up a victory, allowing him to celebrate as Fox surprised him in the middle of the ring (and lofted him up in the air, for good measure) as the show ended.
If this doesn't tug at the ❤️ strings, we don't know what does...@AliciaFoxy and @NoamDar have REUNITED on #205Live! pic.twitter.com/FSqey8Naj5
- 205Live (@WWE205Live) May 3, 2017
Elsewhere on 205 Live, Gulak picked up his first singles win on Raw or 205 Live since Jan. 17 as he defeated Ali. Gulak's character, an anti-high flying advocate, has really grown into the role. His sign-holding, bullhorn using, speech-giving entrance is straight to the point -- "I'm not lying. No high flying."
Gulak's prophecy came to light to end the match, as he got his knees up on a frog splash attempt by Ali, and rolled him up for the win. After the match, he chided the crowd as being responsible for Ali's "crashing and burning."
With the loss, it will be interesting to see where Ali goes. After a couple of months in which he was competitive on several occasions with Neville, the champion, Ali was silent as he left the ring as his high-flying did backfire on him. If this story continues between these two men in particular, and there's no reason to believe it won't, it's a chance to add depth to Ali's character through extended hardships.
Hits and Misses
- An interesting turn in the Brian Kendrick-Akira Tozawa feud. A sit-down interview with Kendrick gave another look into his intriguing character. He's a heel in his actions, but not so much his words. On the flip side, Tozawa attacked Kendrick out of nowhere, an interesting move for a face character that's really connecting with the audience.
- We got a rare appearance for Lince Dorado in a loss to Perkins (or is it just TJP now?), his first time on 205 Live in more than two months. With moves like his moonsault double stomp and an Asai Moonsault, hopefully it won't be long before his next appearance.
- While we're on the topic, with such a deep roster, think of the last time we saw Gran Metalik, HoHo Lun or Sean Maluta. Would a multi-man tag match with a host of high spots (similar to what we got on Raw this week) be advantageous to get the crowd pumped before the main event?