The segment of the year kept getting better after Raw went off the air last night (Sept. 25).
Okay, maybe that’s hyperbole, recency bias and my love of what 205 Live has become over the past couple months. “The Festival of Friendship” did happen in 2017, after all. But the dismantling of egomaniacal Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore by the deranged-but-honorable deposed King Neville was a great beat in what’s been a pretty masterfully told tale. WWE can always still mess it up, of course, but so far so good. And that good continued into the dark match spot.
The company knew they had something special, too, because a fully produced version of it quickly went up on YouTube.
I can’t even process all the ways I love this clip. But for you, constant reader, I’ll try:
- It may not be their intention, but this being the second time Braun Strowman and Neville have shared a moment betwixt destructions of Amore makes me want them to team up SO BAD.
- And sure, it’s just a dark match segment, so I won’t claim it’s a face turn or anything. But it lets us cheer The Monster Among Men the way we want to, so that’s awesome.
- It manages to showcase the cruiserweights in a way WWE hadn’t been able to figure out until now - one that’s engaging for mainstream audiences. Notice how Tony Nese drops his knee pad to signal his finisher (The Running Knee-se), but the crowd doesn’t respond because they don’t know it. Maybe now they will.
- DREW GULAK!
- Seriously, The Drew-sader makes the most of his minutes here, trying to keep Mustafa Ali from hitting his finisher as “A Better 205 Live” will be a “No Fly Zone”. He bends the rules, because it’s Zo, but he sticks to his principles by refusing to violate the third proposal from his Powerpoint presentation and chanting.
- At this point, it’s unclear to me how much of the “Enzo heat” story is a shoot turned into a work and how much is brilliant ‘Reality’ Era storytelling, but either way, props to Amore for either selling the hell out of it, or eating his humble pie. Of course, that pie goes well with a side of “championship and main event segments”... but the bottom line is scenes like this help make everyone look good.
Bring on “The Zo Show”. I’m gonna go watch this again.