3 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE 205 Live (Dec 20, 2016)
1. Numbing Predictability
As brilliant as Jack Gallagher is, his feud with Ariya Daivari is pure filler.
WWE’s attempt to position Daivari as a legitimate threat was transparent in the extreme. He defeated Lince Dorado in a match which was tonally identical to anything seen on RAW and SmackDown!, but it rang hollow. His positioning and performance was embodied by his match-winning frog splash; it arrived from out of nowhere, and was unspectacular in execution.
That WWE replayed the Jack Gallagher video package, for the umpteenth time, was more or less a spoiler. Predictability in wrestling is by no means a bad thing - those who lived through the worst of the Attitude Era would testify to that - but the wool can be pulled over the eyes of the audience. Just stopping short of announcing Gallagher as the winner is not the way to go about it.
A Cruiserweight Title feud between Gallagher and Neville is quite the prospect - a powerful geordie ruffian versus a refined and cerebral gent - but Gallagher’s inevitably journey to the top of the card doesn’t promise much drama.