10 Live Observations From WWE SmackDown In St. Paul

by Andrew Soucek

1. 205 Live Still Isn’t working

neville cruiserweight title
WWE.com

As soon as 205 Live began, I’d estimate roughly 15% of the crowd decided to get up and leave, this was despite the fact that a dark match of Baron Corbin and The Miz vs. John Cena and Dean Ambrose was promoted for after the show.

Out of the two matches on 205, only Ariya Daivari was over among all the competitors, and that’s because he lives in Minnesota. During the Noam Dar vs. Lince Dorado match, fans were far more interested in cheering “we want flowers!” at Alicia Fox than actually watching the in-ring action. And why wouldn’t they? Dorado never wins, and Dar lost a virtual squash the night before on Raw. Damn right we’d rather have those flowers!

Neville’s promo was fine (side note: the explosions from his fireworks made a young girl cry near me), and Jack Gallagher did bring the crowd to life a bit, but that basically meant there were maybe 2 entertaining minutes out of 40. Unless WWE completely rethinks where and when to air this show, I just can’t see it lasting long term.

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As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com