3 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE 205 Live (January 24, 2017)

2. A Vignette That Actually The Flattered Its Subject

The last two Akira Tozawa vignettes were almost comically thrown together, installing as they did the jobber tandem of Kalisto and Apollo Crews as cheerleaders for the imminent debutant. They were so obviously taped and edited hours beforehand that it does not auger well for Tozawa’s prospects on a show which only seems capable of pushing two guys at once.

As soon as Corey Graves segued into the vignette, the air became pregnant with morbid curiosity. Which evidently bored lower-rung SmackDown performer would be hastily removed from the locker room, given five minutes to give Google a cursory search before espousing Tozawa’s in-ring game? The Vaudevillians and Curt Hawkins had something to do for once, even it if was being eliminated early, with numbing predictability, from a battle royal - so they were out of the question. So too were the remaining thin field of jobbers.

Jack Swagger wasn’t even marched out to perform lumberjack duties in the main event. Was he even in the building? Perhaps he volunteered to step in front of the camera, just for something to do, but nobody heard him because he’s been literally forgotten. That “you don’t know Jack!” stuff feels like a rib now.

Oddly enough, it was Sami Zayn’s turn to trot out some platitudes. His hyperbole was at times transparent. “I think he’s a guy that actually kinda transcends what we’ve known about Japanese wrestlers in the past,” he said, patently lying through his teeth. Zayn would not be the wrestler he was today, if it weren’t for those talents.

But it was an effective way of promoting Tozawa, regardless. He debuts next week. Simon Gotch will be breathing a sigh of relief.