Smoothie King Center – New Orleans, LA – Tuesday, February 19, 2019
General Manager Drake Maverick recaps the Elimination Chamber Kickoff Match, where Buddy Murphy retained the Cruiserweight Title with a victory over Akira Tozawa. He announces that a single elimination tournament will soon begin for the title shot at WrestleMania. Tonight – Humberto Carrillo v TJP, and Cedric Alexander v Mike Kanellis.
Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, and Aiden English are on commentary.
~MATCH #1~
Humberto Carrillo defeats TJP. English is terrible at commentary and Nigel legitimately seems irritated with him at times. Carrillo and TJP chain wrestle to start, and are soon joined by Drew Gulak and Gentleman Jack Gallagher at ringside. TJP lays in wait and lets Carrillo make a mistake so he can take over the match. When Carrillo makes his comeback, he gets cheered on by the blokes at ringside. Momentum swings back and forth, with Carrillo using more high-risk/high-impact maneuvers, while TJP tries to keep things on the mat. Carrillo delivers a unique missile dropkick, and then hits the headstand Arabian press (does that thing have a name?) to get the pin. Solid if unspectacular match. Carrillo is just okay to me, and TJP seems bored (and who could blame him). Not a great showing here.
Rating: **½
Backstage, Tony Nese gets promo time to recap how he destroyed Noam Dar last week. He promises to become the Cruiserweight Champion at WrestleMania.
Elsewhere, bae Kayla Braxton gets a word with Maria and Mike Kanellis. Kayla asks if challenging Cedric Alexander tonight was wise, given his recent losing streak. Maria answers that with a long promo, basically promising that her husband will win tonight.
~MATCH #2~
Ariya Daivari defeats Johnny Lyons. Daivari cuts a promo on his way to the ring, not really saying much of interest. He beats up the jobber and wins with a Million Dollar Dream. I don’t see much in Daivari, and I’m not interested in watching him squash jobbers.
Rating: ¼*
Backstage, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy recalls his history of title defenses, including victories over Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander, Akira Tozawa, Kalisto, and Hideo Itami. He says the tournament is a great idea, and he looks forward to facing the winner.
~MATCH #3~
Cedric Alexander defeats Mike Kanellis (w/ Maria Kanellis). It’s chain wrestling to start, and when the pace is slow that’s good for Kanellis. When the pace speeds up, Alexander is in charge. At least Maria isn’t joining commentary this week. This match must’ve happened in ROH at some point, right? Alexander hits the Neuralizer and goes to follow up, but injures his knee in the process. Kanellis goes right after the injury, duh. They spill to the floor, where Kanellis delivers a spinebuster on the entrance ramp. Alexander somehow manages to get back in the ring before the count of 10. Maria interferes to make sure her husband stays in control. Kanellis hits a Superkick and the Roll of the Dice for the apparent three-count, but the referee says Alexander had his shoulder up. Then why didn’t you stop counting?! Mike and Maria are none too happy with this development. Moments later, Alexander hits the Lumbar Check to get the pin. I have no clue were this stuff with Kanellis and his losing streak is going, but it can hurry up and get there already. Solid match, goofy finish.
Rating: **¾
We cut backstage, where Drake Maverick announces that next week’s first-round tournament matches will be Kalisto v Tony Nese, and The Brian Kendrick v Drew Gulak.
JZ Says
Last week’s episode was so good it’s only natural they would have a bit of a regression for this one. I Really don’t get the Mike Kanellis thing, and Ariya Daivari does nothing for me. Take a pass this week.
