Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post. 

(Aired 1/17/17)

Formal Forfeiting 

– The opening video highlighted the entire feud between “The Extraordinary Gentleman” Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari that began when Gallagher soundly defeated Daivari in his 205 Live debut. Daivari then labeled Gallagher a “scoundrel,” which made Gallagher call for a duel where he embarrassed Daivari with an umbrella of all things. Daivari got revenge with a savage attack after a fake handshake, which led Gallagher to invite him for a parley – an agreement to face each other in an “I Forfeit” match that’d take place on this episode. The music made things feel more dramatic than they actually were, given that this was a feud about duels, parlays, scoundrels and umbrellas. However, the part that covered their recent physicality matched what they went for.

– The Drew Gulak-Cedric Alexander match was the expected followup to the Alexander/Alicia Fox breakup angle and sure enough, she followed him out this time, only to get sent away. We got more bad dramatic acting by Fox, before Noam Dar came out to calm her down. She christened herself as “Hot Chocolate” (um, sure) before Dar/Gulak beat down Alexander before the bell rang. Alexander took them both down with a tope suicida before his leg was chop blocked by Gulak. In the meantime, Fox’s belt fell off her skirt. We guess that was… development. Anyways, the match was on as Alexander sold the leg injury. He tried to dropkick Gulak, but met pain on the way down. Gulak did a dragon screw takedown on Alexander as he used the middle rope. He continued to target the leg. Cool spot where Alexander landed a springboard split-legged moonsault for a two. This was actually building to be a great match. Alexander attempted the Lumbar Check, but couldn’t hold the weight. Gulak countered with another chop block and then got the pin with a belly-to-back bridged suplex. That was fine, since Alexander had the injury excuse and Gulak could use some wins.

– The Dar/Fox backstage segment showed him bragging that he made Alexander lose and it was met with another famous hard slap. Are we going back to the creeper angle? So confusing. Aren’t we supposed to not like Fox now? Well, dislike even more?

– The hype video that showcased the Neville-WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann feud en route to their Title match at Royal Rumble was well-done. There was strong input from both men about their longtime friendship way back from Japan and they had photographic evidence to make it even better. The ideological perspectives were excellently portrayed too. Swann compared Neville to a superhero and felt betrayed by his actions, while Neville only cared about the Title and that those things should be expected when you’re a Champ. Solid stuff.

– Tony Nese’s backstage promo put himself over as the “Premier Athlete” who was basically above everybody else, because premier. At the least, he was well-spoken for those few seconds.

– The Mustafa Ali-Nese match looked to continue Ali’s newly upward babyface momentum against somebody that could take him on in the ring move for move. There was a great exchange of technical wrestling and agility early on. Nese used his power to ground Ali onto the top turnbuckle. A nice fireman’s carry-turned-gutbuster bought Nese a two-count. Ali answered back with a signature rolling neckbreaker and tornado DDT. Before he could get any further, Nese executed a German suplex into the corner and followed with a running knee to get the victory. Surprising, but we like this because it elevates Nese and Ali gathered enough wins to be able to take this loss shamelessly.

– We got another Akira Tozawa hype video as this time, Apollo Crews was there to put over his strikes and karate style moves. They mixed it in with NXT and Cruiserweight Classic highlights. Let’s hope Tozawa shines on the 205 platform, as they called him the representation of “The New Generation,” even though he missed that era by about 23 years.

– The “I Forfeit” match between Gallagher and Daivari had buildup aplenty and we were eager to see how these two would fare under these rules. Daivari snapped the trademark umbrella for the first big “whoa” and tossed the remains of William up the ramp. He beat down Gallagher for a true advantage. He then put religion to the wayside as he used his own turban to tie Gallagher’s hands behind his back. In an attempt to get him to quit, Daivari was instead called a scoundrel. Gallagher pulled out a second umbrella for the loudest pop yet. Daivari took Gallagher up the ramp and threw him into the LCD screens and connected with a short arm clothesline on the floor. Gallagher fought back as he catapulted Daivari into the same screen and used the umbrella once more. He sent Daivari over the announce table and got on top. Daivari took him down with a leg sweep to send Gallagher crashing on his back. Gallagher countered with the running dropkick at the barricade and pulled a third umbrella out of the Timekeeper’s area. When it seemed like Daivari was about to forfeit, he shoved the microphone into Gallagher’s throat and worked in his newly fixed Camel Clutch. When it seemed all for naught, Gallagher clobbered him with the umbrella to get out of the hold and used it to assist with a crossface chicken wing to get Daivari to “forfeit.” That, ladies and gents, was a great match. Easily both men’s highlights of 2017 thus far. They say that ended the feud, which makes us a little sad, but we’re curious of how both men move on.

Quick Results

• Drew Gulak def. Cedric Alexander via pinfall 
• Tony Nese def. Mustafa Ali via pinfall 
• “I Forfeit” Match – “The Extraordinary Gentleman” Jack Gallagher def. Ariya Daivari