Credit: WWE.com
Buddy Murphy won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Super Show-Down, pinning Cedric Alexander with “Murphy’s Law” to become the new face of 205 Live.
Ever since Triple H took over 205 Live, WWE’s “Purple Brand” has been known for putting on some of the best matches in all of wrestling. Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander, and current Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy are all in the running for the company’s unofficial “MVP” this year with their innumerable number of great matches.
Murphy and Alexander added yet another one to the list, as they may have stolen the show at Super Show-Down. Either their match or the WWE Championship bout between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe was the match of the night (morning?), and it says something that the cruiserweights are consistently among the bright spots at big shows when they there is a PPV title defense.
With Murphy as the new Cruiserweight Champion, 205 Live is headed for a new era. Sure, the “Age of Alexander” could resume, since Alexander has a rematch lined up. But after Murphy kicked out of the “Lumbar Check” in front of a shocked Melbourne, Australia crowd that was fully in his corner, it seems like Murphy has enough momentum to carry a lengthy reign.
As such, it’s time to take a look at three wrestlers he could put his title on the line against. 205 Live is stocked with talent, so narrowing the field to three babyfaces wasn’t easy.
Mustafa Ali
There are so many amazing wrestlers on 205 Live, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Drew Gulak once in this article, seeing as how he didn’t make it on the first slide.
But if I had to select just one wrestler on the brand as the best of them all, Mustafa Ali would get my vote. He’s called “The Heart” of 205 Live for a reason, because it’s obvious that he leaves it all in the ring every single night. Ali’s passionate performances inside the squared circle get the crowd going like nobody else, and he’s single-handedly produced reactions from nothing. Oh, and his promos on social media are quite exquisite.
Ali’s had a series of tremendous matches with Buddy Murphy, and perhaps no pair of wrestlers in the Cruiserweight Division produce as many moments of magic as these two. Ali vs. Alexander and Murphy vs. Alexander gave fans plenty to talk about, but there’s something more brutal and almost mystical about the matches between Ali and Murphy.
After losing to Alexander in the finals of the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament at WrestleMania 34, Ali has been patiently waiting his turn to get back into the title picture. He has to push past the relentless Hideo Itami first, but once he does, there might not be anything stopping him from going right after Murphy.
Recall that Ali defeated Murphy in a No Disqualification match in July, and that bout might honestly be the most extraordinary of all of 205 Live’s matches this year. So a title feud between these two men who despise, but also respect, each other? Make it so!
Mark Andrews
We haven’t seen much of Mark Andrews on 205 Live lately, but the NXT UK Superstar has stood out whenever he’s been on the show. I can’t name more than maybe five wrestlers who are as limber and athletic as Andrews, and his standing shooting star press was “love at first sight” for me.
Andrews is one of the best pure babyface underdogs in WWE, and I don’t make that claim lightly. But c’mon, the guy sings his own theme and shows as much heart as anyone, including the guy I wrote about on the previous slide.
After defeating Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese on 205 Live, Andrews lost his second match to Drew Gulak back in April and hasn’t been seen on the brand since. I miss seeing Andrews on Tuesday nights (now Wednesday evenings), and a one-off fight with Murphy for the Cruiserweight Division could be a gem of a match.
Murphy can’t just face the same wrestlers on 205 Live each week for the title. While feuds with wrestlers like Ali and Alexander are at the core of 205 Live, exposing different wrestlers to the brand and giving them the rub of having huge matches with its champion could do wonders for both the show and the careers of WWE’s less-established stars.
WWE wants to build a global juggernaut, and the NXT UK division is a huge part of their division. Andrews can be a star in that division, and what better way to elevate him than have him take Murphy to the brink in a Cruiserweight Title match? We saw how he can get the crowd invested when he upset Tozawa in the Cruiserweight Tournament earlier this year, so imagine the reactions in a more intimate, taped setting with the title on the line.
Kalisto
Buddy Murphy’s best matches on 205 Live have come against Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander, which comes as no surprise since those two join Murphy as the three cornerstones of Triple H’s “second child”.
However, don’t overlook Murphy’s matches with Kalisto. They’ve fought in a Fatal Four-Way, a tag match, and two singles matches. These are two familiar opponents with plenty of reasons to hate each other, but I’m not sure Kalisto has a case for facing Murphy quite yet, seeing as how he’s 0-2 against the “The Juggernaut”.
That said, Kalisto is a former Cruiserweight Champion in his own right, and he’s always impressed when going up against Murphy. Heck, he’s even impressed when they were on the same team together, as who can forget the iconic moment where Murphy wore a Kalisto mask and joined forces with the master of the “Salida del Sol” at WrestleMania Axxess?
Kalisto and the new champion are sublime in the ring together, and their match back in April helped sell fans on 205 Live heading into a new era. That match shouldn’t be forgotten when ranking the best bouts of 2018 in the Cruiserweight Division, and it’s a reminder that seeing these two fight it out for the championship would be a delight.
Murphy can work so many different styles and is willing to do anything to sell or the tell the right story, and we do get to see an additional layer to his game when he faces the electrifying Kalisto. I hope we get to see that during what should be a stellar title reign for Murphy.