WWE Top 5 Matches Of The Week: Rhea Ripley Owns NXT UK

205 Live: Gran Metalik vs. TJP

An honorable mention has to go to the other big 205 Live match between Tony Nese and Noam Dar, but I liked this one between TJP and Gran Metalik a little bit more.

We don’t often see Metalik in singles competition, but he always delivers. For as good as Lince Dorado and Kalisto are (and they are quite good), Metalik is the most gifted member of Lucha House Party in between those ropes. They don’t call him the “King of the Ropes” for nothing.

As for TJP, he’s a magnet for criticism, but whenever he’s in the ring on 205 Live, he delivers. The man is always trying something new in the ring, and it’s hard not to respect that aspect of his game. You can tell he wants to leave the crowd buzzing about something, and while it doesn’t always land, the effort is surely appreciated.

There was a fantastic sequence where Metalik evaded TJP with his speed, leapt up onto the ropes, somehow kept his balance as he walked, and then went for a missile dropkick. But TJP scouted it, caught Metalik, and put him in a cloverleaf.

It was fun to juxtapose the different gameplans that TJP and Metalik had, with TJP being able to compete with Metalik technically but being unable to match Metalik’s speed and agility, having to counter Metalik whenever he went for a top-rope move.

The post-match angle with Maria Kanellis and Mike Kanellis was just as good, and I think I’ll be hearing Maria’s bloody screams in my nightmares (along with Lio Rush’s “Lashley!”).