WWE: Ranking The Top Five 205 Live Matches Of 2018

1. Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy No Disqualification, July 3

Though Buddy Murphy’s first Pay Per View title defense – and the first main card title defense of the Cruiserweight Championship in 2018 –came against Mustafa Ali and was a barnburner, their No Disqualification match on 205 Live four months earlier was that much better.

Ali’s had excellent stipulation matches with Drew Gulak and Hideo Itami in his 205 career, but this bout against Murphy was the best of the bunch. These two were meant for each other, as Murphy has the strength advantage and can brutalize Ali, but he’s also quick enough to keep up with Ali in the ring. More importantly, Murphy is a giving opponent who can match Ali creatively, and they have truly special chemistry in the ring together.

Building off of their prior encounter in the Cruiserweight Tournament, in which Ali won to reach the finals by the skin of his teeth, Murphy wanted nothing more than to destroy Ali in this brutal match as revenge for his tournament loss. Though both competitors were 1-1 heading into this grudge match, they were also on a path to the title, with Ali seemingly having more to prove due to the more recent nature of Murphy’s No. 1 contendership victory.

Instead, Ali proved to be more than Murphy thought he could handle, and this No Disqualification showed the WWE Universe two things. Firstly, it demonstrated that Ali’s previous win was more than just a plucky babyface fluke, and, secondly, it showed that Ali can also thrive in brutal stipulation matches; he’s more than just a high-flier or technical wizard…he can bring the pain with a monster.

Ali bagged the victory with a nasty Tornado DDT (his version of this move is one of the sweetest I’ve seen) off the steps, and the whole match can be summed up as “nasty”. As with Ali’s match against Itami, this No DQ bout perfectly told a story around the stipulation, and that seems to be a trademark of Ali’s stipulation matches (he’s had three in his career).

But what set this match apart from the others was Murphy, whose character work inside the ring as a heel is among the best in WWE. He helped make Ali’s win feel even more special, and Murphy’s heel work often seems selfless in nature, since he does such a good job of putting the babyface over.