The WWE’s Cruiserweight division is on display once again, as it is time for this week’s installment of WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network.
Set for this week’s purple brand program is the first-ever women’s match in WWE 205 Live history, as action from the first-ever NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament, as Gigi Dolin & Cora Jade vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell takes place tonight.
Additionally, Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari team up to take on Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher in the men’s NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic Tournament.
Featured below are complete WWE 205 Live results from Friday, January 22, 2021.
WWE 205 LIVE RESULTS (1/22/2021)
This week’s edition of WWE 205 Live kicks off on the WWE Network with a special recap video showing highlights of the first-ever NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic kicking off on WWE NXT this past Wednesday night, as well as highlights from the latest action in the 2021 NXT Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament from this past Wednesday night’s show.
Then we see highlights explaining Karrion Kross injuring some tourney competitors and how that resulted in some changes to the lineup in the tourney, as well as a recap of Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher Fight Pit bout and how they teamed up afterwards to fill in one of the open spots.
Once that wrapped up, we are welcomed inside the Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida by the two-man commentary team of Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness as the theme song for the purple brand program plays as the camera pans over to Joseph and McGuinness who provide further details on the aforementioned changes documented in the recap video packages that kicked off the broadcast.
NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament
Gigi Dolin & Cora Jade vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell
From there, we head to the entrance stage where the theme music for Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell plays as the duo make their way down to the squared circle for this historic first-ever women’s match in WWE 205 Live.
Their opponents’ theme music plays and out comes the duo of Gigi Dolin and Cora Jade. They make their way down to the ring and action from the NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament is about to get underway as our first of two scheduled matches here on this week’s show.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with our opening bout of the evening here inside the CWC. Hartwell and Jade kick things off for their respective teams. Jade establishes the early offensive advantage and then she tags out. Dolin comes in however she finds herself on the defensive immediately, as Hartwell gets in her first offense in the bout and then tags in LeRae.
LeRae comes in and takes over briefly, however Jade tags back in and gets in some offense. LeRae then turns the tables on her and takes back over control of the bout, working over Jade’s arm on the mat before sending her into the corner with authority. She follows in for a splash and then tags Hartwell back in.
Hartwell puts a three-quarter nelson on Jade however the crowd rallies behind Jade and she fires up and gets back into the mix offensively in the contest. Hartwell cuts her attempts short, however, and then LeRae is tagged back in. LeRae puts her knee into the middle of Jade’s spine and then pulls back on her chin while having her grounded on the mat.
Back on their feet, Jade runs into a couple of back elbows from LeRae, however she then fights back and makes the tag. Dolin comes back in after taking the hot tag and she is taking out everything moving, as she puts it on Hartwell and LeRae in back-to-back fashion before going for a near fall on Hartwell, who also tagged back into the bout. After having a nice offensive run, Dolin tags Jade back in. The two go for a double suplex on Hartwell, however she blocks it and gets rid of Jade before hitting a nice suplex on Dolin.
Both ladies make the tags to their respective partners, leading to some back-and-forth pin attempts by each girl until out of nowhere, Hartwell scores the pinfall and picks up the victory for her team. With the win, Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell advance to the next round of the first-ever NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament.
Winners and ADVANCING in the NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic: Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell
NXT Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament
Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher
After a couple of commercials and a quick plug for some matches scheduled for next Wednesday night’s edition of WWE NXT on the USA Network, we head back inside the CWC as we prepare for our main event of the evening.
On that note the theme music of our first team hits the house speakers as out comes “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari. As they make their way down to the ring, the commentary team of Joseph and McGuinness talk about how they are the favorites in this match considering their veteran experience as a duo.
From there, Timothy Thatcher’s music hits and he makes his way down to the squared circle by himself. Out next is his partner this evening, and his recent Fight Pit opponent, Tommaso Ciampa. As Ciampa makes his way down to the ring, the announcers talk about how Thatcher and Ciampa recently did battle inside the Fight Pit and then out of respect, decided to team together for this opportunity tonight.
The bell sounds and we see Daivari and Thatcher kicking things off for their respective teams. Thatcher goes behind Daivari and snatches him up with a chin-lock. He turns it into a side head lock and takes Daivari down to the mat. He tries to grind him down to the mat with his old-school, throwback-style of mat wrestling and thus far it is effective, as Daivari works his way back to his feet after a while, but it almost immediately taken back down.
This time Thatcher settles into a surf board submission hold. Daivari escapes but Thatcher slaps a front face-lock right back on him to remain in the offensive control position in the match. Finally, Daivari makes a blind tag to Nese that Thatcher wasn’t aware of. This gives “The Premier Athlete” the ability to get the surprise jump on Thatcher, however within seconds Thatcher has him grounded and is controlling him with grappling while isolating his arm.
He takes Nese over to his corner of the ring and controls his arm and simply stares at Ciampa as he reaches his hand out looking for a tag. Finally, Thatcher obliges and in comes Ciampa, who picks up where Thatcher left off, taking it to Nese with ease and dominating the action. Nese finally turns the tables and makes the tag to Daivari. From the floor, Nese interferes and Daivari smartly capitalizes. The action continues on the floor until finally we see Daivari resume his beatdown of Ciampa in the ring.
Daivari starts to focus his attack on the leg of Ciampa, which has been softened up a bit at this point. Now he capitalizes on that by slapping a figure-four leg lock on him. Nese comes over and gets Thatcher to try and come into the ring, which ties the referee up and allows Daivari to pull Ciampa back into his corner of the ring where he squeezes down tighter on the figure four leg lock. The duo of Nese and Daivari continue to run game behind the referees back to their advantage until finally, Thatcher makes the hot tag.
Thatcher comes into the ring like a man possessed and is taking out any-and-everything that moves until finally some double-team action from the more experienced duo leads to Nese hitting a near-finisher on Thatcher that turns the offensive momentum into his team’s favor. Daivari is in now and he hits a near finisher on Thatcher for a close near fall. Nese tags in but Thatcher pushes him away with his legs and finally makes the tag to Ciampa. Ciampa starts taking on both Nese and Daivari until Nese dropkicks his softened up leg to take his vertical base away.
Nese and Daivari each hop on the top-rope and look to hit a double-team high-spot on Ciampa, however Thatcher hits the ring to make the save. Ciampa ends up hitting his off-the-middle rope finisher and scores the pinfall victory. With the win, Ciampa and Thatcher advance in the NXT Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament.
Winners and ADVANCING in the NXT Dusty Rhodes Men’s Tag-Team Classic: Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher