WWE returns to the WWE Network this evening with this week’s edition of 205 Live immediately following the Royal Rumble 2021 go-home edition of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX.
This week’s installment of the purple brand program will feature more action from the 2021 NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament, as Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart take on the team of Marina Shafir & Zoey Stark.
Also on tap for this week’s Cruiserweight themed television show is Jake Atlas going one-on-one against August Grey.
Featured below are complete WWE 205 Live results for Friday, January 29, 2021.
WWE 205 LIVE RESULTS (1/29/2021)
This week’s edition of WWE 205 Live kicks off with video highlights of the inaugural NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament kicking off two weeks ago on WWE NXT. The video follows the women’s Dusty Classic through last week’s 205 Live and also includes highlights from this week’s episode of WWE NXT from two nights ago.
From there, we see a look at the updated brackets for the women’s Dusty Classic, with a graphic then airing to show the final match in the first round of the tourney coming to a close on tonight’s purple brand program.
Then we enter inside the Capitol Wrestling Center where we hear Vic Joseph welcome us to this week’s edition of WWE 205 Live as the theme music for our first competitor in our triple-threat opener begins playing.
Jake Atlas vs. August Grey vs. Ariya Daivari
As Jake Atlas’ music plays and he begins making his way down to the ring for this week’s opening contest, the camera pans over to the commentary table where the aforementioned Joseph and his broadcast partner, Nigel McGuinness, explain how the originally advertised “first-time ever one-on-one” showdown between Jake Atlas and August Grey was changed after Ariya Daivari got involved on social media.
From there, August Grey’s music hits and out he comes with a ton of energy, as Joseph talks about his colorful vest/jacket that he is wearing to the ring. Finally, Ariya Daivari’s music hits and he comes out and poses on the top-rope as we get ready for our first of two matches on this week’s show.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this triple-threat bout. The trio immediately trade some pre-match trash-talk and then get right down to business. Daivari is dumped out on the floor early on and Grey hits a big dive to take him out from the ring. This leaves Grey and Atlas in the ring alone to duke it out by themselves as they were orignally scheduled to do in the first place until Daivari climbs to the top-rope from the floor and dives. The two then simply step aside and Daivari crashes and burns.
This allows Atlas and Grey to go back to work against each other, as Atlas takes Grey into the corner and blasts him with chops and kicks before whipping him into the opposite corner to do the same. Daivari comes up from behind and hits a super kick on Atlas before bringing Grey off the top-rope the hard way. He goes for a cover on each guy but only gets a count of two on Atlas and one on Grey.
Daivari throws Atlas out of the ring and steam-rolls Grey for a near fall attempt. He then whips Atlas into the corner with great emphasis as soon as he returns to the ring, before sending him right back out to the floor on the opposite side of the ring. He slaps a rear chin lock on Grey in the middle of the ring and the fans inside the CWC rally behind Grey, which brings him to life as he belly-to-back suplexes his way out of the aforementioned hold. Atlas rolls in the ring and tries to steal the pinfall as Grey recovers, however Grey notices at the last moment and breaks the pin up.
From there, Grey and Atlas go back to work on each other with Atlas getting the better of the exchange. Daivari recovers and gets back in control of the offense, grounding Atlas before going to work on Grey in the corner with chops. He picks Atlas back up and sends him into the ropes before loweing his head into a big kick from Atlas, who follows up with a nice drop kick for good measure. Atlas is sent to the floor, leaving Grey alone in the ring to turn up the violence volume on Daivari. He walks the top rope and turns his footing before flying off with a huge cross body splash. Atlas returns in the ring but Grey turns him inside-out for a near fall that Daivari breaks up just in time.
After Grey is sent to the floor to leave Daivari and Atlas alone in the ring to duke it out, all three guys end up clashing for a free-for-all brawl that concludes with Atlas being sent to the floor and Daivari hitting a picture-perfect frog splash on Grey off the top rope, that Grey somehow kicks out of the follow-up pin attempt to. All hell breaks loose among all three again, including a nice brainbuster from Atlas to Grey and a nice follow-up dive from Atlas to Daivari on the floor. Grey ends up killing Atlas momentum and grounding him before climbing to the top-rope. Daivari grabs Grey’s legs but Grey kicks him off and walks the top-rope, turning his footing and flying off onto Daivari on the floor. He goes back in the ring but is cut-off by Atlas who hoists him up for a suplex that Grey rolls into a pin attempt of his own. Atlas kicks out, however.
Atlas turns up the noise on Grey and then grounds him. He climbs to the top-rope and hits his trademark cartwheel DDT off-the-top-rope. He tries for the pin but can’t finish him off as Daivari pulls him to the floor and decks him with brass knuckles. He re-enters the ring and takes out Grey with a hammerlock lariat for the pinfall victory in an excellent opening contest here on this week’s 205 Live.
Winner: Ariya Daivari
On WWE NXT Next Week …
After some commercials for this Sunday’s WWE Royal Rumble 2021 pay-per-view and an ad for the special WWE Backstage On FS1 return episode featuring the on-air comeback of Renee Young, we head back to the broadcast for a highlight package of the Curt Stallion interview segment from this week’s WWE NXT show, and highlights of him being attacked later in the evening.
The video package then shows Legado Del Fantasma being confronted by William Regal about Stallion’s attack and then informing him that next week Santos Escobar will defend his title against Curt Stallion, vowing that if Stallion gets attacked again there will be some serious consequences.
We return to Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness running down their thoughts on the Escobar-Stallion title match and the semifinals match from the NXT Dusty Classic women’s tourney on next week’s WWE NXT show.
NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament (First Round)
Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Marina Shafir & Zoey Stark
Finally, we re-enter the CWC live as the Judo master Marina Shafir and Zoey Stark make their way out and down to the squared circle for our second of two matches on this week’s purple brand program, as we get ready for the final match in the 2021 NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament opening round.
Out next are their opponents for this opening round bout in the first-ever women’s edition of the Dusty Classic, the team of Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart. They settle into the ring and the bell sounds to kick off this week’s main event.
The commentators speculate who will start for their respective teams, and it ends up being Blackheart and Stark. Stark ends up out-powering Blackheart early on, who appears surprised. She then calls out Moon and Blackheart obliges, tagging her in. She charges at Stark and both go for a dropkick and meet in the middle.
Stark then takes over, scooping Moon up and walking her across the ring before slamming her down with authority in her own corner. She then tags in Shafir, who picks up where she left off, taking it to Moon to continue their surprising dominating start. Shafir ends up hitting a nice Judo throw that sends Moon flying through the air and crashing down to the canvas.
McGuinness talks about Shafir’s past working out and befriending Ronda Rousey as she continues to dominate and then tags Stark back in. The two hit a nice double-team spot on Moon before Shafir settles on the ring apron and Stark goes back to work on Moon. Shafir is tagged back in and she goes back to work, controlling Moon on the ground. She gets up and punks her out by slapping her, and this enrages Moon, and offers her a free shot before turning up the crazy meter a few notches and going to work on her. She delivers the same punishment to Stark when she tries jumping in.
Blackheart is tagged in and she goes to work on Shafir, picking up where Moon left off. She hits a nice reverse sling-blade as Joseph talks about Blackheart being hard to stop once she gets going. The refere is distracted and doesn’t see Stark get in a cheap shot from behind on Blackheart. This allows Shafir to take back over control of the offense before she makes her way over to tag Stark back in. Stark grounds Blackheart and goes to work on her arm, focusing her attack on the limb before tagging Shafir back in the match. They hit some nice double-team action and then Shafir goes to work on the same arm of Blackheart.
A nice Go To Stark knee from Stark nearly sets up the pinfall victory for her team, however Blackheart manages to stay alive and keep her team in this one. Shafir is back in and she goes to work on Blackheart some more, now focusing a bit of her attack on the leg of Shotzi. Blackheart ends up blasting Shafir in the temple with a kick and both ladies are down, crawling to their respective corners. Each make the tag.
Stark and Moon come in, with the latter coming in a bit more fired up as she begins a big comeback sequence for her team. She takes out Stark with a nice suplex and screams out a war cry before snap-maring her down and hopping up to the middle-rope. She flies off with a nice spot with a double knees to the rib-cage shot for a near fall attempt that is broken up. Now things start to break down as chaos is all around the CWC with Moon and Stark going at it in the ring and Blackheart and Shafir battling outside the ring. Moon ends up locking in her submission finisher on Stark, who ends up tapping out. With the victory, Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart advance to the next round of the first-ever NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament.
Winners and ADVANCING in the 2021 NXT Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag-Team Classic Tournament: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart
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