The Cruiserweight division will be on display for the WWE Universe this evening, as this week’s edition of WWE 205 Live goes down tonight.
Streaming live via Peacock and the WWE Network from the Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida immediately following the WWE Friday Night SmackDown on FOX broadcast, this week’s purple brand program is scheduled to feature two exciting singles matches.
On tap for the purple brand program this evening is Jake Atlas against “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese, as well as one-on-one action pitting Ashante “Thee” Adonis against “The Persian Prince” Ariya Daivari.
Featured below are complete results of the Friday, March 19, 2021 episode of WWE 205 Live.
WWE 205 LIVE RESULTS (3/19/2021)
The usual traditional signature opening video kicks off this week’s edition of the purple brand program. From there, we head inside the CWC in Orlando, FL. where Vic Joseph welcomes us to this week’s show.
Ariya Daivari vs. Ashante “Thee” Adonis
After that, we hear the familiar sounds of the entrance theme of “The Persian Prince” Ariya Daivari. He makes his way down to the ring as Vic is shown on camera for the first time of the show. He introduces his pal from NXT, Wade Barrett, who is seated beside him, filling in for Nigel McGuinness on commentary this week.
As Daivari settles into the ring, his music fades down and then the theme song of Ashante “Thee” Adonis plays as he makes his way down to the ring, with style, as Joseph asks for Barrett’s thoughts on the talent in 205 Live these days.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with our first of two advertised matches here on WWE 205 Live. The two lock-up and quickly Adonis slaps a side head-lock on Daivari. Daivari shoves Adonis off and into the ropes, however Ashante shoulder-blocks him down to the mat with authority.
Back up, Daivari goes back at Adonis with another attempt at putting together some offensive momentum here in the early goings, however it is again Adonis who is faring better coming out of the gate. He isolates the left arm of Daivari and goes to work on it, which Joseph points out on commentary. He whips Daivari into the corner and follows him in with a big shot.
He goes to do the same thing on the other side of the ring, however Daivari side-steps him as he sprinted in for a follow-up shot. This shifts the offensive momentum into the favor of “The Persian Prince” for the first time in the contest. The veteran wastes no time putting it on his less experienced opposition.
Adonis shows some signs of life, hitting Daivari with a dropkick, however when he headed up to the top-rope afterwards, Daivari quickly ran over and bumpd into him, crotching him on the top turnbuckle.
When he gets back to his feet, Daivari goes to follow-up on the attack, however Adonis immediately fires up and fights back. The two exchange strikes, with Daivari shouting out at Adonis with each shot, however it is Adonis who again pulls into the offensive lead. He goes back to work on Daivari, widening the offensive gap into his favor and heading back to the top-rope. This time he hits a nice flying cross-body into a cover, but Daivari kicks out at two.
Now we see Adonis stalking Daivari, shouting at him to get up. He looks for the Long Kiss Goodnight, however Daivari senses it coming and rolls out to the floor to avoid it and buy himself some time to recover. Adonis tries to capitalize and the action resumes in the ring where he continues to go to work on Daivari until Daivari hits a drop kick on the knee of Adonis. He follows that up with the Hammerlock Lariat and a cover. He seemed to have Adonis finished off, however he purposely pulled his head up himself to stop the count before the referee hit the mat for the third time.
He soaks in the response from the surprised fans and then taunts Adonis a bit before heading up to the top-rope. He comes flying off with a nice splash off the top and covers Adonis in arrogant fashion, however Adonis stuns Daivari by reversing the pin and holding on for the three count to steal the victory away from “The Persian Prince” at the very last moment.
Winner: Ashante “Thee” Adonis
Recap Of Devlin-Escobar Title Unification Match Set-Up On NXT
We see a couple of ads for WrestleMania 37 tickets going on sale as we take a quick break in between matches. Afterwards, we head back live inside the CWC where Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett talk about WrestleMania 37 tickets.
Now they move on to their weekly segment recapping some of the highlights from this past Wednesday night’s edition of WWE NXT, which saw Jordan Devlin confronting and sneak-attacking Santos Escobar over who the real Cruiserweight Championship in his return appearance, leading to their match to unify the titles at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver being announced.
Jake Atlas vs. Tony Nese
Once they wrap up their black-and-gold brand business, Joseph and Barrett switch gears, turning their attention to tonight’s main event as the entrance theme for Jake Atlas plays as he makes his way down to the squared circle for our second of two advertised matches here on WWE 205 Live.
With Atlas settled into the ring, his music fades down and then the familiar sounds of Tony Nese’s music plays as “The Premier Athlete” makes his way out, counting his ab muscles and beginning his walk down to the ring as the fans boo and the commentators once again mention WrestleMania 37 tickets being on sale for next month’s two-night extravaganza.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with our final bout of the evening here on this week’s purple brand program. Atlas and Nese circle each other and then lock-up and get this one started.
Atlas pulls ahead into the early offensive lead coming out of the gate, taking the veteran down to the mat and controlling him. He focuses his attack on the arm of Nese early on, isolating the limb and yanking away on it as he controls the body of his foe as the commentary duo sing his praises.
Nese shows his first signs of life, cutting Atlas off in mid-attack and getting in a shot of his own, however Atlas puts Nese right back in the arm-lock. Again Nese eventually escapes and fights his way back into the action, but again this only lasts for literally a couple of seconds until Atlas locks Nese’s arm right back up and pulls away on it.
This time, Nese makes it to the ropes, which brings the ref in to force Atlas to break the hold. As he does, Nese gets in a cheap shot behind the ref’s back, which completely shifts the offensive momentum into his favor for the first time in the bout. Nese takes Atlas out to the floor at ringside and widens the gap in terms of his offensive lead, pounding away on Atlas and smashing him back-first into the hard ring apron.
“The Premier Athlete” takes Atlas back into the ring to add to his onslaught as the commentators point out that Nese appears to be favoring his left arm following the early attack by his younger opposition. Nese grounds Atlas and puts him in a leg-scissor type of submission and squeezes away at the ribs and lower back of his opponent as the fans try to rally behind him to get him back into competitive form in this match.
Finally, Atlas escapes. He goes to fire up on offense, however Nese catches him with a shot that stops him dead in his tracks. Seconds later, Atlas blasts an unexpected Nese with a big super kick to the dome. Atlas sends Nese out to the floor, however on his way back in, Nese regains his offensive control over Atlas. He kicks away at the lower back of a grounded Atlas as the fans chant “Tony sucks! Tony sucks!” Nese grounds Atlas again and puts him back in the same body-scissors lock with his legs that he had in him earlier in the bout.
Nese hits a back suplex on Atlas. From there, Atlas starts to make his fired up comeback. He blasts Nese with repeated shots and then goes for a tornado DDT off of the ropes in the corner, however Nese reverses it and slams Atlas down face-first into the mat. Nese gets Atlas up in a Lex Luger style Torture Rack, however Atlas ultimately escapes out the back door and hits a nice brainbuster on Nese to shift the offensive momentum into his favor.
Atlas shows a burst of energy, slamming Nese down repeatedly. He blasts him with a kick to the jaw and follows that up with a standing moonsault for a near fall. Atlas spends some time selling his ribs and lower back due to the attack from Nese throughout the match. He goes to follow back up, hitting a knee-lift from the ring apron outside the ropes. He leap-frogs in but Nese stops him and hits a leapfrog moonsault off the ropes in the corner for a pin attempt, however Atlas kicks out and hangs on, keeping this match alive.
On their knees, Nese and Atlas go nose-to-nose as “The Premier Athlete” gets in his face and yells at him that he’ll never be anything. This only fires up Atlas, who punches away at Nese. The pace picks up and the intensity increases as these two both look to finish off the other. They are going shot for shot, counter for counter. Atlas goes to the top rope and hits a beautiful cartwheel DDT for a pin fall victory. Great match.
With that match in the rear view mirror, Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett recap some of the action from the match as highlights are shown. Afterwards we see Atlas still celebrating the biggest victory of his young career on the top-rope as Nese stares him down, talking trash at the top of the entrance ramp as this week’s purple brand program goes off the air. Thanks for joining us here for our live coverage of the show and make sure to stop by again next Friday night for our WWE 205 Live results coverage.
Winner: Jake Atlas