You know, Neville’s new King of the Cruiserweights gimmick really should feel silly. I mean, really, how many kings has the WWE had? And I know he’s not technically supposed to be the royal sort of king, but the moniker kind of works in that sense, too. In addition to being a king in the sense that he’s claiming to be the best, Neville kind of has the whole warrior-king thing going on. He’s become the face of 205 Live, WWE’s cruiserweight brand. And a good thing, too, because 205 Live was in danger of becoming the brand with great wrestling but pretty weak storylines.
This new Neville thing began, of course, at Roadblock: End of the Line in December. After a neat triple threat match between TJ Perkins, The Brian Kendrick, and Rich Swann, Neville came out to congratulate Swann, who had just retained his title. Neville hadn’t been seen at all in nearly two months, and had been barely used since he was injured in July. He got a pretty good pop, but made short work of Swann, getting right down to the business of beating him up.
In an interview package before the Neville vs. Swann match for the cruiserweight championship at the Royal Rumble, Neville could be seen saying, “In life, the monsters win.” Great line, and one that really sold me on the guy. For one thing, it’s realistic enough. You can believe that a man would turn to the dark side after coming to a sort of epiphany like this. We, the audience, know it’s a misguided philosophy (or is it?), but Neville is convincing in his delusions. I mean, it’s not exactly true that the monsters win, not all the time at least. But these days, it seems as though the monsters are winning more than ever. Neville is English, of course, but to my American eyes he seems the physical and philosophical embodiment of the wanna-be ubermensch Trump era. This is all unintentional, of course. Linda McMahon is, after all, an actual part of the administration. But this kind of nihilistic character is easily identified with, whatever symbolism you project onto it.
Neville’s Royal Rumble match against Rich Swann was great, of course. Swann started the match out with some aerial stuff but Neville slowed things down after he took control. Neville’s heel work is methodical, vicious. He looks really goddamn tough as he pushes people around, taking pleasure in destroying them. Swann was able to rally for a bit, hitting a vicious looking 450 splash onto Neville outside of the ring. Swann lost, of course, but looked great doing it.
The next big match for Neville was at Fastlane earlier this month. His fight with Jack Gallagher was easily the match of the night. Not that the event was exactly stacked with great matches, but this one might have stolen the show even if it was on a better card. As it stands, this was easily the match of the night.
I was quite excited for this match. The high flyer vs. the brawler. Neat. Good build, too. In the lead up to the match, Neville called Gallagher, a fellow Englishman, a “caricature” and “sideshow,” which, sure, is true enough, but in the bizarro world of professional wrestling, Gallagher, a “gentleman” throwback, wax mustache and all, fits in just fine.
The match was nicely paced. From start to finish, both men looked great. Neville’s stalking style and Gallagher’s grappler style worked well together. At one point, a giant superplex made it look as though Gallagher killed Neville. Hey, the guy is pretty damn good at looking dead, making his opponents look good in the process.
The March 21st episode of 205 Live was proof, if we needed any, that Neville can put on a good match, even a great match, outside of pay-per-view. His match against Mustafa Ali was damn good, and even lasted a little longer than the Fastlane match, which kind of makes sense since 205 Live is an all cruiserweight show and we wouldn’t want a pay-per-view to get bogged down in actual wrestling by talented people.
The match was one of those weird situations where it was supposed to build a pay-per-view match, in this case, Neville vs. Austin Aries at WrestleMania, by featuring the opponent on commentary. I get it. Easy way to get two rivals close enough to taunt each other or get into a physical confrontation. Still a little lazy, though. I can’t wait for the Austin Aries vs. Neville match at WrestleMania, and in fact it’s one of the few matches I’m really excited about. But, goddamn, they kept cutting to Aries’ reaction shots during the match, which made no sense to me since there was a damn good match going on. Ali did some top rope flippy stuff (a springboard Spanish fly, one of the commentators called it), which temporarily turned the tide of the match in his favor. Neville got some top rope stuff of his own in a little later, in the form of a giant top rope superplex. Ali fell straight on his face and the move looked freaking brutal. But Neville sold the move as if it took a lot out of him, too. Later, outside the ring, Ali did his best corpse imitation as Neville dragged him by the wrist in front of the commentary table and stared directly into Austin Aries’ eyes. Warrior king, indeed.
I guess it’s not saying a lot, but Austin Aries vs. Neville definitely has the potential to steal the show at Wrestlemania. Maybe it could have used a better “big match” kind of high-stakes build, but the in-ring work will no-doubt make up for any storytelling shortcomings.
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