Ikemen Jiro def. Grayson Waller
Much to the surprise of everyone (including Ikemen Jiro), Grayson Waller offered a handshake to his opponent at the onset of the match and actually allowed Jiro to shake his hand without incident. When Jiro offered a handshake of his own moments later, however, Waller was quick to shove his opponent in the face.
Waller’s aggression continued when he planted Jiro into the ringside floor and folded him up like an accordion around the ring post.
Jiro, who recently competed in the NXT Breakout Tournament, fought through the pain and locked Waller in the tarantula as an homage to his trainer, Tajiri.
And after narrowly kicking out of a stunner, Jiro clocked Waller with a wicked enzuigiri for the 1-2-3.
Drake Maverick def. Asher Hale
You’ll forgive Drake Maverick for soaking in the moment and emotionally flailing his arms to fire up the WWE Universe before his match against Asher Hale. For the first time in nearly a year, the loveable underdog competed in a singles bout on 205 Live, the brand he led to prosperity during his tenure as General Manager from 2017 to 2019.
Hale seeming didn’t care about any of that, as he took down his smaller foe with a suplex before arrogantly lounging on the top rope and mocking the fans, who responded with jeers and chants at the new-attitude grappler.
Hale targeted Maverick’s neck on multiple occasions, smashing it into the middle turnbuckle, slamming it on the ring apron and twisting it with his legs.
Despite wincing in agony for significant portions of the match, Maverick dodged a hard-charging Hale to buy himself a reprieve, dropped him with a bulldog, landed a crossbody from the top rope and earned the win with Sliced Bread.