Cedric Alexander Punches His WrestleMania Ticket

At what point will everyone just accept how good 205 Live is?

Last night’s episode of WWE‘s most exciting hour capped off with the first semi-finals match-up for the vacant WWE Cruiserweight Championship in what was easily the match of the week so far. 205 Live‘s ‘Uncrowned Champion’ Cedric Alexander faced off against the tournament’s Cinderella story in Roderick Strong – although I don’t recall Cinderella trying to break everyone’s back in the fairytale…

Both men have been incredible throughout this tournament, seeing off their respective competition in hard-fought but decisive bouts. The clash they had with each other, however, was simply on another level entirely.

Highlighting how much they both want the opportunity at WrestleMania 34 to fight for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, each played to a narrative that they had truly studied their opponent. Strong reversing Alexander’s patented ‘Neuralyzer’ – a handspring enzuigiri – with a fierce dropkick as well as both men having the wherewithal to get a foot on the bottom rope after each finishing move particularly stood out.

Crowd chants of “Let’s go Rodrick” intertwined with slightly higher-pitched chants of “Let’s go Cedric” rang out for a large portion of the match and it was certainly worth the admiration.

Finally, after some extremely violent looking strikes and some hard-to-watch backbreaker spots, Alexander fluked an incredibly desperate roll up for the pin and scurried to the ropes like he’d just got away with murder. Many people generally take umbrage with this type of finish but the story of the match could not have lead to a better closing sequence.

Strong looked legitimately angry and was near to tears as his WrestleMania dreams slipped through his fingers. He soon gave the victor a look of respect and rolled out graciously without even slightly cracking a smile. Take note, Seth! Be angrier that Roman threw you out of the Royal Rumble!

After the match, “You deserve it!” chants filled the arena as Alexander respectfully stated that:

“I didn’t deserve it, I earned it!”

The sentiment was slightly soured by AJ Styles having replied in exactly the same way during the opening segment of Smackdown Live earlier in the night but is undeniably true all the same.

Cedric Alexander has cemented his road to WrestleMania 34, and next week, the remaining semi-final between Mustafa Ali and Drew Gulak will decide who he’ll have to try and walk through to finally claim the WWE Cruiserweight Championship that has eluded him since the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016.

• WrestleMania 34
• 205 live
• Cedric Alexander
• Cruiserweight
• drew gulak
• mustafa ali
• Roderick Strong
• WWE Cruiserweight Championship
• WrestleMania
• Drake Maverick
• wwe

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