As a result of winning a gauntlet match on 205 Live last night, Kalisto will face Cedric Alexander for the title in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday.
The gauntlet match as a whole was a lot of fun with a great mix of action and storytelling, though I question Kalisto as the winner when Mustafa Ali or Drew Gulak have more to offer Alexander. Both continue to do well in their respective roles with Ali as the heart & soul of the Cruiserweight Division while Gulak shines as an aggressive and calculating heel. My guess is that they simply decided to go for an overall faster paced match for the show due to an energetic pace Kalisto would bring and maybe they wanted to save a rematch with Ali or a bout with Gulak for another time.
In Ali's case, I also thought WWE's decision not to go with him may have been more strategic in that maybe there'd be issues of Ali, a wrestler of Pakistani descent, wrestled in Saudi Arabia. I didn't know if there were any issues between the two nations or if there was a history of antagonism between them so I did a little research and discovered that relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are quite close. Saudi Arabia is probably Pakistan's closest ally when it comes to Pakistan's troubles with India.
I see little chance of Alexander dropping the title to Kalisto as Alexander dropping the title so soon, in my eyes, undoes a lot of what the months long tournament to crown a new champion at WrestleMania was all about. The match should be solid, it might even be better than what I'm expecting, but Alexander should retain.
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