This Week in the Universe #2

Last week we saw all 4 of WWE's weekly shows deliver decent in ring action as well as some great promo segments. With Money in the Bank days away and Great Balls of Fire on the horizon, how would WWE fare this week with RAW, Smackdown Live, 205 Live and NXT?

Oh Dear Raw....Oh Dear. Basically watch the first 15 minutes then just watch the rest on Youtube if you want because this was really bad. The Main event between Sheamus & Cesaro and The Hardy Boyz had been hyped up all night and then the match had a countout finish. I guess there will be a rematch at Great Balls of Fire but this feud is strating to drag a bit in my opinion. Emma made her return which was awesome but then she took the fall in a 6 woman tag match. What?! Please put Emma on Smackdown where she might actually get treated properly! It looks like Sasha Banks will be the next challenger to Alexa Bliss which could be really good. There was a few amusing segments involving Heath Slater & Rhyno, The Miz, Dean Ambrose and a...bear but nothing that really stood out. The Titus Brand Vs Kalisto stuff is getting really old but at least adding Akira Tozawa to the mix is a bit more interesting. The mysteries involving Kurt Angle & Corey Graves and who is attacking Enzo & Cass continue to be interesting but it didn't really advance a whole lot this week. Bray Wyatt & Seth Rollins delivered a fairly basic back and forth promo which hopefully will improve in the coming weeks. The only segment worth watching was the opening which to be fair was really good. The presence of Brock Lesnar is always going to make any segment more interesting and Paul Heyman continues to be the best hype man in the buisness. Samoa Joe came down and almost immediately went after Lesnar. This lead to a great pull apart brawl involving a good chunk of the locker room where Joe got the chance to get some good shots in on Lesnar. This made me even more hyped for the Great Balls of Fire match than I already was! No Finn Balor again this week and surprisingly no Roman Reigns which is very weird.

Smackdown Live in comparison was I thought a very entertaining show from start to finish. Both multi-man tag matches were really good and the main event had a really exciting finish with Zayn showing even more heart and pluck than usual! Both Women's matches were good too considering they weren't given alot of time and Lana got the chance to deliver a new finishing move and deliver a confident promo. The New Day's New Orleans inspired entrance was fantastic and The Fashion Files was once again hilarious. Jinder Mahal delivered a really good promo leading to a brilliant sneak RKO attack from Randy Orton. Was really good to see Zack Ryder back and it looks like The Hype Bros will be teaming up again. It could be interesting because I've heard rumblings of Zack turning heel on Mojo we shall wait and see. Overall I felt like Smackdown Live this week made far better use of their time this week than RAW did with much less filler and better booking in my opinion. Money in the Bank has the potential to be a very good show and I'm hopeful they can deliver after RAW delivered a very good Extreme Rules show a couple weeks ago.

This was the second time I have watched 205 Live and although there wasn't a fantastic match like last week I thought it was a generally entertaining show overall. I'm a big fan of the commentary team of Vic Joseph & Corey Graves I think they work well together. Cedric Alexander Vs Ariya Daivari was a good match with Daivari getting to show some real aggression. Why they are still continuing this feud between Cedric, Noam Dar and Alicia Fox is beyond me! Akira Tozawa Vs TJP was a good main event and they continued Tozawa's momentum seemingly towards a title match with Neville. Austin Aries announced he is going away for a bit to heal up, which lead to Tony Nese coming up to insult Aries. Jack Gallagher came out to defend Aries and it looks like we have Nese Vs Gallagher next week. We got some great promos for Mustafa Ali & Drew Gulak who will face each other next week which should be good.

WWE NXT this week was a very typical NXT weekly show in my opinion. We got to see 3 squash matches with Drew McIntyre continuing to murder people. Authors of Pain got into a stare down with Heavy Machinery after destroying some jobbers. The Velveteen Dream was ok but its still early to tell whether his gimmick will catch fire. I really enjoyed the main event Triple Threat elimination match for the Women's title. Ruby Riot got some good moves in before being eliminated by Nikki Cross. Cross and Asuka brawl all around the arena which results in the match being thrown out. The brawl after the bell is pretty intense ending with both women flying off a table through a platform below. We got some good promos for Ember Moon and Sonya Deville who we will see next week. Also we found out that next week we are getting Kassius Ohno Vs Alesiter Black. GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY!!!

 

And that was this week in the WWE Universe! To finish off this blog, as its Money in the Bank this Sunday, I'm going to quickly run down my predictions for the show going on the matches announced so far.

WWE Championship Match: Jinder Mahal (c) Vs Randy Orton

Mahal will retain here. He's only just won the belt and they are trying to build him up as a strong heel champion. Also the fact that its in Orton's hometown doesn't bode well for him!

WWE Championship Contract Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kevin Owens Vs AJ Styles Vs Baron Corbin Vs Sami Zayn Vs Dolph Ziggler Vs Shinsuke Nakamura

This is really hard for me to predict as I pretty much think anyone at this point could win this match. My initial thought was Baron Corbin and I'm gonna stick with that.

Smackdown Tag Team Title Match: The Usos (c) Vs The New DayI've really enjoyed the short build to this match as The Usos are killing it as heels right now and The New Day are back to be entertaining to me. Usos retain with heel tactics.

Smackdown Womens Title Match: Naomi (c) Vs Lana

Its great to finally see Lana in the ring and I'm intrigued to see how she does. I know WWE love to pull off surprises on Smackdown events but I can't see past Naomi retaining.

Smackdown Women's Title Contract Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Becky Lynch Vs Carmella Vs Charlotte Flair Vs Natalya Vs Tamina

Like with the men's match I think anyone at this point could win this match. I'm just really happy they are finally doing this match! I think Becky Lynch will win though setting up a future heel turn.

Thank you to everyone who read this post. What did you guys think of WWE this week? And what do you think will happen at Money in the Bank? Let me know in the comments!