This Week in the Universe #4
Following a historic week for Women's Wrestling in WWE, how would WWE follow this week? This week we had the Raw go-home show for Great Balls of Fire, The 4th July episodes of Smackdown and 205 live and anther big title main event on NXT. Lets take a look at the big talking points from this week in the WWE Universe!
RAW this week was a fairly good show that did a great job of building up to this Sundays PPV something that WWE doesn't always do. Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe continued to build towards their huge Universal title match with a split screen interview. Joe continued to show no fear seeking out Lesnar but was held back from attacking him. After dispatching of Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil it looked like Braun Strowman was going to take them away in an ambulance until Roman Reigns appeared and they brawled. Roman speared Strowman off the ramp through some tables but both men got to their feet wetting everyones appetite for their Ambulance Match Sunday. We found out that the match between The Hardys & Sheamus/Cesaro will now be a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Raw Tag titles Sunday. That should be really good! What else was really good was the match on Raw between Finn Balor & Cesaro. Although this match was really their to help expand other stories we got a glimpse of what Balor & Cesaro can do working together. The Miz defended the IC title against Heath Slater on Raw in a match I thought was actually pretty decent. The match set up what I hope will be a final IC title match Sunday between Miz and Dean Ambrose. The cruiserweights were given two fairly standard matches and I continue to be impressed whenever Neville and Mustafa Ali compete. For some reason though we are still getting Cedric Alexander Vs Noam Dar! There are other cruiswerweights they can face you know!! The women's tag match was ok but I really wasn't a fan of Bayley looking so weak again and Sasha Banks tapping out Alexa Bliss 6 nights before their title match. Usually means we wont see that come Sunday! Enzo Amore opened the show cutting the promo of his life on Big Cass. This led to him attacking Cass backstage later in the show setting up a match for Sunday. Cass is going to kill him!
The July 4th Smackdown Live was billed as the return of 'Free Agent' John Cena and Cena cut a typically impassioned promo calling out both Raw and SD locker rooms. This brought out the returning Rusev who seems to have also returned to his anti-USA gimmick which is fine I guess. This set up a flag match between the two at Battleground. PLEASE LET RUSEV WIN!! AJ Styles & Chad Gable had a match to determine who would earn a place in the main event battle royal. While it was obvious AJ would win and they didn't get alot of time, I really enjoyed the match. Their (pun intended) styles matched together well and AJ put over Gable at the end. We saw Carmella cut another decent promo which resulted in Daniel Bryan coming out and suspending James Ellsworth for his involvement last week. A decent logical payoff! The Women's title match was brutally short with Naomi making Lana tap out in a matter of seconds. It does seem like Tamina has aligned herself with Lana though so lets see where this goes. Baron Corbin attacked Shinsuke Nakamura backstage which seems to be setting up a match between them at Battleground. The Rap Battle between The Usos and The New Day was far better than it had any right to be. Both teams were funny delivering some savage lines and I also thought Wale did a decent job as host too. Well worth watching. Randy Orton destroyed Aiden English continuing his recent aggressive streak and calling Jinder Mahal a jackass. That's always fun! The main event battle royal was a typical battle royal which had some decent moments. Mojo Rawley eliminated Zack Ryder which seems to be teasing a future split. Zayn looked great as he often does but ultimately Styles won and he will challenge Kevin Owens for the US title at Battleground.
205 Live kicked off with Neville confronting Titus O'Neil who was doing a great job of hyping up the Cruiserweight title match Sunday. Neville informed Titus he was going to destroy his client Akira Tozawa Sunday and made Titus watch Neville first make short work of Lince Dorado. Jack Gallagher got a win over Tony Nese making up for his loss a couple of weeks ago. Following the match Brian Kendrick appeared on the titantron saying he was going to rid 205 live of Jack Gallagher. The main event was a great match pitting former champions Rich Swann and TJP. Swann referred to the match as 'friendly competition' trying to get TJP back to his old ways. Swann won the great back and forth match and although TJP look frustrated he did shake hands and embrace Swann showing him respect...for now!
Before NXT started footage surfaced on Youtube of SAniTy attacking Drew McIntyre in the parking lot setting up something between them in the future. Back in the ring Wolfe and Dain battled Hideo Itami and Kassius Ohno in a decent tag match. The story was that Itami and Ohno couldn't get along as Itami wouldn't tag Ohno in. This cost them the match and it seems that Itami and Ohno are on course for a match in the future. The main event that took up the majority of the show with Bobby Roode defending the NXT championship against Roderick Strong was FAAANNNTASTIC! The match went back and forth with both men trading near falls and Strong even managed to kick out of the Glorious DDT. We thought the match was over after Strong pinned Roode for the 3 but it turned out Roode's feet were under the ropes. Strong was devastated and Roode took advantage hitting a second Glorious DDT on the outside and then a third in the ring for the win. The third fantastic main event from NXT in a row. Can they keep this momentum going?
And that was This Week in the WWE Universe! Before I sign off thought we have a PPV Sunday which means its predictions time! Despite its ridiculous name, The Great Balls of Fire PPV actually has a really good card far better than most of the Raw PPVs before. Here are my predictions:
WWE Universal Title Match: Brock Lesnar (c) Vs Samoa Joe
The build for this has been absolutely fantastic. I can't see past Lesnar retaining but hopefully Joe will come out of this looking like the badass he has been portrayed in the build up.
Ambulance Match: Roman Reigns Vs Braun Strowman
This should be absolutely savage and should be the best match in this epic rivalry. I think Strowman will win setting up a title match between him and Brock for SummerSlam.
Raw Womens Title Match: Alexa Bliss (c) Vs Sasha Banks
I have hopes this match will be better than the recent Bliss/Bayley matches and I think Bliss will retain through some heel tactics to continue this feud that hasn't been going long.
Seth Rollins Vs Bray Wyatt
A feud that exists just because. I don't really know how this is going to go and if anyone will even care. Hopefully its a good match and both at least come out of it looking good. Rollins will probably win though.
Enzo Amore Vs Big Cass
The build for this has been great and although Enzo cut a great promo on Raw this week I don't think that will save him from being utterly destroyed by Cass on Sunday!
WWE Intercontinental Title Match: The Miz (c) Vs Dean Ambrose
Even those these guys have faced each other alot this year they always deliver decent matches and I expect this to be no different. Miz will retain with help from his Miztourage and end this feud.
30-Minute Iron Man Match for the Raw Tag Team Titles: Sheamus & Cesaro (c) Vs The Hardy Boyz
Potential show stealer this one. I expect all four guys to pull out all the stops to make this a memorable match. Could go either way but I'm banking on the champs retaining.
WWE Cruiserweight Title Match: Neville (c) Vs Akira Tozawa
Another potential show stealer and a really good reason to watch the pre-show. Neville will retain because I can never see him losing that title!
Thanks everyone for reading and come back next week when I have my review of WWE Great Balls of Fire!
RAW this week was a fairly good show that did a great job of building up to this Sundays PPV something that WWE doesn't always do. Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe continued to build towards their huge Universal title match with a split screen interview. Joe continued to show no fear seeking out Lesnar but was held back from attacking him. After dispatching of Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil it looked like Braun Strowman was going to take them away in an ambulance until Roman Reigns appeared and they brawled. Roman speared Strowman off the ramp through some tables but both men got to their feet wetting everyones appetite for their Ambulance Match Sunday. We found out that the match between The Hardys & Sheamus/Cesaro will now be a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Raw Tag titles Sunday. That should be really good! What else was really good was the match on Raw between Finn Balor & Cesaro. Although this match was really their to help expand other stories we got a glimpse of what Balor & Cesaro can do working together. The Miz defended the IC title against Heath Slater on Raw in a match I thought was actually pretty decent. The match set up what I hope will be a final IC title match Sunday between Miz and Dean Ambrose. The cruiserweights were given two fairly standard matches and I continue to be impressed whenever Neville and Mustafa Ali compete. For some reason though we are still getting Cedric Alexander Vs Noam Dar! There are other cruiswerweights they can face you know!! The women's tag match was ok but I really wasn't a fan of Bayley looking so weak again and Sasha Banks tapping out Alexa Bliss 6 nights before their title match. Usually means we wont see that come Sunday! Enzo Amore opened the show cutting the promo of his life on Big Cass. This led to him attacking Cass backstage later in the show setting up a match for Sunday. Cass is going to kill him!
The July 4th Smackdown Live was billed as the return of 'Free Agent' John Cena and Cena cut a typically impassioned promo calling out both Raw and SD locker rooms. This brought out the returning Rusev who seems to have also returned to his anti-USA gimmick which is fine I guess. This set up a flag match between the two at Battleground. PLEASE LET RUSEV WIN!! AJ Styles & Chad Gable had a match to determine who would earn a place in the main event battle royal. While it was obvious AJ would win and they didn't get alot of time, I really enjoyed the match. Their (pun intended) styles matched together well and AJ put over Gable at the end. We saw Carmella cut another decent promo which resulted in Daniel Bryan coming out and suspending James Ellsworth for his involvement last week. A decent logical payoff! The Women's title match was brutally short with Naomi making Lana tap out in a matter of seconds. It does seem like Tamina has aligned herself with Lana though so lets see where this goes. Baron Corbin attacked Shinsuke Nakamura backstage which seems to be setting up a match between them at Battleground. The Rap Battle between The Usos and The New Day was far better than it had any right to be. Both teams were funny delivering some savage lines and I also thought Wale did a decent job as host too. Well worth watching. Randy Orton destroyed Aiden English continuing his recent aggressive streak and calling Jinder Mahal a jackass. That's always fun! The main event battle royal was a typical battle royal which had some decent moments. Mojo Rawley eliminated Zack Ryder which seems to be teasing a future split. Zayn looked great as he often does but ultimately Styles won and he will challenge Kevin Owens for the US title at Battleground.
205 Live kicked off with Neville confronting Titus O'Neil who was doing a great job of hyping up the Cruiserweight title match Sunday. Neville informed Titus he was going to destroy his client Akira Tozawa Sunday and made Titus watch Neville first make short work of Lince Dorado. Jack Gallagher got a win over Tony Nese making up for his loss a couple of weeks ago. Following the match Brian Kendrick appeared on the titantron saying he was going to rid 205 live of Jack Gallagher. The main event was a great match pitting former champions Rich Swann and TJP. Swann referred to the match as 'friendly competition' trying to get TJP back to his old ways. Swann won the great back and forth match and although TJP look frustrated he did shake hands and embrace Swann showing him respect...for now!
Before NXT started footage surfaced on Youtube of SAniTy attacking Drew McIntyre in the parking lot setting up something between them in the future. Back in the ring Wolfe and Dain battled Hideo Itami and Kassius Ohno in a decent tag match. The story was that Itami and Ohno couldn't get along as Itami wouldn't tag Ohno in. This cost them the match and it seems that Itami and Ohno are on course for a match in the future. The main event that took up the majority of the show with Bobby Roode defending the NXT championship against Roderick Strong was FAAANNNTASTIC! The match went back and forth with both men trading near falls and Strong even managed to kick out of the Glorious DDT. We thought the match was over after Strong pinned Roode for the 3 but it turned out Roode's feet were under the ropes. Strong was devastated and Roode took advantage hitting a second Glorious DDT on the outside and then a third in the ring for the win. The third fantastic main event from NXT in a row. Can they keep this momentum going?
And that was This Week in the WWE Universe! Before I sign off thought we have a PPV Sunday which means its predictions time! Despite its ridiculous name, The Great Balls of Fire PPV actually has a really good card far better than most of the Raw PPVs before. Here are my predictions:
WWE Universal Title Match: Brock Lesnar (c) Vs Samoa Joe
The build for this has been absolutely fantastic. I can't see past Lesnar retaining but hopefully Joe will come out of this looking like the badass he has been portrayed in the build up.
Ambulance Match: Roman Reigns Vs Braun Strowman
This should be absolutely savage and should be the best match in this epic rivalry. I think Strowman will win setting up a title match between him and Brock for SummerSlam.
Raw Womens Title Match: Alexa Bliss (c) Vs Sasha Banks
I have hopes this match will be better than the recent Bliss/Bayley matches and I think Bliss will retain through some heel tactics to continue this feud that hasn't been going long.
Seth Rollins Vs Bray Wyatt
A feud that exists just because. I don't really know how this is going to go and if anyone will even care. Hopefully its a good match and both at least come out of it looking good. Rollins will probably win though.
Enzo Amore Vs Big Cass
The build for this has been great and although Enzo cut a great promo on Raw this week I don't think that will save him from being utterly destroyed by Cass on Sunday!
WWE Intercontinental Title Match: The Miz (c) Vs Dean Ambrose
Even those these guys have faced each other alot this year they always deliver decent matches and I expect this to be no different. Miz will retain with help from his Miztourage and end this feud.
30-Minute Iron Man Match for the Raw Tag Team Titles: Sheamus & Cesaro (c) Vs The Hardy Boyz
Potential show stealer this one. I expect all four guys to pull out all the stops to make this a memorable match. Could go either way but I'm banking on the champs retaining.
WWE Cruiserweight Title Match: Neville (c) Vs Akira Tozawa
Another potential show stealer and a really good reason to watch the pre-show. Neville will retain because I can never see him losing that title!
Thanks everyone for reading and come back next week when I have my review of WWE Great Balls of Fire!
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