This Week in The Universe #12

This Week RAW opened with a match! GOOD GRIEF! And a pretty decent match too. Jason Jordan continued his recent trend of asking for tough opponents and here he faced John Cena. While there was never any doubt that Cena would win, Jordan got in some believable offence that he could pull off the upset. After Cena shook his hand, Roman Reigns came down and continued his war of words his started with Cena last week. More of the same trash talking from last week and although they are both booked at faces it feels like Reigns is coming across more like a heel. They haven't brawled yet and hopefully they don't til No Mercy. Sheamus & Cesaro beat Rhyno & Heath Slater in about a minute. Sheamus & Cesaro are getting a rematch for the Tag Titles at No Mercy so makes sense for them to win. The Miz defended the Intercontinental title against Jeff Hardy in a pretty good match. Its only a matter of time before Jeff goes single full time and it was nice to see a title defended cleanly on TV. Another Raw, Another multi-man Cruiserweight tag match....meh! Finn Balor & Bray Wyatt had a decent promo setting up a match for No Mercy where Bray challenged Finn to face him man-to-man without the Demon. Makes sense! Alexa Bliss & Sasha Banks faced Nia Jax & Emma in a match with No Mercy implications. If Nia & Emma won they would be added to the Women's title match at No Mercy which they did. Nice to see Emma get a title match let alone on PPV! Ambrose & Rollins faced Gallows & Anderson in a decent tag match that went longer than the earlier tag match. Cesaro & Sheamus got involved and accidentally cost Gallows & Anderson the match which lead to a brawl after the match. MAIN EVENT TIME! OOOOOOH BABY! If you were a fan of the previous matches between Braun Strowman & Big Show, inside a steel cage this was even better! They seem to have crazy chemistry together and you can tell that Show really wants to put Strowman over. Every move they do they sell its as a big move and really give it time for people to react to it. Big Show hit a great elbow drop for a man his size and his age. Strowman gets the win after about 15 minutes and then cuts a promo directed towards Brock Lesnar before slamming Big Show through the cage wall! NOICE!!

Smackdown Live began with Ms Money in The Bank Carmella in the ring with James Ellsworth getting set for a match with Women's champion Natalya. They are interrupted by Kevin Owens who says he is going to be the special guest ref for this match which brought out Shane McMahon. Shane told Owens he had to stop blaming him for his failings and Owens came back with scathing comments about Shane and his family. Shane had enough and attacked Owens which brought out refs, road agents and GM Daniel Bryan! Once it all cleared we got the Natalya & Carmella happened and it was OK. Ellsworth accidentally cost Carmella the match which caused Carmella to verbally berate Ellsworth and tell him they were through. Dolph Ziggler had his re-debut with mock entrances of John Cena, Randy Savage & Naomi. They were kind of funny and I get the point of Dolph trying to say he can do everything better than everybody. Aiden English defeated Sami Zayn in a quick match with Zayn chasing English after the match while he was gloating. Backstage in Daniel Bryan's office The Usos decided they would face The New Day next week in a Street Fight for the Tag Titles. That should be awesome! Bryan made his way to the ring and called out Shane about his actions earlier in the night. Owens was threatening to sue all of WWE and although Shane said he would smooth things over, Bryan said it was too late. Bryan had received a call from Shane's Dad and Shane was suspended indefinitely. Interesting development! Baron Corbin beat Tye Dillinger in a decent match with US champion AJ Styles on commentary. After the match Styles said to Tye he would face him next week for the US title. That's 3 title matches set for next weeks show! MAIN EVENT TIME! Shinsuke Nakamura faced Randy Orton with a shot at the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell. This was a very good match and right up there with the match Nakamura had with Cena recently. Orton doesn't get enough credit for how good he is because he comes across as lazy at times but Orton was very much into this match. Nakamura did two great counters to the RKO especially the one into an armbar. Shinsuke won and now faces Mahal for the title at Hell in a Cell. Shinsuke has now beaten both Cena and Orton in his first few months on the main roster. Not alot of guys can say that! The show ended with Kevin Owens & Daniel Bryan where Bryan announced Mr McMahon would be on Smackdown next week to handle the situation with him. Should be a great show next week!!

TJP defeated Ariya Daivari in the opening match of 205 Live. Rich Swann was at ringside watching the match, congratulated TJP on his win and it was announced they would face each other next week. Should be good! Former Cruiserwight champion Akira Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak after Drew was reigniting his campaign for a better 205 Live. Not a good start Drew! MAIN EVENT TIME! Its been a while but we have a 205 Live favourite, The Fatal 5 Way Elimination No.1 contenders match! Cedric Alexander had an impressive showing eliminating Tony Nese, Gran Metalik and The Brain Kendrick. However Enzo Amore, who had been taken out of the majority match, snuck in and rolled up Cedric with a handful of tights for the win! *sighs* I hope Enzo gets destroyed by Neville!

 

Andrade 'Cien' Almas defeated Cesar Bononi in the opening match of NXT, getting revenge for his shock defeat earlier in the year. Almas has done an excellent job since turning heel and having Zelina Vega in his corner gives him an extra edge. Lars Sullivan destroys 3 jobbers in a match similar to how Braun Strowman was booked last year. No Way Jose came out looking for revenge for Sullivan's attack a couple weeks ago and they brawled til Sullivan got the upper hand. Sonya Deville defeated Zeda in another win for Deville as she continues her recent push. Kassius Ohno defeated Hideo Itami in a No DQ Match that I thought they would have at Takeover: Brooklyn 3! It was a decent match with a bit of a surprise finish with Itami going for a low blow but is blocked so Ohno gives a low blow to Itami to set up the roaring elbow for the win. MAIN EVENT SEGMENT TIME!! Asuka came out and announced she was relinquishing the NXT Women's title as she is currently in negotiations with Raw and Smackdown. There was big send off for her with William Regal, HHH and various members of the NXT roster. Its a clever way to get the title off Asuka while still keeping her undefeated going to main. Not sure what they are going to do with the title but it will probably involved the Mae Young Classic winner and one of the NXT Women. Thats what I hope for anyways!

So that was this week in the WWE Universe! What did you guys think? Let me know what you think on twitter @chris_dons or in the comments section below. Thank you all for reading!