This Week in The Universe #15

Kurt Angle started Raw this week thanking the fans for their support at TLC. He also announced 4 champion Vs champion matches for Survivor Series as well as a men's and women's elimination matches. The Miz came down along with Curtis Axel and The Bar saying Angle didn't belong in a WWE ring. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose came to back up Kurt who announced a 6 man tag match for right now. The Miz teaming up with The Bar against Rollins, Ambrose and AJ Styles who decided to stick around for another night! This was a really enjoyable match and one of my favourite matches on Raw this year. Reminds me of the days during the peak of The Shield when they were involved in a number of long 6 man tag matches. AJ fits in easily with Ambrose & Rollins which is no surprise because he is one of the best performers in the world. The heels did a great job of isolating Ambrose and then Rollins leading to some great hot tag sequences. Styles got the win on Cesaro after about 20 minutes with the Phenomenal Forearm. Kane came out after the match and took out the faces before getting a promo bigging up his destruction of Braun Strowman and demands competition much like Braun use to do. Finn Balor answered the challenge but was defeated by Kane after 3 chokeslams. I see some people upset at Finn losing but he did get a huge win at TLC over AJ so I'm not too bothered. A rematch from TLC next as Asuka once again defeats Emma in about half the time she did the night before. I'm happy Emma at least got to look capable but again they book the Asuka lock to look deadly which is good to see. Women's champion Alexa Bliss came out to gloat about another title defence and demanded the fans chants 'You Deserve It!'. Mickie James came out and dropped Alexa with a Mickie-DT in sex inch heels and told Alexa she does deserve it. Impressive! Elias is in the ring and once again is getting the hell booed out of him. Jason Jordan came out for a match which ends with Elias getting DQ'd after he smashed his guitar over Jordan's shoulder. SAVAGE!! Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is out with his advocate Paul Heyman to completely diss the credibility's of Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion. Heyman was really keen to stress that he didn't talk trash about Brock's previous opponents because they respected them but they don't respect Mahal. Triple Threat Match next between Alicia Fox, Bayley & Sasha Banks with the winner becoming captain of the Raw Survivor Series Match. Not a good match at all and in the end Fox got the win which I guess is a nice push for her long tenure with the company. 10 man Cruiserweight Tag match next which as I say often is just like any other cruiserweight tag match that happens on Raw. Kalisto got the win for his team heading into his title rematch on 205Live. MAIN EVENT SEGMENT TIME! Kurt Angle comes out to announce the members of Team Raw in the men's Survivor Series team. He is interrupted by Shane McMahon who came through the crowd with a number of Smackdown roster members. Shane simply said to Kurt 'Under Siege' and as Kurt left Shane told the roster to get them. They tore into the Raw roster taking out people like Jason Jordan, Finn Balor, The Shield and The Raw Women's division minus Asuka. Baron Corbin & Rusev dragged a stunned Kurt Angle back to the ring where Shane told him to bring his gold medals and whatever is left of the Raw Roster to Survivor Series where they will finish what they started. Great way to kick off one of the big angles of the year. IT'S GANG WARFARE!!

Shane McMahon opened Smackdown explaining the reason for invading Raw the way Smackdown did as them wanting to strike first. Sami Zayn made his overly obnoxious way to the ring and told Shane that he needed fearless leaders like himself and Kevin Owens on the Smackdown Team. Shane said he didn't want them or need them but would give them a chance as its the land of opportunity and Zayn would face Randy Orton. LOVELY! Tag Team match next with The New Day taking on Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin. Decent match which Gable & Benjamin won which was a good move pushing the new no.1 contenders beating the former champs. Fashion Dogs was next the latest Fashion Files parody. They were interrogating James Ellsworth about the whereabouts of their briefcase that was stolen last week but they only have Carmella's MITB case which she came in for. They teased next weeks Fashion Files which is going to parody Stranger Things. US Champ Baron Corbin Vs Sin Cara is next and Sin Cara gets another surprise win but this time by DQ because Baron doesn't stop beating up the Mexican. WWE Champion Jinder Mahal made his way to the ring joined by The Singh Brothers. Mahal responded to Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman's comments from Raw claiming that he is Lesnar's worst nightmare and will prove why the Maharajah era has just begun! This brought out AJ Styles who got a dominant win over Sunil Singh even with the interference of Samir Singh. Backstage the best best friends Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens are talking and we find out Owens has a qualifying match for the Survivor Series team against Shinsuke Nakamura! That should be all kinds of LOVELY!! Fatal 5-Way up next with Becky Lynch, Carmella, Charlotte, Naomi & Tamina where the winner is the team captain for Survivor Series. Fast paced match as you would expect for a TV multi-person match with Becky Lynch getting the submission win on Carmella. Becky is the right choice for captain as she was heavily featured during the siege on Raw. Dolph Ziggler is backstage talking trash with Booby Roode who challenges Ziggler to a 2-out-of-3 falls match for next week. They also announced that the winner would be on the Smackdown SS team. Good stuff! MAIN EVENT TIME!! A really enjoyable match between Sami Zayn & Randy Orton. Since turning heel Sami has now main evented Smackdown two weeks in a row something he never did as a face. Go figure! The bout was back and forth throughout with Zayn getting alot of Orton. We got to see the Zayn DDT on the outside which is always an awesome sight to see. Orton got revenge for last week by hitting Zayn with a low blow while Owens had the ref distracted then got the win with the RKO. Randy Orton is the first man on Team Smackdown which makes sense because Orton has an awesome record at Survivor Series. Looking forward to next weeks show with Roode Vs Ziggler & Owens Vs Nakamura!

Not gonna lie 205Live was a real chore to watch this week. I don't care if the ratings are improving the live crowd barely reacts to anything. Enzo is a terrible champion and has completely killed the division for me. There is some interesting stuff involving Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann, Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher with the heels trying to tempt Cedric to the dark side. I'd be surprised if it happened but then I didn't expect Gallagher to turn heel so you never know. Cedric needs a new entrance theme though, its so bland. Drew Gulak beat Gran Metalik as they continue to build a rivalry between Gulak and Akira Tozawa. MAIN EVEN...oh I can't muster up the excitement. Enzo retained the title after getting himself DQ'd. Please wake me from this nightmare!

The show starts with William Regal announcing that Nikki Cross would be in the battle royal to determine the final participant for Takeover: Houston. Also next week AOP will get their tag title rematch against Sanity with anyone not competing in the match barred from ringside. First match sees the baldies Oney Lorcan & Danny Birch against the gym freaks Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss. Decent match up with a really frantic ending with the heels winning with a cool looking Gory Special/Bulldog double team combo. Next up is the Women's battle royal featuring a large chunk of Mae Young Classic performers. A few notable moments as Nikki Cross got revenge on Taynara Conti eliminating her before dragging her under the ropes and attacking her on the outside. Rhea Ripley need to be eliminated by three people which is impressive! Nikki Cross comes back in the ring and proceeds to eliminate about 4 or 5 women in a row. Bianca Belair tries to eliminate Billy Kay but Kay holds onto her ponytail to survive and gets savagely whipped for her efforts. Belair is eliminated by Cross and Kay tries to sneakily eliminate her but fails and gets eliminated in the process. Cross wins which is the right result as the crowd was firmly behind her. After the match the participants for Takeover come out with Regal posing with the title. It'll be Kari Sane Vs Peyton Royce Vs Ember Moon Vs Kari Sane. Should be an awesome match! Aleister Black comes out for a match but is interrupted by The Velveteen Dream who attacks him from behind. TVD ties Black up in the ropes and demands he says his name while slapping him. Black escapes and barely misses a Black Mass attempt on TVD. Great stuff this rivalry is far better than I ever imagined. MAIN EVENT TIME!! Andrade 'Cien' Almas defeated Roderick Strong in a great match. This was right up there with the match they had back at the Takeover: San Antonio show. Lots of stiff looking shots from both men with barely a moment to breathe. The highlight of the match was Zelina Vega diving off the apron onto Strong for hurricanrana onto the steel steps while the refs back was turned. Almas hits the Hammerlock DDT for the win and Almas & Vega inform us on the commentators desk they will see NXT Champion Drew McIntyre in the ring next week. After that Undisputed Era make their way to the ring to once again try and temp Strong to join them. Adam Cole takes off his armband giving it to Strong and leaving him to think about it. OOOOH CLIFFHANGER!!

And thats it for WWE this week. The hype for Survivor Series & Takeover: Houston is in full force now and I can't wait to see how things develop next week. What did you guys think? Let me know on twitter @chris_dons or in the comments section. Thank you all for reading!