This Week in The Universe 2018 #2

Raw this week for once did not begin with a GM promo but instead an appearance by the IC champion Roman Reigns. Reigns was feeling pretty good about his win over Samoa Joe last week til he was interrupted by Jason Jordan who wants to be a part of The Shield. This brought out Seth Rollins who was trying to calm down baby Angle. Jordan said they were the most dominant three man team which brought out THE BALOR CLUB! They were amused by Jordan's words with Balor telling Jordan they've been running together for ten years before Jodran knew Kurt Angle was his Dad. BURN!! Balor Club get in the ring and Gallows calls Jordan a NEEERRRRDDD! Jordan slaps Gallows and they have to be held back by their team mates. GM Angle came out and made the predictable 6-man Tag Team main event. First match of the night is Sasha Banks & Bayley with Mickie James in their corner taking on Absolution's Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville who has Paige with them. Decent Tag match with Sasha making Rose tap out for the win. Next we got the first in-ring match of 'Woken' Matt Hardy as he easily defeated Curt Hawkins. Will his losing streak end in 2018? After the match Bray Wyatt teleported to the ring and had a laughing match with Hardy. Elias was in the ring and he introduced the returning Miz. Miz made is clear that he wants his IC title back from Roman Reigns. Balor Club were backstage namedropping Bullet Club members, talking about Karl's Hot Asian Wife and throwing up too sweets making everyone happy! Cruiserweight Title Match next between Enzo Amore & Cedric Alexander. Man Enzo got mullered in this match! Busted open bad and then suffering an ankle & thigh injury resulting in him being counted out. Interesting backstage angle with GM Angle as he's talking to someone on the phone about coming back for the Women's Royal Rumble. Lita? Beth Pheonix? Michelle McCool? He is interrupted by The Bar who want a rematch for the Raw Tag titles and Angle says it will happen at the Rumble. The Miz came in and said he wanted his IC Title rematch at the RAW 25 show which is a GREAT idea! Next match we had The Bar taking on Titus WORLDWIIIIIDE. O'Neil got the surprise roll up win on Sheamus and he, Apollo Crews & Dana Brooke celebrated this big win. Universal Champion Brock Lesnar came out with Paul Heyman and they continued the hype towards his Rumble title defence. Just like last week Kane came out to try and attack Brock and they brawl backstage. They are attacked by Braun Strowman who went on a rampage. Braun threw Brock through a table and then threw an equipment case onto Kane. He then used a grappling hook to bring down a metal truss on top of them! DAMN!! Next match sees Samoa Joe make short work of Rhyno. After the match Joe announced he would be in the Royal Rumble match and said he would be going after John Cena. I'm all for that match! Asuka made her way out to the ring for a match but was attacked by Nia Jax. They will face off next week on Raw. Should be good. MAIN EVENT TIME!! The Balor Club took on the team of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan. Solid match as you would expect from these 6 guys. The match ended in controversy as Jordan trying to help his team cost Rollins the match. As Balor Club celebrated up the ramp Reigns and Jordan argued about what happened. Suddenly they are attacked by The Miz and The Miztourage who delivers a Skull-Crushing Finale and then a triple powerbomb on Reigns. NOICE!!

Renee Young is in the ring and introduces WWE Champion AJ Styles for an in-ring interview. AJ said he only has himself to blame for taking himself into a Handicap title match with Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn but believes he will retain his title. Owens & Zayn come out as say they will become the first ever co-WWE Champions. Commissioner Shane McMahon comes out to announce Owens & Zayn in handicap match tonight with AJ Styles, Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura. First match of the night is the returning Becky Lynch who has Women's Champion Charlotte & Naomi taking on Ruby Riott who had her Squad mates Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan in her corner. Good match with Becky getting the win thanks to the Dis-Arm-Her. Next we got another display of destruction from The Bludgeon Brothers this time squashing The Ascension. The Final First Round US Title tournament match between Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder. Mojo got the easy win and after the match had a stare down with Bobby Roode who he faces in the next round. Jinder Mahal was backstage cutting a promo on his opponent in the tournament Xavier Woods claiming the Modern Day Maharajah was forever! Gable & Benjamin were out next cutting a decent promo on what happened to them last week. GM Daniel Bryan came out next saying that there was nothing he could do as the refs decision is final. Gable sarcastically suggested that did he want them to beat The Usos twice in one night and much like with Styles last week Bryan took it literally and booked Gable & Benjamin Vs The Usos in a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the Rumble. I do love a good 2-out-of-3-falls match! Randy Orton was backstage with AJ Styles coming up to talk strategy. Orton says he in going to RKO everyone, win the Rumble and take the WWE Title from AJ. Shinsuke Nakamura shows up says "Not So Fast" and pointed at the WWE Title. Shinsuke is my favourite to win the Rumble and I would love it to come true! Rusev & Aiden English took Breezango next and much like on Raw we got a SNEAKY ROLL-UP surprise win with Fandango getting the win on Rusev. MAIN EVENT TIME!! WWE Champion AJ Styles, Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura took on Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. Lots of shenanigans in this match as KO & Sami try to get out of the match first by getting counted and then DQ'd only for Shane McMahon to restart the match both times. In the end Zayn gets dropped by the RKO for the win. Fun match!

205Live kicks off this week with a rematch of the Cruiserweight Classic Final as TJP takes on Gran Metalik. Ah, what a tournament that was! Really enjoyable match as Gran Metalik wins with the Metalik Driver getting some revenge for his loss in the CC Final. After the match TJP throws a temper tantrum furious at his loss. Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore is backstage being interviewed after his title match last night before Tony Nese shows up wanting back in the Zo Train by beating down Cedirc Alexander. Gentleman Jack Gallagher is back gloating about his attack last week on Hideo Itami. Itami shows up for some revenge and looks like he is going to hit Gallagher with his own umbrella but Jack escapes. Backstage Cedric Alexander is being hyped up by Goldust who is entertaining as always. MAIN EVENT TIME! Cedric Alexander Vs Tony Nese was a really good back and forth match. They seem to have really good chemistry as I'm sure they faced each other alot last year. Nese spends most of the match trying to impress Enzo who is at ringside but in the end is duped by a sneaky roll up from Cedric for the win. After the match Enzo yells at Nese to leave and is beaten down by Cedric for his efforts. Bad day for Enzo. What a shame!

Center Stage in Atlanta is the host of the first proper episode of NXT in 2018. Great classic venue! First match sees Shayna Baszler take on Dakota Kai in what was a brutal quick match with Bazler stomping on Kai's arm bending it in a very wrong way and the match is stopped. After the match Bazler chokes out Kai until Ember Moon runs out to stop it. Shayna looks like true monster heel. AOP promo backstage shouting alot about wanting their titles back! Kassius Ohno Vs Raul Mendoza is next. Decent back and forth match with Ohno getting the win with the Northern Lariat. I hope Ohno gets called up to Main soon as he's not doing alot in NXT. Johnny Gargano is backstage being interviewed before The Velveteen Dream shows up suggesting he wants a match with Johnny. Street Profits are backstage and walk into GM William Regal's office talking about the NXT Tag Titles. Regal makes a no.1 contenders match for next week pitting the Street Profits against AOP. Lio Rush takes on Lars Sullivan next. I love Lars's menacing new entrance! Lars gets the win with the Freak Accident. After the match Lars challenges Killain Dain before delivering a SUPER freak accident! We are getting set for our main event but we see backstage Undisputed Era beating down Sanity. Undisputed Era come to the ring to gloat until GM Regal comes down and says there will be a tag title match tonight. Roderick Strong comes down and says he will fight them and then Aleister Black comes out and says 'As Will I!' and the match is set! MAIN EVENT TIME!! NXT Tag Title match with the champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reily taking on the impromptu team of Roderick Strong & Aleister Black. The match was decent as you expect from these four but not surprisingly ends in shenanigans. Adam Cole distracts Black long enough for Fish & O'Reily to hit Total Elimination on Strong for the win. After the match Undisputed beat down Black finishing with a Death Valley Driver on a chair. As they make their way backstage GM Regal comes out to announce that at Takeover Philly Adam Cole will face Aleister Black in an Extreme Rules Match! OH. MY. GOODNESS!!

And that is is for This Week in The WWE Universe! What did you guys think? Let me know on twitter @chris_dons or in the comments below. Thank you everyone for reading. Til next time, take care!