This Week in The Universe 2018 #4

Happy 25th Birthday Monday Night Raw! How did WWE choose to celebrate this milestone? With a very, VERY nostalgia heavy episode. The show took place at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn but also the Manhattan Centre which was a nice idea in theory but really didn't work at all. Only about a quarter of the show came from Manhattan as we saw a very weird sort of retirement speech from The Undertaker, Bray Wyatt mostly squashing 'Woken' Matt Hardy & The Revival receiving mostly squash treatment from The Balor Club and The Kliq. Which is a shame because they made an effort with the set and the crowd was passionate for what they got even if it wasn't alot. What the Barclays Centre got was better but not by much. The McMahon family opened the show and were interrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin who drank some beers and dished out some stunners. The crowd pop when the glass shatters is still the loudest of anything in wrestling. An 8-woman tag team match happened which turned into a mass brawl with Asuka throwing people over the top rope and standing tall. Past General Managers & Former Female talents were wheeled out on stage which was a real waste of their and our times. There was a poker game in the APA's office with a bunch of legends and current stars which resulted in a match between Heath Slater & Rhyno Vs Titus Worldwide which ended with The Dudleys coming out and 3Ding Slater through a table. OK. Christian did The Peep Show with Seth Rollins & a wonderfully annoying Jason Jordan which ended up with a brawl with The Bar. The best two segments of the show by far was the IC title match and the main event segment. In a huge surprise The Miz defeated Roman Reigns to become an 8 time IC champion in a very good match. I was sure thet Reigns was going to hold the title through Wrestlemania but I am happy to be proven wrong by WWE! The main event segment featured Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, Kane & Braun Strowman getting into a mass brawl which ends in Braun powerslamming Brock through the announce table. Braun is great. Braun is the best. Braun should win the title but I think its almost a guarantee that Brock pins Kane to retain on Sunday.

Smackdown Live has had a rocky time leading into the Royal Rumble but this week I thought was a very entertaining show. The typical 15 minute promo to start the show resulted in AJ Styles booking himself in a match against Kevin Owens and then against Sami Zayn. A fun match between Jey Uso & the wonderfully creative Chad Gable with Gable getting the win days before they hopefully win the Tag titles. Naomi took on Liv Morgan in a match which ended much like the women's match on Raw with a big brawl and they throwing each other over the top rope. I hope Becky Lynch wins! Really good match between Shinsuke Nakamura & Baron Corbin with a wonderfully choreographed RKO out of nowhere on Shinsuke. That was lovely! New US Champion Bobby Roode & The New Day defeated Jinder Mahal, Rusev & Aiden English in a really fun match. New Day dancing to everyone's entrance music was very entertaining. The match between AJ Styles & Kevin Owens was pretty quick as Owens sells a leg injury and taps out to the Calf Crusher pretty quickly. Word is that Owens has legit hurt his back so this could be a way to write him out of the Rumble title match. Immediately after the match between Styles & Zayn takes place and its a really good match between two of the best peformers. Zayn gets the win with the Helluva kick/Blue Thunder Bomb combo which is the first time I've ever seen Sami win with the Blue Thunder bomb! NOICE!!

In the wake of Enzo Amore's release there was a special interest in 205Live this week. Daniel Bryan opened the show to announce 205Live was getting a GM next week and they would address the title situation. Fingers crossed for a tournament! Really good 6-man tag match to kick the show with Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik & Kalisto defeating TJP, Tony Nese & Ariya Daviari. Dorado won with a sweet looking handspring stunner. TJP threw another temper tantrum after the match continuing that story. There was some very entertaining promos from Drew Gulak & Akira Tozawa both making their claims to be the new 205Live GM. A very physical match between rivals 'Gentleman' Jack Gallagher and the always innovative Hideo Itami with Hideo getting the win with a unique knee strike I haven't seen before. The main event between Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali was an instant classic and is highly recommendable to everyone to watch. Cedric got the win with the Lumbar Check and I really hope we get another match between these two very soon but this time with the title on the line.

Another great show from NXT this week as we have the final show before this Saturday's Takeover event in Philadelphia. No Way Jose had a not very good return match against Cezar Bononi which he won with his wind up punch. Bianca Belair defeated Latoya Alsop in a squash match with Belair using the always over ponytail very effectively. We got an awesome interview segment with NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon & the fantastic Shayna Bazler. I feel like Shayna could be winning the title on Saturday. She is big money! The main event match was a really enjoyable match between The Velveteen Dream & Johnny Gargano with Johnny Wrestling's NXT title shot on the line. TVD did some more great character work and psychological warfare in comparison to Gargano's super plucky babyface work. Gargano gets the win with the Gargano escape to keep his title shot. After the match the NXT Champion Andrade Cien Almas came out with Zelina Vega to gloat and got into a brawl with Gargano standing tall! I really can't call the main event for Takeover as I can see either man walking out with the title.

And that was this week in the WWE Universe! What did you guys think of the shows this week? Let me know in the comments! Thank you all for reading!