This Week in The Universe 2018 #5

Following a historic Sunday Night, Raw had a new logo, new intro music and Johnathan Coachman returning to replace Booker T at the announce desk. The show properly kicked off with the winner of the first ever Women's Rumble match Asuka and Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon. She advised Asuka not to choose her Wrestlemania opponent because more history will be made with the first ever Women's Elimination Chamber match for the Raw Women's Title. NOICE!! In the meantime Sasha Banks wanted a piece of Asuka after her marathon performance the previous night which lead to instant classic first time encounter between two of Raw's best performers. Say what you will about WWE giving away first time matches on free TV I'm always happy to see great matches! Asuka managed to get the win and maintain her undefeated streak in what was probably the closest she has come to losing in WWE so far. There will be a second elimination chamber match at the PPV which will determine who will face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at Wrestlemania. 3 qualifying matches took place on Raw with Braun Strowman DESTROYING Kane in a Last Man Standing Match to qualify for the Chamber Match. Surely they should have called it a Last Monster Standing?? Elias won his qualifying match against 'Woken' Matt Hardy with the help of Bray Wyatt. Awesome that Elias is getting to be in his first main event! And in the final qualifying match of the evening in another first time match up Finn Balor took on John Cena. Much to the annoyance of everyone I think Cena, who was acting pretty weird and kinda half assed, defeated Finn. I can only hope this leads to a rematch between the two at Wrestlemania with Finn winning! Two titles matches also took place on Raw. After getting two wins on them previously Titus Worldwide couldn't make it 3rd time lucky with the belts on the line against The Bar. Really good performance from Apollo Crews in this match who looked better than he had in months. And in the other title match, a rematch from last weeks Raw 25 match, The Miz was successful in defending his newly won IC title once again pinning former champion Roman Reigns for the second time in a week. The Miztourage got involved again and the announcers played up Roman's temper who kept losing it and trying to destroy everything in sight. Could be an interesting character trait for him if his temper keeps costing him. I'd be very surprised if both these men aren't in the chamber match especially Reigns who is an almost cert to win the match!

Smackdown Live opened with the Men's Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura who had declared he would be going after WWE Champion AJ Styles at Wrestlemania. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn still miffed about what happened at Rumble said they would be going into Wrestlemania as co-champions until AJ came out suggesting a dream tag team match for tonight. GM Daniel Bryan agreed and also announced that next week we would determine who would challenge AJ at Fastlane in a match between Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. This would lead to passive aggressive tension through out the night culminating in Sami walking out on Owens leading to an easy win for AJ & Nakamura. Sami cut a great promo backstage after the match and I would be very happy to see Sami take on AJ at Fastlane. We got a really fun no.1 contenders match for the US title as Rusev defeated Kofi Kingston, Jinder Mahal & Zack Ryder. Rusev faces Bobby Roode for the title next week and that should be GREAT! Women's Champion Charlotte was out  before being interrupted by The Riott Squad with Ruby cutting a decent promo. The Riott Squad beat down the champ leading to Carmella coming out looking to cash in her MITB briefcase! Unfortunately for her though she accidentally knocked the referee out the ring and with Charlotte getting back to her feet Carmella thought better of the situation and left with her briefcase Lots of people coming after Charlotte it seems! The Usos cut a great promo even with a dodgy prison cell door graphic but were met by The Bludgeon Brothers on their way back who destroyed some local talent. They have to be the next challengers for the Usos surely! Baron Corbin defeated Tye Dillinger in a match brought about by Tye burning Baron about him not having his MITB briefcase. Gable & Benjamin got back on track after their 2-0 loss at the Rumble by defeating Breezango. At least they now seem to be cast fully as heels!

It's a new era in 205Live as we welcome Drake Maverick, formerly Rockstar Spud, to WWE as 205Live's GM. Drake proclaimed that we would determine a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion in the form a 16man tournament which would begin tonight and would end at Wrestlemania hopefully not on the kick off show! Two first round matches took place tonight the first was a really fun match between Cedric Alexander and Gran Metalik. Cedric got the win with The Lumbar Check and you have to consider Cedric as one of the favourites to win the tournament. The second first round match of the night saw the Cruiserweight Classic winner TJP take on the UK title tournament winner Tyler Bate. After a pretty decent match TJP got the win rolling up Bate and using the tights. TJP feels like someone who could make it to the semi finals at least. Next week we got two more great first round matches with Kalisto taking on Lince Dorado and Hideo Itami taking on NXTs Roderick Strong! Now that's how you get people watching 205Live!

Like with every NXT show post-Takeover it was very recap heavy with a few matches taped before Takeover thrown in for good measure. The always wonderful Nikki Cross defeated newly heeled up Lacey Evans in pretty swift fashion. Cross is always a delight to see! The returning TM-61 defeated The Ealy Brothers in an impressive showcase for the Aussie team. Give me TM-61 Vs Undisputed!! And in the main event Tyler Bate who was main eventing his second show in a row after being on 205Live the previous night took on Roderick Strong in a hard hitting match! Strong got the win with the always impressive looking End of Heartache and is now no.1 contender to the WWE UK title. Strong Vs Pete Dunne should be fantastic and with Strong facing Itami next week in the Cruiserweight title tournament he is a very busy man indeed!

And that's it for this week in the WWE Universe! Thank you all taking the time to read my ramblings, I appreciate it very much!!