This Week in the Universe 2018 #7

The road to Wrestlemania and the Raw exclusive PPV Elimination Chamber took another surprising turn this week. Seth Rollins declared he was done being a tag team competitor and convinced GM Kurt Angle that he wanted in on the final qualifying match for the men's Chamber match. That match would now become a Fatal 5-Way which ended in SHENANIGANS as both Seth & Finn Balor pinned Bray Wyatt (poor Bray!). After the show went off the air Angle announced that both Seth & Finn would be added to the Chamber match which for the first time would be a 7-man match. Gotta appreciate WWE doing something different and to be fair Seth & Finn should both be in the match. Speaking of the men's Chamber match in the most pointless match ever John Cena beat The Miz (for what seems like the hundredth time!) in a match where the loser is the first to start the Chamber. I mean there are 2, possibly ,3 who start this match so no.1 is no worse off than 2 or 3! Angle also announced that Ronda Rousey will be at the Chamber show to sign a contract working on Raw. That's the smart move as Raw is starting to feel more like a sports show with its recent changes. Bayley & Sasha Banks had another excellent match like they often do and seem to be building towards a turn somewhere down the road. Bayley won the match and it looked like there would be afters until Nia Jax showed up to destroy them both. They are building Nia up nicely for her big match with Asuka at the PPV. While Bayley & Sasha might be heading towards a break up, Alexa Bliss continues to try and build something with Mickie James. While they did lose a tag team match to Absolution, Alexa once again saved Mickie from a post match beatdown which Mickie seemed grateful for. Roman Reigns continued his streak of kicking out of other peoples finishers and making his Spear look like the deadliest finisher of all time when he beat Sheamus in a pretty physical match. The undisputed highlight of the show though was the segment between Elias & Braun Strowman. Elias began by singing about his plans for the Chamber match until Braun appeared on stage with a massive Double Bass and sang a wonderful song to Elias. Damn Braun can sing! Braun would go after Elias hitting him with a Running Powerlsam in the ring before destroying the Double Bass over a prone Elias. Both of these guys seem to be doing excellent work recently and if the last couple of months prove anything its that there is nothing that Braun Strowman can do!

The start to Smackdown Live was very fun this week as it began with CHAOS! A match between Dolph Ziggler & Baron Corbin was scheduled with a WWE title opportunity on the line but before it could begin Baron was attacked backstage by Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. They came to the ringside area to attack Dolph but Baron came back out to the even the odds! This lead to matches being made between Baron & Owens and Dolph & Zayn and if Baron & Dolph won their matches they would be added to the WWE title match at Fastlane. I thought both matches were really good and they are matches I don't think we have seen before or at least haven't seen in a while. Both Baron & Dolph won thier matches so its now a Fatal 5-Way for the WWE title at Fastlane with AJ Styles defending against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin & Dolph Ziggler. That should be alot of fun! US Champion Bobby Roode called out Randy Orton not happy with the surprise RKO he got last week. Jinder Mahal came out to stir the pot between these two instigating a brawl which ended with Jinder dolling out Khallas's to both Roode & Orton. NOICE! Women's Champion Charlotte Flair defeated a second member of the Riott Squad in as many weeks when she beat Sarah Logan in what I thought was a pretty decent match. Becky Lynch & Naomi were there to counter act the other members of the Riott Squad at ringside which led to after the show The Riott Squad challenging the babyfaces to a match next week. Hopefully Ruby Riott gets the win in that match and we can get Charlotte Vs Ruby for the title at Fastlane. The Tag Team Champions The Usos cut a really good promo until the screen was suddenly shattered by The Bludgeon Brothers who used their hammers to destroy the screen they were playing on. That was a pretty cool visual to be fair!

Another episode of 205Live with another couple of excellent matches in the tournament to determine the new Cruiserweight champion. The first match saw former champion Akira Tozawa take on the Welshman Mark Andrews. Surprisingly this match started with more ground offence than expected but kicked up a notch with Akira hitting a terrifying looking suicide dive. Mark Andrews misses the Shooting Star Press and Akira tries to take advantage but is countered into a roll up for the win. Andrews advances in probably the upset of the tournament so far! In the other match former allies Drew Gulak & Tony Nese had the best match I have seen them have since the Cruiserweight classic. Nese showed more of what makes him the 'Premier Athlete' with great moments of strength and dives. In the end Gulak levelled Nese with a brutal clothesline and got the win with the Dragon Sleeper. Next Week we have Mustafa Ali Vs Gentleman Jack Gallagher & Ariya Daviari Vs NXTs Buddy Murphy who got an excellent video package. I have heard really good things about Murphy's recent work on the NXT Live circuit so I'm interested to see how he does next week.

NXT kicked off with a match worthy of main eventing any show on the planet! The WWE UK Championship was on the line as Pete Dunne defended against Roderick Strong. This match was fantastic! Strong is having so many good matches recently and Dunne seems incapable of having a bad match. Pete Dunne retained with The Bitter End keeping the title in the UK and both guys prove they are two of the best in the world. Aleister Black came out in a fantastic looking suit to make his claim for the NXT Championship before being interrupted by Killain Dain who also wants a title shot. Looks like we are getting a no.1 contenders match between these two which would be EPIC! TM61 continued their return with another effective squash win. Its great to see this team back and Shane Thorne doesn't seem to be slowing down after his recent knee injury. The main event was a rematch between Ember Moon & Shayna Bazler for the NXT Women's championship. Much like their match at Takeover, Ember showed alot of intensity until she re injured her arm and Bazler focused her brutal attack on it. The match ended in a DQ win for Bazler after Kari Sane emerged to get some revenge for the attack she suffered at the hands of Bazler a couple of months ago. I think we will get Sane Vs Bazler in the coming weeks with Bazler getting her win back from the Mae Young Classic before she finally gets the title from Moon who is main roster ready!#

That was this week in the WWE universe! Thank you all very much for reading!