The Wrestling Wrap Up 1-18-18 Glorious Bobby Roode Climbs the WWE Ladder a Bit More

This week the WWE continued on the Road to the Rumble and Wrestlemania while Impact headed further towards the end of the road. ROH elevated things a bit this week kicking off the show with a top level pay-per-view type match. While Bobby Roode ascended another rung up his WWE ladder.

Bobby Lashley and Dan Lambert came down to the ring to start the show. After rambling on for a bit Lambert introduced KM as the newest member of American Top Team. He earned the spot after his participation in the James Storm match last week when he hit the Cowboy with a beer bottle. They let KM actually talk, but once he took credit for taking out Moose the music began to play and out came Moose. As soon as he was in the ring he attacked KM. Lashley put a quick end to the attack until Eddie Edwards came out to help Moose. American Top Team took off shortly after.

EC3 came out and talked for a bit and then started the EC3 Open Challenge. Out came Petey Williams to accept the challenge. After the match went for a while Matt Sydal came out of the crowd to attacked EC3 causing Williams to be disqualified.

Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness vs. Casey Spanelli
Van Ness won after hitting the Unprettier. Allie ran to the ring to attack her.

Eli Drake and Christopher Adonis came to the ring for the Championship Address. Alberto El Patron interrupted and challenged him again. Then Johnny Impact came out to insert himself into the challenge as well. Apparently all three of them will be in Detroit next week. So they will have a triple threat match for the championship.

A visit with OVE wrecking the LAX hangout followed by Konnan saying it was time for a barbed wire match after seeing what they had done.

Six Man Tag Team Match
Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley, and Hakim Zane
vs.
Sanjay Dutt, Garza Jr., and Desmond Xavier
Desmond Xavier hit a Twisting Corkscrew Senton on Hakim Zane leading to the pinfall.

After the match Taiji Ishimori came to the ring. Apparently next week he and Zane will have a title match.

Also next week, Kongo Kong with Jimmy Jacobs will face Chandler Park. They also announced Barbed Wire Massacre 3 between LAX and OVE. This is one of those matches where the ropes are replaced with barbed wire. The biggest problem with that is the only exciting part of their last match happened coming off the top ROPE. I doubt they will be able to hit much off the loosely rigged barbed wire. So the match will be strictly for shock value with some blood and probably an error along the way that will maim one or more of the competitors in some way.

KM and Bobby Lashley vs. Moose and Eddie Edwards
After a distraction from Dan Lambert, KM pinned Eddie Edwards.

Wow Impact! You mannaged to squeeze four whole matches into a two hour show.

Will Ospreay vs Jay Lethal
Marty Scurll came out midway through the match and sat at the announce table the rest of the way.
Now this was an exciting and fun to watch match! Lethal hit the Lethal Injection and got the pinfall after a hard fought battle.

Caprice Coleman's Pulpit with guest Jonathan Gresham was up next.

Kenny King vs. Brian Milonas
Kenny King wins. Then he called out Silas Young, and out her came. they fought for a minute before King hit with a round kick and Silas started running off. Out came the Beer City Bruiser to help. But before he could get there Milonas attacked King from behind. All three of them began beating King down.

The Addiction and Scorpio Sky now known as So Cal Uncensored were in the ring.
RHO COO Joe Koff came out and after some banter pointed out their contract expires in one year and that Final Battle 2018 would be their final match in ROH.

ROH Champion Dalton Castle and The Boys vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan, Vinny Marseglia)
Castle got Marseglia to tap out to the Julie Newmar (a Cobra Clutch with Body Scissors)

After a review of what he did last week, the show started off with Braun Strowman coming to the ring. He shared a short story about what was going to happen at The Royal Rumble. Soon Kurt Angle joined him in the ring followed by a group of security, with his own story with a not so happy ending. He explains how much damage Braun caused and how much danger he created for all the employees of the WWE. He then told Braun that he will not compete in the Rumble for the Universal Title or at all because he's fired. Kurt headed up the ramp, Braun followed close behind and security brought up the rear. As he was beng escorted to the exit Braun decided to take out the security team following him and then turned back saying he wasn't finished yet.

Titus Worldwide vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
As The Bar was about to hit White Noise on Apollo Crews, Jason Jordan came out and stood at the top of the ramp to distract them. Crews rolled up Shaemus for the pinfall. Seth Rollins came out and didn't look happy with Jordan.

Mixed Match Challenge match was announced.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Natalya vs. Finn Balor and Sasha Banks

In catering, Strowman busted in, flipped a table, chokeslammed Curt Hawkins through a table, and then left with a piece of chocolate cake.

Enzo Amore limped out to the ring accompanied by Tony Nese then out came Cedric Alexander with Goldust. It is nice that Goldust is being given the chance to be the mouthpiece for Alexander.

Braun's walk of terror continued. He got into the production truck, then flipped a semi tractor, and tossed Michael Cole into the safety of the waiting arms of about ten security people. Stephanie McMahon called Angle to have him rehire Strowman.

Nia Jax vs. Asuka
This was a great match until Nia Jax hurt her left leg. Asuka won when Jax couldn't continue.

After the break we got another awkward segment with Enzo comforting Jax this time, mostly in silence in the back.

Then a tag team match took place.
In The Ring Already vs. In The Ring Already
The one team was The Revival making their return to in ring "action". They won their squash match and then did an annoying in ring interview after the match which included calling The New Age Outlaws, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin the reason the wrestling business has become a mockery.

Elias came out to sing, insult Austin, Texas and the San Antonio Spurs, and introduce The Miz and the Miztourage. Miz talked and talked about his awesomness, the Intercontinental title, and some other stuff. Then out came Roman Reigns for his handicap match against The Miztourage.

Roman Reigns vs. Curtis Axl and Bo Dallas
Reigns won, pinning Axl.

Sasha Banks accompanied by Mickie James and Bayley vs. Sonya Deville accompanied by Paige and Mandy Rose
Deville got an upset after hitting a kick to the ribs as Banks leaped from the middle turnbuckle.

Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins talking in the back about Jordan being nice enough to get Angle to put Rollins in a match with Finn Balor.

Out to the ring for Woken Matt Hardy's entrance. An entrance they have changed since last week because many complained about them being lazy after leaving the name "Hardy Boyz" in the graphic.

Matt Hardy vs. Heath Slater accompanied by Rhyno
Hardy hit the Twist of Fate and got the pin.

Time to announce the first member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018...No huge surprise here - Goldberg, Goldberg, Goldberg. Sometimes superstars reconcile with the company, get inducted, and then make a return to TV like Kurt Angle last year, and The Ultimate Warrior a few years before that. Then there are times where they kiss and make up, return to the ring for a short time and then get inducted, like Goldberg.

Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins
At ringside were Gallows and Anderson, as well as Jason Jordan who wore his title belt the whole time. This was actually a pretty good match up until the point that Shaemus and Cesaro came out after Jordan who happened to be standing in front of Gallows and Anderson. He ducked and they hit Gallows which started a brawl between those four as Jordan moved to the other side of the ring. Balor dove out to break them up and then went back in the ring. After a distraction from Cesaro, Jordan tripped Balor when the ref wasn't looking and Rollins stomped Balor's head into the mat and got the pinfall.

After the match the cameras focused on Balor in the ring who looked like he may have some sort of concussion.

US Championship Tournament Semi-Final Match
Xavier Woods vs. Jinder Mahal
After Big E and Kofi chased the Singh brothers to the back Mahal got the pinfall victory after hitting the Khallas.

US Championship Tournament Semi-Final Match
Bobby Roode vs. Mojo Riley
Roode won a hard fought match by pinfall. Then during the after match celebration the Singh brothers came out and atatcked him. Mahal was waiting at the top of the ramp for their return. After Mahal talked a bit Roode got a microphone and said they don't need to wait, they could have the Finals match tonight. As Mahal said no and began walking away out came Daniel Bryan. He announced that the match would happen later tonight.

WWE Women's Champion Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Naomi
vs.
Ruby Roitt, Sarah Logan, and Liv Morgan
Live Morgan pinned Naomi after Roitt kicked her in the head from the ring apron. This was actually a pretty good match. Charlotte has taken it to a whole new level. She was rather dominate and at one point almost cut Logan in half with a vicious Spear.

As the Usos were giving an interview in the back Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin attacked them from behind.

Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan came down to ringside for the US Title finals.

Rusev Day challenged Breezango to a match for next week. Breezango accepted but it would be a match with The Ascension.

United States Championship Tournament Finals Match
Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal
The Singh brothers are barred from ringside. It was a decent match, and I am not sure I have said that about any of Mahal's matches before. In the end Roode blocked the Khallas and hit his Glorious DDT before pinning Mahal to become the new United States Champion.

This week's highlight was definitely Roode winning the United States Championship. I would like to make a Wrestlemania prediction right now - Asuka and Nia Jax will be fighting for the Women's title in a double or triple main event spot right alongside the men.

As for Impact, I am not sure even Austin Aries's return could save the show now.

Worst Match of the Week: The Revival's return match

Best Moment of the Week: Bobby Roode raising the U.S. Title after just becoming champion

Other Best Moment of the Week: This one happened on the extra show after Smackdown which counted down the fan choices for the Top 25 Moments in Raw history. At #2 on the list was CM Punks Bomb Drop where he sat at the top of the rant breaking the fourth wall, talking to wrestlers in other companies, and eventually having his microphone cutoff. I was amazed to see they let any mention of Punk happen.

Best Move of the Week: Smackdown Charlotte's Spear on Sarah Logan

Best Match of the Week: ROH - Will Ospreay vs. Jay Lethal

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