Happy New Year! This is the first week of WWE television for 2018 and it gets us headed to the Road to WrestleMania. We preview everything WWE has to offer this week from a title match on Raw to NXT, as well as a brief mention of what Chris Jericho is up to this week.
Monday Night Raw (1.1.18)
There is a ton to unpack about Monday Night Raw this week. Even though last week’s episode was the Christmas episode, there were a lot of interesting events that will be followed up on tomorrow night. There are two championship matches, a big return, and the continuation of building a new star.
First is the return of Brock Lesnar. Lesnar defends the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble in a few weeks against both Braun Strowman and Kane and last time they were all in the ring together, it was immediate chaos.
Next, WWE is hyping who will face Hideo Itami next. The Japanese Superstar debuted on Raw a few weeks ago alongside Finn Balor and last week, he defeated The Brian Kendrick immediately after breaking his orbital bone with the Go to Sleep. After facing Gentleman Jack Gallagher on 205 Live last week, Itami looks to defeat more of the Cruiserweight Division.
Lastly, we move on to the championship matches. After having an easy couple months as Cruiserweight Champion, Enzo Amore finally has to defend the title against when he takes on Cedric Alexander. Also, General Manager Kurt Angle tweeted that Roman Reigns will defend the Intercontinental Championship against Samoa Joe for the second consecutive week. If he gets himself disqualified like he did last week, he will lose the championship.
SmackDown Live (1.2.18)
Last week, SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan announced a tournament to crown the new United States Champion. Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode advanced to the semifinals after defeating Tye Dillinger and Baron Corbin, respectively. If the first round continues this week, Xavier Woods takes on Aiden English while Zack Ryder faces his former partner Mojo Rawley.
The main event for the night has already been decided, too. Shane McMahon got involved in last week’s main event which saw Kevin Owens face AJ Styles and Owens would defeat the WWE Champion. Styles returns to the main event this week to faces Owens’ best friend Sami Zayn.
Lastly, Raw is not the only show with a title match. After defeating The New Day, Rusev and Aiden English in a Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match last week, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin challenge the Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
205 Live (1.2.18)
As usual, there is nothing announced for 205 Live this week, but that probably depends on the result of Raw’s Cruiserweight Championship match.
WWE NXT (1.3.18)
Unlike 205 Live, NXT is always full of action-packed content. Normally, there is an hour of interesting matches to advance the developmental brand, but this week is all about looking back. NXT this week is two hours long instead of one and it is a “Best of 2017” special so if you missed NXT in 2017, this is a great episode to watch.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 (1.4.18)
You might be thinking, “This is a WWE Weekly Preview, why is New Japan Pro Wrestling on here?” Well, this event is co-main evented by WWE legend Chris Jericho, who takes on the leader of the Bullet Club, Kenny Omega. This could be a historic night in wrestling history and fans of WWE and Y2J should be interested in checking this out. This does air in Japan at primetime so if you are in Europe or the Americas, you might have to check this out after it airs.
For those interested in NJPW’s version of WrestleMania, here is the complete card:
- New Japan Rumble
- YOH & SHO (c) vs. The Young Bucks – IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championships
- Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, & Tanga Loa (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, & Togi Makabe vs. Baretta, Toru Yano, & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hanson, Raymond Rowe, & Michael Elgin, vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, & Zack Sabre Jr. – NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Gauntlet Championship
- Kota Ibushi vs. Cody Rhodes
- Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer (c) vs. SANADA & EVIL – IWGP Tag Team Championships
- Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto – NEVER Openweight Championship (Hair vs. Hair)
- Marty Scurll (c) vs. Will Ospreay vs. Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi – IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Jay White – IWGP Intercontinental Championship
- Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho
- Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito – IWGP Heavyweight Championship
