Hi,
I have a plug that was fine till the other night when the washing machine was started, Then the power went off to the whole room. I checked for a tripped breaker and found none that were tripped... I checked the plug and when I touched the tester to the neutral and the ground it read 120 v. Inside the box is where the power comes in for the room. I guess my question is if the plug went bad would that cause a hot neutral or do you think there could be a wire issue>

The neutral seems "hot" because there is an open neutral downstream from it (between it an the breaker panel).
You are reading a backfeed of voltage on the neutral through a load that is plugged on that circuit.
You need to find the open neutral. Most likely it is in a bad connection at a receptacle.