Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 09/25/18 for Season 2, Episode 2

By John Canton • Published 26th September 2018
TJR Wrestling

Here we go with the second week of WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge. Unlike the first season, there are no charities involved this season or at least WWE hasn’t mentioned any yet. They also have failed to mention what the winners get for winning the show or when the finale is (rumor is the TLC PPV in December), so I think WWE has been sloppy in terms of setting this whole thing up.

The show airs on Facebook Watch in the US and some other countries, but not in my country of Canada. It is added to WWE Network on Thursdays, but I want to get these reviews done on Wednesdays most weeks, so I use WatchWrestling for it.

The show took place on Tuesday, September 25 after Smackdown in Denver, Colorado.

The announce team for the show is Michael Cole, Renee Young and Vic Joseph, who were at ringside.

Raw was up first with Mickie James making her entrance. She is the substitute partner of Bobby Lashley because Sasha Banks is dealing with an injury. Lio Rush introduced Denver, Colorado’s own Bobby Lashley, which led to a big pop for Lashley. James went on Lashley’s shoulders as they made their way to the ring. These two have been friends for a long time going back to their OVW days in the mid-2000s. The team is named Country Dominance after a fan vote since James is a country girl that has put out country music albums and Lashley is known as the “dominator” sometimes.

Alicia Fox was up first for her team with Jinder Mahal and Sunil Singh was with Jinder. They are called Mahalicia. Alicia and Sunil argued on their way to the ring.

Country Dominance – Bobby Lashley and Mickie James (w/Lio Rush) vs. Mahalicia – Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox (w/Sunil Singh)

The fans chanted “Bobby” for the hometown star. Fox was yelling “Ashanti” instead “Shanti” like Jinder says, so that was mildly funny. The fans chanted “Bobby” again after he did a leapfrog over Mahal. Mahal challenged Lashley to a push up contest, so Lashley did them a lot faster with the crowd chanting along. Mahal told Fox to get on his back, so James went on Lashley’s back and Lashley did it easier. Sunil went in to get on Jinder’s back and they all collapsed, so there was more comedy. Lashley with a neckbreaker and a powerslam on Lashley for two as Fox made the save. James tagged in, she went up top and hit a Thesz Press off the top for two. James got a roll up with a bridging pin for two. Fox came back with a forearm to the face. Fox hit a backbreaker for two. There was a shot of Finn Balor and Bayley making comments on their phones in the backstage area. Fox with a kick to the gut and the Northern Lights suplex that Fox does so well in every match. James managed to send Fox out of the ring. Mahal punched Lashley off the apron, so James slapped Mahal and Fox came back with a boot to the face for two. James created some space by shoving Fox into Mahal and Lashley got the hot tag against Mahal. Lashley with a clothesline, a body slam and the crowd came alive for a corner clothesline. Lashley with a running shoulder tackle to Mahal’s ribs. James and Fox did a double hair pull spot to take both women down. That allowed Mahal to come back with a running knee to the face of Lashley. Singh shoved Rush outside the ring, so Rush hit a jumping kick to knock down Singh. Mahal left the ring, Rush ran back into the ring and Lashley hit a running cross body block on Mahal. Lashley hit a delayed vertical suplex for the pinfall win after eight minutes of action.

Winners by pinfall: Country Dominance – Bobby Lashley and Mickie James

Analysis: **1/4 It was a fun match with some comedy moments in there. The wrestling was solid with the girls and Mahal never really got in control against Lashley at all. I don’t like the delayed vertical suplex as a finisher for Lashley, but it’s a safe move. He should be doing something better and more powerful. I think Mahal and Fox will lose the four matches they have in the round robin portion of the tournament. They’re there for comedy purposes really.

Post match, James and Rush celebrated with Lashley. Fox argued with Mahal and Singh.

Here are the standings on the Raw side:

It’s round robin format, so all five Raw teams will get four matches and then WWE hasn’t explained what happens after that.

Here are post match comments from the winners:

Next week from Raw: Team B’N’B – Finn Balor and Bayley vs. Mahalicia – Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox

A promo aired from Balor and Bayley aired about next week. Mahal and Fox were interviewed by Kayla Braxton after the match. Mahal told Fox to meditate while Fox complained about Singh.

It’s time for the Smackdown match with Carmella entering first for the Fabulous Truth team with her brunette hair. R-Truth did his “What’s Up” rap on the way to the ring. The fans chanted “Truth TV” after the song because they enjoyed the Truth TV talk show segment on Smackdown just like I did.

Asuka was up first for her team. The Miz was last for the winners of the first season of Mixed Match Challenge and they are known as Team Awe-ska. The difference between this season is that Asuka was no longer undefeated whereas in the first season before WrestleMania, Asuka had to win to keep her undefeated.

Fabulous Truth – R-Truth and Carmella vs. Team Awe-ska – The Miz and Asuka

The fans chanted “Truth TV” again so Miz told them to shut up and yelled “Miz TV” at them. Miz and Asuka did a bit where they posed for the crowd with Asuka getting cheered while Miz was getting booed. Shocking. Asuka was going to stat, so Miz tagged himself in against Truth. There was a bit of a dance off with Cole mentioning that he beat Vickie Guerrero, Jim Ross and Naomi in a dance off match. The fans chanted “dance break” as well, but there was not one of those like on Truth TV. Truth hit Miz with a hip toss, which led to Carmella joining Truth for the dance break. Asuka joined in on the dancing. Miz freaked out about it, so fans chanted “yes” about it. Miz told Carmella he had the greatest moonwalk, so Miz did a bad moonwalk that drew boos. R-Truth hit Miz with a jumping kick. Carmella managed to toss Asuka out of the ring. Miz put Asuka in front of him to avoid an attack, so Carmella and Truth did some more dancing. Asuka and Miz yelled at eachother with Miz reluctant to get back in the ring.

Miz finally got into the ring with Miz stomping on the back of Truth. They showed Rusev and Lana on their phones backstage commenting on the show. Miz slapped on a headlock on Truth. Miz whipped Truth hard into the turnbuckle. Miz hit his corner clothesline on Truth and when Miz jumped off the top, Truth decked Miz with an uppercut punch. Asuka and Carmella got their tags at the same time. Asuka with two dropkicks, Carmella sent Asuka into the ropes and Asuka hit another dropkick followed by a knee to the face. Asuka with a back fist, a punch and a running hip attack that knocked Carmella down for two. Asuka went for a dropkick off the middle ropes, but Carmella moved out of the way. Carmella missed a corner attack because Miz pulled Asuka out of the way. Asuka hit a shining wizard running knee for a two count. Carmella with a hard slap and a superkick for two, but Miz pulled Carmella off. Miz blocked a superkick attempt, so Truth punched Miz and Miz lowbridged by the ropes to send Truth out of the ring. Carmella shoved Asuka into Miz and got a rollup for two. Good nearfall. Carmella kicked Miz off the apron. Asuka slapped on the Asuka Lock submission on Carmella for the win after 10 minutes of action.

Winners by submission: Team Awe-ska – The Miz and Asuka

Analysis: **1/2 Most of it was comedy, but when they got to the action in the last few minutes it was pretty good. I liked the nearfalls towards the end of the match with Carmella coming close to beating Asuka, which would have been an upset. The finish was well booked with Carmella kicking Miz out of the ring while Asuka capitalized on that to get the submission win for the team.

Here are the standings from the Smackdown side:

Here are post match comments from both teams:

Next week from Smackdown: Ravishing Rusev Day – Rusev and Lana vs. Day One Glow – Jimmy Uso and Naomi.

This week’s Mixed Match Challenge ended with Miz and Asuka celebrated their win. That was it for Mixed Match Challenge this week after about 33 minutes of action.

As a reminder of the matches for next week, here you go:

Final Thoughts

It was a fun show with comedy in both tag team matches and I thought both matches were booked well in terms of having good finishes. You can’t take Mixed Match Challenge too seriously because it’s about having fun while having competitive matches too.

Thanks for reading. My contact info is below. Go Los Angeles Rams.

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

Personal Facebook and TJRWrestling on Facebook