Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 10/02/18 for Season 2, Episode 3

By John Canton • Published 3rd October 2018
TJR Wrestling

The show took place on Tuesday, October 2 after Smackdown in Portland, Oregon.

As a reminder, the show airs on Facebook Watch in the US on the Mixed Match Challenge page 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, so I use WatchWrestling for it.

The announce team for the show is Michael Cole, Renee Young and Vic Joseph, who were at ringside. It was confirmed by Cole during the show that the winners of this tournament will face off at the TLC PPV in December.

The duo of Finn Balor and Bayley made their entrance for the Raw match. They are called “Team B’N’B” and they wore eachother’s jackets as they made their entrance. Renee noted that they were true friends from the NXT days together and on the Raw brand.

Alicia Fox entered for Team Mahalicia with Fox claiming she was the captain of the team. Jinder Mahal and Sunil Singh entered with Sunil wearing Fox’s hat until she took it back from him. This team is 0-1 in the tournament so far.

Team B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley) vs. Mahalicia (Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox) w/Sunil Singh

Mahalicia are 0-1 so far and Team B’N’B are having their first match.

Fox started against Bayley and said she wants to face Balor even though it’s supposed to be men vs. men and women vs. women. Bayley got some rollups on Fox for two counts. Mahal tagged in against Balor with a headlock. Balor with an arm drag on Mahal followed by a dropkick. Bayley tagged in against Fox with a former. Bayley was on the apron, Fox hit her with a forearm and Bayley was caught by Singh. Fox left the ring and shoved Bayley into the ring post. Fox did a hair whip for a two count. Bayley got back into it by sending Fox face first into the turnbuckle. Good bump by Fox, who prevented Bayley from tagging out. Fox grabbed a headlock. Kevin Owens and Natalya were shown commenting on their phones. Bayley with a back body drop to create some space and a hot tag to Balor against Mahal. Balor with two forearms to the face. Balor charged in, Mahal hit a kick and Balor hit a jumping kick followed by the Slingblade. Balor with a running dropkick that sent Mahal into the turnbuckle. Balor up top, Fox shook the ropes repeatedly and Balor was crotched on the top rope. Fox tagged in, so Bayley took her down with a Thesz Press. Running knee by Bayley, who followed it up by going to the top and hitting a cross body block for two. Bayley with a neckbreaker using the ropes for an assist. Bayley with a sliding dropkick on Fox. Singh said he was trying to help Fox, so she chased him around the ring and Bayley gave Singh a Bayley to Belly in the ring. Bayley dumped Fox out of the ring. Balor hit a somersault dive over the top to take out Mahal and Singh. Fox went into the ring right into a Bayley to Belly suplex for the pinfall win by Bayley after around 10 minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Team B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley)

Analysis: **1/2 The match was okay with the story being that Balor and Bayley worked well together as a team while Mahalicia continue to have issues. Balor and Bayley have a lot of chemistry together, plus the crowd is always going to strongly support them. I thought the match would have been better with some believable nearfalls by Fox or Mahal because there wasn’t a moment where it looked like they might win.

The team of Balor and Bayley celebrated the win.

Here are the standings on the Raw side:

Analysis: I don’t think it would be a surprise if Mahalicia finished 0-4 in the round robin part of the tournament. Monster Eclipse will probably go 4-0 if I had to guess on any team being undefeated.

Here are post match comments:

Next week from Raw: Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman and Ember Moon) vs. Team B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley).

Comments were shown from Monster Eclipse about next week’s match.

They showed Bayley and Balor backstage being interviewed by Kayla Broxton. Bayley said she’ll be ready for Moon, Balor will be ready for Strowman and it will be too sweet. Basic promo. Jimmy Uso walked by, Kayla asked for a comment, he asked about Milwaukee and that was it.

It was time for the Smackdown match with husband and wife team Jimmy Uso and Naomi entering to a big ovation. They are 0-1 in the tournament following a loss to the Femonemal Flair team.

Lana was up first for her team as it is Smackdown’s second husband and wife team in the Mixed Match Challenge. This was about an hour after the controversial segment on Smackdown with Aiden English showing a video of Lana. They seemed to be on the same page with Rusev telling his wife that she’s the best and number one.

Ravishing Rusev Day (Rusev and Lana) vs. Day One Glow (Jimmy Uso and Naomi)

Day One Glow are 0-1 so far while Ravishing Rusev Day are having their first match in the tournament.

The fans chanted “Milwaukee” early based on the Rusev and Lana storyline. Naomi used her quickness to avoid Lana early followed by some sweet dance moves. Lana with a kick to the head of Naomi and a bulldog. Lana did a Spinarooni of her own followed by a booty shake that was nice to look at. Just saying. Renee said, “I think Lana loves a little attention.” She sure does. The match turned into a dance off with Naomi going first. Naomi did a great job with Renee saying Naomi was the best and the crowd cheered all of it. Lana did her dance and she did well too. The guys argued about which woman did a better job. Rusev raised Lana’s hand and Jimmy raised Naomi’s hand. More cheers for Naomi. The fans encouraged Jimmy and Rusev to have a dance off. The Miz and Asuka were shown backstage making comments on their phone. Jimmy showed off some of his dance moves. It was not as long as the girls dance. Rusev got the crowd into it getting them to chant “Rusev Day” for him. Rusev was about to dance, Jimmy got some glasses and put it on Rusev like what Jimmy’s dad Rikishi used to do. It looked like Rusev and Jimmy would dance together, but instead Rusev hit a kick to the head of Jimmy for a two count. That was clever. Jimmy with an enziguri kick on Rusev. Naomi tagged in and hit a kick to the head. Naomi with a springboard kick for a two count with Rusev breaking up the pin. Rusev dumped Jimmy out of the ring. Rusev jumped off the apron and Jimmy hit a superkick on Rusev. Lana hit an X-Factor face first slam for a two count. Lana teased an Accolade, Jimmy grabbed a microphone, asked Lana what was up with Milwaukee and Lana slapped him. Naomi with a ROLLUP OF DEATH~! on Lana for the pinfall win after about ten minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Day One Glow (Jimmy Uso and Naomi)

Analysis: ** It was fine, but it also disintegrated into a dance contest after starting as a wrestling match, so it’s hard to really rate it. It was a reminder that this is supposed to be a fun show. The dreaded ROLLUP OF DEATH~! strikes again even in a mixed tag team match. That’s why it is so deadly, my friends. I think of the ten minutes that the match was, they wrestled maybe for six minutes and the guys were in the ring for maybe one minute of that. It was mostly a comedy match.

Here are the standings from the Smackdown side:

Analysis: I think if there’s a winless team on the Smackdown side it will be The Fabulous Truth. Fenomenal Flair may be the undefeated team.

Here are post match comments from both teams:

Next week from Smackdown: Fenomenal Flair (AJ Styles and Charlotte Flair) vs. Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella)

The show ended with Jimmy Uso and Naomi celebrating the win at the top of the ramp while Rusev and Lana were upset in the ring.

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

This was probably the worst week of the three weeks in this season due to the comedy of the second match. I didn’t mind it, though. I go into it this show expecting to laugh and have silly moments, so it’s fine with me if they want to do goofy shit sometimes.

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

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

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