Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 10/09/18 for Season 2, Episode 4

By John Canton • Published 10th October 2018
TJR Wrestling

The show took place on Tuesday, October 9 after Smackdown in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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.

Bayley was up first for this week’s Raw match. She was joined by her partner Finn Balor. They got a nice ovation from the crowd. Neither one of them has anything going on in terms of a meaningful storyline on Raw these days.

Ember Moon was up first for her team. She replaced the injured Alexa Bliss on this team. Braun Strowman was up next to a big reaction.

Team B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley) vs. Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman and Ember Moon)

Team B’N’B is 1-0 and Monster Eclipse are also 1-0, so it’s a battle of undefeated teams. Everybody in this match is a face on Raw except Strowman, but usually in MMC matches the face/heel thing doesn’t matter much.

Moon with a running shoulder tackle on Bayley, which led to Bayley come back with a shoulder tackle and elbow drop. Strowman tagged in meaning that Balor had to enter the match. Strowman worked over Balor with kicks to the legs, Balor avoided a corner attack and hit a jumping kick. Moon into the ring, so Bayley hit a hurricanrana to take her out. Balor with a running forearm to the face that Strowman didn’t sell and Strowman decked Balor with a punch to the chest. Strowman wrenched on the neck of Balor. Carmella and R-Truth were backstage with Truth thinking he was leaving while Carmella told him that they have a match up next. Strowman whipped Balor into the ropes leading to a clothesline. Strowman with a hard whip into the corner that knocked down Balor. Strowman with a headbutt that kept Balor down. Strowman prevented a tag by sending Balor back first into the turnbuckle again. Strowman missed a running charge when Balor moved, Bayley tagged in meaning Moon had to go in and Bayley hit a neckbreaker using the ropes for an assist. Moon with a slam off his shoulders leading to a knee to the ribs. Bayley got back into it with a running knee to the face. Moon with a springboard cross body block. Bayley with a knee strike for a two count. Moon with a jumping kick to the head of Bayley. Moon went up top, but Bayley pulled her down and Bayley hit a Bayley to Belly suplex for a two count as Strowman pulled Moon’s leg to save her. Strowman tagged himself in and he charged at Balor, who moved leading to Strowman hitting the turnbuckle hard. Strowman does that bump in every match. Balor up top and he connected with a double foot stomp to Strowman’s back. Bayley wit ha cross body block on Moon on the floor. Balor went for a Coup de Gras off the top, Strowman moved and Strowman hit a Powerslam on Balor for the pinfall win after about nine minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman and Ember Moon)

Analysis: **3/4 It was a pretty good match Strowman dominating Balor for most of the match and then Bayley managed to get the hot tag leading to pace picking up. I’m not surprised by the result because WWE doesn’t like booking Strowman to lose that much. I thought the finish could have been set up better. It was too basic with Strowman just hitting an easy powerslam that made Balor look like a loser.

Here are the standings on the Raw side:

Analysis: It looks like Monster Eclipse will be the undefeated team while Mahalicia will probably lose every match. It’s possible that Country Dominance could beat Monster Eclipse when they face off, but I think WWE is going to want to continue to book Strowman like a dominant monster in this tournament.

Here are post match comments:

Next week from Raw: Team Pawz (Natalya and partner) vs. Country Dominance (Bobby Lashley and Mickie James)

Analysis: There’s no more Kevin Owens teaming up with Natalya because Owens is out with a knee injury.

Carmella and R-Truth made their entrance with R-Truth doing the “What’s Up” song like usual with Carmella joining in with him along with the crowd. When they finished, Cole said “man, I’m getting old for this” so I guess he thinks Truth needs a new entrance song. They are known as the Fabulous Truth.

Charlotte Flair was up first for her team and she was joined by the WWE Champion AJ Styles. They got a big ovation from the crowd. Both superstars wrestled on Smackdown earlier in the night. They are known as Fenomenal Flair. Charlotte had black tape on her right arm and right hand after she was cut earlier on Smackdown.

Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella) vs. Femonenal Flair (AJ Styles and Charlotte Flair)

Fenomenal Flair is 1-0 so far while Fabulous Truth is 0-1. The wrestlers tried to get reactions with Truth doing his “What’s Up” leading to Charlotte doing the “Woo” so the fans were into both chants. Charlotte wrestled with a Fenomenal Flair shirt on top of her gear and Styles had the same shirt. Truth and Carmella did not wear their Fabulous Truth shirts.

Truth and Styles had a moment where they did some wrestling counters. Truth started dancing. Styles did an awkward dance, then Truth did more and Styles did okay. Truth did another dance, so they said “dance break” and started dancing. Charlotte’s twerk didn’t happen this time. Carmella and Truth each did the splits. Charlotte did the splits too. Styles tried it, but then he grabbed his leg to joke like he was hurt. Carmella hit a headscissors on Styles. Carmella avoided a Charlotte attack early, but Charlotte came back with two chops. Carmella ran all around the ring with Charlotte chasing her around the ring for a few laps. Carmella left the ring again, so Charlotte hit a baseball slide dropkick. Back in the ring, Flair with a belly to back suplex. Carmella slapped on the Code of Silence leg scissors around the neck, but Flair powered out of it and Carmella did a rollup for two. Charlotte and Carmella did a double clothesline spot. Jimmy Uso and Naomi were shown in the locker room commenting on the match on their phones. Truth got a tag, so Styles went in there with a fireman’s carry into a neckbreaker with Carmella breaking up the pin attempt. Truth with a kick to the gut and an Axe Kick to the back, but Flair broke up the pin. Carmella with a superkick on Flair. Styles tried a sunset flip, Carmella held onto Truth, Flair knocked Carmella off the apron and Styles followed through with the sunset flip for the successful pin after about eight minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Femonenal Flair (AJ Styles and Charlotte Flair)

Analysis: *3/4 This was more of a comedy match. I was entertained by most of it, but they really took it easy here. The guys barely did anything while the girls did a bit more and the dance break worked in terms of getting some laughs. No surprise that AJ and Charlotte would win.

Here are the standings from the Smackdown side:

Analysis: I think either Fenomenal Flair or Awe-Ska will be defeated on Smackdown and if I had to pick one I’d go with the Fenomenal Flair team. Fabulous Truth could definitely be winless while having fun the entire time.

Here are post match comments from both teams:

Next week from Smackdown: Awe-ska (Miz and Asuka) vs. Ravishing Rusev Day (Rusev and Lana)

The team of Styles and Flair celebrated their win with Flair struts and Styles did a Spinarooni. The crowd popped for that as MMC ended for this week.

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

The match quality was down this week especially on the Smackdown side, which is fine because they turned up the comedy. The Raw match was the better match of the two of them.

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

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

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