Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 10/09/18 for Season 2, Episode 5

By John Canton • Published 17th October 2018
TJR Wrestling

The show took place on Tuesday, October 16 after Smackdown in Washington, DC.

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.

Natalya was up first for her team known as Team Pawz and she was joined by her new partner in Bobby Roode. Kevin Owens is out after surgery on both knees, so Roode is the replacement for him.

Mickie James was up first for her team looking great as always. Lio Rush made the introduction for the “Rocky Mountain made machine” and the “Heavyweight that is back to dominate” and he brought out Bobby Lashley. They are all heels, but the heel/face thing doesn’t matter as much on Mixed Match Challenge because there’s a lot of comedy.

As a reminder of how things work on Mixed Match Challenge, the two teams in the final will meet at the TLC PPV in December.

Team Pawz (Bobby Roode and Natalya) vs. Country Dominance (Bobby Lashley and Mickie James) w/Lio Rush

Team Pawz is 0-1 going into this match while Country Dominance is 1-0.

The match started with fans chanting “Bobby” for each Bobby in the match, so there was some confusion early on. Natalya put cat ears on Lashley, who flexed and then Lashley stomped on the cat ears leading to boos. Roode with a rollup on Lashley for two. Roode grabbed a headlock and Lashley came back with a clothesline. Natalya tagged in, so Mickie had to go in for her team. Natalya took her down with a headlock, James with a leg scissors around the neck and James hit a headscissors out of the corner. Natalya back up with a clothesline. Natalya caught the foot of James, sent her down face first, Natalya stepped on the back and hit a dropkick to the face for two. Natalya went for a Sharpshooter, but James got to the ropes. James with a forearm to the back of Natalya. James with a kick to the back and a headlock. When Natalya fought back with elbows, James pulled her down by the hair. There was a running cross body block spot by Natalya and James leading to both women being down on the mat. Roode got the tag meaning Lashley had to go in with Roode hitting two clotheslines. Lashley with a back body drop. Lashley with a corner clothesline, Roode with a boot to the face and a Blockbuster off the middle ropes for two. Roode went to the top rope, so Lashley slammed him down. Lashley charged for a Spear, Roode moved and Lashley hit the turnbuckle. James got in Roode’s face, so Natalya got in the ring too as the women got into an argument. James slapped Natalya, so Natalya slapped on a Sharpshooter on James. Roode put the Sharpshooter on Lashley as well. James tapped out, but she wasn’t legal. Rush on the apron, Roode went after him and Lashley got back up. Lashley wanted a suplex, Roode slipped out, Roode wanted a DDT, Lashley slipped out of that and Lashley ran the ropes leading to a Spear for the pinfall win after about ten minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Country Dominance (Bobby Lashley and Mickie James)

Analysis: **1/2 It was a solid match with an entertaining final few minutes. I thought James and Natalya did some cool stuff in there although maybe they could have done more in terms of nearfalls because that’s what was lacking. I liked how the finish was booked with Natalya and Roode each doing the Sharpshooter, James tapping out immediately, but she wasn’t legal, so Lashley came back for her team. I’m not surprised that Country Dominance won since Lashley is booked so strongly.

Here are the standings on the Raw side:

Analysis: What stands out is the two teams are 2-0 at the top, so when Monster Eclipse faces Country Dominance it could determine who wins on the Raw side. If I had to pick, I’d go with Monster Eclipse as the lone undefeated team.

Here are post match comments from the winners:

Next week from Raw: Team Pawz (Bobby Roode and Natalya) vs. B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley). Comments were shown from Balor and Bayley.

Natalya and Bobby Roode were interviewed by Kayla Braxton backstage. Natalya told Bobby to stay positive because next week they have Finn and Bayley. Bobby said sorry, he said that he should have been better and he feels like Team Pawz still has a chance in the Mixed Match Challenge. He said that they’ll be victorious…and Asuka showed up to say that they will win.

Asuka made her entrance for her team with a lot of rainbow colors on her attire. The Miz was up next with his ridiculous ring attire complete with the silly glasses. They are called Awe-ska and they won the first season of Mixed Match Challenge.

The husband and wife duo of Rusev and Lana made their entrance. They got a nice ovation. They tossed their shirts to the crowd. Fans greeted them with “Rusev Day” chants.

Awe-ska (The Miz and Asuka) vs. Ravishing Rusev Day (Rusev and Lana)

Awe-ska are 1-0 in MMC so far while Ravishing Rusev Day is 0-1.

Asuka and Lana did an ass shaking competition, which was fun to watch. Asuka ended that with a spin kick to the chest. Lana came back with a bulldog followed by a breakdance move to get back to her feet. The fans sang the “Lana is the best, Lana number one” song so Miz said he’s the best, which led to boos. That must be fun for him. Rusev and Lana were cheered, Asuka was cheered, Miz was booed and they kept doing it to play with the crowd. It turned into a “yay, yay, boo” thing. Rusev and Lana kissed, so they teased Miz and Asuka to tease, but that didn’t happen. Rusev and Lana punched Miz and Asuka to knock them out of the ring. Lana hit a running cross body block off the apron onto Asuka and back in the ring that got a two count for Lana. Asuka came back with a dropkick. Asuka hit a knee to the face. Asuka went up top for a missile dropkick, Lana moved, so Rusev tagged in against Miz. Rusev was in control with two clotheslines, a running back splash and a spinning heel kick that took Miz down. Rusev hit a roundhouse kick to the head of Miz for a two count. Miz with a forearm to the back of Rusev’s knee. Miz kicked into the corner, Asuka tagged herself in and that led to submission attempts for Rusev/Lana, but they weren’t successful. Lana with a kick to Asuka for a two count. Lana did her “crush” yell, Miz hummed into the microphone, which distracted Rusev thinking it was Aiden English and Rusev kicked Miz in the head. Asuka with a running hip attack knocked Rusev to the floor. Lana sent Asuka to the floor. Lana slapped on the Accolade submission on Miz briefly. Asuka got back in, Lana hit an X-Factor face first slam and Miz broke up the pin. Lana slapped Miz in the face, Asuka took Lana down from behind and Lana tapped out to give Asuka the submission win. Rusev was busy dealing with Miz on the floor, so he didn’t see it. It went about nine minutes.

Winners by submission: Awe-ska (The Miz and Asuka)

Analysis: **1/4 It was a win for Asuka and Miz as expected since they haven’t lost a match in the MMC yet. There was some comedy early on, then things got more serious there and Asuka got the win for her team. I was surprised by how much offense Lana got because she controlled a lot of the match. Asuka didn’t really do that much. The guys played their parts well with Miz doing the key spot when he tried to fool Rusev into thinking Aiden English was there, which ended up heling Awe-ska team get the win.

Here are the standings from the Smackdown side:

Analysis: Just like on the Raw side, there are two undefeated teams that stand out that will lead to a big match. That should be good when it’s Fenomenal Flair vs. Awe-ska although that isn’t taking place next week.

Here are post match comments from both teams:

Next week from Smackdown: Day One Glow (Jimmy Uso and Naomi) vs. Awe-ska (The Miz and Asuka). Comments were shown from Jimmy and Naomi.

The Miz and Asuka celebrated the win with Asuka raising her arms to cheers and Miz raising his arm to boos.

That’s all for Mixed Match Challenge for this week after 33 minutes.

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

Final Thoughts

The show was fine this week. There wasn’t anything that really stood out. Each match a had a bit of comedy, but not as much as some matches do. As is usually the case in these matches, the finishes are done really well and that’s something I can consistently say nearly every week.

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

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

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