Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 10/23/18 for Season 2, Episode 6

By John Canton • Published 26th October 2018
TJR Wrestling

Welcome to my review of week six of season two of the WWE Mixed Match Challenge. The show took place on Tuesday, October 23 after Smackdown in Newark, New Jersey.

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, and most weeks I use WatchWrestling for it.

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

Natalya entered first for her team and she was wearing a Bobby Roode robe. Bobby Roode made his Glorious entrance wearing one of his robes as well, so he must have a lot of robes. They are called Team Pawz.

The team of Finn Balor and Bayley made their entrance to a nice ovation. The Bayley buddies even joined them on their entrance as they did Balor’s pose on their way to the ring. They are called Team B’N’B.

It’s a round robin tournament where the winning teams will meet at TLC to crown the Mixed Match Challenge champions.

Team Pawz (Bobby Roode and Natalya) vs. Team B’N’B (Finn Balor and Bayley)

Team Pawz is 0-2 while Team B’N’B are 1-1.

All superstars in this match are faces. Balor and Roode gave eachother their gear with Balor wearing the Roode robe and Roode wearing the leather jacket. Roode wasn’t happy about it, Balor went for a DDT and Roode struggled to take off the jacket that was too small for him. Natalya tagged in against Bayley. They’re on the same team in a six-woman tag team match at Evolution. Natalya was in control with an armbar. Each woman got a rollup for a two count. Natalya sent Bayley out of the ring, she teased a dive and Roode tagged in telling her that she doesn’t dive. Balor with a dropkick to Roode. A blockbuster neckbreaker off the ropes got a two count for Roode as Naomi and Jimmy were shown stretching before their match. Balor came back with a Slingblade out of the corner. The guys exchanged forearms and Balor hit an elbow drop to the chest for a two count as Natalya broke up the pin. Bayley jumped over the guys to take out Natalya. Bayley and Balor wanted to hug, but Natalya pulled Bayley out of the ring leading to the women doing a double clothesline spot on the floor. Roode hit a spinebuster on Balor for two. Roode went up top, took way too long, jumped up teasing a Coup de Grace and Balor hit a dropkick that sent Roode into the turnbuckle. Balor up top and he hit a Coup Grace double foot stomp off the top leading to a pinfall win after about nine minutes.

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

Analysis: **1/4 Decent match. Easy win for B’N’B while Team Pawz remains winless. It was a bit disappointing because they are all good workers, but they seemed to be going through the motions. That’s what happens sometimes with these MMC matches when they rely heavily on comedy. The parts with the women should have been better.

Here are the standings on the Raw side:

Analysis: It looks like the showdown between Braun/Ember vs. Lashley/James is going to determine the winner on the Raw side. Since the winners have a match at TLC in December, I can see Strowman’s team losing because he’ll probably be in a singles match at that show.

Here are post match comments:

Next week from Raw: Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman and Ember Moon) vs. Mahalicia (Jinder Mahal and Naomi)

Asuka made the entrance first for her team. She used to get such a big reaction, but she doesn’t get much anymore, which is a shame. The Miz and Asuka have never lost a match in the Mixed Match Challenge after winning the first season.

The husband and wife team of Jimmy Uso and Naomi were up next with Jimmy wearing an outfit that glows just like his wife. Cole bragged about beating Naomi in a dance contest once, which was true. Rusev in the comments claimed that Cole is a great dancer better than Naomi, so there you go.

Awe-ska (The Miz and Asuka) vs. Day One Glow (Jimmy Uso and Naomi)

Awe-ska are 2-0 in MMC so far while Day One Glow are 1-1.

Asuka slapped on a headlock on Naomi with Cole saying that he has every Mixed Match Challenge shirt available. Naomi and Asuka did a spot where they did a dance move together followed by a hug. Miz yelled at Asuka about hugging her friend Naomi, so Miz tagged himself in against Jimmy while Miz yelled at Asuka about hugging in a wrestling match (similar to “there’s no crying in baseball” by Tom Hanks’ character in A League of Their Own). That led to Jimmy hugging Naomi and Asuka. Miz yelled about no hugs. The others wanted to hug Miz, so he bailed to the floor to avoid the hugging. Jimmy brought Miz into the ring, Jimmy hugged Miz, that led to Miz hitting a shoulder block and Miz hugged himself. Miz hit a splash against the turnbuckle when Jimmy moved and Jimmy went up leading to Miz tripping him up on the top rope. They showed Rusev and Lana commenting on their phones as Miz slapped on a headlock. Jimmy got out of headlock, he got back to his feet and hit a superkick on Miz. Naomi tagged in against Asuka with Naomi hitting two clotheslines, she missed a roundhouse kick and Asuka missed a running knee. Naomi with a kick to the gut, Asuka with a knee to the face and Naomi came back with a kick to the face. Miz pulled Asuka out of the ring leading to Naomi missing her moonsault and hitting the mat hard. Jimmy tagged in with two clotheslines, a kick to the gut and an uppercut punch on Miz. Jimmy hit a Samoan Drop on Miz, but Miz came back with a boot to the face for two with Naomi breaking up the pin. Asuka in, Naomi kicked her in the head and Jimmy hit an uppercut on Miz. Naomi and Miz each hit running back splashes against the turnbuckle against their opponents. Miz with a forearm that blocked a Jimmy charged and Naomi hit a dive over the top on Asuka. Miz back in and he hit a Skull Crushing Finale for the pinfall win at around eight minutes.

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

Analysis: **1/2 It was a fun match like usual when Miz and Asuka team up although the hugging routine was lame. They should have done some spots where Jimmy or Naomi were close to winning, but that didn’t happen. It was obvious Miz and Asuka were getting the win since they’ve been undefeated in the MMC for both seasons so far. Normally Asuka gets the win, but this time it was Miz that did it.

Here are the standings from the Smackdown side:

Analysis: Just like on Raw, two undefeated teams stick out above the rest, so that will be the key showdown on the Smackdown bracket.

Here are post match comments:

Next week from Smackdown: Ravishing Rusev Day (Rusev and Lana) vs. Fenomenal Flair (AJ Styles and Charlotte Flair).

The show ended with Miz and Asuka celebrating their win while Jimmy and Naomi were sad about their loss. Miz and Asuka did their boo/yay routine to get reactions from the crowd. They argued about hugging to end it.

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

It was fine. Just an average edition of this show. Some weeks there’s a standout match, but it didn’t happen this week. Both results were predictable as well.

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

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

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