Reviews

The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 12/04/18 for Season 2, Episode 12 (Smackdown Semifinals)

By John Canton • Published 5th December 2018
TJR Wrestling

Welcome to my review of week twelve of season two of the WWE Mixed Match Challenge. The show took place on Tuesday, December 4 after Smackdown in Austin, Texas.

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.

For the Winners: The top Raw team will face the top Smackdown team at the December PPV called TLC on December 16. All Raw and Smackdown teams face eachother once, so there are at least four matches for every team. After that, there’s a four-team playoff. We also found out that the winners of Mixed Match Challenge get to be #30 in the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble match. They also announced the winners get to go on a trip anywhere they want.

This week’s show is the Smackdown playoffs meaning if you win then you move on and if you lose, you’re done. Let’s get to it.

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

Charlotte Flair was up first for her team wearing her robe and she had a t-shirt covering the “goods” because I guess different rules apply to Mixed Match Challenge. Jeff Hardy is her partner as the replacement for the original partner. The announcers mentioned they are called Extreme Flair instead of Fenomenal Flair, but the names don’t seem to matter anymore.

Carmella and R-Truth were next as they did their “What’s Up” entrance together. The fans were into it.

Extreme Flair (Jeff Hardy and Charlotte Flair) vs. Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella)

The Extreme Flair team was 4-0 in the round robin and Fabulous Truth was 1-3, so it’s a matchup of #1 seed vs. #4 seed.

Truth and Hardy started the match with nothing going on for about one minute. Truth did a dance, so Jeff matched him with the dancing, which the crowd loved. Carmella tagged in, so Flair had to enter. Flair teased a chop, Carmella blocked, but then Flair hit three chops and Carmella hit a headscissors takedown. Carmella celebrated with a moonwalk. Flair wanted a Figure Four, Carmella bailed to the floor and Hardy knocked Truth out of the ring. When Flair and Hardy tried to attack outside the ring, Truth and Carmella went back into the ring for the dance break. Flair back in with a forearm to the back of Carmella. Flair did some bad dance in front of Truth, Carmella with a rollup and Flair did a hair whip. Flair did a leg scissors around the head of Carmella as Jimmy Uso and Naomi were shown warming up backstage. Flair let go of the hold and went up the ropes for a moonsault, but Carmella hit a headscissors off the top similar to what Trish Stratus used to do out of the corner. Hardy and Truth tagged in with Truth hitting two clotheslines plus a jumping side kick. Truth charged in with a corner splash followed by a scissors kick to the back of the head. Flair broke up a pin attempt, Flair hit a forearm on Carmella and sent her out of the ring. Hardy with a Twist of Fate on Truth. When Hardy went up top, Carmella laid down on top of Truth, so Flair pulled Carmella out of the ring. Hardy with a Swanton Bomb off the top, but Truth had enough time to move and Truth with the dreaded ROLLUP OF DEATH~! for the pinfall win at seven minutes.

Winners by pinfall: Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella)

Analysis: ** It was an upset finish with the undefeated team losing to the one win team. The finish was set up well with Carmella blocking the Swanton Bomb in a unique way, which gave Truth time to move and slap on the dreaded ROLLUP OF DEATH~! Why do you think it is called that? The move is deadly. It’s not that much of a surprise since Flair is booked at TLC and Hardy might be, so maybe WWE didn’t want Flair working twice. The Fabulous Truth team is not booked at TLC, so they might win the whole thing.

Here are post match comments:

There were comments from Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox about next week’s match. Finn Balor also had comments with his partner Bayley to settle who wins the Raw side of the bracket.

Carmella and R-Truth were interviewed backstage by Kayla Braxton. Truth said he wanted to go to Memphis, Egypt if they win the MMC and get a free trip. Jimmy Usos showed up saying they’ll welcome them to the Uso Penitentiary. R-Truth said he didn’t know Carmella was in the penitentiary. That was clever.

Jimmy Uso entered first along with his wife Naomi while Michael Cole mentioned he beat Naomi in a dance contest in the past. Cole also mentioned being in the Royal Rumble, wrestling at WrestleMania and other stuff.

Asuka was up first for her team and she was joined by The Miz. Renee noted that Miz is now an Austin, Texas resident even though he’s introduced as being from Los Angeles. Some of Miz’s family is in the crowd. Watch Miz and Mrs. because they showed his move to Texas. Cole said he’s glad to be there because in 15 minutes he gets to drive home since he lives there.

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

Asuka and Naomi battled over some holds early on with the announcers talking about their friendship. Naomi went for a step up enziguri kick, Asuka caught the foot and Naomi rolled through for a two count. Naomi with a jumping kick that put Asuka down. The women shook hands with Miz getting mad about it, so Asuka hit a dropkick. Miz tagged in meaning Jimmy had to tag in. Miz with a shoulder tackle, Jimmy came back with two arm drags and Miz got a boot to the face to take control back. Miz hit two corner dropkicks. Miz with a slow taunt, he charged in, Jimmy with a clothesline, kick to the ribs, uppercut and a Samoan Drop. Jimmy with a running hip attack on Miz against the turnbuckle, Jimmy went up top and Miz tripped up Jimmy to take him down. Miz came back with a kick to the leg followed by a DDT for two. Miz had some funny looking shoes with bright colors that matched Asuka’s gear. Miz told Asuka that he didn’t trust her anymore since Asuka cost him the match last time. Joseph said they’re not on the same page and Cole goes: “That was a great deduction.” Nice sarcasm by Cole! Miz had a headlock on and Jimmy hit an enziguri kick to the head. Naomi got the tag leading to a running clothesline to Asuka, a headscissors takedown and Asuka moved out of the way leading to Naomi hitting the turnbuckle. Naomi hit a slam leading to a two count. Asuka with a knee to the face, Naomi back into it with an elbow to the head and a springboard kick for a two count as Miz made the save. Jimmy sent Miz out of the ring, sliding dropkick and Asuka hit a hip attack on Jimmy on the apron. Naomi with a Rear View hip attack for a two count. Asuka rollup got two. Asuka slapped on the Asuka Lock submission on Naomi for the win after nine minutes.

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

Analysis: **3/4 It was pretty good for a MMC match without the comedy that sometimes hurts these matches. The girls were the highlight of the match with Naomi and Asuka each hitting some cool moves while showing good chemistry. That would be a nice feud down the road. I’m not surprised by Miz and Asuka winning since they have done well in MMC in their two seasons with just one loss.

After the match was over, Asuka celebrated the win and pointed out to Miz that she’s the one that got the victory for her team.

Here are post match comments:

Here’s what the final four teams look like:

Analysis: It looks like the finals might see the two 4 seeds meeting up with Jinder and Alicia battling R-Truth and Carmella. The reason I say that is because Finn Balor has a match at TLC and so does Asuka, so maybe those teams will fail to win. I think the team of Balor and Bayley should win the whole thing because it’s a popular face act that could use a boost like this, but WWE may not go that route because Balor’s facing Drew McIntyre at TLC. If they do the MMC match early in the show and Balor’s match later, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The show ended with Asuka and Miz celebrating the win with the fans chanting Asuka while they booed Miz when he tried to take the credit.

That’s all for this week’s show. It went about 33 minutes.

Final Thoughts

The second match was better than the first and there was less comedy this week, so that’s a plus.

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

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport

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