The John Report: WWE Mixed Match Challenge Review 12/11/18 for Season 2, Episode 13 (Semifinals)
Welcome to my review of week 13 of season two of the WWE Mixed Match Challenge. The show took place on Tuesday, December 11 after Smackdown in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is the final episode of season two because the winners of these matches face off at WWE TLC this Sunday night. Will I miss this show when it’s gone? Absolutely not. I don’t anticipate reviewing any future seasons either.
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.
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The announce team for the show is Vic Joseph, Michael Cole and Renee Young.
Bayley was up first for her team. Finn Balor was her partner, but he has some injury that caused him to miss TV this week, so Apollo Crews is the new partner. They were happy to be teaming together and did a “too sweet” hand gesture for Finn Balor.
Analysis: This show has had a lot of replacements due to injuries or WWE simply wanting to change things up. It has made it hard to follow for the average fan, I’m sure.
Alicia Fox was up first as the “captain” of her team. Her partner Jinder Mahal entered with Samir and Sunil Singh. This team was 1-3 in the round robin, yet here they are just one match away from making the finals.
Mahalicia (Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox) w/Samir and Sunil Singh vs. Apollo Crews and Bayley
Mahal with a running cross body block on Crews. Crews came back with three consecutive rollups for two counts, so a frustrated Fox tagged herself in against Bayley. Fox bailed to the floor quickly and yelled at the three guys outside the ring. Fox with a forearm to Bayley, kicks to the ribs and Bayley came back with an inside cradle for two. Bayley sent Fox face first into the turnbuckle. The guys tagged back in with Mahal kicking Crews in the ribs. Crews showed off his athleticism a bit and hit a hip toss. Mahal came back with a stun gun sending Crews into the top rope followed by a jumping knee to the face for two for Mahal. Hard whip into the corner by Mahal put Crews down. Mahal with a clothesline followed by a headlock for about one minute to put the crowd to sleep even more. Crews came back with an enziguri kick to the head. Bayley got the hot tag meaning Fox had to go in with Bayley hitting a clothesline, corner elbow smash, punches by Bayley and a belly to back suplex by Bayley. Running knee by Bayley against the turnbuckle. Fox sent Bayley face first into the turnbuckle and Bayley came back with a neckbreaker. Bayley hit the Bayley to Belly suplex, but the Singh Brothers pulled Fox out of the ring during the pinfall. The ref saw it and did nothing about it while Renee Young correctly pointed out that it should be a disqualification. Crews hit a diving clothesline off the steps onto both Singh Brothers on the floor. Crews hit a moonsault off the apron onto both Singhs, but he barely connected with it. Bayley hit a Bayley to Belly on Samir Sing and also a Bayley to Belly for Sunil Singh. Mahal took out Crews with a superkick on the floor. Bayley hit a suicide dive onto Mahal on the floor. Bayley sent Fox back into the ring and Fox hit a boot to the face for the pinfall win after about nine minutes.
Winners by pinfall: Mahalicia (Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox)
Analysis: ** The match was okay with a flawed finish due to the Singhs actions that should have caused a DQ, yet the ref did nothing about it. The spots after that were done well at least with Fox getting the win. Mahal’s offense is boring to watch, but Crews sold everything well and the crowd cared more about Bayley than anybody in the match.
Fox and Mahal celebrated the win while the announcers put it over as a big upset since this team were losers for most of the season. Cole was really over the top calling it the “Miracle at the Strip” because he’s told to say ridiculous things like that.
The team of Mahal, Fox and the Singhs were interviewed by Kayla Braxton. Mahal said he saw this coming. Fox said that they are on a winning streak and not because of these morons, it’s because she is the captain of the team. Asuka showed up to laugh at them and said she is going to win.
Here are post match comments:
Asuka made her entrance for the Smackdown portion of the night. Her partner is The Miz and this team won the first season of MMC. They suffered their first loss a few weeks ago, but they still made the finals on the Smackdown side.
Carmella was up first for her team known as the Fabulous Truth. Her partner is R-Truth, so they did their “What’s Up” rap on the way to the ring. The crowd is fully behind them although the crowd was not that into the first match.
Awe-ska (The Miz and Asuka) vs. Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella)
The match started with Miz and Asuka arguing about who was going to start the match, so Miz started and Truth got a rollup for two. Truth hit a headscissors on Miz. Truth avoided an attack, did a dance move, hip toss and a clothesline that sent Miz over the top to the floor. That brought Carmella into the ring for a dance break with the crowd getting into it. Carmella wanted Asuka to dance with them, so Asuka did an awkward dance on the apron while Miz yelled at his partner to keep her head in the game. Truth worked over Miz with punches, but Miz came back with a boot to the face. Miz with a running boot. Miz slapped on a headlock on Truth with the announcers talking about the end of the show with Young saying she can’t believe they are at the finals and Cole saying he wished this show could go on “forever.” He’s a very sarcastic guy sometimes. When Truth broke free, Miz hit another kick to the face for two. Miz hit a kick to the knee of Truth and a DDT for a two count with Carmella making a save for her partner. Miz never wins with that sequence, but Carmella felt the need to make the save. Miz worked over Truth with kicks to the chest, Truth got a rollup and Miz hit a clothesline for two. Miz hit two running dropkicks against the turnbuckle, but when Miz tried for a third, Truth decked him with a clothesline.
Carmella got the hot tag meaning Asuka had to go in as well. Carmella with a boot to the face, but a corner attack missed and Asuka hit a lifting knee to the face. Asuka with a running kick to the face for two. Carmella with a jawbreaker, Asuka bumped into the corner, so Miz tagged himself back in. Truth was back in as well with a running forearm on Miz for a two count with Asuka making the save. Carmella sent Asuka into the turnbuckle. Carmella set up for a superkick on Miz, but Miz put Asuka in front of him and Carmella kicked Asuka. Miz got a rollup on Truth for two. Carmella hit a superkick on Miz and Truth hit an Axe Kick to the back for a two count as Miz got his shoulder up. Nice nearfall there. Asuka dumped Carmella out of the ring. Miz sent Truth out of the ring. Asuka yelled at Miz while Miz tried to plead with her while some fans chanted “Asuka’s gonna kill you” at them. Asuka unloaded on Miz with punches, a stiff kick to the face and she left. Truth grabbed Miz and hit an Unprettier like Christian for the pinfall win after about 12 minutes.
Winners by pinfall: Fabulous Truth (R-Truth and Carmella)
Analysis: **3/4 That was a pretty good match for this show. It was also one of the longest matches of the season. I’m not going to go back to check, but I don’t remember others getting around 12 minutes. There were some fun moments and it was mostly a competitive matchup. The last few minutes were well booked with Asuka getting sick of The Miz’s actions and that cost the team the win. It was cool to see Truth using the Unprettier as a finisher.
The announcers freaked out with Cole being really over the top saying that was the biggest upset in WWE history. He really cranked up the bullshit with that comment. It was obvious he was being silly. Anyway, replays were shown of the Miz and Asuka team imploding at the end of the match.
R-Truth and Carmella celebrated the win while The Miz was shocked by what happened. Truth rallied the crowd with “What’s Up” chants and that was it.
Here are post match comments:
Here are the final standing for season two of Mixed Match Challenge:
Analysis: I’m going with Carmella and Truth as the winners. Does it really matter? No. I just think it’s better for the face team to get the win.
That’s all for this week’s show. It went about 36 minutes.
Final Thoughts
The two teams that were 1-3 in the round robin period are in the finals of this show. It meant that most of the last three months was useless, which explains why this show wasn’t very popular.
I have no idea if Mixed Match Challenge will continue for another season. I know the viewership numbers on Facebook Watch were considered low, but if Facebook wants to keep paying WWE to produce content then I can see WWE continuing to do it because it’s easy for them when they can just run it live after Smackdown is over. If it was me, I’d make the show more serious and maybe ditch the Mixed Tag Team match rules because it’s really not that interesting.
Thanks for reading. My contact info is below. Go Los Angeles Rams.
John Canton
Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com
Twitter @johnreport