WWE Reveals New Live-Streaming Show on Facebook

Social media behemoth Facebook has secured the rights to a weekly streaming show featuring WWE superstars

The WWE announced the debut of a new in-ring series being called the Mixed Match Challenge on Wednesday, December 14th. The show will première on January 16th, 2018 and then every Tuesday night at 10 pm following the conclusion of SmackDown Live. The 12 episodes will revolve around the men and women from both Raw and SmackDown competing in a single-elimination mixed tag team tournament where the winner will get $100,000 donated to the charity of their choice.

WWE Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer Michelle Wilson was quoted on WWE.com about the partnership between WWE and Facebook:

"“As we continue to expand our strategic partnership with Facebook, this new series, Mixed Match Challenge, jointly reflects our innovative approach to content distribution and fan engagement. This show will deliver the action and excitement our passionate fan base is accustomed to while offering new production elements and social experiences that only Facebook can provide.”"

According to WWE, these shows won’t simply happen in a vacuüm and the storylines will reverberate across their social media outlets in the form of short video packages and other content to be announced closer to January. Fans can also expect to see the Mixed Match Challenge heavily marketed each week on both Raw and SmackDown as well as Facebook and Twitter. The results of our votes for the first episode will be announced on January 4th.

What makes this program unique is that not only will the show be optimized for viewing on mobile devices but fans will also have the opportunity to directly impact the matches themselves. This makes sense when we consider that as of January 2017, it was estimated that up to 80% of users connect to Facebook via a mobile device rather than a traditional desktop or laptop computer. Viewers will be able to vote for competitors from each brand who will participate on the show with the idea being these results are calculated before the show airs but truly represents the will of the people.

The Mixed Match Challenge will utilize the new Facebook Watch feature which was described back in August as a personalized way for users to watch and discover new content both live and pre-recorded:

"Watch is personalized to help you discover new shows, organized around what your friends and communities are watching. For example, you’ll find sections like “Most Talked About,” which highlights shows that spark conversation, “What’s Making People Laugh,” which includes shows where many people have used the Haha reaction, and “What Friends Are Watching,” which helps you connect with friends about shows they too are following."

The utilization of social media in this way is a natural step for the WWE. Across multiple programs, the company reaches more than 825 million followers around the world and has nearly 500 million “likes” across all of their Facebook pages. WWE fans can follow “Mixed Match Challenge” on Facebook (via facebook.com/WWEMixedMatchChallenge) to add episodes to their watch lists for alerts and updates.

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