WWE: The Beauty and Charm of the Mixed Match Challenge

The WWE launched the Mixed Match Challenge last night. It is a tournament pitting intergender teams against one another for charity, and it will surely be exciting.

Tuesday night was the night folks. The WWE kicked off the inaugural Mixed Match Challenge! Airing after SmackDown Live on Facebook, fans were treated to Finn Balor and Sasha Banks versus Natalya and Shinsuke Nakamura. It was battle between two of the best women on the roster and two of NJPW’s greatest transplants. With charities spanning from The Special Olympics to Connor’s Cure, I think everyone will be a winner in the end. Now, the real fun is not just in the pairings but the matches that will happen.

Granted, we haven’t seen anything beyond episode one, but it seems that the Mixed Match Challenge will be operating outside of the existing storylines. This will not only give the fans a break from the current stories but will allow the wrestlers a chance at something fresh to stoke their creative fires. One thing the WWE did to peak interest in the tournament was air videos of the wrestlers finding out who their partners would be.

The beauty of what we are about to experience with the Mixed Match Challenge is again, its break from reality. With the Royal Rumble coming in hot we are officially on the Road to WrestleMania. So stories and feuds are going to be getting heavier and reach their boiling points before we know it. So this will be a nice break from the reality of the kayfabe of Raw and SmackDown. And in true fashion, after touting Survivor Series as “the only time Raw and SmackDown meet,” the teams will be Raw versus SmackDown.

For the most part, the WWE nailed the teams, but they did leave a few options on the table.  With the opportunity to match Nia Jax with Braun Strowman as a monster team of destruction, they opted for the more comical pairing of Strowman and Alexa Bliss. I feel they also missed a great chance to pair up Bayley and Finn. If you follow NXT, you’d remember their time together was magical.

Where do we go from here?

So with the Mixed Match Challenge off and running, what’s next? Does this become an annual tournament for charity? The WWE is growing more and more each day which will allow for fresh and new teams each time out. With the announcement today of the signing of Candice LeRae, an intergender tag team specialist, a future team with her husband Johnny Gargano could be in the cards.

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The true magic has yet to take place as it’ll fully take hold once we see the interactions in combat between the teams. Everyone is getting along great now, but as we’ve seen time and time again, a little adversity could change that. So with the first ever Mixed Match Challenge comes a brand new avenue of storytelling, drama, intrigue and above all else wrestling. I am eager to see what the WWE does with this great opportunity.