Sasha Banks Will Be Replaced By Mickie James In WWE Mixed Match Challenge
Injuries are starting to shake up the WWE Mixed Match Challenge 2 field, as Sasha Banks will have to bow out of the tournament. Mickie James will replace Banks as Bobby Lashley’s tag team partner.
The WWE Mixed Match Challenge 2 started this week, and the first two matches are in the books. Charlotte Flair and AJ Styles teamed up to take down Jimmy Uso and Naomi, while the newly formed tag team of Braun Strowman and Ember Moon defeated the unlikely tandem of Kevin Owens and Natalya.
Strowman was originally set to team up with Alexa Bliss after their highly successful “Team Little Big” pairing made a deep run in the inaugural Mixed Match Challenge earlier this year. However, Bliss suffered an arm injury at Hell in a Cell in her Raw Women’s Championship match against Ronda Rousey, so numbness prevented her from competing in the second MMC. She was replaced by Moon, as a result of this injury.
You can count Sasha Banks out of the Mixed Match Challenge 2 as well, because WWE’s Cathy Kelley announced that Banks has suffered an injury. Per Kelley, Mickie James has been tabbed as Banks’s replacement and will team up with Lashley to take on the intriguing duo of Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox next week.
You can view the announcement via WWE’s official Twitter account below.
In the announcement about Bliss’s injury, Kelley specified that “Little Miss Bliss” was dealing with left arm numbness. She made no clarification about Banks’s status. Bliss’s injury isn’t a work, so it may be fair to assume that Banks suffered a legitimate injury at some point. Banks was awesome as Finn Balor’s tag partner in the first Mixed Match Challenge, and I doubt WWE would have wanted to switch her out as Lashley’s partner on purpose.
Although it is awful to hear that Banks may be injured, James and Lashley are two veterans of the wrestling business who will form a fun tag team. Their matches will be exciting to watch, and I wouldn’t sleep on the potential for their segments to shine, too. These are two former TNA stars who had been with WWE in previous stints, too, so there’s always that friendly dynamic.
All I can add is that I hope Banks is OK, and she will be missed in this tournament.