Mixed Match Challenge II: A Microcosm Of Madness

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

As we get near the end of this thing, I can only sit here and ponder how much the Mixed Match Challenge, which was generally well-received in its first run earlier in the year, has completely fallen apart as the second series has gone on through no fault of its own. To summarise...

*Two teams announced at the very beginning required replacement partners before a bell even rang due to injuries, these being Ember Moon for Alexa Bliss and Mickie James for Sasha Banks
*A third team required an injury replacement partner after one match, this being Bobby Roode for Kevin Owens
*A fourth team required a replacement partner because of kayfabe injury, Jeff Hardy for AJ Styles
*And finally, one of the two teams from before... The other partner needed to be replaced because of injury, Curt Hawkins for Braun Strowman, meaning that by the time that team was eliminated, the originally announced pairing were both gone

Furthermore, alignment shifts because of events away from the tournament...

*Braun Strowman had only just turned heel at the beginning of the tournament, and would be babyface again by the time he was taken out
*Bobby Lashley started the tournament as a babyface, ended it as a heel
*Charlotte Flair began the tournament as a babyface... and possibly still is? I don't know
*Mickie James? She's been heel the whole time... right?

Carmella also turned from heel to babyface, but the pairing with R-Truth specifically was the vehicle for that turn.

Finally, as we entered the elimination rounds, a new problem... Anyone left that was worth a damn started getting booked in other matches for TLC, where the final is taking place, including Strowman (pending injury), Finn Balor, Lashley, Flair, Asuka and Jimmy Uso. Which means that our likely final for the #30 spots in the Royal Rumbles is probably going to be the two #4 seeded teams after the groups, Jinder Mahal/Alicia Fox and R-Truth/Carmella, both of whom only got into the playoffs to start with, with a win on the last day of the group stage.

By the way, four out of five teams making playoffs? Generous, much.

So, yeah... Bit of a rabble this ol' tournoi.

[Spider2024]

I'm a little surprised that round robin tournaments are so popular and have lasted so long in Japanese wrestling organizations. In theory they should be almost impossible to pull off, since the threat of injury to any of the competitors would throw the whole thing off. Compound that with the whole 'tag teams that normally don't tag team together' and it was indeed an inescapable microcosm of madness. (Although technically any round robin thing with established tag teams would be tough too to deal with with the injury factor. That's more or less why group play tournaments are usually for only sports with teams, large number teams with backup players since they're used to the constant threat of the injury bug by now. I suppose a 'stable tournament' round robin could work.)

[Abdullah]

I think enough people were excited to see Team Little Big again and the fact that Alexa's injury ended the hope of that dampened the mood quickly.

And in general, if I remember right, it debuted while ten other things were happening in WWE.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2018 11:13:33 GMT -5 Abdullah said:

I think enough people were excited to see Team Little Big again and the fact that Alexa's injury ended the hope of that dampened the mood quickly.

And in general, if I remember right, it debuted while ten other things were happening in WWE.

Yeah, Team Little Big are adorable and it sucked to hear Alexa wouldn't be doing it. Even some people who don't like her enjoy the pairing with Braun.

Truth and Carmella have softened that blow a little bit though, because they're great together.

[Deleted]

If they made it something that happen on the regular shows. Plus all the injuries and replacements and losing the most popular team before it got started really took the wind out of it

[Nosnorb]

The fact that WWE decided to replace Braun Strowman, a dude that has destroyed almost everyone on the roster, with Curt F***in Hawkins, a dude that has been destroyed by everyone on the roster, is hilarious.

[Push R Truth]

I refuse to say anything bad about the tournament that brought us R Truth and Carmella being besties

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Somehow Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman's Team Little Big's Mixed Match Challenge return ended in the first round of the playoffs when Curt Hawkins was pinned by Jinder Mahal, after Hawkins tried to pin Alicia Fox.

Also, Ember Moon was Hawkins' partner.

[Deleted]

Really the whole concept of doing a round robin tournament to set the bracket for an elimination one was just dumb to begin with. Means you've got wastes of time like Charlotte / Partner going undefeated through the whole thing just to lose like it's nothing to a team that couldn't buy a win for most of it, it just makes for a pointless watch.

[ayumidah]

Ha, I had to sit and think for awhile a couple weeks ago about how many teams unchanged from the beginning there actually were, and that was BEFORE Braun was replaced. Season 1 had its problems between Enzo, Alicia, and Joe, but man, this season seems to have been a special kind of headache. Also I've noticed that for the first few episodes of MMC2, you could find it on Facebook Watch's page, but now I have to search for it and usually go to Mixed Match Challenge's page itself just to find it to watch it.

[This Player Hating Mothman]

Dec 5, 2018 11:01:29 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

I'm a little surprised that round robin tournaments are so popular and have lasted so long in Japanese wrestling organizations. In theory they should be almost impossible to pull off, since the threat of injury to any of the competitors would throw the whole thing off. Compound that with the whole 'tag teams that normally don't tag team together' and it was indeed an inescapable microcosm of madness. (Although technically any round robin thing with established tag teams would be tough too to deal with with the injury factor. That's more or less why group play tournaments are usually for only sports with teams, large number teams with backup players since they're used to the constant threat of the injury bug by now. I suppose a 'stable tournament' round robin could work.)

The key to round robin tournaments in New Japan is that when they're working the tour, their only things to do are either the tournament matches, or filler multi-mans on the off nights. For most of the people in the G1, for instance, the tournament accounts for around or even more than half of their singles matches that year. While on the tours, they're only working the tournament shows and any event they do is in service of the tournament. In WWE, you have people working Raw or Smackdown and then also having Mixed Match Challenge, with PPVs and tons of house shows on top of the pile, and even something as long-winded as the G1 Climax pales in comparison to how long Mixed Match Challenge has run considering it started in September.

WWE has taken pretty much everything that makes round robins work in Japan and thrown it onto its head because "let's do all of the poorly thought out ideas" is WWE's game plan. They have every factor working against them, and Mixed Match Challenge has ended up not necessarily a cause of but definitely a victim of how injury-prone WWE is.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2018 11:49:43 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

I refuse to say anything bad about the tournament that brought us R Truth and Carmella being besties

Carmella jumping up and down in excitement at Survivor Series when R-Truth tried to become the fifth member of the SDL women's team was the cutest thing ever.

[MrElijah]

The playoff structure was made up by someone who watched the NHL in the 80s(top 4 teams in the division made the playoffs, regardless of win/loss record).

Now what people tend to miss is this: by playing the fool, R-Truth might get #30 in the rumble. This was a long con from the start.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2018 15:13:42 GMT -5 @dax said:

Dec 5, 2018 11:49:43 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

I refuse to say anything bad about the tournament that brought us R Truth and Carmella being besties

Carmella jumping up and down in excitement at Survivor Series when R-Truth tried to become the fifth member of the SDL women's team was the cutest thing ever.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mixed Match Challenge was just too long this time around, and just seemed to highlight how often injuries occur on the roster. Was it really necessary to use a Round Robin to eliminate two teams out of a field of ten? This is as opposed to the first season where the single elimination format meant that teams were going down before they could do anything of note.

They should have just done a Round Robin, and had the two highest scoring teams face in the finals. That way, every team gets to have their moment, but it isn't getting dragged out so long that injuries are inevitably going to screw up plans.

[Spider2024]

Dec 5, 2018 15:35:47 GMT -5 MrElijah said:

The playoff structure was made up by someone who watched the NHL in the 80s(top 4 teams in the division made the playoffs, regardless of win/loss record).

Quick tangent, I've been thinking the NHL might as well go back to that, since they currently have the 'top 3 in each division plus borderline confusing 2 wild card system' which isn't really working. Just do straight up top 4, or straight up 'top 8 in each conference', much less questionable/confusing and more or less the same result in who gets in.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

It will be amazing if R-Truth is Number 30 in the Rumble this year and causes a dance break

Though taking away the 30 spots for Both Rumbles this year sucks, Number 30 is always built on surprise, at least it usually is...

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Dec 6, 2018 6:28:04 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

It will be amazing if R-Truth is Number 30 in the Rumble this year and causes a dance break

Though taking away the 30 spots for Both Rumbles this year sucks, Number 30 is always built on surprise, at least it usually is...

Usually? It never is. Cena in 2008 is very much the exception, not the rule. Here’s who it’s been since then...

2009: Big Show
2010: Batista
2011 (#40): Kane
2012: Big Show (2)
2013: Ryback
2014: Rey Mysterio
2015: Dolph Ziggler
2016: Triple H
2017: Roman Reigns
2018: Dolph Ziggler (2)

The only ones that may have been a legit surprise were Reigns and Ziggler the second time, and we saw how those went down.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Dec 6, 2018 6:50:42 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Dec 6, 2018 6:28:04 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

It will be amazing if R-Truth is Number 30 in the Rumble this year and causes a dance break

Though taking away the 30 spots for Both Rumbles this year sucks, Number 30 is always built on surprise, at least it usually is...

Usually? It never is. Cena in 2008 is very much the exception, not the rule. Here’s who it’s been since then...

2009: Big Show
2010: Batista
2011 (#40): Kane
2012: Big Show (2)
2013: Ryback
2014: Rey Mysterio
2015: Dolph Ziggler
2016: Triple H
2017: Roman Reigns
2018: Dolph Ziggler (2)

The only ones that may have been a legit surprise were Reigns and Ziggler the second time, and we saw how those went down.

Here's a query for your stat brain

Wha Number or Numbers have had the most surprise entrants? Whether it's a legend or a debuting or returning star who gets a huge pop?

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2018 6:50:42 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Dec 6, 2018 6:28:04 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

It will be amazing if R-Truth is Number 30 in the Rumble this year and causes a dance break

Though taking away the 30 spots for Both Rumbles this year sucks, Number 30 is always built on surprise, at least it usually is...

Usually? It never is. Cena in 2008 is very much the exception, not the rule. Here’s who it’s been since then...

2009: Big Show
2010: Batista
2011 (#40): Kane
2012: Big Show (2)
2013: Ryback
2014: Rey Mysterio
2015: Dolph Ziggler
2016: Triple H
2017: Roman Reigns
2018: Dolph Ziggler (2)

The only ones that may have been a legit surprise were Reigns and Ziggler the second time, and we saw how those went down.

To be fair Triple H was supposed to be a surprise, it was just an amazingly telegraphed one.