The inaugural WWE Mixed Match Challenge saw The Miz and Asuka take home the title. An awful lot has changed in the WWE landscape since then, and as such, WWE has decided to bring the Mixed Match Challenge back, once again on Facebook Watch in a round-robin elimination tournament that will feature two matches each 30-minute episode over 14 weeks.
The biggest change from the first event to the second is that Asuka is no longer an unbeaten woman in WWE and, thus, not the clear favorite to win — in fact, she’s somehow an afterthought in the SmackDown women’s division at the moment. That makes it a bit more difficult to predict the winner out of the teams that have been announced as of now for the second edition of the MMC.
The Miz and Asuka will be back to defend their crown. The other returning teams are Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss — who became fan favorites for their delightful chemistry as Team Little Big — as well as Jimmy Uso and Naomi, and Rusev and Lana.
The new teams announced for this year’s competition include AJ Styles and Charlotte Flair, the current WWE and SmackDown Women’s champions, who figure to be the favorites. R-Truth and Carmella are the other new Smackdown team that could be entertaining.
The new Raw teams are Bayley and Finn Bálor (Báylor Club?), Bobby Lashley and Sasha Banks (The Boss & Bob?), Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox (I don’t have a clever name for this one), and Kevin Owens and Natalya (Something Canadian). The first edition proved to be a fun competition that brought out some good in-ring work and also allowed the superstars involved to have some fun with promoting and building to matches on social media.
The first episode will be Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 10 p.m. ET on Facebook Watch with a pre-show at 9:50 p.m. ET.
