WWE Mixed Match Challenge is a Professional Wrestling web television series and tournament produced by WWE, where all matches are mixed Tag Team matches, with male wrestlers teaming up with female wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown. The teams from both Raw and SmackDown compete in a tournament format and the winner of the tournament wins $100,000 for the charity of their choosing.
The second season was a round robin-style tournament throughout fourteen 30-minute, two match episodes. The winners from the Raw and SmackDown divisions met in the finals at TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. In addition to the charity money, this year, the winning team received a trip to the destination of their choice and the #30 spots in their respective Royal Rumbles.
Mixed Match Challenge airs every Tuesday after SmackDown on Facebook Watch in the US and the WWE Network in other parts of the world.
Teams from Season 1
Raw
- Finn Balor and Sasha Banks (Boss Club)
- Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman (Team Little Big)
- Nia Jax and Apollo Crews
- Asuka and The Miz (Awe-ska)
- Mandy Rose and Goldust (Rose Gold)
- Bayley and Elias
Smackdown
- Charlotte Flair and Bobby Roode (Robe Warriors)
- Rusev and Lana (Ravishing Rusev Day)
- Naomi and Jimmy Uso (Glowish)
- Natalya and Shinsuke Nakamura
- Becky Lynch and Sami Zayn (Ginger Snaps)
- Carmella and Big E
Teams from Season 2
Returning teams are marked with (+).
Raw
- Ember Moon and Curt Hawkins note (Monster Eclipse)
- Mickie James and Bobby Lashley (Country Dominance)
- Bayley and Apollo Crews note (B'N'B)
- Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal (Mahalicia)
- Natalya and Bobby Roode note (Team Pawz)
Smackdown
- Asuka and The Miz (Awe-ska)note (+)
- Rusev and Lana (Ravishing Rusev Day)(+)
- Naomi and Jimmy Uso (Day One Glow)(+)
- Charlotte Flair and Jeff Hardy note (Extreme Flair)
- Carmella and R-Truth (The Fabulous Truth)
Tropes featured:
- Battle Couple: Naomi and Jimmy Uso, and Rusev and Lana; both pairs are married in real life.
- Berserk Button: Disrespect Braun Strowman's Mixed Match partner at your own peril. Curt Hawkins learned this the hard way
. - Butt-Monkey:
- Two seasons in, neither Carmella nor Natalya has won a match. Poor girls can't catch a break. Though Carmella would eventually win the entire MMC2, Natalya didn't have that luck.
- Anyone pitted against Braun Strowman, with particular focus on Sami Zayn in season one (due to his history with Strowman) and Kevin Owens in season two (due to his concurrent feud with Strowman).
- Season two, there seem to be two teams on each brand that have yet to win a match: Team Pawz (including the aforementioned Natalya) and Mahalicia on the Raw side, Fabulous Truth (including the aforementioned Carmella) and Ravishing Rusev Day on Smackdown.
- Bullying a Dragon: Ever since Awe-Ska's loss, Miz has been mistreating Asuka, who he solely blames for the loss. Berating her and refusing to tag her in as he "no longer trusts her." During their match against The Fabulous Truth, Miz uses her as a shield to block Carmella's superkick. That was the last straw as Asuka attacks the Miz and abandons him.
- Casting Gag:
- Charlotte teams up with with Bobby Roode in Season One and AJ Styles in Season Two. Both men were once two of her father's apprentices in TNA.
- Sami Zayn and Becky Lynch have been video game partners on Up, Up, Down, Down a number of times, and their MMC name, "the Gingersnaps" is a reference to their gaming team name, the "Up-Up Beatniks" (where they also employed finger snapping to taunt other teams).
- Team B'n'B as well - Bayley and Finn Balor had been campaigning to team up for the first tournament, as they'd been a duo in NXT, participating in a number of mixed tag matches.
- Darkhorse Victory: The Season 2 finals were between Mahalicia vs. The Fabulous Truth, two teams who, until winning the qualifiers in the playoffs, lost every match. This was made necessary because of the slew of injuries in season 2, with 6 superstars having to be replaced and the new teams not being as strong as Mahalicia or Fabulous Truth.
- Dance Party Ending: Even though Day One Glow/The Fabulous Truth ended with the former team winning, both teams end up dancing as the episode ends.
- Defeating the Undefeatable:
- Charlotte Flair with Jeff Hardy note manages to defeat Awe-Ska, given them their first loss not just this season, but their first loss period.
- In a more ironic case, both Mahalicia and Fabulous Truth, teams who were previously unable to gain a win, manage to defeat their respective Number One seeds Monster Eclipse and Extreme Flair respectively. Some fans even called the latter's victory the biggest upset in Mixed Match Challenge history.
- Dented Iron: When Elias fought his first (and only) match, he did so with bandaged ribs, due to injuries sustained when Braun Strowman broke a double-bass over him.
- Evil Is Petty: It was implied on Raw that Acting General Manager Baron Corbin chose Curt Hawkins as Ember Moon's new partner in order to spite Braun Strowman and everyone associated with him.
- Face/Heel Double-Turn: Played with in regards to the team of Becky Lynch and the recently-Face Heel Turned Sami Zayn. Various skits between the two of them involve Sami trying to corrupt Becky and Becky likewise trying to turn Sami good again. Ironically enough, Becky Lynch would later turn into more of a heel wrestler (with Sami tweeting her that he always knew she had it in her).
- Fighting Your Friend:
- Alica Fox and Mickie James faced each other in the match between Mahalicia and Country Dominance respectively.
- Naomi and Asuka faced each other in the match between Day One Glow and Awe-ska respectively. More emphasis in "Friend" in this case - they performed a sequence of moves and then high-fived and hugged in glee after.
- Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch (filling in for Charlotte) in the semi-finals of season one.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- Considering how they talked about how Asuka's undefeated streak was on the line, few doubted that Awe-ska would win the first season.
- Subverted in season two - everyone had Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman & Ember Moon) winning the whole thing, but due to injuries to Strowman and Baron Corbin's sabotage of Ember, it went to Fabulous Truth.
- Here We Go Again!: Charlotte's partner in the second season AJ Styles is unable to "Wooo," just like Bobby Roode was unable to in the previous season.
- History Repeats:
- See Here We Go Again!. Once again, Charlotte finds herself with a partner who is unable to "Wooo." At least AJ isn't as bad at it as Bobby Roode.
- In two consecutive seasons, Braun Strowman has used his size to assist his tag partner hitting her aerial finisher onto her opponent for the win.
- Carmella faces off against Awe-Ska (and loses) in her first match in the season.
- Apollo Crews is once again added to the Mixed Match Challenge as a replacement only to lose.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Braun Strowman, a 6'8", 385 lbs. Wrestling Monster, could make any woman into this, but WWE went one step further — they paired him with Alexa Bliss, a 5' Pint-Sized Powerhouse. They were set to reprise their partnership in Season 2, but Bliss had to bow out due to injury... so she was replaced with Ember Moon, who is only one inch taller than Bliss.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The superstars partaking in the Mixed Match Challenge was announced in December 2017, including Sami Zayn who was at the time involved in a storyline with Kevin Owens, Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura in the Clash of Champions pay-per-view. The stipulation of the Tag match against Orton and Nakamura was that if Owens and Zayn lost, they would both get fired. The Clash of Champions PPV aired in December 2017, and the mixed match premiered in January 2018. So WWE basically spoiled that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens would defeat Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura.
- Meaningful Name: A few of the teams.
- Team Little Big - Alexa being the little and Braun being the Big.
- Robe Warriors - Charlotte and Bobby both wear robes and can be considered warriors in the ring.
- Ginger Snaps - Becky and Sami are both redheads and they walk to the ring snapping their fingers.
- My Greatest Second Chance:
- Due to fan vote, the Boss Club received a second chance in the tournament as they took on the Robe Warriors.
- Subverted with Becky Lynch, who filled in for Charlotte who was out for dental surgery in the aforementioned match in which they won. The following week, Charlotte would return.
- Played Straight with Alicia Fox, whose injury kept her from competing in the first season. She is now teaming with Jinder Mahal in the second season.
- Due to Kevin Owens' injury, Bobby Roode returns to the Mixed Match Challenge as Natalya's new partner.
- Due to Finn Balor's injury, Apollo Crews returns to the Mixed Match Challenge as Bayley's new partner. Sadly, it doesn't last.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Curt Hawkins, by tagging himself in right as Ember Moon hits The Eclipse on Alicia Fox and then tries to pin her, forgetting (or not knowing) that only the men face the men and women face the women. This would lead to Jinder Mahal hitting the Khallas for the win.
- Odd Friendship: Some of the pairings felt designed to be ironic.
- Bayley and Elias in season one — a grumpy loner heel with a guitar-playing gimmick paired with a cheerful-as-sunshine hug machine face who'd never played guitar before. (To the point that Elias actually had to teach her.) Hilariously, Elias was actually a replacement for her original partner — Samoa Joe, who was pulled due to injury, which still would have been a case of this for much the same reasons.
- Becky Lynch and Sami Zayn made sense for some reasons, but it was still a crowd-pleaser face paired with a troll-ish heel. This can be seen when they interact with the audience — Becky gladly slaps palms and shakes hands, but has to goad Sami into it, and he looks rather annoyed.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After losing to the Robe Warriors, Nia Jax gave a scathing one towards Titus O'Neil and Dana Brooke on how they were more of a hindrance than help.
- Running Gag:
- Bobby Roode's inability to properly "Woo" in comparison to Charlotte.
- Whenever a kick is blocked, expect the kicker to ask for the person who caught the kick to let go of the leg or put it down.
- During a number of matches, the female member of one team would frequently attempt to attack the male member of the opposite team, only to be caught and stopped by the ref. Subverted by Bayley, who managed to Bayley-to-Belly suplex Sunil Singh, Lio Rush, and Bobby Roode.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Mahalicia, though mostly due to Alicia's continuous insistence of being The Captain while Jinder just wants the team to be on the same page. Sunil's jealousy over Alicia getting Jinder's attention does not help at all.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- Kevin Owen's reaction to him and Natalya facing Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss, given his recent issues with Strowman.
- Ember Moon's reaction to Curt Hawkins being her new partner, given his infamous losing streak. Sadly, she would be proven right to worry (See Nice Job Breaking It, Hero).
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- After two seasons, Carmella finally wins a match by teaming with R-Truth against Ravishing Rusev Day.
- Mahalicia finally wins a match against Team Pawz. Thus eliminating the latter from the tournament.
- Unwanted Assistance: Nia Jax was not pleased to be on the same team as Apollo Crews. Titus Wordwide's interference did not help things and arguably cost them the match. It should be noted that she had no problem with teaming with Apollo. It was Titus and Dana she had a problem with.
