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Mixed Match Chambers: Jake’s MMC Review – Week 1

September 22, 2018 | Posted by Jake Chambers
MMC WWE Mixed Match Challenge AJ Styles Charlotte Flair Image Credit: WWE
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Mixed Match Chambers: Jake’s MMC Review – Week 1  

With the “Women’s Revolution”, the WWE attempted to go overnight from being one of the worst offenders in the depictions of women in popular culture to the most progressive… like ever. The near fascist bluster at which this global corporation can hammer marketing nails into the collective coffin of their often zombified audience is swift and pounding. Before you knew it, we were all on board and the WWE is now apparently a certified champion for the empowerment of women.

And good for everyone involved – truly. No one in our collective liberal society should believe women are any less capable than men, and equality for all is supposed to be our baseline not the target. Employing more female wrestlers and on-screen talent, evaluating them on skills not looks, and providing more time for matches in this division were all moves the WWE had to make if they wanted to continue promoting women’s wrestling.

The problem is, the WWE is scripted entertainment. Therefore, when these initiatives actually don’t work to accomplish any real substantial change, there is no one to blame but the creative forces behind the scenes. When the hallmarks of modern women’s sport, such as Serena Williams or Ronda Rousey, have groundbreaking success it’s because no one can compete with them at the highest level and audiences of any gender want to watch. When Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch have just another mediocre match in the middle of a primarily men’s wrestling PPV event, the only equality it proves is that with a variety of characters and styles the WWE can distill them all down to the same generic structures and styles.

Except for the Mixed Match Challenge.

Season One of this short, odd anomaly in the WWE’s 2018 saturation of content, did something all the lip service of the women’s “revolution” couldn’t: it gave the women 50% of the focus. The men and the women were actually equal aspects of the show, being teamed together, having to create story out of new character developments, and needing all to keep up in the ring at a brisk pace. Everything about this experiment felt immediately interesting and important.

I don’t believe the WWE needs to hashtag “history” like they’re branding livestock, they just have to give these performers sustained equal opportunity and let them see if they can create a culture of excellence that will result in historic moments. You could see how the relaxed scripting of the MMC gave the female performers an old school way of crafting pro-wrestling characters that can’t be learned in Performance Center seminars. And this freedom was also rubbing off on guys like Sami Zayn, Goldust, and Big E, who don’t often get the chance to shine individually in the the current doldrums of WWE culture either.

This character work bled over into good matches that all had a lot of time and routinely balanced out the performances by both men and women, making everyone critical to the outcomes. And the results actually mattered, because the show was a tournament. Instead of the rote multi-person TV tag team matches, or random #1 contender matches, in a tournament (obviously) every win leads to direct upward narrative trajectory. It’s not a shock to any long-time wrestling fan that stakes in in tournament matches automatically livens up the crowd and invigorates the performers.

Was the show a success? I have no idea. It was a show streamed on Facebook and took place after the live TV airing of Smackdown. I don’t remember too many people speaking fondly of the show, neither did I hear much negativity, but it was definitely ignored by most pundits, and existed as a novelty at best for the mainstream audience. But I loved it!

And now here we are at the start of the second season, and I’m excited. This is a rare feeling for me as a multi-decade follower of the WWF/E who feels generally bored or insulted by most of what they do these days. And it began with them announcing that the tournament was expanding to (what I think) is the WWE’s first attempt at the round robin style, this means more matches, more room to breathe, and bigger stakes.

So… why “review” the show?

411mania is the home to the greatest show/match reviewer alive, Larry Csonka, and his weekly reviews of this show will breakdown the matches and expertly rate them in relation to his extensive knowledge of the pro-wrestling canon. However, I asked to try my hand at reviewing the show too, to offer an alternative perspective.

The WWE is notorious for starting-and-stopping new shows, and slowly turning them into generic crap. We saw it with Shotgun Saturday Night, the nightclubs and weird location show, the live version of Sunday Night Heat that had marquee matches for a minute, the extended one-match showcase Main Event, the brand-crossover version of Superstars, whatever the WWE UK brand is supposed to be, and we see them go through this with Smackdown every few years, cycling it between an A and B show continually.

I don’t want this to happen to Mixed Match Challenge. The show was just too fun and I want it to get better, not worse. So I’m reviewing this episodes as a way to holistically will the show to be great. Or at the very worst, I want to record the way WWE screws up this fantastic format and we end up with a pointless Finals match on the Kickoff Show for TLC, before WWE wipes their hands of the experiment or turns it into a mixed-gender Main Event.

I will be giving “star ratings” specifically for this self-contained Mixed Match Challenge universe. I’m going to give you a rubric of what I’m looking for in comparison to the other mixed gender matches WWE has put on this year, and my star ratings will be measured by this, not against the matches you’d see on a weekly RAW or something like Kobashi vs. Misawa from the ’90s.

MMC Match Rating Rubric

5 Stars – a transcendent match that truly evens the playing field for the male and female wrestlers involved at a main event level.

For example = Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H: this marquee match enraptured a Wrestlemania audience with action and moments of believable inter-gender combat, and featured a star defining debut performance for mainstream celebrity Ronda Rousey. It is unlikely any match from MMC 2 will be able to reach this rating level.

4 Stars – near-flawless and exciting wrestling action, where characters are out of the element and realistically trying to win the match in dramatic fashion; elements of inter-gender wrestling will be a strong bonus.

For example = MMC Finals – The Miz & Asuka vs. Bobby Roode & Charlotte: even though it was assumed Asuka wasn’t going to end her undefeated streak, that added to the importance of this match; inter-gender elements resulted directly in the finish.

3 Stars – solid, clean wrestling where you don’t notice any continued errors or lethargic sequences; if lacking in drama or action, superior exterior features such as macro or micro storylining and/or character flourishes are taken into account. Generally most matches from Season 1 would fall into this rating, and I’m guessing Season 2 should be no different.

For example = MMC, 1st Round – Alexa Bliss & Braun Strowman vs. Becky Lynch & Sami Zayn: this match featured wrestlers on either side that were severely outmatched by their counterparts, however, all four illustrated new sides to their non-wrestling personas that made this match an extremely fun watch.

2 Stars – even if the wrestling performed is average or the outcome predictable, a match at this level should feature a solid pace that stops it from being boring or pointless.

For example = MMC, 1st Round – Bobby Roode & Charlotte vs. Apollo Crews and Nia Jax: weak chemistry between Jax and Crews, a lack of passion in the fighting, but despite a few awkward moves the wrestling was uptempo and paced well.

1 Star – basically a match that goes through the motions, relies heavily on rest holds, or features a lop-sided effort from competitors of one gender; mistakes and botches that stand out significantly more than any of the actual action in the match.

For example = SummerSlam KickOff ShowLana & Rusev vs. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas & Zelina Vega: simple, dull, featured mostly the men, and the finish was cheesy.

Make sense? Still with me? Okay… on with the show…

MMC2 – Week 1 Review

Match #1: Monster Eclipse (Braun Strowman & Ember Moon) vs. Team Paws (Kevin Owens & Natalya)

Right off the bat, I liked the logic of putting Moon and Natalya in there first as it established Braun and Owens as trash talkers from the outside, which helps to generate heat with the audience, all of which paid off with Strowman’s effective hot tag (who knew this guy could have been such a great Memphis-style tag team wrestler?). The bulk of the work between the women was fine, but suffered from looking either too rehearsed or just too careful (a flaw I predict will be apparent in future Natalya matches). However, I did like that they activated the finishers of both at the end of this sequence, because unlike many short main roster women’s division TV singles matches, Moon got to gut through an extended Sharpshooter application and establish herself on this show as tough right off the bat.

From there, as one would expect, the offence of a “babyface” Braun against a cowardly Owens was pretty strong, although Owens did employ a strategy here that briefly gave him an advantage: WWE logic historically tells you to never go for the same move twice in a row, and that burned the less cerebral Braun when he attempted to repeat his lap-around-the-ring shoulder attack, giving Owens a window to not only recover from the first but land a nicely timed (if awkward from injury) superkick. This led to what I felt was an effective count-out tease on Braun, into a nice in-ring sequence between the men that highlighted Owen’s quick desperation and Braun’s eventual overpowering strength. The finish saw Moon kind of barking orders at an obedient Braun (the nice kind of new personality touches I liked about Season 1), and what was a great (in theory) looking Eclipse off the shoulders of the big man for the win.

Match Rating: ***

Match #2: Fenomenal Flair (AJ Styles & Charlotte Flair) vs. Day One Glow (Jimmy Uso & Naomi)

While I think there was a missed opportunity to get more out of the unique match up of Styles and Uso, the lengthy sequence between Flair and Naomi that made up the bulk of the match was that extra-step, house-show level competitive style that I look forward to in the MMC. This also featured arguably one of the best displays of Naomi’s extended offensive repertoire, highlighted by a unique sliding slap to Charlotte in the sitting position.

As I stated him my rubric above, the impact of inter-gender wrestling in this match is going to push it into 4-star territory. Giving women 50% of the focus on this series is really just step one towards real equality. Opening up the gates for eventual inter-gender wrestling is what I think can make the MMC truly special. The scripted nature of professional wrestling is the one form of live athletic entertainment where the men and women could compete against each other. We’ve seen flashes in the past, from stuff like Chyna’s career, Chris Jericho & Christian vs. Lita & Trish, Mr. McMahon vs. Stephanie, and the 5-star match from this year’s Wrestlemania, that proves the WWE knows how to leverage this drama respectfully. Now with the expanded roster of female competitors, many with recent indie experience in 50/50 matches against males, we could be on the verge of seeing legit inter-gender wrestling in the mainstream.

So great inter-gender interactions like we saw in this match are always going to be enjoyable for me, like for example, seeing WWE Champion knocked out of the ring by Naomi’s butt-butt finisher, the Rear View! No wonder AJ tripped in the final moments of the show after celebrating his victory!

Match Rating: ****

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
A 3-star match + a 4-star match, that makes this a 7 out of 10 for me. This score means the show was adequately enjoyable, living up to my basic expectations for an episode of the Mixed Match Challenge. You're getting gender equality, clean (if not sometimes soft) wrestling, logical back-and-forth move sequences, charming character bits, and a bunch of wrestlers who look like they're totally having fun; if all WWE TV could be this light, enjoyable, brisk and interesting, I'd be damn happy. For 2018, I'll settle for more MMC episodes being this good!
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