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Mixed Match Chambers – Jake’s MMC Review – Weeks 11 & 12

December 9, 2018 | Posted by Jake Chambers
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Mixed Match Chambers – Jake’s MMC Review – Weeks 11 & 12  

Two words perfectly sum up this disastrous second season of the MMC: Curt Hawkins.

One of the many stand-out teams from the MMC first season was Team Little Big, a newly softening Braun Strowman and a fiercely bitch-tastic Alexa Bliss having this mysterious flirtatious partnership that layered in an actual burgeoning affection with the struggle to win the tournament. They didn’t win, and afterwards their careers went in seemingly opposite directions, with Braun ascending to the main event on RAW while Bliss fell back from her year of women’s division dominance to the arriving authenticity of Ronda Rousey. However, they were to be brought back for the second season of MMC, signalling that these two solo stars and their interesting connection might yet again carry a compelling thread throughout what promised to be a longer and more complex tournament.

There would have been plenty of opportunity to narratively challenge this tag team, and in parallel the tentative playing ground for inter-gender wrestling and storytelling in the WWE. Generally in the history of the company, male and female partnerships relied on obvious romantic beats or managerial cliches, but the MMC would give equal weight to the wrestling of each competitor, and finding the proper balance team-by-team was a unique story driver. In the case of Team Little Big, the psychological mastery and cheating viciousness of Bliss made up for her lack of physicality in the women’s division, and thus her contrast with the dominant and imposing Strowman made for one mixture that when paired off against a team like Day One Glow, where the skill level was almost 50/50, made for an intriguing scenario. Of course, this should be tag team wrestling basics, but rarely has the WWE exploited these tones in their regular booking. In the MMC we were seeing strategy play out in these tag team matches, and with the focus mostly on the in-ring component, it was translating into 15~20 minute matches every week that were satisfying and engaging.

But before MMC Season 2 could actually begin, Alex Bliss was pulled from the team (an occurrence that would repeat tragically across the season with other A level performers). She was replaced by Ember Moon, a wrestler competently treading water on RAW after being called up from moderately successful wrestling-heavy stint in NXT. However, the ripples in the character work would be felt instantly, as Moon never established any kind of clear personality, meaning the balance that made Team Little Big so great automatically crumbled. There were hints in their first match that Moon was going to be more of a taskmaster for the obedient Strowman than the manipulator that Bliss was, but these notes faded fast as did most of the creative promise of the format for the entire series.

And then after going undefeated in the round robin tournament and qualifying as the top seed for the playoffs, an injured Strowman was also pulled from the team, only to be replaced by Curt Hawkins, notable for a winless streak on matches that take place on the rarely watched Main Event show the WWE basically uses to test the lighting levels before RAW. Neither a good wrestler or fun character, the loser Hawkins instantly killed any chance this team had of winning, having a good match, or continuing the slight hints of drama left in this season. They would lose, and it will be lame. Whatever lip service storyline reason there was for acting RAW GM Baron Corbin choosing Hawkins as the partner to humiliate his rival Strowman was hard to buy into more than the macro-realization that the WWE has given up creatively on this show. To so callously disregard the top team of the season, and having it make very little impact anyway, indicates there was little in the way of strong planning all along.

Curt Hawkins – I’m sure he’s a good guy in real life, but seeing the stage name of such a lame character tacked-on to first episode of the tacked-on “playoffs” was the final slap in the face to fans (like me) who’d wanted so badly for this season to be awesome.

As always, 411mania is the home to the greatest show/match reviewer alive, Larry Csonka, and his weekly review of Mixed Match Challenge (Week 12) will breakdown the matches and expertly rate them in relation to his extensive knowledge of the pro-wrestling canon. On the other hand, just for reference, here is the now pretty useless alternative “star ratings” rubric that I created for Mixed Match ratings only; wish I’d known from the start that I could have just capped this all at 2 stars.

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: enraptured a Wrestlemania audience with action, drama and moments of believable inter-gender combat. 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 S2 – Week 1 – AJ Styles & Charlotte vs. Jimmy Uso & Naomi: house-show level competitive back-and-forth between Charlotte and Naomi, fun verbal interactions between Styles and Uso, and inter-gender elements that 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.

For example = MMC S2 – Week 2 – Alicia Fox & Jinder Mahal vs. Mickie James & Bobby Lashley: Well-timed sequences that fit together like dominoes, giving four wrestlers with often little opportunity on the main roster a chance to put on a compelling and satisfying match.

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 S2 – Week 6 – Finn Balor & Bayley vs. Bobby Roode & Natalya: dull wrestlers being instructed to “have fun” in between moments of chain wrestling with the energy of a backstage run-through.

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 stand out significantly.

For example = MMC S2 – Week 5 – Asuka & The Miz vs. Lana & Rusev: a lifeless match of unnecessary comedy and dancing anchored by Lana’s poor wrestling.

MMC2 – Week 11 Matches Review

Match #1: Mahalicia vs. Ember Moon & Curt Hawkins

Slow motion jobber-level wrestling from Hawkins and Mahal, Practice Center sequences between Moon and Fox, a badly timed kick-out botch by Alicia, and un-funny combination of surprising loser stories made for a pretty lame experience. This truly was a match that should never have happened.

Match Rating: *

Match #2: B ‘n’ B vs. Country Dominance

I’ve harped on the dead eyes and match-sleepwalking Balor has been doing throughout this season, so I didn’t want to bring it up too much, but then his team goes and wins. I can’t decide if this whole job on the MMC for Balor is the WWE trying to convince him not to pull a Neville, or is them passive aggressively pushing him into taking his ball and going home. I think the B ‘n’ B victory almost signals that the TLC finals are going to be Mahalicia vs. Fabulous Truth, right? Ugh.

The match itself wasn’t bad, definitely the kind of match I would have liked if it had taken place on Season 1. By the time we’ve gotten this far into a pointless Season 2, passed through a lame-duck attempt at a round robin style tournament where we already saw these two teams go through the motions against each other once, there was little reason to invest in for anyone other than a completest.

Lashley and James had the energy to make this one slightly more upbeat than their first encounter on Week 8, but from audience, to TV viewer, to announcers, to wrestlers in the ring, the quick parts of the match felt like a collective will to just get this thing over with.

Match Rating: **

MMC2 – Week 12 Matches Review

Match #1: Fabulous Truth vs. Charlotte Flair & Jeff Hardy

At one point Charlotte did a head scissors head-driver that looked just slow slow and safe, it looked like – as I’ve said many times about this season – a Performance Center practice session. Actually, it looks kind of like when you see MMA fighters rolling around together and they only pantomime the strikes. Hey, WWE, some people are actually watching this show!

Carmella running in and laying across R-Truth to stop the finishing Swan-ton Bomb was the kind of interesting aspect that might have worked well in the first season, but with matches that seem more like people pretending to be wrestling, which in itself is pretend wrestling, makes all this even less like harmless MMA workouts and more like a when you’d see kids doing moves in the ring at Axxess.

After R-Truth used that distraction for one of the weakest roll-ups since a broken neck Austin pinned Owen Hart, Renee’s monotone “I cannot believe what we just witnessed” was the type of soulless reaction that most viewers gotta be having at this telegraphed result. With with the line-up for TLC taking shape, and most of the A and B level stars being in marquee matches, if the MMC Finals isn’t Mahalicia vs. Fabulous Truth, I’ll eat my hat.

Match Rating: *

Match #2: Awe-ska vs. Day One Glow

For a couple of sequences this one at least felt like we were watching wrestlers trying to actually win a match, which you’d think wouldn’t be so hard to do since there ARE actual stakes involved.

The Miz almost has to try not to care, so he was good here when lecturing Asuka about being the reason for their one loss, and not trusting her anymore. The I guess was fine, I mean, at least you get multiple butt-bumps when Naomi and Asuka are involved.

Match Rating: **

So now we’ve officially set for the final episode of season 2, and it officially sucks. To book an entire round robin tournament, featuring two blocks of five teams, across all these weeks, only for both #1 seeds to be knocked out by the #4 seeds, is just extraordinarily stupid. Of course, neither #1 seed was the same team in the playoffs that it was in the tournament round, which is just another layer of dumb-ass confusion to this whole mess.

You know, if the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors both get knocked out of the NBA playoffs in the first round next year, then we will have witnessed one of the most exciting, miraculous, double-phenomena in sporting history. To battle for the 8th seed alone will be a difficult task, but to then topple the clear best team in the league (if not history in the case of the Warriors) would require true daring, peak athleticism, and innovative game plans; and it will have to happen twice at the same time! I’m not saying the WWE needs to completely mimic this full level of achievement, but as a faux-sport it should at least try to incorporate some of those emotions if they’re imitating all the competitive factors.

It’s almost like… I mean, what do you say about this show anymore? If you’ve been reading my reviews all along, then my thanks and apologies. I do promise that for the next two weeks I’m going to go for the fade away jumper at the buzzer even if the WWE has their arms down on defense.

3.0
The final score: review Bad
The 411
Weeks 11 and 12 should have been the best weeks of the season, after the missed the opportunity to make the results of the tournament block matches have any drama at all. Predictably, the WWE followed through with even less effort in their logic-defying "playoffs" and presented four matches that showed the least energy and immediacy ever produced for a single-elimination tournament in the history of the company. I don't blame the wrestlers involved if they started to realize this whole thing was a waste of their time and gave up caring, but just imagine being a reviewer who's trying to sift through this muddy, barren, polluted river for any nugget of gold. Wastes of time all around.
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