We had reached week 6 of the Mixed Match Challenge on February 20th, the final match of the first round of competition. This week’s match up pinned two champions, Charlotte Flair and Bobby Roode, against Nia Jax and Apollo.
Before the match begins, Jax shows her disgust as Titus and Dana Brooke make their way to the ring with her and Apollo. Flair does get a comic remark in before the match by making a remark to Roode about Brooke saying, “Dana, good to see you. My protege”. The men start the matchup, to most fans’ disappointment. Some showboating by Roode and Flair occur. Apollo shows his athleticism with a hip toss and then a deep arm drag into the armbar. Besides these few moves, the men do not do much, which leads some of the crowd chanting, “We want Charlotte”, which prompts Roode to tag in Flair.
.@MsCharlotteWWE and @NiaJaxWWE were NOT holding back as they squared off in @WWE Mixed Match Challenge, exclusively on Facebook Watch! #WWEMMC @REALBobbyRoode @WWEApollo pic.twitter.com/wz07MDgcXY
— WWE (@WWE) February 21, 2018
Flair and Jax participate in some back and forth action. Jax dominates first as she gives several, “Shut ups” to Roode’s encouragement of Flair. Flair gets tripped up when Brooke grabs her feet at the apron. This turns into Jax arguing with Brooke to stay out of her business which allows Flair to start her offense. Flair ends up dropkicking Jax to the floor on the outside of the ring. This leads to Jax yet again arguing with Titus and Brooke instead of concentrating on the match.
The better part of the actual in-ring action occurs between Flair and Jax at this point. After Jax gets back in the ring and attacks Flair hard and tries to suplex her multiple times. Flair counters the suplexes by getting her knees in on Jax. Flair ends up on the apron and then to the floor outside the ring, thanks to Titus worldwide, again.
After they get back in the ring, Jax tries to put Flair away with a Samoan Drop, however, she counters and focuses on the knee of Jax to try and keep her down. Flair gets Jax locked in for the Figure Four but Jax is too powerful for her to bridge her into the figure eight. After the failed figure eight, they both tag in their male counterparts.
Some quick back and forth action between the men end up in near falls. These falls include a sunset flip from Apollo on Roode and then a backbreaker on Apollo from Roode. Jax broke up the last pin attempt and then goes to the top rope to meet Flair. Flair then knocks off Jax from the top rope and gets set up for a moonsault. Meanwhile, Apollo hits Roode with an enziguri followed up by a standing moonsault. Flair hits her moonsault from the top rope and attempts to pin Jax but the women are not legal. Roode finally hits the glorious DDT and picks up the win for the champion duo.
The match was not the best of the first round. Arguably, it may have been the worst. There was something lacking in this week’s match. It had the star quality, it had two champions, and two others who are regularly on WWE programming, so what happened? Nonetheless, the women did steal the show from the men in this match. What may have gone wrong with this match is that there was way too much focus on what was happening with Titus Worldwide then the actual match itself. Apollo was so silent most of the time, he was forgettable in the match. What could have made this match better? Maybe if Jax had a different partner? Maybe if Jax and Apollo used teamwork like all the other matches thus far have shown? Maybe if Flair faced off against Sasha Banks or Natalya instead? Regardless, after the match, Jax did show her displease for Titus Worldwide by shoving Titus over a crouched Apollo and leveling out Brooke with a Samoan Drop.
NEXT WEEK: The #Quarterfinals will kick off with @SashaBanksWWE & @FinnBalor vs. @WWEAsuka & @mikethemiz, exclusively on Facebook Watch! #WWEMMC pic.twitter.com/pFit4HfB9B
— WWE (@WWE) February 21, 2018
Next week starts Round 2 of the Mixed Match Challenge. It displays Finn Balor and Sasha Banks versus The Miz and Asuka. Which team do you think will continue on in the brackets?
Use the comment section below to say what you thought about the match? Was it a front runner, or was it on the lower end of the competition that we have seen thus far?
