Why the WWE MMC Doesn't Work.
The WWE has been killing it over the pasts two years bringing in outside talent and making tournaments work. The CWC, or Cruiserweight Classic was excellent. They signed several talents from there including finalists Gran Metalik & TJ Perkins. Then they had their Women's tournament where they again signed finalists Shayna Baszler & Kairi Sane among others. Even their in house tournaments like the Dusty Rhodes Memorial Classic work. So why doesn't the WWE Mixed Match Challenge work? Several reasons.
The first reason is the rule of men vs men and women vs women kills tag team wrestling. This has been a standard for many years and rarely is it broken.(Beth Phoenix, Awesome Kong, & Chyna wrestling men. Gerald Briscoe & Pat Patterson wrestling women.) For good reason too. The WWE is a PG rated product. They are a PC company for the most part. Occasionally they have story lines that go south. So men hitting women wouldn't necessarily look right in the eyes of most fans and you would probably destroy your children viewership. But what it does when you have this is robs us of a truly hot tag. You can't have two guys feed into the tag which means you have one wrestling taking more of a beating. Tags actually kill momentum for both teams. You take out double team maneuvers. So what else kills it?
You only get one match a week. It is going to take a while to get through the matches. There are a ton of great wrestlers in both the women's and men's division. They did a great job of making it a who's who type of tournament. Unfortunately getting one match a week means it will probably go on for 12 weeks. (See Full Bracket Here) That's a long time to go one match a week. It was hard for the women's tournament where they filmed multiple rounds at once. Same with the Cruiserweight tournament. However they did a great job to make sure it doesn't get spoiled by airing it live.
But airing it live can also be a downfall. Why? It isn't located on their WWE Network. The WWE Network is their baby where they should push all their content. Instead it happens to occur on Facebook Live. When I watched it late because I fell asleep last night, the first thing that annoyed me was the comments on the screen. The likes, hearts, etc floating across my screen as I tried to enjoy some professional wrestling. It takes me out of the immersion. This has 0 to do with watching on a small screen as I'm in the process of going back and watching every Royal Rumble in preparation for the January 28th event. So Facebook Live probably not the best choice.
And the last reason for it is it kills 205 Live. I am probably one of the few people in the world that enjoy Cruiserweight wrestling. If you would have asked me as a kid who my favorite wrestlers were you would definitely here Light Heavyweight or Cruiserweight wrestlers like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Chris Benoit, & Ultimo Dragon to name a few. Granted some of those guys went on to do bigger and better things, they all got a start in that division. The MMC shortens a 50-60 minute show to less than 30 this week. And of course I feel we got an inferior product based on how it was presented and where they decided to present it. The wrestlers did their best.
What could improve the WWE Mixed Match Challenge? Put it on the WWE Network. Make it it's own event. Don't shorten your other shows because of it. If they are dead set with airing it after the Smackdown main event, then have 205 life begin filming before the Smackdown on Tuesdays. That would be a better spot and probably a\ more watched spot than 10pm after two hours of Smackdown on USA.
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below. Or on Twitter Here.
The first reason is the rule of men vs men and women vs women kills tag team wrestling. This has been a standard for many years and rarely is it broken.(Beth Phoenix, Awesome Kong, & Chyna wrestling men. Gerald Briscoe & Pat Patterson wrestling women.) For good reason too. The WWE is a PG rated product. They are a PC company for the most part. Occasionally they have story lines that go south. So men hitting women wouldn't necessarily look right in the eyes of most fans and you would probably destroy your children viewership. But what it does when you have this is robs us of a truly hot tag. You can't have two guys feed into the tag which means you have one wrestling taking more of a beating. Tags actually kill momentum for both teams. You take out double team maneuvers. So what else kills it?
You only get one match a week. It is going to take a while to get through the matches. There are a ton of great wrestlers in both the women's and men's division. They did a great job of making it a who's who type of tournament. Unfortunately getting one match a week means it will probably go on for 12 weeks. (See Full Bracket Here) That's a long time to go one match a week. It was hard for the women's tournament where they filmed multiple rounds at once. Same with the Cruiserweight tournament. However they did a great job to make sure it doesn't get spoiled by airing it live.
But airing it live can also be a downfall. Why? It isn't located on their WWE Network. The WWE Network is their baby where they should push all their content. Instead it happens to occur on Facebook Live. When I watched it late because I fell asleep last night, the first thing that annoyed me was the comments on the screen. The likes, hearts, etc floating across my screen as I tried to enjoy some professional wrestling. It takes me out of the immersion. This has 0 to do with watching on a small screen as I'm in the process of going back and watching every Royal Rumble in preparation for the January 28th event. So Facebook Live probably not the best choice.
And the last reason for it is it kills 205 Live. I am probably one of the few people in the world that enjoy Cruiserweight wrestling. If you would have asked me as a kid who my favorite wrestlers were you would definitely here Light Heavyweight or Cruiserweight wrestlers like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Chris Benoit, & Ultimo Dragon to name a few. Granted some of those guys went on to do bigger and better things, they all got a start in that division. The MMC shortens a 50-60 minute show to less than 30 this week. And of course I feel we got an inferior product based on how it was presented and where they decided to present it. The wrestlers did their best.
What could improve the WWE Mixed Match Challenge? Put it on the WWE Network. Make it it's own event. Don't shorten your other shows because of it. If they are dead set with airing it after the Smackdown main event, then have 205 life begin filming before the Smackdown on Tuesdays. That would be a better spot and probably a\ more watched spot than 10pm after two hours of Smackdown on USA.
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below. Or on Twitter Here.
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