WWE News: Revealed, Winner of the First Mixed Match Challenge Contest
Jan 17, 2018 at 5:51 PM
As confirmed earlier by the WWE, the first Mixed Match Challenge contest took place right after Smackdown Live went off the air, last night. It took place exclusively on Facebook watch starting from 10 PM. With that, WWE has officially become the first promotion to air a wrestling match on the social media platform in a live format.
The first matchup was scheduled between the team of Sasha Banks and Finn Balor from team Raw who took on the team from Smackdown Live featuring Shinsuke Nakamura and Natalya. The lineup was so interesting which witnessed a dream lineup of Balor going toe-to-toe against his former rival from Japan, Nakamura.
Yep, @WWE Mixed Match Challenge delivers dream match-ups like THIS!#WWEMMC @FinnBalor @ShinsukeN pic.twitter.com/xKtv1eILcH
— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2018
Sasha and Nataly started the matchup with traditional headlocks. After exchanging some moves in between them, they decided to tag in their male partners who met in the ring in a good reaction from the crowd. After some light shots, the pace of the match began to pick up with both men trying to deliver kicks of their own. Nakamura gained the upper hand using his string moves, momentarily.
There were a couple of tag exchanges between the male and female performers, as Finn Balor took control of the matchup and tried to hit the Coup De Grace on Nakamura after putting him down with a blockbuster. But, Natalya broke his momentum by shoving him from the top rope.
#RAW‘s #LegitBoss @SashaBanksWWE SPRINGS for #SDLive‘s @NatbyNature, and @ShinsukeN just knew to get out of dodge! #WWEMMC pic.twitter.com/KalZfWCN6Z
— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2018
This made Sasha and Natalya legal for the match who shared the final moments of the contest which went down as follows (courtesy WWE.com)
“In the height of the action, Bálor and Banks displayed superior teamwork, which proved to be the difference in neutralizing their opponents. The surging Banks dropped The Queen of Harts with the backstabber, then quickly locked her in The Bank Statement to force the tap out!”
I told you all we were gonna win. #BossClub can’t stop. #BossClub won’t stop.
You know what’s true. It’s #TooSweet. #WWEMMC— $asha Banks (@SashaBanksWWE) January 17, 2018
They have now emerged in the second round of the tournament. Next week, the next matchup of the first round will take place where The Miz and Asuka will take on the team of Big E and Carmella. The winner of this match will face team Sasha and Balor in the second round.