10 Reasons You Should Be Watching WWE Mixed Match Challenge
The social media experiment is delivering surprisingly fun weekly wrestling.
It was easy to be cynical when WWE first announced the Mixed Match Challenge. The prospect of a tournament entirely geared around social media interaction seemed like the recipe for a disaster, particularly given the matches would be mixed tag team bouts - a format the company never seems able to turn into good in-ring action.
However, the tournament has been something of a pleasant surprise. It's true that the social media nature of it is a little weird, especially when every episode begins with Michael Cole and Corey Graves telling an audience consisting mostly of grown adults how to use a smartphone. The content itself, though, has proven to be a delightful slice of fun that has managed to make itself must-watch, even given the deluge of WWE material every week.
There are concerns among the top brass at WWE, though, that the Mixed Match Challenge is failing to pull in viewers. Viewership has fallen dramatically since the show first aired on Facebook Watch, with the UK getting access via the WWE Network. This week's episode, featuring the first second round match, pulled in the lowest live audience to date.
Audiences simply aren't flocking to the Mixed Match Challenge and, given the quality of the programming, that's a real shame.
10. Tournaments Are Always Fun
WWE often struggles to create stakes in its television product. There are throwaway matches on TV every week that mean nothing for either of the superstars involved, whether they win or lose. One of the quickest ways to change that is with a tournament format. The jeopardy of a single elimination tournament means every bout is sudden death.
A tournament also works because it's easy to dip in and dip out without missing any ongoing storylines or crucial developments. A glance at the bracket is all it takes to be completely up to speed with the events, which is ideal for a show that is confined to a fairly little-used corner of social media.
The company has fallen in love with this format in recent years, whether it's with the semi-regular Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic on NXT or the highly successful WWE Network tournaments for women and cruiserweights of the last few summers. WWE has found a huge number of ways to use tournaments in order to seduce fans into spending more time with the Network. The inherent excitement of the elimination stipulation gives every match stakes and makes every bout worth watching.