5 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Dec 10)

8. Perpetual Substitutions

Apollo Crews Sasha Banks
WWE.com

While Mixed Match Challenge isn’t technically part of Monday Night Raw, it’s referenced weekly and influences matches on Raw, so it’s worth mentioning once in a while.

Monday, we learned that Finn Balor’s storyline injuries from last week would prevent him from participating in Tuesday’s MMC bout with teammate Bayley against Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox. Apollo Crews is stepping up as his replacement.

This isn’t a knock against Crews, but this isn’t the first substitution we’ve seen on Mixed Match Challenge. In fact, it’s the sixth. Six replacements among 20 wrestlers. That’s just ridiculous. Only one Raw team – Mahal and Fox – has remained the same since the tournament was announced in September.

That’s either insanely bad luck, or it’s a sign that this tournament – which grants the winning team #30 slots in both Royal Rumble matches – is snakebitten.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.