Apollo Crews replacing Finn Balor in WWE Mixed Match Challenge

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Joseph Currier | @josephcurrier | Dec 10, 2018 7:01 pm


Though the finals are less than a week away, replacement partners continue to shake up Mixed Match Challenge season two.

It was announced on Raw tonight that Apollo Crews will be replacing Finn Balor as Bayley's partner on tomorrow's episode of Mixed Match Challenge. Bayley & Crews will be facing Alicia Fox & Jinder Mahal in a semifinal match on the show. Asuka & The Miz vs. Carmella & R-Truth is SmackDown's semifinal match. That will also be taking place on tomorrow's episode.

Bayley defeated Fox on Raw tonight, with Crews and Sasha Banks helping to even the odds against Mahal and the Singh Brothers.

Balor wrestled at WWE's house show in Santiago, Chile last Wednesday but went home before WWE's pair of house shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On Twitter, Balor apologized for not being able to perform in Argentina.

Drew McIntyre attacked Balor in an angle on last Monday's Raw. Balor vs. McIntyre is set for TLC on Sunday.

The finals of Mixed Match Challenge season two are also being held at TLC. The winning team will enter their respective Royal Rumble matches at number 30 and receive "an all-expenses paid vacation to anywhere in the world."

Alexa Bliss, Banks, Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman, and AJ Styles (as part of a storyline where he was attacked by Daniel Bryan after the match where Bryan won the WWE Championship from Styles) are the other wrestlers who have been replaced over the course of Mixed Match Challenge season two.

[Serujuunin]

Why all the seemingly arbitrary replacements? Makes no sense at all.

[KILLdozer]

Why all the seemingly arbitrary replacements? Makes no sense at all.

Everyone's injured .

[Big Red Machine]

Why all the seemingly arbitrary replacements? Makes no sense at all.

Everyone's injured .

I don't think this is injury-related. I think this one is due to Balor probably being set up for a match at the PPV against Drew, and this way they are making the semifinals less predictable (because they're not going to have Balor wrestle twice at the PPV). The problem is that all of these replacements make the tournament itself into a joke.

[KILLdozer]

Why all the seemingly arbitrary replacements? Makes no sense at all.

Everyone's injured .

I don't think this is injury-related. I think this one is due to Balor probably being set up for a match at the PPV against Drew, and this way they are making the semifinals less predictable (because they're not going to have Balor wrestle twice at the PPV). The problem is that all of these replacements make the tournament itself into a joke.

Yeah-their match has been official for a bit now.

[Serujuunin]

Why all the seemingly arbitrary replacements? Makes no sense at all.

Everyone's injured .

I don't think this is injury-related. I think this one is due to Balor probably being set up for a match at the PPV against Drew, and this way they are making the semifinals less predictable (because they're not going to have Balor wrestle twice at the PPV). The problem is that all of these replacements make the tournament itself into a joke.

I just heard yesterday it’s because Finn is sick. That’s also why he wasn’t on RAW and he left partway through their South American tour, and now the TLC match is questionable too.

[Big Red Machine]

Everyone's injured .

I don't think this is injury-related. I think this one is due to Balor probably being set up for a match at the PPV against Drew, and this way they are making the semifinals less predictable (because they're not going to have Balor wrestle twice at the PPV). The problem is that all of these replacements make the tournament itself into a joke.

I just heard yesterday it’s because Finn is sick. That’s also why he wasn’t on RAW and he left partway through their South American tour, and now the TLC match is questionable too.

Oh. Yeah. I forgot the South American tour part. Him being sick does make more sense at that point.