WWE News: Asuka reacts to being paired with Miz for WWE Mixed Match Challenge

What’s the story?

With the WWE Mixed Match Challenge happening in just over a week, we know that more teams could be announced at any time and that's just what happened earlier today when WWE announced that Asuka would be partnered with The A-Lister The Miz, who returns to RAW tonight.

Was The Empress of Tomorrow happy about being paired with the former Intercontinental Champion? Well, she took to Twitter to react to the news.

In case you didn’t know…

WWE is hosting the Mixed Match Challenge live on Facebook Watch, with male and female Superstars being paired together to face off in tag team action for a cash prize of £100,000 to be donated to their dedicated charity.

So far, there are six teams confirmed - Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax and Apollo Crews, Naomi and Jimmy Uso, Lana and Rusev, Finn Balor and Sasha Banks, Bobby Roode and Charlotte - but it was rumoured that Asuka would be featuring alongside another movie star with Goldust asking her to be his teammate.

Many people thought the next announcement would actually be the rumoured announcement of Becky Lynch and Sami Zayn.

The heart of the matter

Well, Asuka is so far still undefeated in WWE, having relinquished the NXT Women's Championship before making her debut on RAW, with her even gaining a victory over the current RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss recently - so the announcement of her partner for the WWE MMC was always going to be highly anticipated.

Asuka herself seems very excited too, saying they are "a force that can't be missed" and even calling Miz the "star" of Asuka City.

We will give you a must-see show. An unstoppable force you cannot miss! @mikethemiz is the STAR of #AsukaCity! ??? #WWEMMC

— ASUKA / ??? (@WWEAsuka) January 8, 2018

What’s next?

Well, WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge debuts on Facebook Watch pm January 16th (immediately after SmackDown Live) but you'd have to expect we may see some fallout and friction from this announcement later tonight once Goldust finds out about the announcement.

Needless to say, the pairing of Asuka and Miz would now have to be one of the favourites to win the tournament! A lot of people were saying Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss could be an unbeatable pairing, but this announcement may just have changed the landscape of the competition.

Author’s take

The WWE MMC is already looking like a must-see with teams like Sasha Banks and Finn Balor taking part, and this only adds to that. The best part is that there are still several announcements to be made with Superstars like Bayley, Alicia Fox, Shinsuke Nakamura, Becky Lynch and Sami Zayn not yet paired.

The tournament is also looking pretty unpredictable in terms of booking, which is always a good thing! Asuka is undefeated, but she doesn't necessarily need to be pinned to exit the competition, so it's still anyone's game to win. All eyes on Twitter for SmackDown to announce their next team now. The ball is on the blue side of the court!