WWE has announced who will be replacing Kevin Owens in the second season of Mixed Match Challenge that airs on Facebook after SmackDown Live goes off the air on the USA Network.
Former WWE United States Champion Bobby Roode will replace the former Universal Champion and team up with Natalya. They will take on Mickie James and Bobby Lashley on next Tuesday’s episode.
If you recall, Natalya & Owens lost to Ember Moon & Braun Strowman during the first episode of the second season of the show. The reason for the change is due to Owens being out of action after suffering a knee injury and getting surgery.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the extent of Owens’ knee injury is unknown at this time. He’s currently scheduled for minor surgery, but they will not know the full extent of the damage until they go in and operate. The internal fear is that he could be out for 8 months, which would project his return timeframe to be anytime from February to June of 2019.
An interesting state has surfaced online about the second season of Mixed Match Challenge, which is the fact that this marks the third time that a wrestler has had to be replaced in thus far this season. Moon replaced Alexa Bliss in the tournament, and James replaced Sasha Banks.
Ten co-ed teams will participate in a round-robin style tournament to determine the winners. The finals of the tournament will take place at the upcoming WWE TLC pay-per-view on Sunday, December 16th, 2018 in San Jose, California at the SAP Center and will air on the WWE Network and some traditional pay-per-view outlets.
