WWE x IGN eSports Showdown Results

The WWE recently teamed up with IGN to present the WWE x IGN eSports showdown that was shown on Youtube and multiple other formats. The show was hosted by Xavier Woods and featured a video game tournament where the game of battle was Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. The competitors were A.J. Styles, Sasha Banks, Cesaro, Bayley, and Kofi Kingston. The call of the action was Greg Miller and Alex Mendez.

Xavier kicked the show off by thanking the fans and saying this was something they created. Bayley then entered and wondered why she hadn’t been invited. Kinda confusing as she was shown entering the building and was announced as being part of the event. Anyway, Xavier says it’s because she is going to the Nintendo World Championships this weekend. She begs to be put in and that brings out Sasha. Xavier tells the two of them to get partners as they are making it the first esports tag team match.
We then go to a short video that acts like a commercial for the game more than anything else. We get the rules for the tournament as players aren’t allowed in their opponents half of the stage, Active Gamers are to stand in the gaming zone, No physicality (suuuureeeee) and the referee’s rule is final. The game rules are explained as it is the best of 5 fights, each player gets a 60-second timeout per match, and Players can only switch characters after the second fight. We then look at the bracket as Kofi faces A.J. and Xavier himself takes on Cesaro.

Kofi cuts and promo as we get to our first match. A.J. comes out first and then Kofi. They cut more promos again before we get to the gaming. A.J. picks Nova and Ultron while Kofi picks Thanos and Hulk. The camera only picks up half of this and also the beginning of the match as it keeps focusing on the two guys doing the commentary. Kofi wins the first two games and then we get a delayed pause of “live” video (that got stuck) of Sasha sneaking a partner into backstage. We get back to the action as the guys pick the same teams in the game. A.J. accidentally hits the pause button during the game and the ref starts giving him a count. Styles complains that it is not a Xbox controller he is using. Kofi then takes the third game and claims victory in a clean sweep. A.J. has a fit and smashes the game controller. For some reason Greg the announcer gets up and rips up some fan’s sign. Oookay…that’s what this show needs is announcer pretending to be wrestlers. I can just imagine Jim Cornette having a fit seeing that.
Xavier and Cesaro cut their promos for the next match. Both guys come out and Xavier and Greg start screaming at each other as Greg is mad that Xavier put himself in the tournament and Xavier says that he is in Xavier’s world and to follow his rules. We skip the character selection to again focus on the announcers. Cesaro has Thanos and Iron Man and Xavier has Ghost Rider and Dormammu. Not familiar with that last character. Surprisingly, the first match was VERY close but Xavier wins the first match. We cut backstage to Bayley texting. Evidently, she has an idea for a partner. We are just about to start when the announcer asks Xavier a question and Xavier shrugs him off. Xavier then crushes Cesaro badly. Greg then starts bitching about Xavier being a cheater since he created this whole thing. Greg’s acting is pretty bad. Cesaro changes things up as he picks Iron Man and Captain Marvel and Xavier picks the same characters as before. Cesaro actually wins the third match with just a little bit of health left in Iron Man. Xavier screams about Cesaro cheating because he threw his jacket at Xavier. Greg mentions that they will check with the “general manager”.. of for the love of Chud did we need one of those here too? Xavier gives Cesaro’s jacket the butt floss treatment. Both guys are yelling now as the ref tells them to get back in the gaming box. We start match four with the same characters  Xavier wins in a somewhat close match and takes the whole thing. We get a replay of the match as Greg spews on about whatever.
Anyway, we get to the tag match as Sasha and Bayley cut promos on each other. Sasha comes out with some guy named Hollywood Sleep as her partner and I have no clue who this guy is. Bayley comes out by herself and some announcer tries to talk but the mic doesn’t work. They recover the sound for a promo for whatshisname and Sasha. Bayley then announces her partner is some dude named FChamp who is a recent esports champion of somesuch, Hey, I cover wrestling, not esports. We AGAIN completely skip over the selection screen but Sasha and Herp select Dante and Ghost Rider and Bayley and Derp also select Dante and a Strider. They don’t bother switching with the esports guys and the women just fight the first match themselves with Sasha winning the first battle. They “tag” in the esports guys for the next match but Bayley’s partner trips on the cord and falls under the table they are using as the camera cuts back to the announcer. Smooth move killer. Sasha’s guy picks Iron Man and Jedah and Bayley’s partner picks Dormammu and Ultron. Fchamp takes the match fairly quickly. We go back to the announcers as the women step back up and evidently we are going to the best of 5 in this. We get the Dante/Ghost Rider vs. Dante/Strider match up again now. Bayley scores the win in a close match between the two Dantes making it 2 victories to 1 for Bayley and whatever this guy is. We go back to more inane banter from the announcers as the men come back and select the same guys they used before. Fchamp lands a 130 hit combo(!) and quickly finishes the match and the victory to give it to Bayley and the guy in the hat. Bayley and the guy take the trophy and that is that.
We get some more announcer banter before we get Kofi and Xavier out here for the final and they dance together. We get the announcements and Xavier picks Ghost Rider and Dormammu while Kofi picks Thanos and Hulk. The round isn’t much as Xavier dominates Kofi. We start the next round and thankfully the announcers don’t say much this time. Xavier wins in a much closer match this time around. They keep the same teams as we start the next round. Kofi actually wins with Hulk pulling out the victory. For some reason, everyone from the previous games come out on stage and even Xavier asks “Why are you out here?” Kofi barely survives put is able to pull out the match with Hulk and Thanos and we are going to one more round. It’s a close one but Kofi uses Thanos to defeat both of Xaviors guys and actually wins the thing.

Kofi is given the small trophy as Greg nearly creams himself for defeating Xavier Woods, saying that Up,Up,Down,Down, is a bad Youtube channel run by a bad man. Xavier comes out and hit Greg with a creampie. Greg has a fit and slams the trophy to the floor and rips off his shirt to cover even more 1980s wrestling cliches. He calls the whole thing rigged because nothing is more entertaining as a gamer guy pretending to be a wrestler. Thankfully it ends there.
Well, that was a thing that happened.
If you are a long time wrestling fan I’d not recommend this as it just seemed like a bunch gamers trying to look cool and be wrestlers. If you are a gaming fan you might get a kick out of it. If you are both, you might like it? But this didn’t do a thing for me.