The Official UKFF RAW Thread...

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Must be going soft, I thought raw was great. Some negatives as always like the stupid Sheamus/Titus match and the typically flat Evolution segment. The crowd just don't give a shit about them do they? The brawl at the end was crap and HHH was terrible. Flair was really sad to watch and I can't see him getting anymore time on live tv. Reigns still looks nowhere near ready for a singles push.

 

Poor Bryan looked like a broken man during his promo. I should hate everything about Kane/Bryan and it's return to comedy after a strong segment last week. But I didn't mind it at all. The worst thing about it is that it disrupted Paige/Bella which was actually shaping up to be a decent match.

 

The celebrity bit was good but went on too long like all the non-wrestling segments do. Ziggler looked like a complete plum but Sandow made it and it's a reminder of how great he can be given the opportunity.

 

The tag was fun . I don't think Rybaxel looked weak at all, in fact it's refreshing to see champions booked strongly.

 

Who saw this Wade Barrett push coming? The guy is 100% into his act, carries himself like a star and the crowd loves it.

 

I fucking hate this 'whole world in his hands' business. I know WWE is as subtle as a hammer to the face but its this force feeding that can turn you against an act. Nobody's going to want to chant Yes if Brie continues wandering around in Bryan merch pointing to the sky. The crowd seemed to completely reject this segment. But BUT, then the lights came up and everything was alright again. That was the most genuinely creepy non-Benoit related thing I've ever seen in WWE. Great, outside the box moment. Then Bray was laughing and the camera lingered and he laughed and he laughed and he was embarrassing to watch again.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

I really hate Wyatt's "whole world in his hands" thing, it's not at all cool and different like the Wyatts have been, it seems cheesy, like putting children singing a nursery rhyme in a horror film. I already disliked it but it's overuse one Raw made it 10 times worse.

 

I wrote that about last weeks RAW, I just watched the most recent episode and I can't put into words how much I hated the kid's choir spot. It was my least favourite thing I've seen in wrestling for ages. I think I'm the first person to have backlash against the Wyatts, I loved them but Bray Wyatt has gone from one of my favourite things on the show to one of my least favourites almost overnight, I think it's mostly the song that's done it and the fact that I think he's an incredible one of a kind promo but he just chats too much, I'm fucking sick of hearing him talk now, it's so ridiculously over the top, you know in the end all you'll get is a fat cunt playfighting with some other guy but his promos are so overblown I'm starting to find them a bit embarrassing. I wish Luke Harper was the leader of the Wyatts, Bray's not doing it for me at the moment.

[King Pitcos]

I had a problem with the logic of the Cena/Wyatt feud going into WrestleMania. The Legacy song was great, but I didn't get what the huge stakes were for Cena, how it was endangering his legacy at all. The match itself made it clear -- if Cena hits someone with a chair in anger, his legacy's dead.

 

Since WrestleMania, I think it's taken a much more interesting turn, with Wyatt growing in popularity and Cena shrinking.

 

In terms of Wyatt's promos being too overblown for what ultimately just comes down to two blokes gay wrestling, I don't think Bray Wyatt's the hill to die on in that battle. Undertaker is far worse for it. At least Wyatt's supposed to be mental and spewing out dark genius metaphors or whatever. We were never (apart from a bit in 1999) told that about Undertaker; he was literally taking the souls of the 29 other men in the Rumble.

 

One of my issues with Bray Wyatt is a question that you can apply to a lot of gimmicks, specifically, "what are you doing in gay wrestling?" You can explain that Ted DiBiase just fancied wrestling and had the money to go for it. Big fat foreigners were lured from poor villagers by sly managers with promise of fame and fortune, or captured in jungles. But with Bray Wyatt, what does he gain from being in wrestling, how does that tie in with what he's all about? And I think this feud in particular answers that perfectly: How better to capture the hearts and minds of kids than rolling around with muscular men in swimming trunks?

Edited May 4, 2014 by King Pitcos

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Its like everything in wrestling. The job is to try and sway you away from thinking like that. If you start thinking "why is he in WWE if he's a cult leader" then its not doing its job properly. Its the risks you take going down this route. WWE and Wyatts job is to make you watch and go "he's an odd one" and accept him without questioning him. Like Giant Gonzales for example. When he debuted it was terrifying. He was 8 foot and murdered the Undertaker. But as the weeks went on even as a 8 year old you go "I'm out" when you see he's not very good and looks a bit dim. The purpose is to present enough interesting stuff to make you forget that Bray Wyatt is actually IRS' son. And although I loved the visual of the angle on Raw, its very hokey in the delivery of it. I watched the Undertaker angle on the Warrior DVD the other week, and even now thats a pretty hardcore angle. Undertaker put him in a coffin and the announcers and the agents and Warrior himself gave it the hard sell and the fans were panicking as if Warrior was losing his life with the lack of air in there. And the idea of a zombie and his fat Gomes Adams like manager putting a face painted man in a coffin in front of a large crowd is very insane if you write it down. But if you are going to do these kinds of angles, you have to present them well. I dont want to batter you into boredom with example after example, but the best example I can think of in what you are saying is when Abyss supposedly carved with RVD on Impact with a board full of nails. Now that is an example where you begin questioning way to many things and the fan doing so is in the right. If you do an angle where you attempt to murder someone, its natural that you expect RVD to be out of a year (he was back a few weeks late with a bandage on his leg), you expect the police to be involved (they werent), you expect him to at least be suspended (he wasn't).

 

Everything in wrestling has logic holes in it. Its what we sign up for. The job of the writers and the wrestlers is to make us believe. Or at least forget enough to believe.

Edited May 4, 2014 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Undefeated Steak]

It's their job to make fans suspend our disbelief. It's been the core of the business right from day one. It's escapism entertainment at its purest - they're like real-life Disney characters. They either make us forget what we're watching is fantasy or they don't. And the more farfetched an angle or character is, the more difficult it is to do.

[zep81]

Finally watched Monday's Raw too today. that Ric Flair segment. It was the way he turned up, cut a pointless promo, then all of a sudden left the ring, just like that. I was like "Oh, seeya then Ric".

 

[tiger_rick]

you know in the end all you'll get is a fat cunt playfighting with some other guy

What a shit post.

 

One of my issues with Bray Wyatt is a question that you can apply to a lot of gimmicks, specifically, "what are you doing in gay wrestling?" You can explain that Ted DiBiase just fancied wrestling and had the money to go for it. Big fat foreigners were lured from poor villagers by sly managers with promise of fame and fortune, or captured in jungles. But with Bray Wyatt, what does he gain from being in wrestling, how does that tie in with what he's all about? And I think this feud in particular answers that perfectly: How better to capture the hearts and minds of kids than rolling around with muscular men in swimming trunks?

 

What a fine response.

Edited May 4, 2014 by tiger_rick

[King Pitcos]

Did Ric Flair keep wooooing into the mic as he walked away, through the start of the match?

[Arch Stanton]

The biggest problem that Bray Wyatt faces is the reality of having to appear on television every week from now until forever. It's impossible to retain mystique and keep interest piqued with a full time schedule. They have done a very reasonable job of it in his debut year, because the character still feels fresh and his push has been well paced. However, he's working John Cena now, so where does he go from here? Is he ready for a run at the champion? There's history with Bryan to work with, but putting the belt on him would seem rushed and would only quicken the rate at which the character is overexposed.

 

With a gimmick like the Wyatt Family, where what happens from bell to bell is the least engaging part of the act, there needs to be continuous character development. If the act hasn't changed at all by this time next year, people will be completely indifferent to it.

[UK Kat Von D]

WWE is the perfect place for a cult leader. It is a place you can go to gather a huge following all over the world by beating people up and ruining their lives. Why wouldn't someone like Wyatt want to be there?

[Bellenda Carlisle]

I think people got the wrong end of the stick with my post, I love over the top gimmicks and I think Bray Wyatt's great, I wasn't saying I don't know why there'd be a cult leader in WWE because like people rightly said the same thing goes for lots of great gimmicks, it's the actual content of his promos that's putting me off, it's so over the top and he does them too often and they go on too long that it's become contrived to me. It's still always going to culminate in a wrestling match but his promos don't sell me a match, they're just a stream of overblown Bray-isms and I switch off a bit when he opens his mouth now.

[Arch Stanton]

I think people got the wrong end of the stick with my post, I love over the top gimmicks and I think Bray Wyatt's great, I wasn't saying I don't know why there'd be a cult leader in WWE because like people rightly said the same thing goes for lots of great gimmicks, it's the actual content of his promos that's putting me off, it's so over the top and he does them too often and they go on too long that it's become contrived to me. It's still always going to culminate in a wrestling match but his promos don't sell me a match, they're just a stream of overblown Bray-isms and I switch off a bit when he opens his mouth now.

I was pretty much supporting this in my post. It's the problem they have when the gimmick doesn't revolve around matches and there are five hours or more of TV to fill every week. I would go as far as saying that Wyatt is my favourite new character to come along in years and one of the best talkers I can remember coming along in a decade, but even I am starting to tune out now that the act is the same thing every show.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Arch Stanton

[d-d-d-dAz]

Fucking hell.

 

I aired my worries when Bryan got stuck with Kane and was told i was being premature but, after last night, I can't work out how anyone could argue that D-Bry's isn't getting at least a little bit of a shafting.

 

He turned down every single opportunity to stand and fight, running like a pussy at every opportunity.

 

Theres not another main event star who'd be booked like that, or allow themselves to be booked like that, as a babyface. Wouldn't happen to Cena, Orton, Batista. Anyone. Even Punk would tell them to get stuffed.

 

I don't buy the half-arsed 'he was just trying to save Bella' line, either. After he got out the car at the end, he could have easily locked her in and had a scrap. Instead, the bloke he's just ran over sits up and he wets himself.

 

Just fucking shit.

 

If they continue like this, they'll debase the entire character. His USP is that despite being small and scruffy, he's a fight-till-the-end type. It'll be shit if he's just a scruffy fanny.

 

No one likes a scruffy fanny.

 

Wrestlings drop in quality, generally, since Wrestlemania has been shocking. Usually you at least get a good Extreme Rules but this has been shit. It'll probably stay that way until its time to get people to renew their subscriptions to the Network. Eurgh.

Edited May 6, 2014 by d-d-d-dAz

[mim731]

Between the Wyatt demon child and Kane being treated like Jason Vorhees, I'm sort of enjoying the crazy cartoonish camp element that is being thrown into the mix. Wrestling should be larger than life, and although I can absolutely see why some people will hate this stuff, I'm really enjoying it.

[ColinBollocks]

What an awful night for the Daniel Bryan character. Like dAz (and anybody with good hygiene), I prefer my wrestling heroes to stand up and take the fight to the evil in the World, even if they get slapped about for their big balls. I want Kane to slap Bryan about now, the nebbish twat. No idea what they were thinking with this.

 

The Adam Rose debut was a wet fart too.