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The Official UKFF RAW Thread...


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47 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I'd love to know who's actually behind giving the NXT guys a debut like that. On the one hand I'm excited for them but yeah, throwing them out there with little to no fanfare etc really isn't the best first impression.

I spent a while this morning catching up on the WWE Performance Centre Youtube videos and they're top quality and make everyone seem so much more relatable and likeable and you really care about these people. Why they can't use these sorts of videos more on the main shows is beyond me. It would really do wonders to any new people where the majority of the crowds won't know who they are. Give them a reason to care beyond 'hey here's a cool new person who can wrestle well'.

The same person who is behind everything you see on the show. 

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After watching it (fast forwarding through most) It just looked like an NXT Showcase as their graphic cards popped up as the NXT ones. 

Awful show, loads of filler, 2 of the hottest acts in wrestling right now being put back together as a tag team to no reaction whatsoever. 

It’s like Vince saw the Super Bowl half time match and though right I’ll have those 4, book them four to look semi strong and work in front of a bored silent crowd.

Triple H changes from heel to face every week. 

Elias was a face for what felt like 2 minutes.

Bollocks 

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2 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Reading the results for this on Bleacher Report nearly put me to sleep.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that keeps up with Raw in this manner.

The NXT call-ups were massively missed opportunities. If they're proper call-ups, then it's a terrible time. That's four more names to try and squeeze into the WrestleMania card, NXT are weakened at a time where they had a bunch of guys make the jump not too long ago, it pretty much spoils the next Takeover you'd imagine, they haven't made way for new guys on the roster, they were revealed during a limp promo and could leave them short on the post-Mania Raw. From January through to Mania, don't can anyone up. It's a waste.

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1 minute ago, PunkStep said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one that keeps up with Raw in this manner.

I haven't watched for years at this point — had a three month free trial of the network from the rumble to Mania last year, but then dropped it straight after — but I've never shaken the habit of catching up with RAW on 411mania. Might beat the habit, though, because Larry Csonka had to have his leg off, and the replacements are all unreadable, including a bloke who pretends he didn't watch matches he wasn't interested in.

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17 minutes ago, Sergio Mendacious said:

I haven't watched for years at this point — had a three month free trial of the network from the rumble to Mania last year, but then dropped it straight after — but I've never shaken the habit of catching up with RAW on 411mania. Might beat the habit, though, because Larry Csonka had to have his leg off, and the replacements are all unreadable, including a bloke who pretends he didn't watch matches he wasn't interested in.

Weirdly enough, I was going to post something similar this morning.

411Mania have had the same trash bag RAW recapper for years, and I reached my breaking point with this morning's report. Just a constant shit stream that I only read because 411mania has the most user-friendly interface of all the newz sites out there. 

I'm going to try using Bleacher Report in the future, where it won't bombard me with terrible jokes, a misogynistic attitude towards the women and an "Oh look at me" pompous personality. 

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3 hours ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

At some point there's a debate to be had about whether the focus on the women has done a serious number on promoting anything the guys do as important, and whether the ratings drop coincides and has proven this "revolution" push a failure.

Is there though?  I hadn't even considered a connection between increased time for women, and a perception of the men being less important, and I don't really get how that would work.

Did the UFC suffer numbers-wise when Rousey was on top?  I highly doubt it - a draw is a draw.  Rouser's got a lot of mainstream press this year, and by association so I suspect has Becky, and really non-wrestling press exposure is going to be the only thing that really draws in new punters.  

Otherwise I suspect the ebb and flow of ratings is due exactly to the issues we're talking about here - bad writing.  I'm sure we've all got 1/2 way through series 3 of some tv show and just never finished it, and it's usually because we just get bored.  I think a lot of people are simply bored with Raw.  As I said earlier, when you're debuting a talent like Ricochet and the result is a boring tag match, you're in trouble.

WWE has more than enough super talented wrestlers to fill out two/three rosters, this is probably one of the best rosters they've ever had in some respects.  It's the choices of what you present on tv, and how you present it, that's where the problems are.

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If what the guys are doing isn't seen as important, it's got nothing to do with how they're booking the women and everything to do with how badly they book everyone else.

It's not like they're booking the women well, they're just booking them better than they did previously. 

Does Brock Lesnar still feel important? Would The Undertaker feel important if he showed up on RAW next week? Did Kofi Kingston feel important on Sunday?

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1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

I'm going to try using Bleacher Report in the future, where it won't bombard me with terrible jokes, a misogynistic attitude towards the women and an "Oh look at me" pompous personality. 

I've found them to be reasonable. They're in touch with the industry in general, but aren't 'ugh this is shit, fuck WWE, New Japan is miles better' in their reviews nor do they cut WWE slack if something is shit. Well measured reviews I'd say. Plus I'm a sucker for match ratings, I'm almost ashamed to say.

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1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

I'm going to try using Bleacher Report in the future, where it won't bombard me with terrible jokes, a misogynistic attitude towards the women and an "Oh look at me" pompous personality. 

I tend to follow pro wrestling.net reviews find them fairly balanced and good reads 

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15 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

I've found them to be reasonable. They're in touch with the industry in general, but aren't 'ugh this is shit, fuck WWE, New Japan is miles better' in their reviews nor do they cut WWE slack if something is shit. Well measured reviews I'd say. Plus I'm a sucker for match ratings, I'm almost ashamed to say.

Grand stuff! Bleacher Report defiantly appeared to be a more balanced and a much easier read than 411Mania's recap.

11 minutes ago, Jacko said:

I tend to follow pro wrestling.net reviews find them fairly balanced and good reads 

I'll give them a try! Cheers!

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1 hour ago, Loki said:

Is there though?  I hadn't even considered a connection between increased time for women, and a perception of the men being less important, and I don't really get how that would work.

Did the UFC suffer numbers-wise when Rousey was on top?  I highly doubt it - a draw is a draw.  Rouser's got a lot of mainstream press this year, and by association so I suspect has Becky, and really non-wrestling press exposure is going to be the only thing that really draws in new punters. WWE has more than enough super talented wrestlers to fill out two/three rosters, this is probably one of the best rosters they've ever had in some respects.  It's the choices of what you present on tv, and how you present it, that's where the problems are.

Not saying women can't draw, that's not the point at all, it's more a theoretical. My point is that there can only be so many genuinely top positions. Obviously you could have more truly over male stars and the reason they don't is because they are booked badly, that goes without saying. The show is a mess in general.

My point isn't that because they're promoting women they can't promote men too, but if Becky is Stone Cold, the ones that gets the big angles, the last segment, the McMahons, the bells and whistles, nobody else can be. The divide between sexes is irrelevant when it comes to the dedication of promotional focus on television. There is only one last match at Mania, and historically it is only one or two people that are truly the difference maker to a promotion. Right now Becky is the star. Great, hope it works. Take the Rumble as an example - two Rumbles and 4 title matches for what are supposed to be the top belts. And look at what that meant for AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan, of all people. It feels like the IC Title of old, not a World Title. If you book both sides of the fence fantastically, the focus gets spread so thin and I'm not sure they break out of the funk. Historically, you have to ultimately back one horse as the true star things revolve around.

UFC is a bad comparison because you don't have all your top stars, or the vast majority of your top stars to extricate Brock, on every single big show, like WWE does. They can get individuals over as stars and rotate them around. The argument that the brand is the draw is bollocks, the brand doesn't draw the casuals, which is what WWE badly needs back.

Kofi felt important in a vacuum to a certain fan base. Could that translate to breaking through and being a difference maker, a legitimate star? Yes - if he becomes the focus of television for a long time, which may take focus away from Becky and Charlotte. 

The more the focus has shifted to women this last 12 months, the more women are tuning out of Raw, bizarrely, and the 1st to 3rd hour drops are more pronounced with women on last. I guess time will tell, it's just interesting to see how this is playing out.

Edited by Liam O'Rourke
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The majority of the women don't seem and aren't presented as important anyway. Only Ronda, Charlotte and Becky are portrayed as stars, throw in Asuka at a push. The rest are interchangeable just like the majority of the lads roster are outside Lesnar, Bryan, Rollins and Styles etc.

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