The Official UKFF RAW Thread...

[D@mm]

I was thinking Nakamura wins the Rumble and then goes against either Owens or Orton for the title at Mania, but it will probably be Reigns that wins the Rumble.

[Van Dammer]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

I read a theory that two Rumbles will work in their favour in the sense that the crowd will be too tired by the end of the men’s Rumble to boo Roman when he wins. Genius.

The only problem with this is that surely now the event has to open with one Rumble match and close with another and I dont think they'll stick the women on first and immediately make it look inferior to the real Rumble match.

[air_raid]

I've long thought that they'd recognize Styles v Nakamura as a match between two guys their audiences love and on the same show as, theoretically, Lesnar v Reigns for the red belt, HHH v Angle and Cena v Strowman, they'll decide the Rumble winner being involved will give that match extra sparkle that the other matches "don't need." As they did with (ugh) Wyatt v Orton, even though that could have easily been storyline driven and needed neither the belt nor the Rumble winner being involved......

Admittedly I made this prediction before Jinder lost the belt and rumours of him regaining it after Survivors circulated, and the booking of Nakamura in the Survivors main made me think he's nowhere near that point, but as soon as AJ retained at Clash my faith in that match happening was restored. If anything, its typical WWE to book Shinsuke like shit since SummerSlam and assume winning the Rumble will be enough to make people buy that he might be ready to win the belt. Nothing like an instant reheat.

Edited December 20, 2017 by air_raid

[Supremo]

34 minutes ago, Van Dammer said:

The only problem with this is that surely now the event has to open with one Rumble match and close with another and I dont think they'll stick the women on first and immediately make it look inferior to the real Rumble match.

Isn’t that exact what they did with the women’s Money In the Bank ladder match? I’ll be stunned if they put the women’s Rumble on after the men’s. 

[Onyx2]

I imagine the women's match will open the show and the men's will close to keep the novelty apart. 

[King Pitcos]

Nakamura seemed the most likely winner of the men's Rumble to me, until they confirmed they're doing a women's one. Because surely Oscar is winning that, and I don't know if they'd have both won by the Japanese imports. Although the women's factions on both shows are proving the company isn't afraid of repetition.

[Keith Houchen]

1 hour ago, Van Dammer said:

The only problem with this is that surely now the event has to open with one Rumble match and close with another and I dont think they'll stick the women on first and immediately make it look inferior to the real Rumble match.

But you summed it up there. The blokes one IS the real rumble match. 

[the_mole]

The Women's belts might be defended at the Rumble too? Charlotte said the winner will face her at Wrestlemania and I would assume Alexa Bliss is the same (the champions can obviously lose their belts between now & Mania) despite being out for the announcement, so it probably will be a 15 or 20 women one as they only have 20 women on the roster plus Nikki Bella according to wiki, so a name from NXT, a women or two from the past and Nikki Bella and you could have a 20 women one, especially if it featured Ronda Rousey, have Asuka beat Alexa Bliss for the Raw belt and you have a big Mania match

[Loki]

Hideo Itami looked tiny.  I'm aware that he's held in high esteem by those who saw his work in Japan, but I can't think of a single memorable performance by him since being in WWE.  Let's be honest, his NXT run was poor.  

Whatever it is that you need to succeed in WWE, I really don't think he has it.

[Love-Wilcox]

To be fair to Itami, they haven't really put him in much of a position for anyone to actually care about him. Out of the few bits of substance they've actually thrown his way he's done a good job with.

He has (IMO) given Bobby Roode his best match in WWE, Aleister Blacks best match up until that point and had an enjoyable feud with Kassius Ohno which is the best thing Ohno's been apart of since his return. Apart from that, they haven't really booked him in anything other than "go out there and have a match" type stuff.

I'm not saying Itami doesn't have his own issues but, injuries aside, he's been decent when given something to sink his teeth into.

[Van Dammer]

10 minutes ago, Loki said:

Hideo Itami looked tiny.  I'm aware that he's held in high esteem by those who saw his work in Japan, but I can't think of a single memorable performance by him since being in WWE.  Let's be honest, his NXT run was poor.  

Whatever it is that you need to succeed in WWE, I really don't think he has it.

Lets be honest, decent NXT runs havent exactly translated to decent roster runs, so maybe he's going to be a roaring success. Actually, youre probably right.

[PunkStep]

3 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

Nakamura seemed the most likely winner of the men's Rumble to me, until they confirmed they're doing a women's one. Because surely Oscar is winning that, and I don't know if they'd have both won by the Japanese imports.

What about the possibility of Ronda Rousey winning it, with Asuka taking the title somewhere along the way? That way, Vince can sleep easier at night without worrying about the Japanese invading.

Have they said how many entrants will be in the women's Rumble?

[HarmonicGenerator]

9 hours ago, Van Dammer said:

Lets be honest, decent NXT runs havent exactly translated to decent roster runs, so maybe he's going to be a roaring success. Actually, youre probably right.

The very best thing they did with Itami was a fantastic video package that showed him in the lead up to appearing in an Andre Battle a Royal the other year at WrestleMania. Showed the real him with his sons, demonstrated what his whole family gave up for him to come to WWE, made you really root for him. Unfortunately then his injury came and they never got to capitalise on it.

[Supremo]

9 hours ago, Love-Wilcox said:

To be fair to Itami, they haven't really put him in much of a position for anyone to actually care about him. Out of the few bits of substance they've actually thrown his way he's done a good job with.

He has (IMO) given Bobby Roode his best match in WWE, Aleister Blacks best match up until that point and had an enjoyable feud with Kassius Ohno which is the best thing Ohno's been apart of since his return. Apart from that, they haven't really booked him in anything other than "go out there and have a match" type stuff.

I'm not saying Itami doesn't have his own issues but, injuries aside, he's been decent when given something to sink his teeth into.

I hadn’t really thought about it like that, but you’re right. The most I’ve enjoyed him was his most recent NXT run as a heel. That match where he and Aleister Black kicked fuck out of each other was tonnes of fun. That just makes it all the bewildering that he’s come to the main roster as a babyface. That, combined with the stench of 205 Live, doesn’t leave me with much hope. I’ll be shocked if he’s still with the company in a year or two.

[big7thletter]

It's still pissing me off that no matter how much i love Brock, the booking is dreadful for him by the writers, because he's had that title for 8 months and has probably only defended it like 4 times. He doesn't defend it at every PPV. He doesn't appear regularly to remind the audience (younger crowd) of WHAT the wrestlers are all actually fighting for. It's just a case of he has the title and they're waiting for Wrestlemania for him to lose it and then we probably won't see him until Summerslam. It's really getting shitty now.