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The Official UKFF RAW Thread...


d-d-d-dAz

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I'd be fine with Strowman not being in the title picture at 'Mania if he was set up for a big title push for the post-Mania run of shows, but if the belt's going to Roman, there's not much chance of that happening, short of Braun becoming his first title feud and just fodder for him.

The Reigns promo was excellent, as much as it's hard to buy the idea of Roman Reigns as a rebel going against company policy when we all know he's the anointed one - and most fans aren't going to buy into the idea. It reminded me of the post-Royal Rumble cancelled RAW a few years back, that was just great sit-down interviews with Reigns, Lesnar and Heyman, and so on.

I think they need to really remind people who Brock Lesnar is in order for this match to work. Not the guy who shows up every few months for a wrestling match, try and turn back the clock to the aura he had when he first came back, where he felt more legitimate than anyone else on the roster, where holding your own in a match with Brock made you look like a double-tough bad-ass. That's the best bet they have of Reigns coming out of this with more fan support.

It's a good idea to remind people of reasons they hated Lesnar in the past, though - at this point, they should be working just as hard to make Reigns' opponents someone the audience can hate as they are on trying to convince the audience to love Reigns.

Edited by BomberPat
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ICould it not be the case that WWE have become complacent over the years and instead of working really hard and going all outĀ on providing actual must see tv with gripping storylines they instead maybe without realising are taking fans for granted expecting that Wrestlemania will do well in all aspects without putting in to much effort.

Wrestlemania is continuing to break records and the company as a whole is doing very well from what I can tell so there appears to be nothing breathing down their necks and pushing them to provide more and do generally more.

I don't watch a lot of WWE programming and I have never had the network or anything but I watch the Raw highlights on YouTube and for me the whole show seems to be repackaged and on a cycle. Whats happening with Roman and Brock seems a rehassed versions of the fued between Cena and The Rock with Roman questioning Brocks passion and part time schedule. Creatively it all seems very stale, I'm not sure who writes for WWE these days but there's no long term direction or depth to their storylines and probably no wrestlers questioning their creative options and pushing for something else. I can imagine WWE wrestlers are like Pay me and I'll say and do anything which doesn't help the cause that fans are wanting more. Gone are the days of Kevin Nash and CM Punk and others who would hold the office to random and push for for more and better storylines. Brock doesn't careĀ what Roman has been told to say and probably doesn't care if he wins or looses as long as he gets paid, Roman should be pushing creative for more as should the rest of the roster who are just stream lining from week to week.

Could WWE be looking at the Indies to much and take from them that its really about the wrestling and not so much about the storylines? And in turn they are taking a page out of there book and trying toĀ focus more on the in ring action than the outside meaning and story. NXT has a big time indie supershow feel about it with little in the way of storyline but explosive in ring action. WWE are clearly looking at the Indies with their involvement in the UK as of late and other US indie promotions and its stemming from Triple H gaining more control has he ever been a fan of heavy storyline based wrestling? WWE shouldn't try to be anything than what WWE has always been about and I know times change and WWE is trying to evolve and change with the times but if you want indie wrestling then watch the Indies but it should be the case if you want to be a traditionalist wrestling fan and want the type of wrestling that us older fans miss the type of wrestling that you would argue with your friends is good and then when you watched saw somebody being buried alive or thrown off a bridge or old ladies being power bombed through tables and being proud that you were one of the few who understood the secret as to why wrestling is so great and it didn't matter that your friends thought that grown men in underwear were pretending to fight because you knew why it was so great and that was because WWE was different to anything else on TV probably because of all the wrong reasons but to wrestling fans all the right reasons. I don't want WWE to become like the Indies with better production values. I don't like change and I want my childhood WWE back!

Edited by C-Rock
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Steph's "we're not horrible people, despite what you may read and hear" was funny.

It does indeed look like they're moving on with The Plan as expected, which is barmy. Although if Roman can deliver more promos like that then I'm sure even my unyielding apathy will subside. Fair play to WWE, the smart move is to paint Lesnar as a lazy part timer that is pissing off ASAP, even if Reigns' "I'll go take my ass chewing like a man"/"look, I'm shooting, brother" is as convincing as Elton John's marriage toĀ Renate Blauel.

Poor Braun, though. As I discussed the other week, I'm not against Reigns winning again if it facilitates a heel run, which then sets up a feud with Reigns v Braun down the road. Still, even with a half decent promo, there is a lot of work to be done with Lesnar v Reigns to get me invested.

I love the Asuka story, right now. I hope they keep this three-on-one deal going all the way up to 'Mania. It's impossible not to route for herĀ against them odds.

Rousey's promo work was a bit better. Still not amazing, but ok. Having Steph suck the life out of everyone by showing no arse, while at the time tedious, has led to this tremendous feud they've got going. All Rousey needs to do is look at Steph with a mean face and the crowd eat it up. I think we're all ready to see Stephanie get slapped about; I've not been this invested in a pay off since Little Mo battered Trevor.

Oh, and the Cena segment was a bit odd. Fantastic promo by John boy, but the whole thing was weird. I'm going to assume Undertaker randomly shows up one week. Although the fear is we'll get John Cena v Kane, with Undertaker floating around.

Edited by ColinBollocks
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7 minutes ago, C-Rock said:

ICould it not be the case that WWE have become complacent over the years and instead of working really hard and going all outĀ on providing actual must see tv with gripping storylines they instead maybe without realising are taking fans for granted expecting that Wrestlemania will do well in all aspects without putting in to much effort.

Wrestlemania is continuing to break records and the company as a whole is doing very well from what I can tell so there appears to be nothing breathing down their necks and pushing them to provide more and do generally more.

If they're breaking records and doing well, where's the incentive to "do more"? What they're doing is clearly working, and to change it because a smallĀ percentage of the fanbase - and a percentage that they know are likely to keep on watching regardless - want to turn back time, doesn't make a lot of sense.

Ultimately, for years now, Wrestlemania hasn't really been about booking Wrestlemania, it's been about booking the Wrestlemania highlight reel. It almost stands alone from most of the stories around it, so long as there's a few clips they can put in video packages, and a few things that'll get eyes on the product from people who don't normally watch - whether that's getting The Rock, Ronda Rousey, or anyone else who'll garner headlines.

Ā 

Quote

NXT has a big time indie supershow feel about it with little in the way of storyline but explosive in ring action.

I've a few problems with NXT, but to say there's "little in the way of storyline" is just disingenuous. NXT have created the best pure babyface WWE have seen since Daniel Bryan in Johnny Gargano, through people being invested in his story. Velveteen Dream and Alisteir Black had people raving about the story they were telling.

The stories might not be "throwing title belts off a bridge", and nor should they be, NXT probably has a better grasp of storytelling than the main roster has done for years, and has long been praised for exactly that.

The idea that Triple H is some kind of storyline-averse indie fanboy, and that "traditionalist" fans will lose out is bizarre - Triple H's tastes, and booking style, as far as I can tell, are very much an NWA/early WCW approach. The kind of storytelling we're seeing in NXT is far, far more "traditionalist" than putting women through tables and throwing people off bridges!

Ā 

There's a lot of problems with the WWE product at the moment, for sure, but this "let's take it back to how it was!" approach simply isn't the solution - for one, enough of WWE is stuck in the past as it is, trying to rehash prior successes will only make that worse. It needs to look forward, not backward.

Secondly, an awful lot of the Attitude Era was shit. It worked at the time because it was a rare instance of WWE being in tune with broader pop culture, because most of what they were doing hadn't been done on a national stage before, and because the war with WCW and the possibility of talent crossing over created a more immediate "anything can happen" vibe (though I'd argue that, in more subtle ways, wrestling as a whole is far weirder and more unpredictable now than it was then).

It won't work now, because the context has changed. And most of the time they try it down, its met with derision. When Dean Ambrose was attacking people with hot dog carts and whatever else, he was ridiculed, called a prop comic, yet the same people moaning about what a PG joke it was were pining for a time when Steve Austin was doing the same shit every week. People complaining about Roman Reigns or John Cena being overexposed and winning all the time are pining for a time when Steve Austin used to interfere in every single match on the card, and barely ever be off-screen. People complaining about how silly it was when Roman Reigns tried to kill Braun Strowman in an ambulance are pining for a time when Steve Austin was getting hit by cars, or cars were getting dropped off forklifts, and whatever else.

It's not the trappings of the Attitude Era that people want - they just want it go back to how it was when they were a kid. 30 year olds want it go back to the Attitude Era, 16-18 year olds want it go back to 2011, 40 year olds want it go back to 1987, and so on. People want wrestling to be how it was at the exact moment they fell in love with it, regardless of when that was, and that's impossible.

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53 minutes ago, C-Rock said:

Ā NXT has a big time indie supershow feel about it with little in the way of storyline but explosive in ring action.

Sorry but what a load of absolute bollocks :laugh:

If the main show spent half the time cultivating it's characters as NXT does the Wrestling landscape would be a whole lot better.

Anyway, best promo Roman has ever done, if they'd let him do this 3 years ago and be real instead of spouting such utter shite he'd be a different proposition altogether.

Edited by Ambulance Chaser
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I'm still not convinced Kurt ends up in the Rousey/HHH/Steph thing. I think if they played off Kurt not getting clearance for Mania and Steph and HHH gloating that Ronda can't beat them both and Kurt then introduces ROAAAAAAARRRRRRR - BRAUN! as the tag partner.

That would leave an IC four way between Elias/Miz/Finn/Rollins (perhaps even chuck a ladder in). Maybe Jeff comes back for this but I think they may save him for either something to do with the Woken storyline or a move to Smackdown as a singles guy.

I think we end up with Bray and Matt teaming up against the Bar.

Cena probably challenges Shinsuke to put his title shot on the line tonight and that goes on Fastlane and Cena gets distracted by a ~GONG~ to lose the match.

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NXT is completely a storyline-driven show. What a load of nonsense right there. It's just that the writing seems to be more logical and natural to the main roster writing, for many reasons.

1 hour ago, C-Rock said:

I don't like change and I want my childhood WWE back!

You can save a lot of time by just posting this instead of your wall-of-text posts half the time, the message is the same.

Ā 

1 hour ago, ColinBollocks said:

Although the fear is we'll get John Cena v Kane, with Undertaker floating around.

Good grief, what a horrible thought. Delete your post now Colin, before somebody in creative quickly sees it and thinks 'What a great idea, get Vince on the phone!'. Seriously though, imagine if that happened? Savio Vega rocking up at No Way Out '98 would seem like a lovely surprise in comparison on the disappointment scale. Ugh, Kane has dragged everyone down a level over the years hasn't he.

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Does anyone think they go with Cena/Rousey v HHH/Steph. Rousey needs someone to do the promo work and they are going to need someone with Rousey who can hold the match together with HHH. If he does and up in a mixed bag at least Cena won't have to propose at the end this year.Ā 

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3 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Does anyone think they go with Cena/Rousey v HHH/Steph. Rousey needs someone to do the promo work and they are going to need someone with Rousey who can hold the match together with HHH. If he does and up in a mixed bag at least Cena won't have to propose at the end this year.Ā 

I think now he is making the trip to Smackdown, it's a no. I still think it will be Angle, not Braun though. One last wrestlemania moment for Kurt and he can retire completely. Plus they have the Olympic connection

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