Jump to content

The Official UKFF RAW Thread...


d-d-d-dAz

Recommended Posts

On 6/1/2019 at 8:30 AM, The King of Old School said:

Becky is such an afterthought now. Not even sure why I'm surprised.

That was always going to happen once Vince stopped “burying” her. Her story was about winning at WrestleMania. Once she was booked to do that, she became infinitely less cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's definitely part of it. But also the fact that the women's division as a whole is pretty weak. They've done a poor job of building the rest of the women but I guess you can say the same about the men too. I'm sure the women are more capable than they've been allowed to show. Well, some of them anyway. But it's all too often been a case of "hey look! It's women wrestling! Let's congratulate ourselves!" rather than actually developing meaningful characters etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

They appear to have had no idea what to do with the two belts thing at all. So they just had her drop one straight away.

They could have gone with something cheesy like Alexa being put in charge of the women's division with the goal of getting the belts off Becky. Alexa could then have won the briefcase for insurance. Then we'd have had Becky fighting the odds and cutting promos on Alexa. In the meantime, you quietly build Bayley for a big match at Summerslam. 

It would have kept the anti-authority angle but without involving McMahons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

But it's all too often been a case of "hey look! It's women wrestling! Let's congratulate ourselves!" rather than actually developing meaningful characters etc.

I'd say that's a bit unfair, at least relatively speaking, because Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair have had more character development over the last year than a lot of the top names in the men's division. Lacey Evans has had more than most NXT callups as well (a low bar, of course). Alexa Bliss had a lot of character focus when she was wrestling regularly, although as she's moved to a Roddy Piper type schedule, she's fallen into the same trap as Triple H and Stephanie where her character flips between heel and benign babyface without any logic. Bayley seems to have undergone a character evolution lately as well, but that might just be because AEW have ripped off her old gimmick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

I'd say that's a bit unfair, at least relatively speaking, because Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair have had more character development over the last year than a lot of the top names in the men's division. Lacey Evans has had more than most NXT callups as well (a low bar, of course). Alexa Bliss had a lot of character focus when she was wrestling regularly, although as she's moved to a Roddy Piper type schedule, she's fallen into the same trap as Triple H and Stephanie where her character flips between heel and benign babyface without any logic. Bayley seems to have undergone a character evolution lately as well, but that might just be because AEW have ripped off her old gimmick.

Completely agree, which is why my concerns are more for the division as a whole because we've now seen that there's a pretty big gap between the main girls who they DID spend time on and anything post-Mania. Lacey being an exception really, although definitely happy they've started to give Bayley a bit more. Maybe they'll finally give Sasha some character development if/when she comes back too.

You've got Asuka who's suffered since the day she got called up. Kairi who's just 'Japanese person who likes pirates and can apparently wrestle so let's stick her with the other Japanese good wrestler'. What's an Ember Moon? Liv Morgan? Sarah whatsherface? Is Mickie James even a thing now? Zelina Vega deserves better too.

I guess when you focus so much on pushing the top few, it's a struggle to then bring everyone else up to that level. Not that everyone IS of that level, but it makes it more obvious once Becky has moved on to someone else. It's that issue of doing well in pushing main feuds but then realising you don't have much in the way of viable options going forward after that. They've relied a lot on 'womens firsts' over the past few years, but then what?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

You've got Asuka who's suffered since the day she got called up. Kairi who's just 'Japanese person who likes pirates and can apparently wrestle so let's stick her with the other Japanese good wrestler'. What's an Ember Moon?

This is an important factor, and it comes back to the way that almost every new character goes. They never needed any real characters in NXT, and they just get lazily imported into the Raw/SmackDown rosters assuming it'll be fine there as well. And for some of them, it will. For most, it won't, and they'll just languish.

As you say, there's a bigger divide now than ever between the top women wrestlers and those below them. It's the same problem they had for years with Cena, where divs complained that he was burying everyone who feuded with him because they dropped down the card into nothingness after. The issue wasn't JC ruining someone's character, it was that there's so little focus on stuff at the tiers below him. It was sadly inevitable that Becky (and Kofi) would lose momentum after Mania, but it has at least bridged the gap a bit by elevating Bayley and Lacey into the mix. If we go from the end of WrestleMania, I can't see any way round Becky then messing about with people who aren't really on her level. Her and Charlotte will always have the WrestleMania Main Eventer seal of approval now, it just doesn't mean everything they touch will be gold. I still think they are on the level of Reigns, AJ, Rollins, Orton etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I thought it was a mostly nothing show. Like they want to get the Saudi show over with as soon as possible.

My biggest takeaway was how much Moxley’s interviews now make it even harder to switch off and not hear Vince’s voice in all of the scripted promos. Particularly during the stuff involving Becky, Charlotte and Lacey, it was impossible not to hear Mox shouting and screaming about how fucking backwards the dialogue is. The terrible scripting where everyone sounds like aliens trying to pretend to be humans communicating normally has been there forever, but it was way more noticeable after listening to that Wade Keller podcast earlier in the day. You honestly have to wonder when something’s going to give. Are the characters going to get even weirder and less normal the older and more senile Vince becomes?

Becky also strikes me as the type, similar to Moxley, who must be fucking miserable. She clearly loves this and obviously has a great mind for coming up with cool ideas. It must wreck her head coming to work every Monday to read what dross they’ve put together to further fail to capitalise on the momentum she once had.

It’s also a real testament to how many times they’ve bait and switched with Brock that absolutely no-one was buying that he was cashing in. One of the guaranteed joys in WWE is that dynamite reaction when fans think there’s gonna be a cash in. That tangible buzz as the drama builds, everyone getting to their feet and holding their breath. Not this time. Poor Seth was getting smashed to bits for absolutely nothing because no-one cared at all.

R-Truth was the star of the show. That skit at the golf course, with Jinder in his gear and Truth hanging onto the back of golf cart as it sped away, was fantastic. Him lying prone on the table under the ring as Cesar pulled it out was funny too. Between Truth’s work onscreen and Drake Maverick’s work on Twitter, this 24/7 Title has been a home-run so far. Long may it continue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
5 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I thought it was a mostly nothing show. Like they want to get the Saudi show over with as soon as possible.

I only watched the YouTube cut but it looked far more packed than the shows I've read about of late.

That Wyatt skit was amazing. Typical, I've stopped giving them my dough three days ago and they come out with the only WWE T-Shirt I've actively desired in 20 years.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

That Bray segment is amazing. Huskus the Pig? That Vince puppet? Brilliant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Wyatt thing was very good, but still don't know how it's going to translate when he eventually has to appear live. Nothing show beyond that really, hearing Orton & Triple H uttering "this Friday, in Jeddah.." sounded ridiculous and as mentioned above the dialogue when people are interacting with each other is woeful. The scripting of the Alexa/Iconics/Nikki backstage segment was cringe-worthy, everyone involved came across mildly retarded. Interesting they showed Becky accompanying Rollins in the ambulance, have they mentioned their relationship onscreen as of yet?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...