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The Official UKFF RAW Thread...


d-d-d-dAz

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Christian seems ready to bow out after Sunday, in my eyes anyway. The whole one more match thing, him admitting to all the injruies and them playing up his career in that promo on RAW along with Del Rio's new evil streak seems like he may be on the time decline out of there.

 

Also in regards to injuries, Cena is scheduled for elbow surgery next week after SummerSlam has happened. Vince has called for it after Cena was warned he's lucky the elbow hasn't become infected. It's part of the reason he was taken off a house show Sunday very late in the evening (in replacement they chucked Big Show back out, kind of ruined the surprise of him returning last night when I already knew he'd been back).

 

Sunday could be a strange one, Cena vs Bryan I feel may go down the route of Cena pinning Bryan, Bryan afterwards wanting Cena to respect him taking him out with the YES Lock and Orton cashing in on a injured Cena straight away. Build Punk vs Orton for Survivor Series and Cena vs Bryan once he returns and his elbow isn't fucked.

 

I can't see Bryan getting his moment until WrestleMania, probably after a Royal Rumble win.

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Punk vs Lesnar

Cena vs Bryan

Kane vs Wyatt

Ziggler & Kaitlyn vs AJ & Big E

Rhodes vs Sandow

Christian vs Del Rio

Natalya vs Brie

 

And RVD vs Ambrose on the kick-off. Seven on the PPV itself should be enough to fill it, but they might throw something else in there. Possibly Henry and Show vs Reigns and Rollins, or a six-man after interference during the pre-show.

 

Alright cheers.

 

The Sandow example wasn't so bad but I do hate this thing they do where a wrestler loses a match because he sees an enemy outside the ring just standing there. It's like all their motor skills vanish for a few seconds. And it happens Every. Bloody. Week.

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That's the point though, isn't it? They're trying to get Bryan to sell the pay-per-view to the worst kind of wrestling fan, and Cena and Triple H to sell it to everyone else. I really like the conflict they've set up between Bryan and Cena, and I think Triple H's involvement just muddies the waters. They could've kept that idea of Bryan not being on Cena's level and "I AM WORKRATE AND LOVE MUSAWA, MY MOVESET IS BIGGER THAN YOURS" vs "FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS, THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCE IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT" thing as the story all along without the McMahon stuff, for my own enjoyment at least. I don't think there's a conspiracy to downplay Bryan, they're just (rightly or wrongly) using this as the platform for the big Triple H-Vince thing that's becoming the main story on Raw. I do think it's dangerous that Bryan as emerging main-event babyface was basically doing the same sort of smug, inside-wanky shit as 2011 CM Punk, which turned off loads of normals. As thrilling as their verbal battle was, I don't think it did Bryan any favours with anyone who doesn't already own "Best of Bryan Danielson" DVDs.

The "wrestler vs sports entertainer" is definitely the feud (again), but the point is they gave bryan's side of the feud no leg to stand on, (partly because there isn't one). He's the underdog, he needs to be at least a little in the right.

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I'm with Duke.

 

Bryan's part in this narrative requires a level of humility, and something the wider audience can empathise with. Not being a complete pretentious, smug, nasty prick.

 

At least up until last week, I thought the desired response would be to have the whole world leaking at the nipples to see him win the title. Based on last night, I'm not sure they give the flimsiest toss anymore. I think they take the support of the fappers for granted, regardless of what they do, and aren't as sure Bryan can attract the casuals so they've bottled it, and are now focusing on the superfluous shit to try and hook the normals.

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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I must say (again) how much I adore Ambrose and the hyperbolic bollocks he comes out with in his promos. He seems to believe that being the US champion makes him . . . the WWE champion? And it would take "Andre the Giants ghost" to stop him. It's like when he somehow got to the conclusion that the Rock dropping the title to Cena and Cena getting ploughed through the entranceway by Ryback was all the Shields doing.

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I forgot that.

 

That Ambrose promo was amazing.

 

I always think its weird that mid-card champions don't talk themselves up to that level, they should. Not doing so smacks of following a diktat. I like that Ambrose thinks he's the man.

 

It's gutting he's on the pre-show.

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I'm with Duke.

 

Bryan's part in this narrative requires a level of humility, and something the wider audience can empathise with. Not being a complete pretentious, smug, nasty prick.

 

At least up until last week, I thought the desired response would be to have the whole world leaking at the nipples to see him win the title. Based on last night, I'm not sure they give the flimsiest toss anymore. I think they take the support of the fappers for granted, regardless of what they do, and aren't as sure Bryan can attract the casuals so they've bottled it, and are now focusing on the superfluous shit to try and hook the normals.

But, and I think this is where we differ, Cena didn't help by going all guns blazing on the subject. It's a two face feud, and Cena just explained, in his particular brand of delivery, that Bryan's a prick and he's actually the good one. It was like a burial of the entire debate

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But, I think in that situation that Bryan needed to match Cena blow-for-blow.

 

Within the context of the material, Cena had every right to defend himself. The onus was on Bryan, or in particular his given material, to a) not have set him up for such a spectacular fall ('YOU'RE ONLY INTERESTED IN MONEY', 'nah, actually, I give hope to sick kids') and b) to allow him to put across his position without trying to ridicule or belittle his opposing number.

 

Bryan's material stank.

 

People criticising Cena is like watching your mate smack someone, and then getting upset when someone punches back.

 

The only reason why Cena going guns blazing stood out is because there was no logical response, just nastiness. I think the main problem is, the writers/WWE can't create empathy for Bryan and his perspective because they fundamentally don't understand it, or empathise with it themselves.

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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I don't really get your point.

 

Bryan called him 'style over substance', a joke, a money grabber and crap at his job. He even made a joke about people not really liking him anyway. The only response to that is to point out that he's got the work ethic of a mythical beast, and his spare time makes the dreams of sick kids come true. The response is either that, or smack Bryan in his nasty, prickish mouth.

 

Any fault in that segment was a failure in material for Bryan. He was sold down the river, and looked like a bitter, jaded prick.

 

Given the parameters the material set, Cena did an A+ job. He was obviously told the story the writers wanted to tell, the narrative they wanted to establish, and he did a fucking wonderful job with his side of things.

 

The only issue is, and its not the fault of either performer, the story they were given was imbalanced and made Bryan look a bit of a tosser.

 

*edit* I'm giving D-Bry the benefit of the doubt as delivery really wasn't the issue. But if he had any creative input into his side of things, then he's a moron too.

 

Well, here's the problem. Cena is such a squeaky clean babyface, he makes Mother Theresa look like a mid-card humanitarian. So if you're trying to build a feud with him, if you try to make it "personal", you are going to sound like a knob. If you criticise his wrestling ability, he points to his 11 title reigns. Face vs face booking is hard enough without trying to feud with the reanimated remains of St Francis of Assisi imbued with the combined mat skills of every WWE champion in history.

 

Having said all that, I liked Bryan's "I'll always be a wrestler, doesn't matter where" vs Cena is WWE or nothing else. Calling him a "parody" was a poor choice of words, but the only other way I can think of - to say he's the epitome of sports entertainment, and that's not a good thing - is probably too far against the company line.

 

Neither of them came out looking like THE man. Crowing about your charity work comes across as massively sanctimonious.

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It comes across as sanctimonious without provocation. But he has every right to shove it down someone's throat if they accuse him of being 'all that's wrong with TV today', style over substance and just interested in the fame and the money. Fuck taking that shit off anybody. If I'd spent so much of my off-time doing the shit he does, I'd be fucking PISSED if someone who'd never achieved a fraction of what I'd achieved came along and accused me, in public, of being a joke, or selfish or whatever.

 

Cena didn't reel it off out of nowhere, it was the only possible response to the shit Bryan came out with first.

 

It's like name dropping, isn't it. If you say 'yeah, im better than you because I'm totally bezzie mates with Les Dennis' you sound like a prick but if someone, in front of lots of people, calls you a cunt and tries to belittle you for not knowing Les Dennis, you'd point out you played squash together. Wouldn't you?

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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