The Official UKFF RAW Thread...

[Metallica]

AJ Styles was bad during his promo on Jericho. 

 

Why would he do the "AJ Styles" chant with the same tone as Jericho says it? It sounded like he was mocking himself and the lack of speed and enthusiasm to it just killed any chance of the fans joining in on it. 

 

Pretty poor when you can't get the Philly crowd to chant your name when you're leading the chant and Jericho is doing his best tantrum about it...

 

Really weird how so many matches at Mania don't have a proper heel/face dynamic.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Metallica

[Mr_Danger]

Yeah he sucked the life out of that one. He need only give a spoken lead in then paused and the crowd would have started it anyway.

[Clinton Morrison]

To be fair, that Philly crowd was a massive let down all night.

[Onyx2]

Apron powerbombs of enough discomfort to cause a couple of weeks layoff are in the near future of Ryder and Sin Cara, surely? Maybe Stardust too.

 

Or maybe the go the whole hog and have Owens "end their careers" with them.

Ryder tweeted last week that his TitanTron hadn't been updated in five years. I wonder if this moaning has been answered with "right, apron bomb for you!"

[LaGoosh]

To be fair, that Philly crowd was a massive let down all night.

Most the so called "smark" crowds are shit because they only come to the shows to be smart arses. They don't make any effort to get into the actual show or matches like normal fans.

[The Gaffer]

Bollocks. They're generally much more active in the show. They just take a relatively dissident stance on certain angles and characters you're inflating massively in your head.

[d-d-d-dAz]

To be honest, I've thought that recently the usually rabid 'smart' crowds have been quite tepid.

 

I've put it down to the people that get them most in a tizz (Cena, Punk, Bryan) all having fucked off. What is weird, though, is how ambivalent they seem towards Ambrose and Styles..

Edited March 23, 2016 by d-d-d-dAz

[harlow2]

This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw garnered an average viewing audience of 3,399,667 viewers on the USA Network. That’s down an average of (-58,000 viewers) from the week prior. Below is how the show did each hour: Hour one – 3,466,000 viewers Hour two – 3,416,000 viewers Hour three – 3,317,000 viewers Average

[Yakashi]

To be honest, I've thought that recently the usually rabid 'smart' crowds have been quite tepid.

I've put it down to the people that get them most in a tizz (Cena, Punk, Bryan) all having fucked off. What is weird, though, is how ambivalent they seem towards Ambrose and Styles..

I'm hoping they've finally realised they've been beaten and that they don't matter to the company. They encompass the term 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results'. Although this perfectly describes the company recently, those fans are just as guilty of it. They will cry and moan online, boo the stars and cheer the heels and midcarders In some sort of protest, while they sit there in there £80 seats wearing their WWE branded merchandise before going home to watch the network. Just stop watching. The ratings seem to have hit a steady low and the audience is probably a large percentage of these type of fans vs years past. If they stopped watching, maybe something would change. But they won't. They'll just keep spending money.

 

Vince no doubt feels vindicated that business under Daniel Bryan couldn't come close to Cena levels. In his mind, he gave those fans what they wanted and business went down. They didn't support their guy. All those yes chants and booing Batista did nothing but cause business to decline. There's no reason for him to listen to those fans anymore. Styles will never make it anyway, but Ambrose probably will next year. Nothing will change though. The wrestlers themselves aren't really the problem.

[HarmonicGenerator]

To be honest, I've thought that recently the usually rabid 'smart' crowds have been quite tepid.

 

I've put it down to the people that get them most in a tizz (Cena, Punk, Bryan) all having fucked off. What is weird, though, is how ambivalent they seem towards Ambrose and Styles..

This could be down to what I will term the Neckbeard Paradox. You have an Internet favourite... Who's not being seen to be 'buried'. You can't boo em because they're in your Darlings, but if you cheer them too much you're doing what WWE wants. If Ambrose was doing bugger all in the midcard and losing most weeks or AJ had been the subject of 'backstage reports' that someone didn't like him, they'd have gone nuts for them. But since they're doing well, old Smarky doesn't know how to react - paradox! Edited March 23, 2016 by HarmonicGenerator

[Ambulance Chaser]

Rating dropped to a 2.44, decline from last week, due to the third hour drop off. They really are just pissing away the last hour these days aren't they, it's almost like a rib or a game now, let's see what the worst main event we can put on that still attracts more than 3 million viewers. They managed it this week, next week I'm expecting something like Ryder vs Stardust.

 

This is the weakest build I can ever recall for a Mania, it's pathetic. Fucking Lockbox.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Ambulance Chaser

[Maverick]

Last years build was far worse. This year they are actually putting effort into establishing feuds and angles even if they are getting so so results.

[Slapnuts]

This year they are actually putting effort into establishing feuds and angles even if they are getting so so results.

 

I would've agreed with you here, up until they booked the IC ladder multi-man match! A fued over the IC with KO vs Zayn would've felt like a much bigger deal in my eyes.

As soon as Dolph interrupted Owens I let out the biggest sigh ever, and I don't mind Dolph at all. I just wanted a grudge match over the IC title is all.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Slapnuts

[Pinc]

This is the weakest build I can ever recall for a Mania, it's pathetic. Fucking Lockbox.

 

Behave. Ambrose and Reigns have been much better elevated this year than last, and Shane/Vince/Taker is an actual storyline, which we didn't have any of last year except for that one segment where Sting stood still while Triple H walked round him in a circle talking about DVDs.

[boytoy]

Vince no doubt feels vindicated that business under Daniel Bryan couldn't come close to Cena levels. In his mind, he gave those fans what they wanted and business went down. They didn't support their guy. All those yes chants and booing Batista did nothing but cause business to decline.

 

Bryan won the title, was booked in a short feud against Kane that nobody wanted to see, then got injured and was on the shelf for the rest of the year. Nothing to do with smart fans not supporting their guy. He was massively over going into WM30 and met all expectations to be fair. Whilst I don't think Bryan would have popped Raw back up to 5.0+ ratings again it is impossible to say if ratings would have declined as much over the past two years if things had been different. Also, interest in wrestling has been steadily declining ever since Cena became the top guy and while I think that is mostly coincidental and Cena can be a draw, his strength has always been his reliability rather than huge star power.