The Official UKFF RAW thread (part 2)...

[The Cutting Edge]

Ciampa has said with his neck he'd manage a year or so on main roster travel but if he's got a lighter schedule in nxt doing a match or promo a week he'd have maybe 3+ years.

As said he's a solid hand that nxt can use for a long time.

But I agree since he's spare in nxt for the moment, a short run on raw while in the pc could be good for him and bring eyes to nxt when he goes back 

[Chris B]

36 minutes ago, Pinc said:

Hang about - does he openly say he doesn't ever want to be called up to the top shows? That seems absolutely barmy. Barmy that he'd say it, and barmy that they'd push him as one of the top NXT guys for years if they know that's his ceiling.

It's kind of weird that he would say that just as they stopped calling people up and started trying to build it as a third brand.

[WeeAl]

Well, it was certainly something a bit different. I guess it did it's job in getting me to bother watching an episode of Raw for the first time in months. (YouTube clips sporadically, The Observer radio show and the PPV's have been all I have been keeping an eye on). 

I didn't even twig that the faction was those eijits running around outside setting fire to boxes. I just thought it was them giving a name to MVP, Lashley and Benjamin, who legitimately look really good as a unit. 

I don't think the show was actually any good, but I'm not going to shit on new ideas just yet, I'm glad WWE are trying something to try and capture some interest. 

What's always going to hurt WWE, no matter what ideas, characters or talent they have, is how ridiculously overproduced it is and that nothing feels organic, nor do many people on the show talk or behave like a real human being. The exceptions I would make to that, from watching this show the folks who seem to be able to make the most of the nonsense they are scripted to say, are Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens. Joe is tidy on commentary, Orton is heading for the belt, and hopefully they can keep Kevin Owens around and strong over the next while. Hopefully the Hurt Business works out and there will be a nucleus of something worth watching there on Raw. 

[rollthedice]

I believe we have seen the genesis of De-generator-X

[Vamp]

If they really want to save RAW they should bring back The Muppets. 

[JNLister]

Think this was meant to be a DM to Kevin Dunn:

 

[sukhy]

The camera cuts are incredibly jarring. I saw a clip on twitter of Shayna Baszler in that Raw Underground arena, it last about 90 seconds, and I counted 49 camera cuts.

I don't understand how people are still tuning in, it's genuinely unwatchable.

The clip with Dominic Mysterio and Seth, the nearest thing we could compare that to is the Cody/MJF lashing a few months ago, and it's night and day, and it's so much more interesting to watch. 

[DavidB6937]

I thought I'd give Raw a go after enjoying Smackdown for a few weeks.

On the whole, the content itself isn't terrible. They have some decent matches. Samoa Joe is fantastic in his role. All of the feuds are working pretty well. Even the Underground stuff gave some different people a time to shine which was nice. Orton is at the top of his game still and I'm really looking forward to him and Drew at Summerslam.

But yeah, they really need to work on how they're presenting this stuff. It's just too much. They need to strip back and let the action do the talking.

[BomberPat]

A camera should represent someone's point-of-view, and with that many cuts it completely fails to do so. I'm sure there's whole Film Studies assignments on how different shots and cuts play on different emotions, but by cutting away that often, and that quickly, all it's doing is ensuring that your brain never really registers the image, and actively discouraging you from engaging with emotionally. Especially for something like this which was obviously supposed to be uncomfortable viewing, that should be one long, drawn out shot, lingering just too long on something you'd rather look away from. I honestly think it's the worst bit of TV directing I've ever seen - I've seen worse editing, I've seen jumpier cuts, and cuts that miss important moments, but I've never seen something this awful by design.

Edited August 11, 2020 by BomberPat

[DavidB6937]

I can't even imagine how exhausting it must be working in that editing room. CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT CUT GO GO GO CAMERA 1 2 3 4 3 2 3 2 3 1 1 1 2 3 CUT CUT CUT CUT GO.

Either that or they just have it on some weird arse robotic timer which wouldn't surprise me at all. At least they'd then have an excuse for how utterly illogical their editing decisions are.

[Michael_3165]

I tried to watch the product a while back but those edits are mind boggling. Less is more! I need time to take in what's happening, I liked it in the 80s where they had like 3 cameras and stuck to one shot for what now feels like hours. 

[Astro Hollywood]

I watched about 20 seconds of a clip on Twitter earlier, and that's the most my brain can cope with. The most amazing thing is how amatuerish it is, for a company that's been putting out TV for decades. I don't know if that's the result of moving from a faux-sports production into the mindset of "we make movies" and not even taking a passing glance at how other movies or scripted shows work, let alone retraining or hiring people who have experience, or from just being dumb as shit. Has Kevin Dunn ever seen another TV show?

The fundamental rule in fight scenes is not to 'break the line', meaning don't suddenly have the actors switch sides. It's massively disorientates the audience to see a punch coming in from the left, and then the same punch landing on the left, because you've cut across the axis. Every clip I've seen of modern WWE does this relentlessly.

If Raw was a no-budget movie on SyFy, everyone would be fired for the footage looking like this, but it's WWE and they know best, so anyone caught confirming to the rules of visual storytelling probably ends up in Wrestler's Court having to suck someone's dick for breaking ettiquette.

[LaGoosh]

I feel like the WWE production team are big fans of Michael Bay. He loves lots of rapid cuts and movements because he thinks it looks "dynamic", but in reality you really can't see anything long enough for the brain to process and it takes away any connection. WWE does the exact same thing, you can just imagine Dunn in the production truck shouting "faster! More dynamic!". 

When in reality wrestling needs to look somewhere inbetween a real sporting event and a Jackie Chan movie.

[Hannibal Scorch]

Why did no one come to save Dom in the opening segment? Why did no one come and save Flair? Why did Drew run down about 5 minutes too late? Why are Lana and Natty dressing the same?

I actually thought the opening segment was well done, just found it odd that no-one came out for the save. Woman's match was pretty good. The underground stuff is fine in small doses and it made Shayna look legit again. But found Orton turning on Flair so predictable, and also Retribution. or as I have seen them referred to, Aces and 5ft 8's, look shit again. Them kicking a car was nothing compared to Santana and Ortiz trashing Sue's car.

[Mr Kennedy]

*spoilers*