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

[Perry]

I know Goldberg was obviously their 2nd choice as an opponent for Lashley, but it's a bit pointless considering he lost clean to Drew at the Rumble when we last saw him.  Bill has no business being in the title picture, but as others have said, Raw is a fucking shambles anyway.

As far as the piped in noise goes, surely this goes against a show that's being broadcast live.  What's wrong about having a genuine reaction from the crowd? 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Raw used to be such a good show, fresh matches every week and must see. Now it’s just a boring repetitive nonsense, why are Nikki and Charlotte having a rematch when they could be using the time to bring an enhancement in to boost Nikki as champion

Why have they still not put Scarlet with Kross? Why have him lose 2 out of his 3 matches when he’s got a big title defence coming up?

Why are they having Alexa still do the creepy doll stuff (especially with Wyatt now gone) and being weighed down with Eva

Why can’t USA just bite the bullet and cancel the third hour for them, even they must be getting fed up with the ratings

[DavidB6937]

The worst thing about RAW is that you can miss it in between PPVs. There's absolutely no reason why you need to tune in every week at all.

[tiger_rick]

I get that the PPVs are probably better if you don't subject yourself to their TV every week. However, I've said this before - I'm only interested in matches because of the build, the anticipation and being invested in the outcome. Fair play to anyone who can watch a PPV and be happy with some 3* and 4* (re)matches that don't matter, genuinely good for you. I think those people are such a minority though, which is why they can't do PPV anymore and they don't tell us how many people watch their shows. You'll get the occasional hit off the marquee alone but month in and month out, people won't watch because they just don't care enough. That's a massive issue that they don't appear to be even trying to resolve.

[Statto]

The repetitive rematches in the title pictures are now so deeply entrenched they've given it a name - "Contender's Match", which a far as I can tell seems to mean it's a rematch of when the non-champ beat the champ in a non-title match last week (which in all likelihood was a rematch of the champ beating them the week before) in order to set up a rematch for the title next week.

[WyattSheepMask]

Goldberg’s kid grew up a lot in, wait, 4 years?

[Briefcase]

This might sound a bit daft but one of the few things that occasionally draw me to Raw is knowing the shows are live and that anything can happen and the reactions that come with it, so when I do watch live even if the product is shit there might be a magic moment which is made by the fans.

Piping the crowd noise in really goes against that and I'm not even sure I'll bother anymore until they sort it out. We all saw how having no fans diluted things, this feels the same to me. 

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, Statto said:

The repetitive rematches in the title pictures are now so deeply entrenched they've given it a name - "Contender's Match", which a far as I can tell seems to mean it's a rematch of when the non-champ beat the champ in a non-title match last week (which in all likelihood was a rematch of the champ beating them the week before) in order to set up a rematch for the title next week.

I think it's just the name for the non-title match. They've realised that they are so reliant on having a non-title match to beat the champion and set up a title match, they've given it a name to stop the ridicule.

This Brock Lesnar quote was doing the rounds, I don't know if it affected this decision:

[METAL ON METAL]

10 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

The fake sound they added to "enhance" Drew's entrance still had Michael Cole's commentary in it. This fucking company. Not only desperate control freaks but incompetent ones.

 

Someone on Reddit has figured out that the Cole audio was actually from a Reigns/Cena Summerslam ad that was played during the previous ad break on Raw. Seems it was legit just a production fuck up.

[Lenin]

6 hours ago, Statto said:

The repetitive rematches in the title pictures are now so deeply entrenched they've given it a name - "Contender's Match", which a far as I can tell seems to mean it's a rematch of when the non-champ beat the champ in a non-title match last week (which in all likelihood was a rematch of the champ beating them the week before) in order to set up a rematch for the title next week.

This. I cannot understand why the champion should lose in the run up to the PPV. The champion should lose the belt when they are beaten in a title match. Otherwise part of the illusion is ruined. 

One thing AEW does brilliantly and that I loved in the late 80s/early 90s WWE is the clearly established levels - you know who is heavyweight title material, who is mid card title level and such and the feuds were always built (or mostly built) on earning the spot. 

 

[Doog]

Where an earth has Randy Orton gone? If I didn't know better I'd be expecting him to be released now, his dissaperance is following the same pattern of a lot of the others being released, it's really odd.

I mean Riddle still mentions him now and again and all signs seem to point towards RKBro against Styles and Omos at SummerSlam but it's been what, 6 weeks since he was last on the show now? No explanation or anything, it's bizzare.

None of the dirtsheets seem to have said anything either, aside from him being on the inactive list, you'd think his reasons for being out would have been leaked by now. So weird.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Doog

[Supremo]

8 hours ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

The sound doctoring is infuriating. I watched the first five minutes of the show and tuned out. Just long enough to hear a completely fake undercurrent of boos during MVPs promo, doctored audio for reactions, some real chants trying to break through, just a mess. You can't watch this for a second without being slapped in the face that it's completely inauthentic.

100% this. I can’t handle it. Like a weird uncanny valley of audio. It’s torturous.

They’ve finally defeated me with this sound mixing. I could put up with the strobing camera cuts. I could put up with the replicant dialogue. I could put up with everyone standing around backstage in 2D like Paper Mario. I could put up with the commentators sounding like prisoners of war. I could put up with the endless rematches. I could put up with the one-note characters doing the same thing forever. I could put up with Charlotte. But this audio mixing is too much. It’s psychically impossible to sit through.

You’d hope this is one of those kicks that doesn’t last, like the purple ropes for cruiserwight matches or the no-wrestling-during-ad-breaks thing, but if it becomes permanent? They’ve finally overproduced their shows to the point of no return.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Supremo

[Jazzy G]

I can understand a champion getting pinned in a tag match in order to set up a new challenger sometimes, but to then have him win the match when it's one on one.

8 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Why have they still not put Scarlet with Kross? Why have him lose 2 out of his 3 matches when he’s got a big title defence coming up?

I hear a theory where Kross is going to be on a losing streak until Scarlet comes in and he starts winning.

[DCW]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

100% this. I can’t handle it. Like a weird uncanny valley of audio. It’s torturous.

They’ve finally defeated me with this sound mixing. I could put up with the strobing camera cuts. I could put up with the replicant dialogue. I could put up with everyone standing around backstage in 2D like Paper Mario. I could put up with the commentators sounding like prisoners of war. I could put up with the endless rematches. I could put up with the one-note characters doing the same thing forever. I could put up with Charlotte. But this audio mixing is too much. It’s psychically impossible to sit through.

You’d hope this is one of those kicks that doesn’t last, like the purple ropes for cruiserwight matches or the no-wrestling-during-ad-breaks thing, but if it becomes permanent? They’ve finally overproduced their shows to the point of no return.

I've not watched Raw in years, but is this the same bad obviously piped in crowd noise that would be used on the recorded Smackdown episodes of years ago? madness they're doing it during live episodes now, especially when crowds are actually enthusiastic to be able to attend in person again.

Only WWE could ruin having actual fans regularly back in the arena for the first time in a year. I bet mad Vince & Kevin Dunn preferred the Thunderdome!

[Lenin]

5 hours ago, Doog said:

Where an earth has Randy Orton gone?

I know it's frowned upon to speculate about the subject but I still say it's a wellness violation. I have absolutely nothing of substance to base it on other than this week was 30 days and with Orton they do usually just go radio silent until after the fact. 

Again, the lack of a logical explanation for one of their biggest stars disappearing and multiple storylines being interrupted erodes the product still further.

There is zero consideration or respect for the audience/fans to the point they clearly don't give a sh*t what they put out on television. 

On a side note... Do you think some of the wrestlers-turned-road agents suffer from the same affliction as top football players? In as much as you can be an incredible footballer but a shocking manager? HBK is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time (in my opinion) but a lot of the matches that the newz sites credit him with putting together have been terrible.