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

[DavidB6937]

And as much as we can all debate this based on history and certain facts etc, I believe the majority of us are white (from recollection of photos etc), so you could argue that our voices/opinions aren't the relevant ones anyway. It would be interesting to know how black wrestling fans felt growing up and where they looked to for their heroes. I often wondered how momentous a moment like Ron Simmons winning the title in WCW must have felt.

[Hannibal Scorch]

8 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

And as much as we can all debate this based on history and certain facts etc, I believe the majority of us are white (from recollection of photos etc), so you could argue that our voices/opinions aren't the relevant ones anyway. It would be interesting to know how black wrestling fans felt growing up and where they looked to for their heroes. I often wondered how momentous a moment like Ron Simmons winning the title in WCW must have felt.

My godson was delighted getting his first Austin Creed figure because it was a figure that represented him. The New Day was his favourite team and he would get a new New Day shirt for birthdays. Now he asks for sports t-shirts but yeah, it definitely was a positive influence for him and getting into wrestling. 

[Briefcase]

23 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

The entire industry has been inherently racist for it's entire existence and I don't know Vince anymore than the next man but I do think they've made efforts to change their approach in the past decade and a bit more. There are certainly greater opportunities for performers of colour, or maybe more accurately, fewer barriers, and they're far less likely to end up portraying some stereotype with a tiny shelf life. Not completely unlikely (eh Jinder?) but much less.

Call me cynical (or much worse) but personally I only think there's been more opportunities because WWE is more of a global brand now (more exposure/wwe network) and with that comes potential money from different markets around the world. 

Hopefully I am wrong though but this is Vince and WWE we are talking about, it's always about money first and anything else afterwards.

[Hannibal Scorch]

12 minutes ago, Briefcase said:

Call me cynical (or much worse) but personally I only think there's been more opportunities because WWE is more of a global brand now (more exposure/wwe network) and with that comes potential money from different markets around the world. 

Hopefully I am wrong though but this is Vince and WWE we are talking about, it's always about money first and anything else afterwards.

Do you mean to tell me Jinder getting a world title and Monsoor winning the rumble at the Saudi show wasn't just down to their popularity and ability within the WWE Universe?!?

 

 

[tiger_rick]

37 minutes ago, Briefcase said:

Call me cynical (or much worse) but personally I only think there's been more opportunities because WWE is more of a global brand now (more exposure/wwe network) and with that comes potential money from different markets around the world. 

Hopefully I am wrong though but this is Vince and WWE we are talking about, it's always about money first and anything else afterwards.

It's not a cynical view but it's never been any different. When minorites were being used in the WWF to portray heels or you had the popular black babyface in Mid-South, it was always with the intent of making money. While now they surely realise now that having more representation on the roster opens up more potential fanbase, inspires more people from more backgrounds to follow WWE and makes more money, the intent has always been there. It's not that different to the situation with the use of women in WWE in the past few years. The end result is right, regardless of the reasons.

[BomberPat]

it's funny, because "representation" was pretty much the Vince McMahon Sr. business model (and the Toots Mondt model before that) for running New York.

They had Antonino Rocca and Pedro Morales on top because they wanted to attract Puerto Rican fans, Bruno Sammartino because they wanted the Italians, and so on. Legend had it that Vince Sr. wanted Hogan to dye his hair red to work as an Irish babyface. There's an element of tokenism to it, but "appeal to every demographic" was part of WWE's business model before there was a WWE, or a WWF. 

[Perry]

Four new posts on the thread today, and not one of them are about the actual show from last night.  Raw must still be a cracking watch as ever.

[DavidB6937]

16 minutes ago, Perry said:

Four new posts on the thread today, and not one of them are about the actual show from last night.  Raw must still be a cracking watch as ever.

I don't think many of us hate ourselves enough to sit through 3 hours of it.

[Perry]

4 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I don't think many of us hate ourselves enough to sit through 3 hours of it.

You make it sound like the ones that usually post about it are silly enough to sit through the whole show.

[tiger_rick]

I just read a report this week. Sounded more unremarkable than last week.

[DavidB6937]

18 minutes ago, Perry said:

You make it sound like the ones that usually post about it are silly enough to sit through the whole show.

Some people I know still watch it. I'm not quite sure why. I'm pretty sure they don't enjoy it.

[tiger_rick]

5 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Some people I know still watch it. I'm not quite sure why. I'm pretty sure they don't enjoy it.

I watched it long after I stopped enjoying it. Watched religiously for a good few years past the point where I really enjoyed it. I'd say it was a combination of a couple of things. The fact being that I really wanted to enjoy it. I still do. I've adored wrestling all my life. Also not being that interested in anything else besides football. I was married with a young family, spent a lot of time at home, a lot of time on my own early in the morning or late and night and other than football, I'd rather have watched bad wrestling than most other things. Daft but true. Even when I stopped, I didn't fill my time any better.

And apologies, this circular argument justifying watching wrestling is even more tedious than any time Cornette, Meltzer or Ratings comes up.

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

I watched it long after I stopped enjoying it. Watched religiously for a good few years past the point where I really enjoyed it. I'd say it was a combination of a couple of things. The fact being that I really wanted to enjoy it. I still do. I've adored wrestling all my life. Also not being that interested in anything else besides football. I was married with a young family, spent a lot of time at home, a lot of time on my own early in the morning or late and night and other than football, I'd rather have watched bad wrestling than most other things. Daft but true. Even when I stopped, I didn't fill my time any better.

And apologies, this circular argument justifying watching wrestling is even more tedious than any time Cornette, Meltzer or Ratings comes up.

Oh I'm exactly the same. I would say until probably last year I'd never missed a RAW or SmackDown. I'd watch them religiously over the years no matter what.

With 3 kids and a wife to basically fight over the TV with, I have to be a lot pickier these days about what I watch. I imagine if I was alone or at least still commuting with some spare time I'd probably be more tempted to dip in and out of RAW at least but 3 hours is a fucking huge chunk of my spare time these days.

I know there's a lot of disagreement on the quality of SmackDown but at least I can get through that in like 90 mins or less which isn't nearly as bad.

[Supremo]

I had it on as background viewing last night. It was shit. Insipid, uninspiring nothingness. Might as well have broadcasted it straight into a bin. I don’t know if it’s a consequence of Dynamite’s ratings levelling off, or the last three week’s was the entirety of their new ideas, but they were one hundred percent back to being on autopilot here.

Shitty non-finishes, women’s matches going less than three minutes, lifeless matches between losers you’ve been conditioned to not care about, the 24/7 geeks doing the same thing they’ve done for about three years, matches being restarted after the break seemingly to just full time and almost every other storyline being about opponents trying to co-exist as a team team. The only difference between this show a month ago and now is that Big E is Champion. Nothing else.

The most note worthy thing was how obviously empty the building was. They used to be really good at hiding empty seats but their obsession with these massive, AR hologram graphics, all of which require a wide shot, means you can easily tell how few people are there. What’s the score with this? Do they have deals with these big arenas meaning they have to do TV there? Surely four thousand people packing out a much smaller building is preferable to more than three quarters of these huge buildings being tarped off, with empty seats everywhere?

Edited October 12, 2021 by Supremo

[69MeDon]

I don't watch Raw because, even if there are some good moments, the three-hour show all together would suck. Has done for a long time.

I saw this on Twitter. I know WWE makes the bulk of their money B2B but at some point having such small audiences for their main TV shows will be a problem won't it?