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


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10 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

The hints weren’t for Theory, they’re for Ciampa as shown by Candace’s hesitation compared to Johnny’s excitement 

I thought they’d all since patched things up? Interesting though, hadn’t even considered him. 

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Idle thought.

 We all laughed at how shitty the Judgment Day gimmick was at the start.  All the leather and spooky bollocks.  Only Balor was over, and even then!

 Now every member is knocking at the door if main events.  Priest is going to get a major push I think, Ripley is already their top female talent more or less, Dominik is super over as a heel.

 The project has been a huge success, and hats off to Balor for taking all three and helping them get over.

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3 minutes ago, Loki said:

Idle thought.

 We all laughed at how shitty the Judgment Day gimmick was at the start.  All the leather and spooky bollocks.  Only Balor was over, and even then!

 Now every member is knocking at the door if main events.  Priest is going to get a major push I think, Ripley is already their top female talent more or less, Dominik is super over as a heel.

 The project has been a huge success, and hats off to Balor for taking all three and helping them get over.

This is 100% true, but they’re still an absurd faction. They’ve each individually risen to the occasion and used the platform they’ve been given, but their whole act is completely incongruous with the performers forced to act the roles.

They need to shake the quasi-goth stuff and CGI hooded wallies in their entrance.

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10 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

This is 100% true, but they’re still an absurd faction. They’ve each individually risen to the occasion and used the platform they’ve been given, but their whole act is completely incongruous with the performers forced to act the roles.

They need to shake the quasi-goth stuff and CGI hooded wallies in their entrance.

I feel like they’ve gradually done this though - when it comes to their promos etc now there’s barely any spooky goth bollocks at all. It’s still in the background as an aesthetic with the purple and some of the dark clothing and the occasional nod to it. But it’s miles away from where they were before.

Two key factors for the success - Edge getting removed from the picture as a stable member (and instead being used as an opponent effectively) and HHH taking the reigns on the booking and giving them all the platform to grow. 

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Judgment Day are boss. The perfect example of how a couple of tweaks can make all the difference. Fuck Edge off. Fuck off the thrones and the hour glasses. Let everyone find their feet and gel as a unit, developing the perfect act where they can be hilarious goofballs one minute, then seen as a real main event threat the next. It’s the best thing any of them have ever done.

I’ve never seen any of his New Japan work, so maybe someone can confirm, but this is the first thing Finn has done in WWE that feels like how he was described as the leader of Bullet Club. Natural charisma, reacting in the moment, with that nWo/DX-style bantering where he’s half just trying to make everyone else corpse as much as he’s trying to play the role. There’s a proper dickhead, heel, “flow,” to everything he does these days. A joy to watch him having the time of his life out there. Genuinely feels like it took him seven years to deprogram himself of everything he “learnt,” in NXT.

Edited by Supremo
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Judgement Day fucking rule. I wouldn't lose any of the goth stuff either. Like a lot of stuff that was thrown at the wall, it just took an age to actually stick but eventually did because we want stuff to stick.

Lack of character and identity are absolute killers. For all the stick fans get for being negative about things, I think there's an optimistic reading that most gimmicks will get over if they're allowed to just stew for long enough and if the talent in them are good enough to pull it off because unless something's complete crap, fondness and a sort of in-joke of what the gimmick actually is will eventually grow. We want stuff to be good. 

And yeah, Edge being out of it, of course. 

Edited by Gay as FOOK
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The Judgement Day, MMM and a couple of other stuff that just shouldn't work, but do, are the reason I'm willing to see how things go with the likes of Chelsea Green and Mustafa Ali's gimmick as wacky seems to mean fun at the moment. 

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I don’t want to put Finn down but Rhea is the one who put the others on her back and lifted them to greatness for me, not Finn.

I don’t see them as having a leader really either, they fluctuate.

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👍 KO-Sami/Judgement Day business - Thumbs up for the lot of this, from Sami's passionate opening promo to the main event. The Sami/KO dynamic of gradually getting annoyed with one another isn't for everyone, but I think a lot of siblings will actually relate to it more, and it feels more organic as opposed to suddenly being all over each other again like a bad rash after everything they've been through. Balor/Priest were bang up for a scrap in the main event and it's exactly what we got. On a show that I thought really lacked in terms of the in-ring product, this still delivered. Will come to Heyman, Imperium and co in due course but everyone shined in these interactions. Jolly good stuff. 

👍 Codylicious - Another top promo from the top babyface in the company. Perfectly executed and classic Cody really - a random story about an old analogy, then verbally going to town on Lesnar. He looked like a fucking badass, galling Lesnar for breaking his face and letting him know in no uncertain terms that he was 'in the way'. Love that line. Proper big-fight main event energy. Now, before we get into the inevitable calls that he should have won at Wrestlemania  39- which I do support by the way - I still believe that he's going to dethrone Roman down the line. And I think it will actually be at Wrestlemania 40. They'll bill that as the big anniversary edition and the 'biggest Wrestlemania ever' etc - and what a stage for Cody to finally take his rightful place at the top of the wrestling industry. These next few months shouldn't be about mourning what didn't happen at Wrestlemania 39 - it should be about celebrating what a brilliant run this is going to be as he finally reaches his destiny...of course if he does now lose to Roman at Wrestlemania 40 I'll absolutely never watch WWE again. Well, at least until the following evening. 

👍 Seth vignettes - Well presented. He's getting the World strap isn't he. And more power to him - he's been fantastic since transitioning into this version of his character.

👍 Battle Royale - I groaned a bit when I first saw this announced on the show, thinking it was just going to be a gaggle of fuckwits going through the motions and it seemed like a lazy device to give Gunther a new challenger. However, several performers got a chance to showcase elements of their character or their best attributes, including the likes of Bronson Reed for example, and it actually turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable. I don't even mind the result - Ali vs Gunther in Saudi will be a fun watch. Also, I liked the pyro at the end - it makes the IC title seem like a big deal, which thanks to Gunther, now is a big deal once again. 

👍 Imperium - A word on Gunther and his band of merry men. Excellent presentation for this 're-debut' if you can call it that. Gunther's sense of self-importance and regality is palpable, standing atop the announce table like he owns the place, watching over the mere mortals fighting to challenge him like he's Julius Caesar observing people battling for his approval in a colosseum. The way he prowls backstage with an arrogant scowl with his mates in tow. This guy is going to win the World title at some point in the not too distant future and it's going to be a glorious reign when he does. This might seem like a wild analogy, but if they continue building him up like this, they genuinely could have a modern equivalent of Undertaker on their hands. He has all the tools to be a leadership figure in the lockeroom - beating him or even rubbing shoulders with him in the years to come should be an honour for his future co-workers to aspire to. Again, wild analogy but if they keep building him like this they're on to an absolute winner. 

👍 Becky Lynch - Nowt wrong with this promo. Fiery and built to the showdown with Trish nicely. 

👍 I know people moan about the brand split, but Paul Heyman having a visitors pass on his phone is top patter. 

👎 Nakamura/Miz - Not a scintillating opener I'm afraid and it set the tone for a show were we seriously lacked energy and urgency in most of the matches on offer. This was like any random throwaway early 2000's Raw match or some sort of Heat main event. Bland. 

👎 Dom/Woods - Similar to the above, a bland affair and I think the finish was also clumsy (Rhea didn't grab Dom's hand during the rollup - might just have been a miscommunication). Dom's a heat magnet on the mic, but sometimes in singles outings against opponents other than his daddio, it doesn't quite get the audiences' juices flowing enough to make them really want to see him get twatted. It's not as prevalent a feeling in tag matches, but despite Dom's character success, still some work to do for me before we can seriously start considering him to be a standalone singles star. 

👎 Veer comes again and brings his mates - Crap, meaningless squash here from Jinder's pals. I thought Veer's singles run last year - despite the puzzling delay around his arrival - wasn't actually too bad and if they stuck with it then maybe they'd have been on to something. The execution around this trio wasn't hitting the mark on NXT and it's not going to hit here unless we see something totally unique and different. 

👎 RR/Green/Rousey and Bazler cameo - Another pointless squash that does nothing for anyone. With Morgan injured, it would have been better to just not feature any of them, or have RR go over somebody else in a more competitive affair. The Rousey/Baszler cameo was fine. 

Overall - Only two matches worth watching this week with the rest being totally skippable. However, every segment to advance an angle worked pretty well and there were still a couple of bangers. This week's probably one to watch through YouTube highlights rather than seeking out the full episode. 

Edited by Fatty Facesitter
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So Trish stuck around after Mania for some of that Saudi money.....

 

Gunther will beat Honkey Tonk Man's record won't he? I'm sure I read somewhere if he keeps it till September he's done it. This new 'World Heavyweight' Championship looks like its destined to be on Gunther in the very near future, next year Mania after he loses the IC at Rumble? I can see him dominating the Elimination Chamber to earn his shot.

Enjoyable RAW again, Meltzer predicted we would be in for a good few weeks of TV across WWE and AEW with them against the NBA Play Offs and so far its been a fantastic little period.

I'm looking forward to the AJ Styles video packages, I wonder if they will get some TNA Footage?

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Brilliant promo again from Cody Rhodes and a much different angle to most promos against Lesnar. I had a thought though that I wonder if they'll write Rhodes off TV for a couple of months at some point later on this year because he's still flying at such a high level now that sustaining that until Wrestlemania will be so difficult. Maybe Orton will come back, batter him, and then Rhodes can come back and be busy with that until around Rumble time. I don't know.

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Agree with all, it was an EXCELLENT babyface promo.  He even managed to say both sports entertainment AND rasslin' in the same promo.

Are we sure Orton is coming back?  I mean, I won't be surprised that he does, but it sounds like his back is fairly knackered now and he's not got much left to prove, or essential feuds to do.  You can almost see him and Cena slipping off quietly into retirement... or having one final one-on-one double retirement at WM.

 

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17 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Brilliant promo again from Cody Rhodes and a much different angle to most promos against Lesnar. I had a thought though that I wonder if they'll write Rhodes off TV for a couple of months at some point later on this year because he's still flying at such a high level now that sustaining that until Wrestlemania will be so difficult. Maybe Orton will come back, batter him, and then Rhodes can come back and be busy with that until around Rumble time. I don't know.

I've had similar thoughts, I think a 'WWE Studios' film is incoming....

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