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

[Supremo]

Braun peaked when he turned into a cartoon character during the Summer of, “I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!” Constantly killing Roman in sillier and funnier stunts. If they can tap into that again then he’s definitely got potential beyond the meta punchline of him abandoning Austin Aries and EC3 to control their own narrative.

Worst case scenario, just bring back the CHOO CHOO sound effects.

Anyway, best thing on this whole show was the ghost of Paul London.

 

Edited May 1, 2024 by Supremo

[air_raid]

11 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Braun is a bit shit though isn’t he? 

[Arch Stanton]

Braun is shit. There's no getting past the fact that no matter what he does, he will always look like Joe Wilkinson on Titan Serum.

[Merzbow]

The best moment of his career..

[FLips]

I thought Braun was great when he was feuding with Roman but just like Ryback before him, once they stopped pushing him and he wasn’t doing squashes and main event brawls he was exposed as pretty useless. You can’t just have a guy his size be a regular roster spot or you go from Kane to Albert really fast.

[The Dart]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

He is shit.   I don't care about anything he's done or is going to do and don't want him anywhere near the main event.   The fact that he was once champion is nearly as bad as Jinder Mahal once being champion.

The only time he was mildly interesting was when he first broke away from The Wyatt Family and was doing the squash matches against the likes of James Ellsworth.

[Devon Malcolm]

I don't think he's shit but he has variously come across as such when booked badly. The Reigns feud and that fatal four-way when he chucked a chair at his head was great. The tag team with Ricochet was a good laugh.

[LaGoosh]

Braun is huge, has goofy over the top charisma , looks like a mental cartoon character and his offense is convincingly brutal. A wrestler like that has value and should be booked to their strengths. If WWE of all places can't get something decent out of someone like him then the fault lies with them.

Yes he's not great by the traditional metrics you'd measure a wrestler against but there's loads of great wrestlers. There's very few people like Braun Strowman around these days. You could basically re-do the Braun/Roman feud with Cody and it'd get over big time.

Edited May 1, 2024 by LaGoosh

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

The thing with Braun is rather the vibe I always get from him is that he would sooner be somewhere else doing literally anything other than be involved in wrestling. I don't think he wants to be there, but he can't earn that sort of money anywhere else. I don't think he is shit, I think he just doesn't care. If he cared as much as the people who care too much like Danielson or Angle he would be phenomenal. 

[Arch Stanton]

He's so tough to book as a babyface on a roster where all the heels are so much smaller than him, but I agree with @LaGoosh there, I think it would have been great to see him return as a monster heel to go straight after Cody's title. That old school, monster-of-the-month style booking for the babyface champion would have worked great.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Nothing wrong with Braun. Even recently he had a fun big man little man team with Ricochet (best thing Ricochet ever did) and that awesome host battle with Otis.

Liv Morgan? Now that's what I call shit.

[SwayWays]

Yeah I don't get the Liv love. Her t-shirt says cry about it, like telling all her haters where to go, when crying is the only thing I've consistently seen from her. 

[Donald J Trump]

The dynamic with Reigns was perfect. A monsterous, cartoon heel relentlessly tormenting the golden boy in an ambulance. At the time I'd have been happy to watch an hour of that a week. 

I nearly cringed myself inside out during that Becky Lynch promo. Maybe television didn't fully pick up what actually happened, but it seemed like she was reacting to crowd noise that hadn't actually happened. She then stood like a goof until a handful of people put her out her misery with a feeble "You deserve it" chant. I seen someone on social media claiming the "chant" was proof that her standing among the audience was still as strong as ever. I wanted to poke my own eyes out after that segment. 

I had hoped that the insufferable cunt ishowspeeds appearance at Wrestlemania was a one time deal. I did like though that everyone from the commentators to Logan Paul himself switched to acting like he wasn't there whenever anything more interesting was happening. 

McIntyre continues to be the best thing on the show and I think he's now one of the few genuine stars they've got at the minute. Levels above the likes of Jey Uso not only in terms of ability but in his presence and charisma. I hope he took them to the cleaners with that new deal. 

 

 

[Supremo]

It’s a funny old business. It was only a few weeks ago that AEW felt like the desperate, petty losers, unable to let go of Brawl In. Pathetic rah rah speeches from
Adam Copeland and - what at the time felt like the dumbest idea ever - airing the footage.

However, fast forward a few weeks and AEW have managed to spin a pretty great angle out of it with The Elite, using it to bring Jack Perry back with a new character, who’s thus far really impressed in the role. His promos have improved massively. He’s a great little shit.

By contrast, CM Punk is still trying to make references to the fight on WWE TV and is still getting zero reaction every single time. “I’m a different type of choke artist, right Pat? Pat? Get it? Right?” Crickets. Tragic. Terrible line that underpinned a pretty crap promo. Are we ready to admit yet that for as good as Drew vs. Punk has been, it’s been Drew that’s mostly carried it?

Punk mentioning Glasgow off mic suggests that’s where they’re going to eventually do the match. Makes sense, but I’m still hoping Punk is announced for King & Queen of the Ring. Punk sucking a hypocritical blood money covered dick in Saudi will be the greatest night in the history of our great sport.

North America fans too stupid to even turn their phone torches on for Jey Uso‘s entrance? As rubbish as it was predictable. Looked crap when WWE turned the lights off in the hope everyone had got the memo. Obviously not. Clearly taking no inspiration from the French fans, we were straight back to shit reactions and “WHAT,” chants. Campaign starts now to just move all pro-wrestling out of North America. They don’t deserve it.

Gunther and Sheamus was great, but between the ad breaks and seemingly being rushed off the air, it felt like they didn’t get anywhere close to what this could have been. They continue to have amazing chemistry. Sheamus’ milk white skin was built for the marks Gunther’s chops leave. Still think this should have been on Backlash. Imagine the response!

Genuinely impressive how quickly Sheamus has shifted a lot of that excess weight. In a matter of weeks he’s gotten himself into solid shape again. Man must be living in the gym.

Even more impressive was Dirty Dom’s moustache on this show. Glorious.

Bit of a shit show to advertise Kofi vs. Rey, only to switch it to a house show match. Similarly, it was daft the way Finn had to pretend he didn’t know Jey Uso had replaced Drew, despite it already being announced on Twitter. Hunter obviously too busy burying websites to get all his ducks in a row.

Fantastic match between Ricochet and Ilja Dragunov. If Dragunov’s body holds up then he’s going to become a huge star via brute force alone. I haven’t watched much NXT in years, so it was like seeing him with fresh eyes. That maniac is something special. Fucking Superplex on Ricochet where he spikes his own head! Mental! His running, diving, FUCK OFF elbow to the face is also my new favourite finisher. Star-making performance. Something to go out of your way to see.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Supremo

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

 

Fantastic match between Ricochet and Ilja Dragunov. If Dragunov’s body holds up then he’s going to become a huge star via brute force alone. I haven’t watched much NXT in years, so it was like seeing him with fresh eyes. That maniac is something special. Fucking Superplex on Ricochet where he spikes his own head! Mental! His running, diving, FUCK OFF elbow to the face is also my new favourite finisher. Star-making performance. Something to go out of your way to see.

We're gonna get Dragunov and Walter in the RAW semi and I cannot wait.