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

[TheScarlettChad]

I can see him winning the WHC at some point, He's got a great look. Very marketable.

[I Bent My Wookie]

1 hour ago, Callum1993 said:

It’ll be the return of Juan Cena! The first stop on the retirement tour. 

I actually want this more

 

[air_raid]

I see in his first WWE match Penta (a) absorbed a German suplex on the apron despite that he was going to win, (b) did a Canadian Destroyer that wasn’t the finish, (c) did a real cool spot to injure Gables arm, right before the finish which wasn’t submission on the arm.

You can take the wrestler out of the indies, but you can’t take “Indy” out of the wrestler.

[DavidB6937]

A show that definitely felt back on track and far less an advert for Netflix. Penta was Penta and had a good aura about him and made kids cry but oddly in a nice way instead. Didn't see that coming.

Tired now though. I'm too old to watch shit live but seeing as my son was refusing to sleep. I didn't know he was so excited about Penta.

[d-d-d-dAz]

There was something really endearing about the "I love you guys" at the end of his promo. It was very tinpot in a way, but also really authentic and genuine.

Usually when wrestlers address the crowd in that way it's The Rock or Cena being a bit earnest and overly wordy with it, or it's someone having to retire or drop a title because of injury so it's a bit of a downer. This was just an excited wrestler on his debut just saying thank you.

I don't know why, unlike some of Air Raid's points about Penta bringing his very un-WWE style with him, this felt indy in the best possible way.

Edited January 14, 2025 by d-d-d-dAz

[DavidB6937]

It was easy to think they might fuck him up because they can be pretty lazy with their lucha guys booking. But after that I think Penta just has a different aura to most of them. Theres definitely something special about him and I can see people being way more into him than a lot of the others they've signed over the years.

[JLM]

Yeah it was a lovely sincere promo from him. Attempting and slightly fumbling some of the English was totally endearing too. I’ll take that over “PENTA SAYS!” any day.

Also lovely that he had family members in tears at ringside, and to see him debut in San Jose where he already had plenty of fans. Was cool spotting all the different mask variations and hearing the reception for him.

It really is his dream to be in WWE and that came through above everything else. I love this old video of him and Fenix turning into star struck little kids meeting Steve Austin. They’re both clearly big WWE fans: 

He looked great, his manic energy and charisma came across well. I hope he still goes with many different outfits in many different colours. He has had many of my favourite wrestler looks ever over the years and I didn’t love this one as much as some of those. Still looked cool as fuck though, he always does. 
 

He did do a bunch of his signature moves with no rhyme or reason to them as is his wont, though for his debut with the promotion I don’t mind that at all. If he does end up feuding with a Rey or other experienced heads it’ll be interesting to see if his PPV matches rein that in a a bit. For a RAW undercard match on these three hour shows I think just doing some moves to pop the crowd isn’t necessarily a bad formula to go with. The theme song is shit but other than that I was happy. 

Edited January 14, 2025 by JLM

[METAL ON METAL]

Raw was definitely back on track this week after the stockholder suckfest that was last week. Good matches, more big names announced for the Rumble and a cracking debut.

The whole show pretty much flew by for me, nothing was a slog. It came in at around 2 hours 30 mins. I hope this is an indication of what it’ll be like going forward with Netflix, no set time slot and flexible week to week with no need for filler - watching live it helped defeat the usual “there’s two minutes until the show ends, they’ll be wrapping up now” anticlimax of main events.

Speaking of the main event, hopefully that’s Damien Priest done completely with Judgement Day, time for something fresh for him. A move to Smackdown might help him, give me a Priest/Jacob Fatu best of 1000 feud please.

 

Probably as good a debut as possible for Penta, against the perfect opponent - impossible to have a bad match with Gable. Makes sense why they bumped his debut to this week too, San Jose has a massive Hispanic community and they were absolutely loving it. Lovely to see a ‘lucha’ wrestler debut without a)having the LWO involved and b)without hearing crickets from the crowd.
Big time presentation from the off and he handled himself like a star - my wife (who had never seen him before) commented he seemed “cool as fuck”.

Never realised how much I want a Penta/Dominik Mysterio feud in my life but here we are.

[DavidB6937]

The theme by itself is absolutely CAW Generic 001 but him with the fire and the screaming and him bringing his funny little walk with him? Fuck yeah.

[RedTwoster]

That was a great show, and something resembling this would have been a much better debut for them on Netflix. I’ll bet that loads of people tuned in last week and didn’t bother giving WWE a second chance based on how tedious that episode was. 

I loved Penta’s debut, and not having his brother with him is a blessing in disguise. He looks and feels like a star, and is completely different than anyone else on the roster as far as presentation is concerned. The only negative is the generic theme song, but that’s the case across the board these days, sadly.

The Wyatt Sicks moving to Smackdown is interesting thanks largely to the fact there aren’t many heels for them to feud with. I’d have to imagine they’re what’s next for the new Bloodline, but I would prefer to see them move into a feud which isn’t multi-person, even if that involves a heel turn. I’ve really enjoyed Bo Dallas in this role, even if the costume etc is utter gash. 

The main event was a lot of fun, but you’d have to assume that’s it for Judgment Day, with one or more of them moving over to Smackdown. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

17 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

The theme by itself is absolutely CAW Generic 001 but him with the fire and the screaming and him bringing his funny little walk with him? Fuck yeah.

They're STILL doing the snide "welcome to the big leagues" bullshit.

Fuck off.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

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

They're STILL doing the snide "welcome to the big leagues" bullshit.

Fuck off.

It's true though. They are the big league by pretty much every meaningful metric, and this isn't WWE v AEW, this is WWE v everyone. 

[tiger_rick]

Saw Penta on YouTube. Felt very big time. A great presentation and a good promo. Felt very authentic, which I guess is what you get from an outsider coming in.

Didn't enjoy Michael Cole yelling all over it. Will never enjoy that guy. I just don't like the presentation of WWE as one big sports team that the commentators and announcers are part of and everyone is coming on board with the team. I know that's gonna be a small thing to most people but I don't feel it.

The shots of the arena from above are outstanding. This really is a brilliantly presented product. The shot above the ring with all the sponsors on is very clever and doesn't feel too cynical. I love it when AEW does that shot too. It's really good.

The key is in the follow-up but impossible to argue that this wasn't a 10/10 debut.

[The King of Old School]

I think Penta vs Breaker for the IC at Mania would be superb.

Keep Penta away from the LWO at all costs.

[d-d-d-dAz]

3 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

It's true though. They are the big league by pretty much every meaningful metric, and this isn't WWE v AEW, this is WWE v everyone. 

No, I don't think it is necessarily true. 

I think there is an invisible dividing line between the indys and what you might call 'the big leagues'. And if you've worked for a company that sold 70k or whatever in Wembley, have regular National TV distribution and pays you enough to live without working a second job, then I'd say you'd worked in the big leagues.

Plus, even if it WAS completely true, you can still be a complete prick for pointing out the truth. If someone called me a fat cunt, I'd still be utterly furious despite the fact that it's clearly true.

It's the intention that matters, and WWE intend to be snide and belittle the competition. For me it's needless and always stands out.

It's a Vince legacy thing, and I'd be happy for it to die with him in the next 5 to 7 minutes.