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

[air_raid]

I watched some matches from what Fin Martin used to call Raw Is Talk earlier. Phew, lots of waffle. Glad Uso vs Gunther is confirmed, now we can eke out some suspense for the real main event.

On the heels of last week, Kai’n’Sky vs Morgan & Rodriguez was very enjoyable with some good false finishes and a satisfying finish. Only minor gripes ; the double team Codebreaker is far too impressive to be kicked out of, and I have no idea why Cole thought it was a tandem Oblivion, which is not a Codebreaker. It was also frustrating to hear Cole just say “knees to the back” when Dakota hit the Kairopractor. Not every springboard 630 moonbomb needs calling but it’s her finish, if you’re a professional you should know the names of the finishes.

Conversely Valkyria vs Bayley was OK. I’m not onboard, still, with serious babyface Bayley. I’d rather she just be a heel. I’d have rated the match higher (decent near falls off roll ups to be fair) but at the end… I’m sorry, but a tornado DDT on the fucking floor doesn’t need transitioning into another move and especially doesn’t need another move back in the ring before the pin attempt, especially if it’s not the finish and especially if the person doing it isn’t even winning. Utter Indy wank. And of course,

On 1/6/2022 at 8:23 AM, air_raid said:

Anyway, the real reason I’m in this thread is to ask ; did WWE do an episode of TV where champions lost a non-title match? Yes they did.

Oh fuck off, WWE. I thought we were over this shit. Congratulations, you’ve devalued the youngest title on the show already. At a time when over the road, there’s a great job being done of establishing dastardly baddie Chelsea of Honkying her way out and generally being tough to put a pin on, you’ve just showed how easily the babyface Intercontinental champ can get herself beaten any night. Some things never change.

I’m glad AJs back. I hope they never turn him heel again. Pretty crazy that he’s been in WWE nearly as long as he was in TNA. Seth’s little interview gave me 90s “interview podium” vibes. I didn’t listen to him but I saw Balors face. That would be an acceptable match for both to do “workrate!1” if the rest of the card does wind up the main event jumble, Owens vs Zayn and McIntyre vs Priest. Though if it’s Cody vs Cena and Punk vs Reigns… Logan vs Styles? I could see it.

I didn’t hold high hopes for War Raiders vs what I initially thought was Gable +1 (I had nearly no volume) because while I loved War Machine live, for whatever reason they’ve never gripped me as much on telly. But it got quite interesting as it progressed, these Creeds are decent. The finish was another good late 80s/90s one, didn’t devalue the challengers, didn’t switch the belts, didn’t feel like a cop out, set the faces up for revenge in rematches. There’s a branch timeline/Earth 616 where Raiders vs Academy and Chelsea vs Michin are double mains on B level house shows in St Paul and Duluth while Cody defends the title in Baltimore or Philly.

I think there will only be Logan vs Mysterio left to watch which sadly from the moment it was announced was one of those “foregone conclusion” results, given that Paul will play quite a featured role again at Mania and Rey, much as I like him, won’t. However I have seen some AEW nutcases whining that he’s “stolen” another move from Adam Page (apparently) so some good will have come from it. Fuck me, it’s 2025, why do fans still care about shite like that?

9 hours ago, Vamp said:

Having said that I think I'm alone in thinking that a babyface match between Cody vs. Cena sounds shit. 

Shame then that neither of them are any good at making a crowd boo them.

 

Edited February 13, 2025 by air_raid
Adrenaline in my soul, I can’t play the villain role

[Supremo]

On Penta, I liked watching this show in real time, when the news had already came out that Penta had a match on, “Main Event.” Really funny watching all the tribal knobheads cry and moan about how Penta was already being BURIED and FUMBLED, and then on Raw itself he cut a promo with this aesthetic, looking like the coolest motherfucker that has ever lived.

Sooner Penta moves on from Pete Dunne, the better. Have we ever had a discussion on the coldest acts in an otherwise hot territory? It’s frankly incredible how cold Pete Dunne is during this boom period. Was anything this not over during The Attitude Era? Dunne, Gargano and Ciampa are the Holy Trinity. Three ice cubes in a cup of hot tea. The truest example of what a mark Triple H is for NXT Black and Gold. They’re getting away with murder.

[tiger_rick]

20 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Was anything this not over during The Attitude Era? 

Yeah, Dan Severn.

[theringmaster]

18 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Dunne, Gargano and Ciampa are the Holy Trinity. Three ice cubes in a cup of hot tea. The truest example of what a mark Triple H is for NXT Black and Gold. They’re getting away with murder.

I dealt its no coincidence that they have no gimmicks really, all 3 are 'just wrestlers' . Ciampo has already hit his ceiling several times, I honestly think it won't be long before he becomes a coach on nxt. 

[DavidB6937]

I always thought Ciampa had a fair chance of succeeding on the main roster if he stuck with the heel stuff. Either no music or the No One Will Survive one. I thought his general presentation there was pretty solid.

Gargano always relied on being the plucky underdog babyface which should work but the main roster crowd were never given a reason to get behind him beyond "oh look he's from NXT!". And obviously then he disappeared and returned and still they didn't really give anyone a reason to care.

Clearly they should be kept away from each other completely but I don't think they're terrible. If they weren't going to build up babyface Gargano then The Way were always pretty fun but obviously that was never going to happen.

Dunne? Yeah, I still think Butch was the best thing to ever happen to him. Kids liked him! Now he's what?

[TheScarlettChad]

52 minutes ago, Supremo said:

On Penta, I liked watching this show in real time, when the news had already came out that Penta had a match on, “Main Event.” Really funny watching all the tribal knobheads cry and moan about how Penta was already being BURIED and FUMBLED, and then on Raw itself he cut a promo with this aesthetic, looking like the coolest motherfucker that has ever lived.

Sooner Penta moves on from Pete Dunne, the better. Have we ever had a discussion on the coldest acts in an otherwise hot territory? It’s frankly incredible how cold Pete Dunne is during this boom period. Was anything this not over during The Attitude Era? Dunne, Gargano and Ciampa are the Holy Trinity. Three ice cubes in a cup of hot tea. The truest example of what a mark Triple H is for NXT Black and Gold. They’re getting away with murder.

Dunne was always crap. Even when he was Butch. The ultimate example of work rate wankers favorite wrestler, he can do a good arm lock and maybe break a finger but he can't get the audience to care. 

[SwayWays]

On 2/13/2025 at 5:04 PM, TheScarlettChad said:

Dunne was always crap. Even when he was Butch. The ultimate example of work rate wankers favorite wrestler, he can do a good arm lock and maybe break a finger but he can't get the audience to care. 

Nearly spat my coffee across the office over this. 

 

Except it's Fanta. And I work from home. 

[LaGoosh]

Pete Dunn is very bad though.

[Snitsky's back acne]

On 2/13/2025 at 5:04 PM, TheScarlettChad said:

Dunne was always crap. Even when he was Butch. The ultimate example of work rate wankers favorite wrestler, he can do a good arm lock and maybe break a finger but he can't get the audience to care. 

Butch was the best thing he ever did. The angry little fighter wanting to get into a scrap with everyone. Great stuff. He was over for about two weeks as well.

 

[Version1.0]

On 2/14/2025 at 12:31 AM, tiger_rick said:

Yeah, Dan Severn.

Dr. Death and the NWA Invasion were not far behind.

[RedTwoster]

On 2/13/2025 at 4:54 PM, DavidB6937 said:

Gargano always relied on being the plucky underdog babyface which should work but the main roster crowd were never given a reason to get behind him beyond "oh look he's from NXT!". And obviously then he disappeared and returned and still they didn't really give anyone a reason to care.

For me, Gargano is to WWE what Roderick Strong is to AEW. And that, obviously, is not a compliment.

[DavidB6937]

1 minute ago, RedTwoster said:

For me, Gargano is to WWE what Roderick Strong is to AEW. And that, obviously, is not a compliment.

Strong is an interesting one. Out of any context and just watching him randomly in ROH he was pretty cool to watch from a moves and stamina perspective. Same in NXT. Obviously he doesn't have a massive amount of depth beyond that. I've enjoyed him from time to time over the years but really only at the shallowest of levels. But yeah these days so many other guys can do moves AND offer decent characters you can invest in so it's hard to want to bother with the Garganos of the world.

[FLips]

Roderick Strong was someone I always heard so many good things about in magazines and I'm sure he was called like the King of the Backbreaker or something so in my head he was a big beefcake. Imagine my surprise seeing him for the first time and he's some skinny dweeb.
I never properly saw him until he was in NXT and AEW and I know he's probably past his prime, and he keeps some shocking company, but he's never impressed me in any way.

Johnny Gargano I liked as a babyface in NXT but he's very much a case of diminishing returns. Can't remember the last time I enjoyed anything he did, maybe NXT. When the shine is off in the ring as well then you notice his flaws more and so for me now he looks like a geek and offers nothing in the ring either, and has never been good on the mic.
When he was stood with Ciampa and Pretty Deadly on Smackdown I couldn't remember a word any of them said because the entire time I was sat thinking about how Ciampa is the only one of the four that looks the part.

[The Gaffer]

On 2/13/2025 at 4:10 PM, Supremo said:

Was anything this not over during The Attitude Era? 

Undertaker's ten hour match with Ken Shamrock at Backlash 99.

[air_raid]

I finished watching Raw, again just in time for the next. I listened to Punk talk because it’s Punk, and I was somewhat disappointed that he was fairly gracious about Cena not being made to qualify rather than “same shit different day” regarding preferential treatment, considering the depths of their history in that respect, but I understand they’re doing their best to keep Punk likeable for now. On that note, Logan is fantastic. Proof that you can have all the athleticism, learn the mechanics, even be able to wrestle a “good match,” but sometimes that all-important star quality factor of being able to get an audience to react to you and care about your results one way or the other, is something I don’t think can be taught. So many wrestlers don’t have it, Logan does. Finish was quality too.

Quick note about presentation - I was just starting to wonder if they’d made or would make note of that Logan had beaten Rey for the UST, when the little facty box popped up in the corner to mention it. I really liked it, I really like the “headlines” recap, I really like mentions of what’s confirmed for next week. Reminds me of the good old days. Probably should have mentioned it in the Rumble thread too that while I hated the commentary getting bogged down in statistics instead of talking about the wrestlers/storylines or calling the action, I really enjoyed the on screen displays periodically reminding us of times, number of entrants etc. For a company that’s gradually become more obsessed with stats over the years, I’m surprised they’ve not been doing it for far longer.

Edited February 16, 2025 by air_raid
For the 16th consecutive year, air_raid is talking about the Royal Rumble.