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

[Devon Malcolm]

My concern after Raw is that CM Punk is a United fan because the term 'bald fraud' is mostly heard around that fandom when describing Pep Guardiola. Don't you do it, Punk. Stick to Chicago teams. I know Fire finished bottom last year but you should be used to it with the Bears.

Well that promo was excellent and like with all the best wrestling promos you don't know where the real ends and the kayfabe starts. I just want to say, though, that my dismissal of the possibility of triple threats at Wrestlemania was born purely out of hope and the belief that they actually know what they're doing these days. At least the match will be good, eh guys? Guys?

The fight managed to be great even though they do at least one fight like that every week, mainly because it was so long and the crowd just wanted it. I've enjoyed Punk threatening to kill people since he came back too. Actual language you use in a fight. Becky Lynch is an idiot. The Seth Effect in full, well, effect.

Mania can't come fast enough for Gunther, who's now floundering by beating comedy guys unconvincingly every week. They really need to give him a few months off afterwards to refresh and repackage him. I like Maxine's hats.

Nice Karrion Kross cameo. Feel free, WWE, to stop keeping Scarlett off telly though ffs. Kross rescued what was set to be a truly terrible AJ Styles promo - "Wow!" What an idiot. Presumably what he said when he saw the curvature of the Earth when he went on a cruise once.

Lyra Valkyria is more or less my favourite actual wrestler right now. God she's brilliant. She takes apathetic crowds and has them just by being extremely good in the ring. Who knew? Cracking match with Ivy Nile, who is also very good.

Bianca Belair says she feels guilty. I bet you do. I have to say though that they better be going somewhere with this arc otherwise she really does look very stupid indeed but her actions on this suggest otherwise. She's the sinisterEST.

The Chad Gable stuff is treading the line between being very funny and horribly moronic. I fear the latter.

Creeds vs Wars was a fantastic tag match and at one point I thought they were giving the former the belts. I was thinking during last week's Raw that just once I wish they'd do a title change on Raw. Oh that came back to hurt me shortly, once Finn Balor had blithered on, the unbelievably boring arsehole.

Aside from being horrified, obviously, because Iyo Sky is just really rubbish, this whole match was weird. The amount of selling done by Ripley, the over-the-top confrontation with Belair, the fact they took the belt off her already. I know what they're building towards and maybe they felt they needed Sky to have the belt so they can justify a triple threat. But for fuck's sake, how about not have her in the match AT ALL. Nobody wanted this and if they did they're blocked and reported.

I'm perplexed and fairly entertained.

[The King of Old School]

Really hope they get the inevitable Breaker/Balor IC match out of the way on Raw so Bron has get his teeth into something better come Mania.

Of all the folk he could face Balor would be near the very bottom.

[mim731]

52 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Lyra Valkyria is more or less my favourite actual wrestler right now. God she's brilliant. She takes apathetic crowds and has them just by being extremely good in the ring. Who knew? Cracking match with Ivy Nile, who is also very good.

I like that the owl noises thing or whatever that is during her entrance seems to have got the crowd interested enough week on week to actually invest in her matches. She's been really excellent since being called up from NXT. 

[The King of Old School]

I really like Ivy Nile and would have put the belt on her here, and I would have gone with American Made over the War Raiders too.

Have Chad Gable come back from his Luchador quest as a proud father.

Edited March 6, 2025 by The King of Old School

[Supremo]

Remember when Seth Rollins had that lame Twitter beef with Will Ospreay?

Going to be fun watching Seth have a cage match twenty four hours after Will has one on pay per view.

I predict a slight difference in quality between the two matches. Especially if Seth and Punk continue their anti-chemistry from the Netflix debut.

[SuperBacon]

3 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

the term 'bald fraud'

Can you imagine how much mileage I'm gonna get out of that clip regarding Daniel Levy

[Snitsky's back acne]

Have to be honest, never saw anything in Lyra Valkyria but she has started to get over well and have good matches. An Intercontinental champ should be a work horse in my opinion and she certainly fits that bill. 

I like that the build to Mania is so unpredictable. Keeps me watching. I am actually finding myself looking forward to the next show and going out of my way to watch it which I didn't for a long time 

 

[air_raid]

11 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

An Intercontinental champ should be a work horse in my opinion and she certainly fits that bill.

She needs to work more often than one defence every 6 weeks, for me.

[Snitsky's back acne]

56 minutes ago, air_raid said:

She needs to work more often than one defence every 6 weeks, for me.

Hasn't she defended against Dakota Kai and Ivy Nile in the past few weeks?

[The Dart]

4 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Hasn't she defended against Dakota Kai and Ivy Nile in the past few weeks?

It took a month for her first title defense after winning it, but she's defended it twice in 2 weeks now.

She's only had 6 matches this year, but In today's age, with house shows incredibly rare, PLEs having so few matches and it being common for wrestlers to go several weeks without having a match on Raw or Smackdown, 6 matches in 2 months and 2 titles defenses in 6 weeks, seems reasonable.

[Supremo]

Look, I’m as uncomfortable as everyone else with Seth Rollins having more and more good nights, but this shot is amazing. Could be an album cover.

[d-d-d-dAz]

With Punk, they're going one of two ways aren't they...

1) He headlines Mania this year.

2) He doesn't and they keep that story going for a literal YEAR whilst his 306 year old body begs for a lie down.

If it's #2, then gee whizz best of luck with all that. The man looks absolutely shattered already, he's one GoToSleep motion from both triceps flying into the crowd and knocking someones head off.

If it's #1, which I think it might be as part of the Triple Threat of doom, what were they thinking with Jey. And, secondly, what on earth are they thinking with Gunther, and by extension Gunther/Jey. They haven't promoted Jey, they've demoted both of them in this absolute horse shit sub-European title level feud when they could have just had the title on one of Roman or Rollins going into Mania, with the other winning the Rumble and Punk using his favour to join the party.

I was in favour of Jey winning the Rumble when it felt like a promotion, but now it feels absolutely absurd when it's not even the biggest feud on Raw and probably won't headline Night 1.

Bizarre.

 

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, The Dart said:

It took a month for her first title defense after winning it, but she's defended it twice in 2 weeks now.

She's only had 6 matches this year, but In today's age, with house shows incredibly rare, PLEs having so few matches and it being common for wrestlers to go several weeks without having a match on Raw or Smackdown, 6 matches in 2 months and 2 titles defenses in 6 weeks, seems reasonable.

It took 6 weeks. It was exactly 42 days, Michael Cole told me. She had one TV match in the previous 41, which was losing to Bayley non title (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww)

It's pretty bad how there are so few matches for main roster wrestlers these days. They did a DQ finish to the Chelsea vs Michin title match how many weeks ago with no follow up or payoff? The last PLE had no title matches, neither Cody nor Gunther worked it, there wasn't even a PLE in December or January. So Gunther hasn't defended on a PLE since Survivor Series. It feels like everyone on the roster is edging towards part time.

In general, I have no idea why there's so much filler on the broadcasts. They spend as much time on each broadcast showing me something I've already seen, than showing me this week's content.

Edited March 6, 2025 by air_raid
No time for losers, we are the champions.

[Supremo]

Heard a suggestion that they recreate Mania 40, with a Tag Match on Night 1 leading to a singles match Night 2. Cody, a complete mess after what happened to him, lost and confused, maybe found in a bar somewhere, eventually gets the help from CM Punk to rebuild himself and see these bald frauds for what they are.

Night 1 is headlined by Cody and Punk vs. Cena and Rock, somehow leading to Night 2, Cena and Cody for the Title. They could even play with the idea that The Rock beat Cody last year. Maybe they flip it this year and the babyfaces win Night 1, but the heels wins Night 2. Cena leaves as Champion, with Punk pencilled in as Summer challenger.

It answers all my prayers. No Triple Threat. Punk gets the Mania Main Event. It pays off Monday’s promo. It frees Punk from the Seth Vortex. It clears the path for a Roman vs. Seth singles match, dripping in Shield lore. Maybe Roman can come out with the Shield music and in the flack jacket to fuck with Seth. Bust out the rubbish contact lenses.

I’m not a religious man, but Bryan Danielson, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Please make this happen!

Edited March 7, 2025 by Supremo

[The King of Old School]

11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Night 1 is headlined by Cody and Punk vs. Cena and Rock, somehow leading to Night 2, Cena and Cody for the Title. They could even play with the idea that The Rock beat Cody last year. Maybe they flip it this year and the babyfaces win Night 1, but the heels wins Night 2. Cena leave was Champion with Punk as a pencilled in challenger.

Ah, one of those idea's that's just too perfect, and will be very annoying when it doesn't happen now!

Cody pinning Dwayne and getting his win back from last year only to lose to Cena the next night is superb.

Cena/Punk at MITB, big Cody rematch at Summerslam.