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

[Supremo]

Whilst Jey Uso feuding with Logan Paul is exactly as shit as it sounds, Pat McAfee’s promo on this show was the perfect example of how sometimes things can seem far worse reading the TV reports than they are if you actually watch the show.

Knowing they’d announced Pat vs. Gunther, it sounded like a terrible idea, but now finally catching up on Raw? This was arguably the best thing Pat’s ever done. A really good promo. Yes Pat! Stick up for your little mate! Stand up that bullying prick! Shout motherfucker! Swearing is cool!

It’s a genuine shame McAfee has spent the last few years flushing away all his goodwill, being the MAGA Mauro Ronallo, because at his core he’s totally gets it. Did great work in NXT with Adam Cole. Did great work here, too. I’m actually invested in this match now.

Although, for the record, the best case scenario remains Gunther murdering him, leaving him in a pool of his own blood, forcing him to fuck off and commentate American Football or something for six months. I yearn for Big Joe Tess on Raw!

[Statto]

6 hours ago, Supremo said:

Although, for the record, the best case scenario remains Gunther murdering him, leaving him in a pool of his own blood, forcing him to fuck off and commentate American Football or something for six months. I yearn for Big Joe Tess on Raw!

This doesn't help me, though. Imagine this prick shouting bollocks all over both your main interests.

But you've got about 4 more months to wait for those things - I'm assuming that workhorse Tess will keep doing both (and squeeze in a bit of mid-tier boxing and some horse racing coverage for good measure) so they'll need to do the switcheroo again as he'll be otherwise engaged on Fridays, meeting SEC coaches and eating at Taco Casas.

[Supremo]

Do you know who’s shit? Becky Lynch. It’s not exactly the same thing as Charlotte Flair, but you could lump them both together. Two women lost in time. Echoes of a long-forgotten era.

With Becky, it’s like a case study on how shit everything used to be. How little you had to do during The Grattitude Era to break out of the pack and become the hottest act in the business. Hold your head a bit higher, put some bass in your voice and have some swagger about you. That’s it. That’s all it took. A crappy Conor McGregor tribute act and you were that generation’s Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Cringe as fuck watching her still doing the exact same act in 2025 though. Really hammers home the leaps that have been made. These deep, fully-formed, authentic, flawed, interesting characters like Hangman Page, Eddie Kingston and Sami Zayn. Seeing Becky still doing the cock-of-the-school strut to the ring and cutting the same, “I’ll knock ya head off ya shoulders,” promos, it’s similar vibes to when they’d bring in someone like Tatanka or The Headbangers for a cameo on Smackdown.

[Devon Malcolm]

I think the problem with this new Seth Rollins stable is they're trying to turn three babyfaces heel at the same time and the crowd are not going to buy it.

It works so much better when you have a couple of established heels recruiting a babyface. In fairness to Rollins, as soon as he'd finished fucking about with his entrance and was serious with Sami then he was convincing and quite good. As he tends to be when he's not fucking about. I liked him being blank-faced during that match and at the end. But it's the concept that's fucked and people are just not going to boo any of these three, and I don't think it's their fault. It's not going to work when people want to see Sami Zayn get hurt, crowd of arseholes or not. Sami was brilliant, as ever, during this though.

They booed Becky, perhaps because she was so pathetically over-the-top and stupid that they wanted her to go away. Still, at least it gave Lyra Valkyria something to work with other than a match and I thought she did quite well - until they made her look an idiot by having Becky attack her again. Why do they do that? They can't build heels OR babyfaces. People don't want to cheer an idiot. At least it's a storyline though.

Throwing out a Roxanne Perez vs Rhea Ripley match on Raw with no fanfare, I mean, it's just daft. Cracking match and Roxanne might be the best heel in the company now. I don't know where this is going but, again, at least it's a storyline in the women's division.

Stephanie Vaquer - already over, quality matches with everyone, get her on Raw or Smackdown full-time and give her the world title. Just would like to see her have a more definitive finisher. She's ready. Ivy Nile has good matches with everyone, she's one of the most reliable hands they have. The women's stuff propped this show up, really, the rest was crap. But that's a good thing.

The Rusev video, well, I don't know. Didn't convince me at all but I'll happily watch him and Otis batter each other. Nice tank reference though.

Jey Uso vs Logan Paul? Eh. I think the Logan Paul enthusuasm has waned because he never works with anyone that interesting. Jey is Jey.

Karrion Kross got about 10 seconds. Is this going anywhere, for fuck's sake? People want it to.

Tag match, barely paid attention. And I quite like War Raiders as well.

Pat McAfee put himself over very well (derogatory).

I can't remember what else happened.

[air_raid]

3 minutes ago, Supremo said:

With Becky, it’s like a case study on how shit everything used to be. How little you had to do during The Grattitude Era to break out of the pack and become the hottest act in the business. Hold your head a bit higher, put some bass in your voice and have some swagger about you. That’s it. That’s all it took. A crappy Conor McGregor tribute act and you were that generation’s Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I think a lot of it was due to the rebellion of fans against The Charlotte Manifesto. Becky was very popular organically but got lost in the shuffle, so when they fucked her over in storyline terms by letting Charlotte waltz in and hijack her crack at Carmella then tried to turn her heel on the already barely-cheered Charlotte, it was so easy for everyone to go "Fuck off am I booing her? She's in the right. Fuck yourselves." She was a bit of a shining light that "the plan" can be changed, and if you're good enough you'll always make it to the top. She was more like the female Daniel Bryan in that respect ; she was the hero we chose.

[SuperBacon]

Still think this is the fittest any human has ever looked though.

[air_raid]

Maybe the 90s spoiled me but I really struggle to get on board with how seldom so many of the wrestlers show up. Storylines are so incoherent. It’s so jarring that Seth/Bron left Punk and Reigns face down and we had to ice those issues

“CM Punk is seething for revenge!… but he’s watching the Cubs tonight because he’s off. Maybe next week.”

[d-d-d-dAz]

6 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Maybe the 90s spoiled me but I really struggle to get on board with how seldom so many of the wrestlers show up. Storylines are so incoherent. It’s so jarring that Seth/Bron left Punk and Reigns face down and we had to ice those issues

“CM Punk is seething for revenge!… but he’s watching the Cubs tonight because he’s off. Maybe next week.”

I couldn't agree more & thought it really stood out this week with Punk, Roman, Cena & Cody all off TV.

That's literally all the main event stars taking a week off. It just makes the TV feel like it's in a holding pattern until they return. 

[Mr_Danger]

Has there been any speculation as to who else is joining this super group of Seth’s? I’m assuming Becky aligns and if they’re going for heels that the crowd wanna cheer as they squish puny beings then your Maui looking lad with the Tsunami hasn’t been around for a while.

Bron Breakker is never getting booed doing super duper spears through the sky and you can’t take that stuff away from him because that’s what makes him great.

[air_raid]

9 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Has there been any speculation as to who else is joining this super group of Seth’s?

Plenty, although I think they should leave it. Anyone else might dilute things when Bron eventually gets bored and turns on Seth, elevating himself to main event babyface.

[Devon Malcolm]

They'd better make sure the next one is an actual heel who people might boo. That would be a start.

[Supremo]

A skilled pro-wrestler, confident in his abilities, would use a big heel turn as an opportunity to change their music and look, to ensure the fans don’t continue to cheer them.

Seth’s fucked though. He can’t remove the music or the daft clothes. Without them, he’s Ian Beale. He’s got nothing left.

[RedTwoster]

It’s probably fairly telling about the general attitude towards what WWE is doing right now that the day is almost over, and no one has bothered to post about Raw.

Having said that, I thought it was quite a good show. Raw has been pretty decent since Wrestlemania, to be fair. 

I like what they’ve done with Rusev so far. He feels very like his Redeemer character in AEW, and I was a big fan of that gimmick, at least initially. He comes across as a scary guy, and that’s what you want from a character like that.

Jey Uso…I mean, he’s over, I’ll give him that. But what do people get out of ‘yeeting’? Why is that fun? I almost want to shit on the show simply because that keeps happening. The match with Rollins was fun though, and I hadn’t considered that Punk might return - I thought they might genuinely put the title on Seth, given that Jey’s limitations are very, very obvious. 

I don’t think Becky Lynch is very good as a heel. Which is odd, because it was as a heel when she first became super-over. But nothing about this turn is working for me, much like her previous heel run.

[DavidB6937]

Becky always feels like she's playing a heel for me which is a big problem. I find it incredibly difficult to buy into her. Between her and Seth you've got two incredible successful people who have such a strange challenge in character building and true investment so often.

[air_raid]

Yeah but I give Bex a pass for coming out with “Bayley’s so confused, she’s probably paying a hundred bucks a month to her best friend just to text her” on whatever podcast it was. Fucking gold, lass.