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

[Snitsky's back acne]

6 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I'll always love RVD for that but worth pointing out the reason he didn't want to go to Iraq wasn't political or anything. He just couldn't be arsed with the travel, didn't want to risk getting shot, didn't care about the troops and wanted to stay home instead. Which I can respect big time.

I actually respect him more for that. 

[Supremo]

19 hours ago, Supremo said:

Hunter and his loyalists need to take note. This is how you do a work. Truly blur the lines of reality. I completely fell for this. Can one hundred percent imagine AJ telling everyone to only listen to Flat Earth podcasts using wired headphones. Those AirPods will fry ya brain!

AJ Styles being worked himself!

Never change, AJ.

[air_raid]

12 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Yeah can't believe they went with jay uso winning the highest goal because of how beloved and ensured he became on his own which genuinely is such a achievement, only to have him drop it on a episode of raw with his son front and center not giving the respect to do it on literally any PLE.

[LaGoosh]

The actual Punk/Cena promo segment itself was pretty awful. When these two guys used to meet on the mic it was pure magic. Here we had Cena pulling his toddler whose shit themselves face and doing loads of weird alliteration. He may be playing a heel but he's not really generating any real heel heat. Most the fans in the building were wearing his merch and cheering for him. Punk's promo was delivered with his usual passion but it didn't really feel believable and was very auto-pilot. The content of his promo itself was horrendous, filled with what I'm assuming were scripted lines. Why would the self proclaimed Best In The World refer to another wrestler, Cody Rhodes, as "the best we got"? The CM Punk of old would never have said something like that. He then referred to himself as the voice of the voiceless and fighting for the people rather than the TKO billionaires which was just baffling considering he's now wrestling on the billionaire blood money sports washing show. He just kind of shouted a lot to be fair, there was nothing intriguing or new said here. Punk was wearing a Ramones hoodie but I'm guessing it was more in tribute to Johnny than to Joey. A completely inauthentic, written by ChatGPT-esque, shit house segment. How far both men have fallen. 

One positive though - CM Punk may have a puffy old man face with dying manky eyes but his hair is lovely. I might get mine cut like that.

Edited June 11, 2025 by LaGoosh

[theringmaster]

Karrion Kross....is there a wrestler who has had their entire career/aura destroyed by just one match more than him? When he got bought onto RAW whilst being NXT champion, given a random gimmick and jobbed out to Jeff Hardy, his career has never been the same since. I find myself thinking of that match every time i see him, that match absolutly destroyed him. All wrestlers have terrible booked matches/angles and they always recover (Natalya farting gimmick anyone?) but his prospects just imploded in one single match.

Likewise, how does Scarlett go from being one of the hottest women on the indy circuit (literally, everyone found her ultra sexy) to the most bland manager in wwe?

[Supremo]

On 6/11/2025 at 8:57 AM, LaGoosh said:

The content of his promo itself was horrendous, filled with what I'm assuming were scripted lines. Why would the self proclaimed Best In The World refer to another wrestler, Cody Rhodes, as "the best we got"? The CM Punk of old would never have said something like that. He then referred to himself as the voice of the voiceless and fighting for the people rather than the TKO billionaires which was just baffling considering he's now wrestling on the billionaire blood money sports washing show.

In a promo filled with nonsensical lines, as he desperately tried to talk around the massive, blood-money-covered elephant in the room, the maddest line was when he said something along the lines of, “when I came back, winning a World Title wasn’t one of my goals.”

What the fuck are you talking about, Punk? You’ve spent two years entering Royal Rumbles and Elimination Chambers, as well as trying to qualify for Money in the Bank. Even the blood feuds he had with Seth and Drew were based around costing each other Title shots.

I thought it was really telling that his head fell off on the night his Saudi appearance was confirmed. Whole thing felt like an embarrassed, rattled hypocrite trying to get ahead of the criticisms. He’s David Brent getting the second drink thrown in his face. “Already wet, so jokes on you.”

”Don’t even want to be World Champion, actually. My favourite thing to do has always been to lose clean to John Cena in a bad match in Saudi, so don’t bother taking the piss. Cody is better than me, anyway.”

He’s definitely muted the words, “blood money covered dick,” on Twitter. Hangman Summer continues.

Edited June 12, 2025 by Supremo

[LaGoosh]

37 minutes ago, Supremo said:

the maddest line was when he said something along the lines of, “when I came back, winning a World Title wasn’t one of my goals.”

Well it wasn't. He wanted his Wrestlemania Main Event Participation Medal.

[FLips]

Still shocks me people think CM Punk has a genuine bone in his body. The biggest worker of all time but instead of saying your prayers and eating your vitamins he sticks Palestine trunks on and calls it a day. Same marks, different target audience.

 

[Mr_Danger]

Thought it was weird that Punk referenced that everyone knows he’s only there for the money the other week. 

As said it’s not surprising but it sucks for the people who bought in to his seemingly sincere show of solidarity. Bitter bastards like us have a default setting of ‘expect the shittest possible outcome, never be disappointed’. But as Devon mentioned there’s marginalised people who will be affected by his U-turn. Punk is entitled to work where and with whom he wants but don’t bask in the glory of being the good guy advocate then get your head turned at the first chance. 

[Cannibal Man]

EDIT - sorry! asked a question here but thought about it for a while and think I get it so i'm leaving it

Edited June 12, 2025 by Cannibal Man
CBA

[Supremo]

I wasn’t shocked by Phil Brooks the person exposing himself to be a hypocritical whopper. Everyone knew this as a fact ever since he went back to the place that got him sick in the first place. Appearing on a Saudi show always felt like an inevitability.

What I found most interesting was how much of his fictional character and his performance of that character relies on this self-righteous, holier-than-thou, meta idea. Once that foundation crumbles, the whole thing fell apart. The Emperor had no clothes. He was a mess.

I think Punk finally found his limit. Despite being one of the best promos of all time, there’s a level of chicken shit that even he can’t turn into chicken salad. You can make a feud about a plastic bracelet work. You can deliver authentic, passionate promos despite being two years deep into the Seth Rollins Vortex. You can even convince people that this Cena heel turn has legs (“you bald fraud!”). But there was no saving this. Superman found his kryptonite.

Most fascinating was Cena’s smug grin when he spoke about dragging Punk to Saudi Arabia. Absolutely wild to see them hint at that being a heelish thing to do. I thought we were encouraging change and making progress by having women compete? I thought the whole deal was about showing everyone what a beautiful Kingdom it is? Even by WWE in 2025 standards, this was record breaking level of heeling the company and having your cake and eating it. At this point, I genuinely won’t be shocked if Cena says, “blood money covered dick,” in his go-home promo.

[WyattSheepMask]

On 6/11/2025 at 11:34 AM, theringmaster said:

Karrion Kross....is there a wrestler who has had their entire career/aura destroyed by just one match more than him? When he got bought onto RAW whilst being NXT champion, given a random gimmick and jobbed out to Jeff Hardy, his career has never been the same since. I find myself thinking of that match every time i see him, that match absolutly destroyed him. All wrestlers have terrible booked matches/angles and they always recover (Natalya farting gimmick anyone?) but his prospects just imploded in one single match.

Likewise, how does Scarlett go from being one of the hottest women on the indy circuit (literally, everyone found her ultra sexy) to the most bland manager in wwe?

The fact that he’s been able to somewhat come back from that is a testament to him. I’m not a big fan of his by any stretch of the imagination, but that night he came out looking like a complete fucking tosser and was beaten clean in under two minutes. How is anyone supposed to care about him after that, he was made to look like a complete loser.

His matches still arn’t great, often time he moves at the speed of a tired slug, but on the mic he clearly has something that people like, and because of that he’s been given a fair few chances.

[I Bent My Wookie]

10 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

The fact that he’s been able to somewhat come back from that is a testament to him.

The final testament?

[DavidB6937]

For me he's someone who has massively benefited from social media because he just carries himself so well in interviews and on his own socials. At least for me anyway. It has definitely made me want to see him succeed more.

[RedTwoster]

13 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Thought it was weird that Punk referenced that everyone knows he’s only there for the money the other week. 

As said it’s not surprising but it sucks for the people who bought in to his seemingly sincere show of solidarity. Bitter bastards like us have a default setting of ‘expect the shittest possible outcome, never be disappointed’. But as Devon mentioned there’s marginalised people who will be affected by his U-turn. Punk is entitled to work where and with whom he wants but don’t bask in the glory of being the good guy advocate then get your head turned at the first chance. 

The only way I can just about stomach it myself is if he’s decided to do it in order to donate all money made to a gay, trans or women’s rights charity. Or even to a charity that advocates for press freedom to use that regime’s money to remind people exactly what they did. 

If any wrestler was to do the show with the intention of using all of that money - not some of it, all - to do good, I can understand that. 

Given his advocacy for marginalised communities I hope there’s more to it than at face value, and I also hope he’s asked about it at the next WWE press conference he attends, even if it’s long after Night of Champions. Hypocrisy is never not relevant.