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

[mim731]

Shit-stirring Finn Balor is the most interesting he's been in ages. 

[Merzbow]

2 minutes ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

I felt it could go a bit SmackDown vs Raw

Red shirts vs Blue shirts??

A true return to the flavourless content churning era.

[The King of Old School]

Yeah I can see @I Bent My Wookie's stance on it based on that.

I really dislike anything to do with Raw vs Smackdown though, so hopefully it's not a return to those dark days.

I was thinking something like -

Seth (After he has got the participation title), Bronson, Bron, Cena & Logan vs Punk, Reigns, Cody, Jey & Sami.

Edited July 1, 2025 by The King of Old School

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Raw continues to be the best weekly wrestling show. Some good action this week too, New Day vs JD and Sheamus vs Rusev were cracking. Although I've got to wonder what the point in the New Day heel turn was. They're as stale and prelim as ever. With the lack of effort put into their booking, HHH continues to not beat the allegations.

It's amusing how little reaction Rusev gets these days. He feels weirdly out of place. Like a relic from a bygone era. 

Can't wait for Gunther to embarrass that dumb old clown Goldberg. Atlanta will be cheering along with me too it seems like. Good reaction for Punk, he's not completely dead it seems. Punk vs Gunther would be an awesome comeback feud for him.

Fuck off, Seth.

I was enjoying the Becky/Lyra feud and they were doing a solid job of getting Lyra over. They've flushed that down the toilet though. Another shitty three way feud where the babyfaces act like bickering idiots. I fucking hate three way feuds.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

Shit-stirring Finn Balor is the most interesting he's been in ages. 

I feel like I read this every few months about Balor. Must be some kind of deja vu.

[Supremo]

One of the better episodes of recent times. Maybe we’re back. (We’re probably not).

A really good show in terms of the matches themselves. Fun Tag Title opener, great, hard-hitting Meat Match between Rusev and Sheamus, enjoyable Women’s match between Bayley and Lyra and a solid, action-packed Main Event. Show flew by in that sense.

Fine opening promo. Rhea and Iyo should be a great match. Funny that they’ve steadied the ship with these women after that build up to the Wrestlemania Triple Threat left them all looking like dickheads, yet they’ve clearly learnt nothing because they’re now doing the exact same thing building up Bayley, Becky and Lyra for what I presume is their Triple Threat at Evolution.

It’s like it’s beyond them to script a three-way and make anyone look half decent. They’re repeating all the same tropes. All three women look like pricks and you’re left rooting for nobody.

Genuinely sad that the New Day’s reign ended up being a whole lot of nothing. Remember how massive that Big E angle felt? Criminal that they had so little to follow it up with. Randomly losing the belts to a different set of heels, with minimal build up. Between this title change and Zelina Vega on Smackdown, there’s a real sense of just doing stuff at the moment. Throwing shit at the wall, with no rhyme or reason.

It’s not as if the obvious storyline wasn’t right there. Frankly disgusting that they didn’t build up New Day vs. Judgment Day for the legal right to the word, “Day.” Big T spinning in his grave.

On that; is there a reason why we don’t we ever get any Ahmed Johnson cameos? Watching back as I listen to that In Your House podcast, he’s equally terrible and absolutely amazing. Seems really weird we never see him considering they bring in almost everyone whenever they do one of those Anniversary shows. I’d be bang up for him running through a scene with a massive plank of wood. Ideally tripping up.

Loved all the Judgment Day bollocks on this show. Finn’s shit stirring is fantastic. Roxanne stealing Liv’s belt rules. She’ll be shagging Dom by the time Liv returns. Judgment Day have quietly been a constant highlight of this entire boom.

I popped for Ludwig Kieser dressed as El Grande Americano. The more obvious it is, the better. Pro-wrestling is so fucking stupid. I love it.

On that note; hilariously dumb that on the same show that Karrion Kross violently attacks Sami Zayn with a metal pipe, Dirty Dom’s doctors note somehow creates a force field around him, stopping AJ Styles from attacking him. Like a fucking Patronus! You’re an idiot, Sami! You should have held a doctor’s note up at Kross! He would have had to stop attacking you!

AJ Styles in reading glasses was funny. I like to think this is how AJ looks when reading, “interesting facts,” about the Earth being flat.

I hope the glasses become some daft gimmick. Somehow incorporate it into the El Grande Americano gimmick. Make AJ the new Clark Kent, where people don’t recognise him when he’s been to Specsavers.

Side Superman tangent - I saw it mentioned that the cast of the new Superman film might appear on Dynamite. I need Christian Cage on the wind up. “Superman, you had a father…but your father is dead…because Krypton blew up!”

As much as I enjoyed Rusev and Sheamus knocking shite out of each other, it’s an indictment on Hunter’s glacially-slow storytelling that Rusev came back the Raw after Wrestlemania and he’s done so little. Also, what happened to Sheamus’ quest to Catch ‘Em All and win the Intercontinental Title? So weird the way they introduced a cool premise like that and then it just went nowhere. Again, a lot of just throwing shit at walls. This used to be such a tighter product.

For a split second, LA Knight attacking Seth Rollins and CM Punk shoving Gunther felt like bliss. Like when it goes from Black and White to Colour in, “Wizard of Oz.” New directions! Fresh matches! Yes! You can’t fool me though. We all know that all roads lead back to some form of Seth vs. Punk at Summerslam.

In fact, to put off actually doing some work today, I had a look at how many TV/PPV matches Punk has had since returning to WWE, just to see how many haven’t involved Seth in one way or another. I’ve crunched the numbers and they spell disaster if you (rightly) think Seth is a shitarse, with less than zero chemistry with CM Punk.

Total number of TV/PPV matches: 14

Matches featuring Seth as a wrestler/ref: 7

Matches featuring a Seth run-in or post-match attack: 2

(Dream) Matches that haven’t featured Seth at all: 5

Worst of all. I’m starting to think Punk vs. Rollins will feature on Night One of Summerslam, Punk will win, but then Rollins will cash in on Night Two, upping the stakes, meaning they’ll now have to have more matches for the belt. Ladder match at Survivor Series doesn’t seem out of the question. Another two and a half star wonder.

Updates as to what that does to the graph as and when they happen.

Edited July 1, 2025 by Supremo

[Lorne Malvo]

The Punk/Seth pie chart could be to modern-day UKFF what @HarmonicGenerator's Dolph vs Kofi list was to the 2010s UKFF.

[Supremo]

Just clocked the “Seth Rollins ruin-in,” typo. I’ll leave it. Fitting.

[HarmonicGenerator]

8 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

The Punk/Seth pie chart could be to modern-day UKFF what @HarmonicGenerator's Dolph vs Kofi list was to the 2010s UKFF.

Still got it saved on my Notes app. They may be in different promotions now, but you never know. If those two clash again we'll truly know the WWE mini-boom is done.

[Statto]

I'd absolutely not rule out them booking the Nemeth Brothers vs New Day on an episode of NXT, just for shits & giggles.

[Chili]

3 minutes ago, Statto said:

I'd absolutely not rule out them booking the Nemeth Brothers vs New Day on an episode of NXT, just for shits & giggles.

Only if it has a spot where Nick and Kofi get tagged in, clock each other and just sigh.

[The King of Old School]

53 minutes ago, Supremo said:

 

Worst of all. I’m starting to think Punk vs. Rollins will feature on Night One of Summerslam, Punk will win, but then Rollins will cash in on Night Two, upping the stakes, meaning they’ll now have to have more matches for the belt. Ladder match at Survivor Series doesn’t seem out of the question. Another two and a half star wonder.

Updates as to what that does to the graph as and when they happen.

All leading to Punk winning the Saudi Rumble and facing Rollins for the belt at Mania 42.

[tiger_rick]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

Total number of TV/PPV matches: 14

Matches featuring Seth as a wrestler/ref: 7

Matches featuring a Seth run-in or post-match attack: 2

(Dream) Matches that haven’t featured Seth at all: 5

 

Even Scott Steiner knows this maths is insane.

[gmoney]

On 6/25/2025 at 2:03 PM, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Jade has always struck me as someone who has been talked into wrestling rather than someone who really wanted to be a wrestler. She is Tom Magee 2.0 if you will, but there isn't a Bret to lead her in the match in either company.

I disagree with this assessment completely. If you follow her socials, I think it comes across the passion she has for the business completely. 

Maybe we've been spoiled recently by people coming in and clicking right away. I think people have forgotten that wrestling is fucking hard. It can take people many years to get good. She's only been at it a few and I don't think she's hopeless at all, she has had good matches here and there, she needs more reps. Maybe many more reps.

And the Van Hammer comparison is completely off. He might have looked good, but was a complete charisma vacuum. Jade has charisma by the bucket load. 

[Devon Malcolm]

6 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Shit, was @Devon Malcolm right all along?