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

[DavidB6937]

6 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I'd think it's swings and roundabouts. Trying to book people who have been around for so long, done everything and faced everyone must be a bit of a nightmare. Every idea you have for someone, they'll almost always have done.

Yeah I can get it's probably a bit more difficult, although once you have other new talent coming on board it should balance things out and present new opportunities, so the length of tenure should realistically only be an issue if they've all been round forever and everything's been done.

Sami should be an easy one - the world title pursuit. But if you're doing dumb booking where he's put against other talent who are strongly over and popular, you're just creating problems for yourself.

[tiger_rick]

3 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Yeah I can get it's probably a bit more difficult, although once you have other new talent coming on board it should balance things out and present new opportunities, so the length of tenure should realistically only be an issue if they've all been round forever and everything's been done.

Possibly for really top guys. Like a Randy Orton, maybe. Having Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu coming through, you might get excited by the thought of them facing Randy Orton in a bit of a cross-generation dream match. But would anyone ever think that about The Miz or AJ Styles or R-Truth, etc? So all you're doing is using these old guys to lose to the new guys. But the old guys have lost and lost and lost for decades now. So where's the rub?

I appreciate some of that is old man shouting at clouds because wins and losses really, really don't resonate with their audience, but I still think it's valid. Who is getting anything from beating someone who has been a loser for 10 years? I think that's been a problem for ages, masked by a year or two of success on the back of Reigns and Rhodes.

6 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Sami should be an easy one - the world title pursuit. But if you're doing dumb booking where he's put against other talent who are strongly over and popular, you're just creating problems for yourself.

I guess that only applies if you actually want to crown Sami Zayn. I love him. He's probably my favourite wrestler left there. But if they argued that his ship has sailed, I wouldn't disagree too much. There was a time when he was the most over thing in the company and they could have pulled a trigger. And even then, he wasn't THE choice. It was clearly always Reigns then Rhodes. So a few years down the line, is it even less likely that they think he's the guy?

[Supremo]

A promising episode for the We Hate Seth Club.

They name dropped Roman enough to suggest that maybe that’s the Summerslam feud/match and we might finally be free of any more Seth vs. Punk. Graphs at the ready.

The only times I’ve truly enjoyed Seth these last few years is when they’ve drilled down on The Shield lore, so fingers crossed that’s the direction going forward.

The renewed focus on Bron Breakker also suggests that maybe we won’t have to suffer two years of Seth’s Evolution tribute act. Maybe they’ve acknowledged how much Seth with Heyman doesn’t work, what an absolute Curtis Axel he is, so they’ll speed run a turn and break up for Bron and Heyman to go off on their own.

I’m very aware this might just be me coping though. There’s every chance Bron teasing tension and talking over Seth in the opening promo is just more of Hunter’s tired trope of every faction/tag team always having to tease endless ANIMOSITY.

Either way, this was the Bron Breakker show. For as little as I see in Seth, I see it all in Bron. He’s such a Steiner. The look. The voice. Freakishly athletic. Crazy levels of jock energy. Could kill you in seconds if you said the wrong thing near him. Intentionally funny. Equally unintentionally funny. He was hilarious complaining about fans cheering for Sami in the opening promo (“he doesn’t even play sports!”). He was equally as hilarious falling out of the ring and hanging upside down on the guardrail when chasing LA Knight at the end. He’s like Scott reincarnated. It’s ridiculous.

With any luck, everyone is thinking the same thing and we skip to the end with this doomed faction. We all know it’s coming. Hunter’s too much of a mark for himself for it to go any other way. Just cut out the interminable ten to twelve months nobody needs.

What I hope for at Summerslam.

What I think we’ll actually get at Summerslam.

Bonus thoughts…

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. I’ve never rated Corey Graves and took great joy watching his wobbler a few months back, but after an extended period of Pat McAfee stinking up the joint, going back to Graves has been a welcome change. Graves even made me laugh on this show, getting in on the El Grande Americano nonsense.

Cole: “…he doesn’t even have the same tattoos as the other version of Americano!”

Graves: “…people get tattoos removed all the time! I got a tattoo removed this morning!”

On that subject, I continue to love everything El Grande Americano. I don’t know if Ludwig Kaiser was doing it on purpose, but the shitter he was at pretending to be Gable, the better it became. He was positively crap. Maybe it’s my New Gen Binging showing but I’m bang up for El Grande Americano vs. El Grande Americano at Summerslam.

Cole and Graves also made me laugh trying to push all three of the weekend shows at the same time. Them trying to scream through them all, alongside their start times, as credits rolled, was hilariously desperate. “HERE IS ALL THE WRESTLING! ALL OF IT! IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE ANY MORE WRESTLING THIS WEEKEND! HONEST!”

You assume in retrospect they consider all this counter-programming an own goal. It’s diluted the Summerslam build, tickets haven’t sold, reports suggest it’s harmed backstage morale and I don’t think it’s made any difference whatsoever to AEW. My only hope is that a few women have been able to use the Casino Gauntlet as a negotiating tool and squeezed a few extra zeroes out of them before agreeing to appear in the Hush Money Battle Royale.

Fans chanting, “We Want Kross,” when he’s building heat on Sami Zayn. What has happened to the sport I love. Be careful what you wish for, kids. In my day we hijacked for proper wrestlers like Daniel Bryan.

Goldberg not even being trusted to hit a Spear in the build up. Man must be made of Peanut Dust at this point.

What a couple of weeks for Kairi Sane. First Zoey Starks gets injured wrestling her. Then Liv Morgan. Then, when you assume all the eyeballs are on her, she has an absolute stinker with Perez, screwing up everything. Either the unluckiest worker in the business or a certified shitarse.

Thoughts and prayers to the WWE die hards who used to moan about Orange Cassidy and Penta, now that the best spot in a Raw main event was a no-sold Buckle Powerbomb into a Mexican Destroyer.

LA Knight still over as fuck. YUEARGH!

But yeah. Main takeaway is Bron Breakker being the next big (funniest) thing. I’ll remember him getting stuck upside down for ages.

It was only the other day we were talking about Ahmed Johnson nearly falling out of the ring winning that Battle Royale. Wrestling needs wild nutters, almost too athletic for their own good. Wrestling Gods must read the UKFF. The second coming has arrived!

Edited July 9, 2025 by Supremo

[MVP RULZ]

Roman just blows everyone out the water doesn't he

His star power and aura are just unmatched in WWE right now I thought the roof was going to come off the place with the reaction he got 

Totally overshadowed CM Punk winning the title shot for Summerslam within a minute of him winning it.

Bron Breakker though showed he will be just fine without Seth being around for the time being and actually thought he was going to run the whole gauntlet at the end and Bron vs Gunther actually sounds more intriguing than Punk vs Gunther does

Edited July 15, 2025 by MVP RULZ

[d-d-d-dAz]

I had a scan of the show. Looked alright. Reeks of Rollins cashing in on Punk at Summerslam.

 

[DavidB6937]

17 minutes ago, MVP RULZ said:

Bron Breakker though showed he will be just fine without Seth being around for the time being and actually thought he was going to run the whole gauntlet at the end and Bron vs Gunther actually sounds more intriguing than Punk vs Gunther does

That has been part of the problem for me though with the group. Bron was already just fine without Seth. He was experiencing decent growth and organically getting over with crowds over the past however many months, so he was heading in the right direction anyway.

[The King of Old School]

Is Bron Romans Summerslam match then I presume?

Or are they going to dilute it and add Reed & Jey to make it a tag match?

[OzExile]

44 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Is Bron Romans Summerslam match then I presume?

Or are they going to dilute it and add Reed & Jey to make it a tag match?

You'd think they'd do two singles matches with two cards to fill.

Edited July 15, 2025 by OzExile

[I Bent My Wookie]

If they worked on making Nikki Bella botching the finish of her match into ring rust from being away for so long they'd do some good storytelling.

Show itself was good. Good post Evolution emphasis on the womens division especially as they seem a bit frantic on the men's side if Rollins is/isn't injured.

It does feel like he's gonna cash in on Punk though if its only a short term injury. Have Punk run through his goons until he can yet again get his hands on him.

[Supremo]

Solid show.

Funny how they did a speed run of announcing Summerslam matches, as if they suddenly realised the show is only two weeks away. Like a kid rushing to do their homework on the bus to school on Monday morning. Maybe don’t waste half your Summer Holidays trying to counter-program next year.

Quite cool the way the first ninety minutes of the show was almost exclusively segments and matches featuring the women. You’d like to think some lessons were learnt from Evolution, but I doubt it. The tropes were still there. Adam Pearce back in the Mr. Belding role, having to deal with these silly little girls and their childish squabbles, sending them to Detention (another Triple Threat match).

I could have done without Naomi’s, “LOL, don’t even know what you just said,” line, regarding Iyo’s broken English. Perhaps not as bad as the Carlito one last year, but do we really need characters written by fucking Michael Hayes, Road Dogg and Hunter saying shit like this?

AJ Styles as the backstage meme daftie is the best use of AJ Styles in about five to ten years. Long may it continue.

Nice for Roman to come back to work. However, “TC1,” is the shittest nickname of all time. Sounds like a Star Wars droid. If Seth is injured, I’m not sure where Roman fits in for Summerslam. As much I rate Breakker, that still feels like a huge step down right now. Maybe they’ll do the shock clean win to strap a rocket to Bron, similar to Brock beating The Rock in 2002.

Good Gauntlet Main Event, and I’m absolute ecstatic that CM Punk is finally in a Meat and Potatoes World Title match that he can sink his teeth into, but yeah. You could smell it. Seth’s likely cashing in at Summerslam.

More Seth vs. Punk.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Did I miss a meeting? When did gauntlet matches become No DQ? 

[Merzbow]

Roman posting like a robot to say he's on tonight's RAW.

 

[RedTwoster]

A decent episode of Raw on the whole.

The fact they continue to dance around putting any sort of timeline - even a vague one - on Rollins returning has me highly suspicious that he’ll be cashing in at Summerslam. Whatever the case, his return will almost certainly involve cashing in that briefcase somewhere, some place. 

While I get the appeal of Jey and Roman teaming, I’d have preferred to see Roman and Breakker in a singles match. It’s about time that Bron was given a big singles win over someone significant, and pinning Reigns at Summerslam would have been huge for him. 

Punk/Gunther was fine, although Punk just standing there as Gunther insulted him was a bit weird. Compare that to his feuds against Eddie Kingston, MJF and Drew McIntyre in which he and his opponents were interrupting one another constantly in a very plausible way. It still feels like ‘early days’ for that feud, but Summerslam is only two weeks away, and it’s not hit the level of intensity I’d have wanted.

I really enjoyed Sheamus/Rusev, they have great chemistry together and Sheamus continues to be the one of the most reliable wrestlers in the industry.

Same goes for Iyo Sky - I didn’t even mind that her match with Vaquer ended in a non-finish, it was great and really hooked me. Frankly, I’d much prefer to see Naomi/Sky/Ripley main event one of the two nights of Summerslam than either of the men’s world title matches.

[Supremo]

It doesn’t matter how many times they do it, it never gets any less jarring when they advertise the non-kayfabe documentaries on the show itself.

This might have been the craziest one ever. Literally in the same breath, Michael Cole was selling how Dragon Lee was disgusted with El Grade Americano disrespecting Lucha Libre, then encouraging the audience to get a glimpse into the WWE’s writers room in the upcoming documentary series, WWE Unreal, debuting on Netflix next week. It’s bonkers. The equivalent of watching a Summer Blockbuster and within the film itself a character turns to the camera and remarks, “amazing CGI, isn’t it?”

A bit of a lifeless show. I can scarcely remember much that happened. I ended up playing Death Stranding 2 whilst it was on in the background. Death Stranding 2 rules. I’m hooked on building roads.

Counter-programming AEW All In Texas really feels like it’s fucked the Summerslam build. Everything feels rushed and half baked. Even the graphics look like something the contestants on The Apprentice would put together, forced to rush everything late one evening, so Alan Sugar can call them a bunch of dickheads. Look at the state of it! Hideous! You’re fired!

One of the great tragedies is that Roman Reigns finally got over as a top babyface at the exact same time that he stopped giving a shit and mentally checked out. The man is done. Brock levels of cashing in, ten appearances per year. Considering it was only a year ago when the Second Coming of Roman as an earnestly-received babyface felt like the most exciting thing in the world, it’s mad how far he’s fallen and how much I don’t care. Wrestling a shitty tag match against The Bronson Bunch is not what I would have imagined for his Summerslam match. What has happened to my Tribal Chief?

Perhaps plans had to change and he was originally supposed to face Seth Rollins, but I don’t buy it. Everything suggests Seth’s injury is a partial work and he’s cashing in on Punk at Summerslam. At this point, the most surprising thing would be if he didn’t cash in and CM Punk went an entire feud and pay per view cycle without interacting with Seth. My hopes are not high.

Maybe people aren’t ready to hear it yet, but Solo should have beaten Roman on the Netflix debut. These days, I get far more enjoyment out of Solo’s daft heel character than I get out of Roman. Solo’s a right hoot on Smackdown.

”What is the charge? Having some banter? Some succulent turtleneck banter?”

Edited July 22, 2025 by Supremo

[air_raid]

On 7/15/2025 at 10:34 AM, The King of Old School said:

Is Bron Romans Summerslam match then I presume?

Or are they going to dilute it and add Reed & Jey to make it a tag match?

I actually saw some people clamouring for this tag match on Twatter, despite the 15 Million Dollar Man being absent for half the year and wrestling one singles match on telly all year. I don’t get it.

On 7/15/2025 at 11:18 AM, OzExile said:

You'd think they'd do two singles matches with two cards to fill.

Did you see the WrestleMania cards?

On 7/15/2025 at 9:50 PM, Snitsky's back acne said:

Did I miss a meeting? When did gauntlet matches become No DQ? 

They did what now?? Umm, yeah, you disqualify the guy and the next comes in. It’s not hard. I’m almost scared to ask.

Plus I only just noticed “Undisputed” back on the WWE Championship match graphic despite Roman simply being “The WWE Champion” on the Mania 41 graphic.

How ? can ? it ? be ? undisputed ? when ? there ? are ? two ? titles ? 

Edited July 22, 2025 by air_raid
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