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

[Supremo]

Featuring in an absolute nothing promo segment with Jey Uso, too. Bargain basement job of getting me excited for the match on Saturday. Every version of CM Punk up until as late as 2024 would be embarrassed. Frankly, the lack of effort put into it has all but confirmed there won’t be a winner and The Vision are running in.

Between CM Punk’s creative output dwindling by the week and Rusev and Malakai Black doing jobs like they’re going out of fashion, it’s enough to suggest maybe it’s less about AEW, “fumbling,” wrestlers. Evidence grows steadily that a large portion of wrestlers are just corporate losers who’ll happily do any old shite as long as they’re employed by the industry leader and get regular hugs from Papa H.

The most note-worthy thing on a completely skippable, filler show was how dangerously close Grande Americano felt to taking this company to their natural MAGA final form by chucking out a Nazi salute. It didn’t happen, but what a sad state of affairs it’s what I originally thought he was doing!

On the plus side, Penta wore a hat again. Always a winner.

Edited October 28, 2025 by Supremo

[theringmaster]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

For someone who mostly looked pretty good and genuinely cool the vast majority of his career...the absolute state of CM Punk on Raw. 

The Vince McMahon hair do, the God awful white hoodie, jogging bottoms and high white socks. What a berk. Between him and Jey Uso it looked like your least favourite uncles in fancy dress as two 12 year olds. 

I am one of them Punk 'Haters' but it blows my mind how sad Punk looks on a weekly basis, he has such a large fanbase who blindly love him they can't see it. I honestly think they just keep him round for merch sales and fu to AEW, he certainly doesn;t look like a 'superstar' in 2025.

[RedTwoster]

I suspect they’re going to do your typical WWE swerve. Tease a Jey Uso heel turn, then Punk turns heel instead. A better idea, but still pretty illogical to take that approach. You can just see Triple H on WWE Unreal, talking about how they pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, and how smart it is to make your audience think you’re doing one thing, before doing another.

That said, I thought it was another decent Raw. WWE and AEW seem to take turns at being good, and after a rough 2025, WWE is perfectly watchable at the moment. But they’re still failing to capitalise on things that seem fairly obvious. When Dirty Don was the most over heel in the company, they failed to have him feud with most of their biggest babyface characters. Now he’s getting loud babyface reactions, and they seem to be missing the fact that there’s big money in giving him that moment when he finally turns babyface. I hope they surprise me, and have him win the Rumble to take on a heel CM Punk for the World title at Wrestlemania. He’s one of the best things they have going right now, yet they seem not to care. 

And in spite of being good, WWE still feels more like a product than a TV show. It’s a strange thing to say, but it could do with some rough edges, or with taking some creative risks. Although AEW’s current storylines are uninspiring, they regularly try new things when it comes to how they tell their stories. I can’t remember the last time WWE has done something like that. I’d like to see them take more risks, rather than taking the safest possible route to solid television.

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

5 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I hope they surprise me, and have him win the Rumble to take on a heel CM Punk for the World title at Wrestlemania. He’s one of the best things they have going right now, yet they seem not to care. 

And in spite of being good, WWE still feels more like a product than a TV show. It’s a strange thing to say, but it could do with some rough edges, or with taking some creative risks. Although AEW’s current storylines are uninspiring, they regularly try new things when it comes to how they tell their stories. I can’t remember the last time WWE has done something like that. I’d like to see them take more risks, rather than taking the safest possible route to solid television.

 

That would be a nice parallel, if Dom won the Rumble 20 years after his dad won it. But only if they throw Randy Orton into the WrestleMania match at the last minute.

And I don't think the second part is a strange thing to say - it's one of the big reasons I really struggle to engage with modern WWE. The slickness, the smoothness of it all - it makes it feel less real, somehow? It's just all been worked out a bit too precisely, I guess. I can't quite describe what I mean... so maybe it is strange, actually.

[Chili]

Plus if you turn Punk heel, when Seth returns to a big pop you can run heel Punk against face Rollins.

[TheScarlettChad]

Heel Punk would be brilliant. It may actually light a fire up his arse. He loves being a heel doesn't he?

[mim731]

They're not turning Punk now, maybe later, but not now. He's a massive merch seller and that idea basically maroons AJ when she comes back, presumably in the coming weeks. 

Edited October 28, 2025 by mim731
Spelling (not witchcraft)

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Heel Punk would be brilliant. It may actually light a fire up his arse. He loves being a heel doesn't he?

He's very good at it. But no matter how much it would have made sense in AEW, he avoided it like the plague - I think he sees himself as the #1 guy and that's generally not going to be a heel.

[TildeGuy~!]

Looks likes Michael’s chin to me.

 

[Supremo]

On 10/27/2025 at 2:29 PM, Supremo said:

Plus, nothing would top off CM Punk’s year of humiliation more than working with Brock Lesnar.

Thank goodness the righteous man chose to not share a locker room with The Elite.

[The Gaffer]

That WrestleMania logo is miserable. It's like something from one of the Tony Hawk games nobody cared about. 

[RedTwoster]

8 hours ago, mim731 said:

They're not turning Punk now, maybe later, but not now. He's a massive merch seller and that idea basically maroons AJ when she comes back, presumably in the coming weeks. 

Presumably they’ll want to separate Punk and AJ on-screen at some point though. I don’t think her fate is intertwined with his, but even if it is, turning her heel might be something they’d do; on view to a Vaquer/AJ match at some point. But I could certainly see they keep her babyface and have him turn heel. 

As far as merchandise go, that’s not stopped them from turning Roman, Becky, Rollins, Cena and Rock recently, and you have a situation in which a Jey Uso heel turn is being teased as the alternative, and he sells more merchandise than even Punk does.

Edited October 28, 2025 by RedTwoster

[Hannibal Scorch]

11 hours ago, mim731 said:

They're not turning Punk now, maybe later, but not now. He's a massive merch seller and that idea basically maroons AJ when she comes back, presumably in the coming weeks. 

Roman was the top merch seller and he was a heel. I don’t think that matters to the fans of today.

[The King of Old School]

14 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Looks likes Michael’s chin to me.

 

Reigns vs Lesnar & Cody vs Punk confirmed.

[LaGoosh]

No women. Triple H in the dead centre for some reason. No one under the age of 40. Two part timers. Paul Heyman doing the same old shit he's been doing for over 15 years. A sex pest. A poker table with no playing cards. A song that came out in 1976. Everyone looking exhausted, completely knackered and bored.

What a promo!