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

[RedTwoster]

16 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

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!

I was about to say the exact same thing - they’ve seen fit to showcase a man with the kind of allegations against him as Lesnar has, yet there’s not any representation of their biggest female stars. Would adding Tiffany Stratton, Stephanie Vaquer, Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley to this have been too ‘woke’ for them? In their efforts to cozy up to the Trump administration, I can’t help but wonder if this was a deliberate choice rather than simply a dumb one.

Edited October 29, 2025 by RedTwoster

[MVP RULZ]

13 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I was about to say the exact same thing - they’ve seen fit to showcase a man with the kind of allegations against him as Lesnar has, yet there’s not any representation of their biggest female stars. Would adding Tiffany Stratton, Stephanie Vaquer, Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley to this have been too ‘woke’ for them? In their efforts to cozy up to the Trump administration, I can’t help but wonder if this was a deliberate choice rather than simply a dumb one.

I think it's a huge stretch to link it to Trump in anyway I mean It's a promo for a wrestling show do you really think anyone In the Trump administration gives too hoots about this advert or is even going to see it, pretty sure they've bigger things to worry about than being concerned that a promo for a wrestling show featured Women playing poker.

It's clearly just a dumb choice and they've gone with what they see as the 4 biggest stars/names they think they have 

Or maybe there is to be a female version with the 4 you mentioned featured in it released at some point.

 

[LaGoosh]

12 minutes ago, MVP RULZ said:

It's clearly just a dumb choice and they've gone with what they see as the 4 biggest stars/names they think they have

You're forgetting, of course, the biggest star they have. The main character of the whole show. Triple H!

[Chili]

They should do a version with their four top women but Stephanie is in the Triple H bit and all the women have Triple H's head.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, MVP RULZ said:

I think it's a huge stretch to link it to Trump in anyway I mean It's a promo for a wrestling show do you really think anyone In the Trump administration gives too hoots about this advert or is even going to see it, pretty sure they've bigger things to worry about than being concerned that a promo for a wrestling show featured Women playing poker.

It's clearly just a dumb choice and they've gone with what they see as the 4 biggest stars/names they think they have 

Or maybe there is to be a female version with the 4 you mentioned featured in it released at some point.

 

Trump is a president who is seeking to distract from anything that isn’t the Epstein files, rallying against diversity and anything that can be regarded as even slightly progressive. They have ties to the Trump administration, so they last thing they’ll want to do is air something anywhere that grifters could perceive as being woke. So how do you do that? You make the top of your card as white and as male-led as you possibly can. You reduce or remove the LGBT representation on your card. You avoid using Hispanic wrestlers in a prominent way. 

You take individual steps to make sure your company represents the version of America that MAGA views as ideal. It’s not conspiratorial or a stretch to suggest companies are doing that - plenty are, including Disney and Ubisoft. This is a corrupt administration who is willing to scratch the back of anyone that represents the Trumpian views and ideals. So yeah, I think it’s very likely that they’re making conscious choices right down to the granular level in order to do that.

Perhaps they will release a version containing female wrestlers, perhaps they won’t - either way, it doesn’t change the fact that you can and should analyse many of their decisions through a bleak, MAGA-appeasing lens.

Edited October 29, 2025 by RedTwoster

[The Gaffer]

Not only are my extremely confident that this company have weighed up the optics of not having women on the poster and have decided to intentionally run with it, but I reckon there were multiple board meetings, calls with high up stakeholders, an affirmative tête a tête with BookGPT and probably a half dozen 4 AM summons to the conference table so Road Dogg, Bobby Roode and those other extras could watch Paul Levesque chew his way through Starbucks straws with Creamfields zeal and all agree that fuck the woke brigade, we're running with this. 

[BomberPat]

20 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

 BookGPT 

Booker GPT would make about as much sense as Booker T on commentary, tbf.

I don't think something as simplistic as a poster or ad campaign would have anything directly to do with their political connections to Trump, but it's more indicative of the cultural context - they no longer feel the need to pay lip service to the idea of being inclusive, so they don't bother. That has something to do with the soft power of the Trump regime, but it doesn't mean WWE are pandering to Trump, or that people in Trump's orbit are dictating to WWE, it's just capitalism - it's Target stopping selling Pride merch when Trump got back in.

[Chico Torres]

When I was a kid the appeal of WWF was larger than life colourful characters and now it’s a bunch of middle aged MAGA dads which is probably why kids don’t watch wrestling any more. Roblox more appealing than midlife crisis.

[CTXRussomark]

2 hours ago, MVP RULZ said:

Or maybe there is to be a female version with the 4 you mentioned featured in it released at some point.

This was my immediate assumption and I'd be surprised if that doesn't turn out to be the case.  As soon as I saw it I started thinking what the equivalent women's ad would look like, rather than thinking they were just actively being excluded.  I could very well be wrong of course, but I have no issue if that turns out to be the case. 

The most egregious part for me by far is the inclusion of Triple H.  He's got to be actively trolling at this point - there's zero reason for him to be there other than ego.  He's not an active character and isn't (and I'm assuming won't be) involved in any storylines with the others.  Completely shameless. 

[LaGoosh]

Even on an aesthetic level, how does the poster create any excitement or intrigue or fun? It's a bunch of old blokes sitting around a table in the dark looking bored out of their minds.

Erm...yay?

[Chico Torres]

[Supremo]

Wrestled one nine minute match in two years. Looks knackered. Some folks can’t handle the grind.

Edited October 29, 2025 by Supremo

[Callum1993]

 

47 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Wrestled one nine minute match in two years. Looks knackered. Some folks can’t handle the grind.

Giving Shadrach Dingle vibes 

[mim731]

13 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

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

 

15 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

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.

Fair point on the merch thing lads, I suppose being a heel is not as much a barrier to sales as in previous eras. 

15 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

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. 

While I agree in the long term, I think she has been on screen so few times since her return that I think her future is 100% entwined to Punks' for the short term. He has "AJ's Husband" merch, for example. They would definitely need to spend some more time establishing her on her own before separating them and then just not having them interact, it would be a very weird choice and I can't see them going for it. 

Do I think they'll tease a Punk turn? Sure, if he loses and keeps getting close to his goal but never quite managing it there's a great story for a Cody/Punk as he becomes desperate and then you can estrange AJ from him onscreen, and have him go after his "friend". Doing the turn now makes no sense at all. 

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

While I agree in the long term, I think she has been on screen so few times since her return that I think her future is 100% entwined to Punks' for the short term. He has "AJ's Husband" merch, for example. They would definitely need to spend some more time establishing her on her own before separating them and then just not having them interact, it would be a very weird choice and I can't see them going for it. 

You could still have them interact, one backstage segment with ‘I love you, but I don’t agree with what you’re doing’ would be enough. Equally though, they could have her come out to challenge Becky Lynch and have her say words to that effect without ever having them interact on screen. If I was WWE, I’d move on with her.