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

[d-d-d-dAz]

I mean in defence of Punk (sort of), I suspect he thinks about this a lot less than us. He even talks about how rich he is in promo's. Cosseted Millionaire Punk.

[Supremo]

Rhea and Jade arguing over who spends more time in the writer’s room. Cody and Randy feuding over how much Pat misses the Attitude Era because everything is shit now, actually. Roman and Punk bickering over Roman being a part-time nepo baby, and the ticket prices being too high. Becky and AJ banging on about the Divas Title and AJ leaving the company the first time.

My theory is the very reason Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi is the hottest thing heading into Wrestlemania is because they’ve had to keep it pure and simple. All the baggage surrounding Brock, he’s the one man they can’t build a wanky worked shoot around. The massive, piss-covered elephant in the room has actually been a benefit because it’s forced them to write some proper, basic, surface-level fiction that doesn’t require extensive Wrestling Observer knowledge. And what do you know, it’s the best thing they’ve got going right now.

You’d hope the penny drops for Hunter and he realises how dreadful all this insider scripting is, but from what I’ve seen the only light bulb that’s gone off in his head is, “this feud is hot, I’ll make sure I’m featured as much as possible.”

Edited April 8 by Supremo

[JLM]

Yup, two big unstoppable bastards are gonna have a big unstoppable bastard fight. Oba is so incredibly over, it’s infectious to watch. 

I also thought this was tremendous: 

https://www.threads.com/@xgaysmrx/post/DW0EB6BgkKC?xmt=AQF0GzZ6cg25osF7xTdJVOvzn7hMeaD_IeUTKyxLYXw8C-I5_ZOe9cYp9DRYKpHeZJwE30BX&slof=1

I bloody love Asuka. 

Edited April 8 by JLM

[Lorne Malvo]

The CM Punk promo has been all over my Facebook feed for some reason, despite the fact I don't follow any wrestling-based accounts. But watching a couple of clips, it did hit me exactly who WWE is booking for nowadays; it's those Youtube reaction-type people who upload clips of them watching promos whilst wearing their replica belts and who come out with stuff like "CM Punk is cooking with this promo!"

I went down a rabbithole yesterday of watching these people and it's quite the summation of WWE that they're only ever reacting to promos and backstage segments, and never the actual matches themselves. Which lead me to question, what's the point of watching wrestling if the actual match is the least important part of the package? Pardon the analogy, but modern WWE seems to be all foreplay and edging and no climax.

[BomberPat]

there's a clip going around of someone filming Dave Meltzer on their phone at a WWE show, and mocking him for "paying attention to the match". Imagine spending the kind of money WWE charges for those tickets, and not paying attention to the matches, let alone spending your time filming an old bloke in the crowd.

Whenever people talk about WWE being "cinema", or freak out over angles and promos and flat out talk about how the wrestling is the least important part, I just want to ask them, "have you ever seen a movie? Have you heard of TV?". Surely your time would be better spent watching almost anything else if the wrestling doesn't matter.

[Chili]

3 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

there's a clip going around of someone filming Dave Meltzer on their phone at a WWE show, and mocking him for "paying attention to the match". Imagine spending the kind of money WWE charges for those tickets, and not paying attention to the matches, let alone spending your time filming an old bloke in the crowd.

Whenever people talk about WWE being "cinema", or freak out over angles and promos and flat out talk about how the wrestling is the least important part, I just want to ask them, "have you ever seen a movie? Have you heard of TV?". Surely your time would be better spent watching almost anything else if the wrestling doesn't matter.

Someone can let me know because I might be not with the times, but what star rating does Meltzer give ring entrances.

[gmoney]

Knowing Meltzer he'll just have been using the stopwatch app. 

[TheScarlettChad]

7 hours ago, BomberPat said:

there's a clip going around of someone filming Dave Meltzer on their phone at a WWE show, and mocking him for "paying attention to the match". Imagine spending the kind of money WWE charges for those tickets, and not paying attention to the matches, let alone spending your time filming an old bloke in the crowd.

Whenever people talk about WWE being "cinema", or freak out over angles and promos and flat out talk about how the wrestling is the least important part, I just want to ask them, "have you ever seen a movie? Have you heard of TV?". Surely your time would be better spent watching almost anything else if the wrestling doesn't matter.

There's a weirdly huge segment of WWE fans who aren't wrestling fans. It's absolutely bizarre. 

[Kamran]

It's the final Raw before WrestleMania, they've not announced any matches but we do have...

 

 

Oh and Liv has released a music video:

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Watching Oba display more all-round potential at 27 than possibly anyone they've ever had, you do think; what a lucky bag of bastards this company is.

Their Mania has come completely off the rails; Punk and Roman is a directionless mess; Cody and Orton is worst... and yet, they've got a hot hand with Oba, and could be about to crown the next 'guy' this weekend, meaning this could be one of the most important and consequential Mania's generally.

Oba/Brock should headline a night, really. But, if Oba squashes him, doing it free on ESPN could be a clever move, I guess.

Funny that Oba could be a main event star for TWENTY YEARS from now, and still only be CM Punk's age.

Edited April 14 by d-d-d-dAz

[Supremo]

Would anyone really be shocked if Brock Lesnar wins clean?

[The King of Old School]

10 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Would anyone really be shocked if Brock Lesnar wins clean?

I'd be amazed if he doesn't to be honest.

Seen him do an interview recently saying this run would be a short one, I think he wins and faces someone to retire in his home town at Summerslam, probably Gunther.

Oba Femi in the meantime, they will pretend it never really happened and just go back to him throwing the Miz and JD around for 6 months while the fans go cold on him.

[d-d-d-dAz]

9 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Would anyone really be shocked if Brock Lesnar wins clean?

I guess anything could happen, but fucking hell.

It wasn't blind hyperbole when I said I think Oba has more potential than anyone they've ever had. I think I mean it.

In terms of out-of-the-box, ready-to-go, main event superstar potential I think he's almost without peer. Maybe Orton was the last one they had? Where you just look at them, and think 'oh, yeah... megastar'. He looks and sounds perfect, even in promo segments. 

[Friday]

I think you have Oba destroy Brock. No need for a twenty minute classic. Just two big meaty men slappin' meat. Then you have Brock put over Oba the next night on Raw and you shortly start a feud where Gunther retires Brock at Summerslam. 

 

I don't think there's a rush to push Oba right to the main event though. You don't want him winning the big one in Saudi. So give him a long IC title reign, never have him lose before it's title vs title at Mania 44.

[DavidB6937]

Oba winning is the most obvious and wise move for the future of the company.

So obviously Brock will win.

Shenanigans maybe? Heyman getting involved? Who knows. But I have zero faith that Oba goes over clean in the way he should do.

I'll obviously be pleasantly surprised if he does, and to be fair it probably comes down to Heyman/Lesnar at this point. Brock is fully capable of putting people over when he wants to, so it just depends how they're feeling about him really.

It's the one match that really feels like WrestleMania and the energy levels where it should be.

Everything else is either an unnecessary mess or just not quite hit the spot - see the last awkward weirdly calm and silent promo between Punk/Reigns for example. No idea what they were trying to achieve there but completely missed the mark of hitting a crescendo right before Mania. Odd approach to say the least. I mean sure, it's still Punk/Reigns at the end of the day, but in terms of attempting to sell it to people who aren't convinced yet? Weird.