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

[Briefcase]

I might be completely off the mark here as I only really catch WWE through various online snippets but Oba Femi doing open challenges really feels generic and a typical boring WWE thing to do. He's still new and arguably wasn't a star until he went over Brock and now he's doing open challenges a week later?

I am sure this will lead to an angle (BROCK RETURNS or Gunther etc) but he's still a rookie himself, just comes across as lazy booking.

[The King of Old School]

Yep, made the prediction after he beat Brock that there was nowhere to go and he would go back to throwing scrubs like Waller and The Miz around for a few months again.

Crowds will be cold on him before long.

[DavidB6937]

Ah yes let's just write the guy off completely already after a couple of weeks after Mania.

[The King of Old School]

2 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Ah yes let's just write the guy off completely already after a couple of weeks after Mania.

It's not writing him off to be fair.

He needed something to get his teeth into after dominating Brock, instead they have just gone down the most boring, generic route you can think of.

Answering open challengers to losers like Waller, Kingston, Rusev, El Grande Americano and whoever else just isn't going to cut it unfortunately. 

[DavidB6937]

15 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

It's not writing him off to be fair.

He needed something to get his teeth into after dominating Brock, instead they have just gone down the most boring, generic route you can think of.

Answering open challengers to losers like Waller, Kingston, Rusev, El Grande Americano and whoever else just isn't going to cut it unfortunately. 

You've literally said "Crowds will be cold on him before long". So you have written him off because you're suggesting they don't care enough about him to continue being interested in him.

And you're saying that after a couple of weeks, so again that shows no faith in him or the connection with the audience at all.

That's also without knowing where they go with the open challenge. There's always interesting routes to go with it as we've seen with Cena and Hayes etc. They often manage to get storylines out of it rather than just a 100% prolonged open challenge against "scrubs" and "losers".

They've got behind a new guy. They've given him a big opportunity which hit really well. Why aren't we willing to see where it goes rather than calling it shit after an insanely short period of time?

[The King of Old School]

57 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

You've literally said "Crowds will be cold on him before long". So you have written him off because you're suggesting they don't care enough about him to continue being interested in him.

And you're saying that after a couple of weeks, so again that shows no faith in him or the connection with the audience at all.

They won't continue to be interested in him if that's the level of opposition each week, ridiculous to go from "retiring" Brock to that lot. I would blame the company over him though, only so much you can do as a performer in that scenario.

59 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

That's also without knowing where they go with the open challenge. There's always interesting routes to go with it as we've seen with Cena and Hayes etc. They often manage to get storylines out of it rather than just a 100% prolonged open challenge against "scrubs" and "losers".

Cena and Hayes ones were totally different, Cena was facing all sorts to give them a chance against "the best of all time" as they like to call him, who was slowing down in his career, while Hayes was facing people of similar ability to him who could beat him at any time.

Oba has just storyline retired Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania, there isn't anyone, Gunther aside who can answer this open challenge and look like a threat in my opinion.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

They've got behind a new guy. They've given him a big opportunity which hit really well. Why aren't we willing to see where it goes rather than calling it shit after an insanely short period of time?

Just my opinion on what will happen going forward with them going down this route, I really hope you can quote me on this in a couple of months highlighting how wrong I was as I think Oba Femi has ridiculous potential if handled right.

[BomberPat]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but it does seem like "beating and seemingly retiring Brock Lesnar" should be the end result of a prolonged push of taking on all-comers, not something that happens before you start wrestling midcarders. Short of hotshotting him into the title picture and risking Rybacking him, I don't know how you keep up that momentum of such a huge win over Lesnar, though, is there anyone else around that level that would have made sense? Maybe Gunther could have picked a fight with him because he had wanted to be the one to retire Brock or something?

[mim731]

 

58 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I don't have a dog in this fight, but it does seem like "beating and seemingly retiring Brock Lesnar" should be the end result of a prolonged push of taking on all-comers, not something that happens before you start wrestling midcarders. Short of hotshotting him into the title picture and risking Rybacking him, I don't know how you keep up that momentum of such a huge win over Lesnar, though, is there anyone else around that level that would have made sense? Maybe Gunther could have picked a fight with him because he had wanted to be the one to retire Brock or something?

While I agree with all of this, I'm somewhat willing to give them a few weeks to get to whatever the point of this open challenge is, if there is indeed a point.

If it's just him squashing midcarders I think it's clear there's not a well defined plan, but if in 2-3 weeks there's something of substance to come out of it then perhaps they have something in mind.

I genuinely hope it's the latter simply because otherwise it seems a massive waste to put him over Lesnar at this stage to then do fuck all with him.

Edited April 28 by mim731
Spelling (not witchcraft)

[FUM]

28 minutes ago, Ralphy said:

In terms of oba Femi, maybe they are going to do a Goldberg style streak? I personally wouldn't want to see it though as I simply prefer actual matches and I feel Oba would learn more by having proper matches 

He’s already lost multiple times in NXT.

[RedTwoster]

4 hours ago, The King of Old School said:

It's not writing him off to be fair.

He needed something to get his teeth into after dominating Brock, instead they have just gone down the most boring, generic route you can think of.

Answering open challengers to losers like Waller, Kingston, Rusev, El Grande Americano and whoever else just isn't going to cut it unfortunately. 

I suppose it depends on what the end result is. I fully expect him to become World Champion soon, so my guess is that either Roman Reigns or Cody Rhodes eventually responds to the challenge, setting up a match at Summerslam. Either that, or Brock Lesnar returns, setting up a rematch…or Brock Lesnar’s music hits, only for a laughing Gunther to saunter to the ring. 

[Supremo]

From the outside looking in, it does feel like the Brock match at Wrestlemania was a late decision and we’re now getting what they always had planned for Oba, which is the typical Goldberg/Ryback slow climb up the ranks, wrecking everyone until he gets to the top.

I don’t see what the big problem is though. This stuff always works. The pop when he eventually interrupts and stares down Roman or Cody will still be humongous.

Watching him here, the only real difference is that the win over Brock exists a bit like when you pay extra in WWE2K to have a Career Booster, giving you extra stats at the start. He’s doing exactly what he should be doing considering his age and tenure on the main roster, only with the added bonus of being far more over than most people at this point in their run, with a brilliant calling card that he retired Brock. Any suggestion that the crowd will cool on him is nonsense. He’s got the whole arena doing that brilliant strut!

Solid Raw.

Knowing how this company works, hearing those, “We Want Kairi,” chants, I reckon they’ll bottle it and bring her back. A mysterious, masked figure in a black hoodie will interfere in the Asuka vs. Iyo match at Backlash, immediately unmasking to reveal Kairi Sane. She’ll immediately fizzle out and do nothing. Despite it making no sense before, during or after, Triple H will try to play it off as all part of the show.

I reckon it was a specific choice to not have Seth and Bron get physical. Probably the most cursed pairing of two wrestlers in years.

Put together a year ago to re-hash Triple H and Batista, you first had Seth injure himself, forcing them to pull the trigger early on the turn, then Bron injure himself, forcing them to miss the Wrestlemania Season, and now ever since they’ve been healthy enough to interact physically it’s been a disaster every time!

Bron’s supposed Wrestlemania Moment when he tries to run down the aisle and Spear Seth goes wrong and he ends up just spearing his shins. Then the next night on Raw, Seth attempts to deliver a bog-standard chair to the back, but somehow smashes the back of Bron’s skull open. You could see the staples in the back of Bron’s head on this show. Lord only knows where Seth’s black eye came from. I assume Bron potatoed him just shaking hands earlier in the morning.

Knowing their rhythms, I’d expect they do a Bron vs. Seth Trilogy over the Summer, likely leading to Seth vs. Roman at Summerslam, but considering their bad luck and combined ability to be both injury prone and stupidly dangerous, I don’t imagine either Seth or Bron will make it out of this feud in one piece.

Still, nice to see Roman Reigns, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso form the new, fresh, exciting faction called, “The First Family.”

[Supremo]

“Cheeky bastards asked me to take a pay cut. I told them to shove it up their arse and cancelled all my June dates.”

”I voluntarily took the 50% pay cut. I am also now covering all your June dates.”

[The King of Old School]

So the first person to answer Oba Femi's open challenge was.... Otis.

Someone who has wrestled on Raw 4 times in the past year.

How on earth are people meant to buy him as a threat to Oba Femi when he has just "retired" Brock?

Going to get dull very quickly these open challenges if that's the calibre of opponent they are wheeling out.

Ivar or Erik next?

[DavidB6937]

Putting Oba against big opponents where they can showcase his impressive strength etc? 

It was hardly about Otis being viewed as a threat overall. He's just a big bloke! They're getting some good highlight clips etc. The crowd loved it.

I mean it's no surprise you didn't like it as you didn't like the idea before they started it, so it was never going to win you over was it? You already thought it was dull when they'd announced it.

And hey, if he wants to throw around Ivar then I'm all for it. Showcase what brought him to the table. Get loads more clips of him throwing people around and smacking the shit out of them and making him look dominant because that's exactly what he should be.

He doesn't have to go straight from Lesnar to a title match to be successful. Oba is doing what Oba does and people will either love it and continue to support him or they won't.

 

[The King of Old School]

10 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I mean it's no surprise you didn't like it as you didn't like the idea before they started it, so it was never going to win you over was it? You already thought it was dull when they'd announced it.

Course it can win me over, happy to be won over or proved wrong about anything. Not a great start in my opinion though, you loved it, fair enough.

 

13 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

He doesn't have to go straight from Lesnar to a title match to be successful. Oba is doing what Oba does and people will either love it and continue to support him or they won't.

Don't think he needed to go straight into a title match.

Gunther was right there though with nothing to do, think them two belting the shit out of each other for a few months leading to a big match would have been much better than an open challenge against folk who rarely appear on TV.

Probably terrified of having either lose a match though to why they didn't go down that route.