Henry's World

 It's fair to say that Fight for the Fallen was set-up quite a bit behind the 8 ball. For starters, it was taking place outdoors in Jacksonville, in the midst of summer, no less. Just to put that into perspective, it's currently 87 degrees Fahrenheit in Jacksonville currently, and the calendar hasn't even turned to April yet. I don't know what kind of heat they were dealing with for this show, but whatever it was, I certainly wouldn't volunteer to be out in it for over 4 hours, whether as a fan or as a performer. That runtime was another issue, as was the fact that Fight for the Fallen was taking place just 2 weeks after Fyter Fest. That meant there was only room for a single episode of Being the Elite for the build, plus a few Road to... videos, nowhere near enough time to add much in terms of stakes or hype. But if there's one thing I've learned in all my years watching the WWE, it's that wrestling companies tend to function best in the face of adversa...

 We've got one more AEW show to cover before All Out in Fight for the Fallen. It only got two weeks of build, so the main card hasn't exactly gotten a lot of hype manufactured for it, but that's not a problem for the Buy In, which tends to consist of thrown together matches for it anyway. Certainly, "thrown together" is the correct term for this one, the two matches AEW decided to showcase here are about as awkward as any I've seen from this company.  - Woof, that logo is ugly. I know, I know, it's just a free preview show and the fact that logos are even designed for these Buy Ins is a level of added legitimacy that other companies don't have, but it still looks awful. This Buy In comes to you from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, with Alex Marvez and Excalibur on the call. I wasn't a fan of Marvez at Double or Nothing, but I thought he was fine here, though that might be because the action in the ring slowed down to match his muted sty...

 AEW had a lot of time to fill between their inaugural effort on pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, and their grand return to the Sears Centre in Chicago for All Out in August. So they booked two more cards, both taking place in what has essentially become their home state, Florida. Both shows have been named as homages to pop culture, beginning with Fyter Fest, a parody of the infamous Fyre Festival that took place about two years prior. Kenny Omega took the role of scam artist Billy McFarland, though his character leaned a bit more in the direction of bumbling fool than malicious fraudster. It did make sense for Omega to try and refocus after his defeat to Chris Jericho at Double or Nothing, though his assault at the hands of the debuting Jon Moxley was largely left out of the build. Kenny did get to show a lot more personality in the four episodes of Being the Elite setting this show up, but his story completely overshadowed any other hype that could've been built for the rest of ...

 Well, fortunately I've been able to solve the issues I was having watching AEW content, so I'm moving forward to do the reviews I wanted to do initially, starting with the Buy In for Fyter Fest 2019. It is weird that they're doing a free pre-show to convince people to watch a show that was also available for free, but I get the idea that AEW is trying to establish this as a consistent business model. And hey, the Buy In for Double or Nothing was really fun, I think AEW really nails how to deliver an hour of content that can be both entertaining and feel like a complete show all on it's own.  - On commentary for this Buy In are Excalibur, Call of Duty caster "Goldenboy" and BBC Radio DJ Logan Sama. Boy that is an eclectic group, and I'm not really sure how to feel about their performance. I mean, there was a lot more genuine enthusiasm then you got out of Alex Marvez, so at least that's an improvement, but there really wasn't much chemistry here, a...

 With many events from this time period missing matches, I've decided to jump forward two years, from the first Wrestle Kingdom to the third. By this time, New Japan's Tokyo Dome show had been completely invaded by members of other promotions, most notably TNA, who had basically become the American version of New Japan by this point. Say what you will about that decision, or the call to put the IWGP title on Keiji Mutoh, who was nearing 50 and only appearing sporadically in New Japan, but from the attendance numbers, it seemed like this trick was working. According to Dave Meltzer, the attendance for Wrestle Kingdom 3 was up 50% from two years prior. You could chalk that increase of interest up to the working agreements in place with TNA, All Japan, CMLL and others, but some credit should go to the main event, featuring Mutoh defending against his protegee, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Since our last trip to the Dome, Tana was defeated by Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event of Wrestle Ki...

 Since it's founding in 1972, New Japan Pro Wrestling, or Shin Nihon Puroresu in Japanese, quickly became the standard bearer for wrestling in the country. Antonio Inoki, founder and top star, played a massive role in legitimizing the new company, thrilling audiences with his brand of "strong style", putting on wars with the likes of Bill Robinson, Karl Gotch, Seiji Sakaguchi and Andre the Giant. In the eighties, junior heavyweight wrestling began to rise in popularity thanks to the battles between the Dynamite Kid and the first Tiger Mask, and in the nineties, the company produced new stars for a new generation, as the "Three Musketeers" of Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto were set to lead New Japan forward towards the new millennium. It's during this era that they formed a partnership with World Championship Wrestling in the States, with a supershow between the two in 1993 being New Japan's first foray into hosting an annual event in th...

 I realize I've already written a blog update just a few days ago, but I have more to say and I want to clue you in, so thus, this is basically a part two to that. In that update, I mentioned that I was considering between doing reviews for AEW, New Japan and Impact, to cover for the loss of the WWE Network library. At the end of yesterday's WrestleMania 19 review, I said I was moving forward covering AEW, starting back up at Fyter Fest, and so I've been watching the episodes of BTE and Road to... for that show, in addition to starting to watch the Buy In for it's own review.  I've gotta be honest, I'm not really feeling it. Something about AEW's style of comedy and wrestling just doesn't appeal to me, at least not right now, but my bigger issue is with their distributor, Bleacher Report Live. The platform is just a mess, it gave me a massive headache during my Double or Nothing review after I closed my browser mid-playback, which resulted in me struggli...