Henry's World

 As the New Generation drew to a close and the Attitude Era kicked into high gear, the annual King of the Ring tournament continued to decrease in importance for the WWF. Long gone were the days of ring technicians like Bret and Owen Hart, who were able to tell nuanced, show-long storylines with unique match-ups as they advanced through each round. 1999 saw the most irrelevant "King" crowned in Billy Gunn, who's push up the card immediately stalled in a one-sided feud with The Rock, so it's fair to say that the tournament no longer carried with it the promise of creating a new main event star in the winner. But the departures of some of WCW's standout midcarders had the potential to breathe new life into King of the Ring, as the field was now more stacked than it ever had been before. The 2000 edition featured 32 competitors, whittling all the way down to 8 to start this night, with those remaining featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero...

 As seen in my reviews of the Royal Rumble and No Way Out , the WWF was en fuego to open the new millennium. The Rock was blossoming into a bone fide megastar, the tag division was in the process of producing three of the greatest dual acts in wrestling history (Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz), the midcard had been bolstered by WCW defectors like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero, not to mention the recent arrival of Kurt Angle, and the WWF Championship opened the year with two frenetic and enthralling title contests between champion Triple H and challenger Cactus Jack, the unhinged alter ego of Mick Foley that brought a new level of violence to the Attitude Era. The table was set for what would surely be one of the most stacked WrestleMania cards ever, capped off with Triple H, now solidified as a truly monstrous top heel, facing off with the Royal Rumble winner, The Rock. The path to the mecca of pro wrestling seemed simple enough, just let...

 The first annual Backlash pay-per-view represents the end of WWF's In Your House branding, which had existed as a subtitle for non-Big 5 events since May of 1995, largely being ignored by the company as 1998 went along, finally getting the axe after this night. It seems fit, then, that Backlash '99 was one of the best shows to carry the In Your House name, sending it out with a bang after a hard-hitting and entertaining night of action. The main event is a rematch of the WrestleMania closer, with Steve Austin now in the role of champion defending against The Rock, while the rapidly ascending Shane McMahon essentially took over his father's spot as a corrupt guest referee attempting to screw over the "Texas Rattlesnake". Shane's stellar performance against X-Pac at WrestleMania showed that he had even more potential than Vince as the detestable heel at the top of the card, and to ensure that Shane wouldn't be overshadowed, Vince began to lean face, as The ...

 I return to my WWE pay-per-view reviews today, where we now venture straight into the heart of the Attitude Era. Vince McMahon was making money hand over fist, and Raw slowly began to widen it's lead over Nitro in the "Monday Night Wars", an advantage that would virtually never be lost until WCW's closure. In theory, that should make this as good as it gets when it came to tuning into Vince's carnival house, but at least on pay-per-view, 1999 was really only successful when it came to making money. Major events throughout the year routinely disappointed, none more so than WrestleMania 15, which seemed to be set-up for failure from the very start. Outside of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's feud with The Rock, Mr. McMahon, and the various other members of the Corporation, no match or rivalry on the card how gotten much in the way of build. It seemed as if the strategy heading in was to just rely on the litany of rising stars across the roster, plus the re...

 There have been a lot of matches given away on "free TV" in WWE history, most notably the likes of the Kurt Angle/Brock Lesnar hour long Iron Man match in 2003, TLC 3 and 4 in 2001 and 2002, John Cena versus Shawn Michaels on Raw in London, and many more. It's a great way to offer loyal viewers extra content without having them make the commitment that comes with purchasing a single event. However, as Vince's company shifted towards the streaming landscape with the launch of the WWE Network, the biggest matches were almost exclusively reserved for events, since the price was no longer as steep. AEW is looking to reverse course on that, making more of their big matches available on Dynamite in the hopes of creating a steady viewership. That policy also carries over to Dark, apparently, as AEW decided to book an absolute barnburner for the second episode of their new YouTube show, a "Lights Out" match between Kenny Omega and Joey Janela. I'm guessing the ...

 AEW's foray onto national television got off to an astounding start, drawing well over a million viewers, while absolutely slaughtering NXT in the first week of the "Wednesday Night Wars", more than doubling NXT in the 18-34 demographic, a key result as that demo is what typically matters the most to advertisers. But that smashing success, and everything AEW had achieved to this point, does come with one major negative; the expectations were now set sky-high, and the new company would now be forced to find a way to match that hype on a weekly basis. There is a huge difference between planning a major supercard for months at a time, to then attempting to create a similarly appealing product each week, sometimes with only days to plan out an entire two hour show. Fortunately, it seemed like everyone involved in AEW had already considered this particular issue, and had multiple intriguing matches scheduled for the second episode of Dynamite already planned and being promote...