Henry's World

Handling the penultimate episode of a season can be tricky. On one hand, you have a show like BoJack Horseman, where the second to last episode is often soul-crushing and sometimes the true climax of the entire season. On the other hand, you have............this. This week, Cloak & Dagger gives us an exercise in how not to do a penultimate episode. After a few weeks of good work, it all come crashing back down to earth, in an episode that falls into the age old trap of "telling, not showing". Let's talk about the framing device for "Back Breaker", in which Delgado, the priest who apparently teaches as well, takes his class through a prototypical hero's journey. In a lot of ways, this is the show directly talking to the audience, explaining each action and every story beat of the episode. I don't think I've ever hated any framing device as much as I hated this. Any good TV show has nuance, the ability to trust the audience to decipher its m...

To reach your goals, there will be obstacles. Sometimes, those obstacles are easy to bypass, small blips in the history book of life. Sometimes, they are not. To reach any goal, a price must be paid. That price is known as the Elimination Chamber. Tonight, we will witness six men and six women enter this diabolical structure, where winning takes a piece of your soul. But even for the danger and the strife, it is safe to say that Kurt Angle would rather have a spot in the Chamber than face Braun Strowman. Tonight, we will witness blood, guts and gore- and we wouldn't have it any other way. And now, Raw and SmackDown present..................Elimination Chamber! Universe Mode Elimination Chamber February 25th, 2018 Location: Philadelphia, PA Official Elimination Chamber Theme Song- "M.O.M"- Will Rousch Alexa Bliss vs Alicia Fox vs Becky Lynch vs Kairi Sane vs Mickie James vs Naomi All six women entered with no eliminations, but that quickl...

The Road to WrestleMania must now the Elimination Chamber. Here's the card for the final pay-per-view before the Show of Shows. Elimination Chamber 2018 Card Alexa Bliss vs Alicia Fox vs Becky Lynch vs Kairi Sane vs Mickie James vs Naomi For the first time in Universe Mode history, women will enter the Elimination Chamber, with the winner getting a match at their respective championship at WrestleMania. From SmackDown, we have former two-time champion Alexa Bliss, Naomi and the intriguing recent debutant, Kairi Sane. And on Raw, Becky Lynch and Mickie James teamed up to qualify, while in a shocker, Alicia Fox upset Triple Crown champion Paige to earn her spot. Kenny Omega vs Ricochet Following the draw between himself and Kenny Omega, AJ Styles suffered a devastating loss. Thanks to a distraction from Omega, the newest SmackDown signing, Ricochet, pinned the Intercontinental Champion in the middle of the ring. Ricochet is clearly deserving of a title shot, but so i...

Only on one show could you combine hauntings, confessions, domestic violence, dead bodies in freezers and pancakes. It's Cloak & Dagger time, and it's getting spooky! "Ghost Stories" is centered around the eighth anniversary of the night that both Billy and Nathan Bowen's deaths, and plays off a lot of New Orleans mystique. To start off with, we've got Tyrone, who's finally using his Cloak powers to full effectiveness. He's continuing to pursue Connors, and has some help from Detective O'Reilly, who is getting closer with Fuchs, a fellow cop. O'Reilly can clearly see that Connors is struggling with Billy's death, and Tyrone uses that to his advantage, deciding to try to get a confession out of him, Tell-Tale Heart style. This is perhaps the coolest the character has looked, and it's genuinely terrifying. You can't convince me that you wouldn't confess to anything as a teenager in a cloak fades in and out of existence....

13 men from Raw, 13 from SmackDown, 4 entrants from NXT. It is now time........for the Royal Rumble! Entrant #1- Cesaro  Entrant #2- Bray Wyatt We opened the Royal Rumble in a big way, with two former world champions, both from SmackDown. Wyatt opened strong, but Cesaro nailed a nice butterfly suplex as number 3 entered... Entrant #3- Curt Hawkins Right away, Cesaro went after the arrogant Curt Hawkins. In an early Royal Rumble highlight, though, Hawkins was able to turn things around, and eliminated the Swiss Superman! That left two stupid idiots in the ring... Entrant #4- Chris Jericho Y2J locked up with Hawkins, who surprisingly got the better of the exchange, but someone was about to get their ass kicked... Entrant #5- Mark Henry Wyatt and Henry squared up, as Jericho continued to be infuriated by Hawkins while number 6 entered... Entrant #6- Kofi Kingston Kofi Kingston nearly managed to eliminate Bray Wyatt, but accidentally hit Mark Henry, who quickl...

Welcome to the Royal Rumble, the first step on the Road to WrestleMania. Tonight, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks defend their championships against hungry challengers, as they attempt to head to the Show of Shows with gold. Plus, Shinsuke Nakamura and Dolph Ziggler meet in an Extreme Rules match, and Tyler Breeze faces his reckoning in the form of John Cena. In our main event, 30 men will enter and 1 will leave with a ticket to the main event of WrestleMania. Could the winner be last year's victor, Samoa Joe? Could it be the returning Goldberg? How about the ever dangerous Bray Wyatt? Maybe this is the golden opportunity for one of NXT's entrants? Or will it be the still unknown number 30 entrant? One man's life is about to change forever. It's time, for the Royal Rumble. Universe Mode Royal Rumble January 28th, 2018 Location: Virgina Beach, VA Official Royal Rumble Theme Song- "Champion" Clement Marfo & The Frontline Sasha Ban...

The Road to WrestleMania will officially begin as the Royal Rumble sees one man earn his spot in the main event of the Showcase of the Immortals. Here's the card for the 2018 Royal Rumble. Royal Rumble Card Sasha Banks(c) vs Ruby Riot- Raw Women's Championship Match Ruby Riot's motivations for helping Sasha Banks win the championship at Survivor Series were revealed on the first Raw of 2018, as she attacked Banks after a win over Mickie James. Ruby looks to take over the Raw women's division, but the Boss is certainly not going down without a fight. Nia Jax(c) vs Charlotte- SmackDown Women's Championship Match The dominant reign of Nia Jax continued at Armageddon, as she destroyed. Next up is Charlotte, Nia's former ally who made this challenge two weeks ago. Can the Queen became a two time champ, or will the Irresistible Force continue to decimate? Shinsuke Nakamura(c) vs Dolph Ziggler- Extreme Rules Match for the United States Championship ...

Look, this show is not perfect. In fact, I'm not even certain it can be considered good. And this episode was far from perfect as well. The main plot wasn't exactly original, the dialogue still annoys me and the action, while it was good to have some, was far too brief. But I'll be damned if anyone says this show doesn't have heart. Cloak & Dagger genuinely cares about its characters, and really wants to make you care too. With episodes like this one, it's pretty difficult not to. "Lotus Eaters" is entirely centered around one A-plot, which may not be the smartest narrative decision but does make it easy for me to review. Tandy and Tyrone, which we're back to calling him, enter the mind of Mina's father, Ivan, to try and revive him from his coma. From here, we're treated to a classic time loop, as Ivan cannot remember anything before the rig explosion. This is the type of plot that a lot of shows and movies have used to success in th...

Welcome to San Antonio, deep in the heart of Texas. Tonight, Cedric Alexander is in the biggest spotlight of his career as he challenges for the NXT Championship. Can the Queen City's Favorite Son be the man to dethrone Apollo Crews? Plus, Lars Sullivan makes his Takeover debut and three more championship matches. Universe Mode NXT Takeover: San Antonio January 21st, 2018 Location: San Antonio, TX The Undisputed Era(c) vs TM-61- NXT Tag Team Championship Match Shane Thorne and Nick Miller had confidence going into this match, and Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly seemed partially rattled. The champions normal tactics simply weren't working, as the challengers had a response for every cheap shot and attempted beatdown. Finally, Fish and O'Reilly were forced to wrestle a straight up match. After a wild flurry of big moves, the only two men left standing were Nick Miller and Bobby Fish. In the end, Fish connected with spinning heel kick, the Fi...

San Antonio is the location for the next NXT Takeover show, and it's a very interesting one, as new champion Apollo Crews looks to make his first NXT Championship defense. This is the card for NXT Takeover: San Antonio. NXT Takeover: San Antonio Card The Undisputed Era(c) vs TM-61- NXT Tag Team Championship Match It was perhaps one of the biggest upsets the NXT brand had ever seen, as in their first match as champions, the Undisputed Era lost to Nick Miller and Shane Thorne, TM-61. This shocking result was mostly thanks to the Authors of Pain, looking to settle the score from Toronto. A few weeks later, Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly defeated Akam and Rezar to retain their titles, and now look to avenge their previous humiliation. Neville(c) vs Akira Tozawa vs Gran Metalik- Cruiserweight Championship Match The dominant Neville has not one but two challengers standing in his path, as both Tozawa and Metalik set their sights on the Cruiserweight belt. Can the King ...

I really, really hate having to do blog updates. I hate the idea of putting up posts here that have no real huge input on my part or require my creative efforts, but some things are important enough to make this kind of thing necessary. Due to a lack of interest/enjoyment/time/money, I will no longer be covering WWE or any wrestling pay-per-view on my blog. I know this is a pretty big deal, given that my pay-per-view reviews have been a big part of my content for the past three years, but I hope you can understand. With this out of the way, I can now fully focus my time on creating my own original content, whilst continuing on with the occasional TV show review. Thank you for your time, and if this is a big enough deal to convince you to stop reading my content, I understand. - Henry Because I didn't want to end today on such a sour note, I plan to release the card for the next Universe Mode pay-per-view within the next few hours, and the show itself will be posted tomorr...

2017 was a big year of Henry's Universe Mode, and although I'm sure everyone is ready to move into 2018, it's important to look back at the first full year of this series. Hello, I'm Henry Keys, and I'm here tonight to recognize the best moments, feud, matches and wrestlers of the year that was 2017 in Henry's Universe Mode. Without any further ado, here is your second ever annual Slammy Awards. Brand of the Year Nominees: Raw (GM Shane McMahon), NXT (GM William Regal), SmackDown (GM Daniel Bryan) Building a few stars is one thing, but continuing a consistently entertaining weekly show is another. Last year, Raw took home this award, and while the red brand had another fine year, it's time for the award to go to one of the other two brands. Although NXT continued to develop as a show this year, they did miss the first three months of 2017. For their consistently excellent main event programs, a burgeoning women's division and for delivering s...

Part 2 of Armageddon sees Tyler Breeze put his newly won WWE Championship on the line, while AJ Styles fights for the Intercontinental Championship with his job at stake. Plus, Finn Balor and Braun Strowman's six-month long rivalry comes to an end inside Hell in a Cell. Tyler Breeze(c) vs Cesaro- WWE Championship Match In the opening exchanges, we saw the tactics that Tyler Breeze was willing to use, as he just ran for cover, leaving the ring to use Drew McIntyre as a shield. Throughout this match, Breeze showed that he was willing to do whatever it took, using an eye rake and an exposed turnbuckle to his advantage. After Breeze's failed attempt at hitting the Unprettier, Cesaro looked to become a two-time WWE Champion, setting up for the Neutralizer. The insurance policy paid dividends, as McIntyre grabbed Cesaro's leg, distracting the challenger. Off the distraction, Breeze charged in to connect with the Beauty Shot, stealing a win and his first title defense. ...

Slowly but steadily, this show is improving, week by week. Cloak & Dagger's first season has been rocky at best, but there's a certain charm to it that makes it easy to watch. The dialogue is clunky and the action is almost nonexistent, but the acting is phenomenal, especially in this episode. I liked the core of "Funhouse Mirros", and it's the best this show has looked so far. Both character's stories this week are defined by the idea of what they could have been, had their respective tragedies not occurred. Tandy spends this episode attempting to get close to Mina Hess, the Roxxon engineer who was shown in the last episode. She's got a certain charm to her that makes this storyline fun, although I had a lot of trouble believing she was an actual scientist. Mina has a lot of parallels with Tandy, from her relationship with her father to her drive towards her goals, but she seems like she has more of an interest in making the world a better plac...

Wars are fought for many reasons. Tonight, Finn Balor and Braun Strowman settle their six month long feud inside the most dangerous structure known to man, all for the Universal Championship. Tyler Breeze fights to prove himself to his doubters, whilst Cesaro fights to regain the throne lost so long ago. AJ Styles leads his forces into battle, as he fights for pride, looking redeem himself after months of losing chance after chance. Kenny Omega stands in his path, fighting to continue his epic reign as champion. Whatever the reason, why they are here, these competitors all fight for one common goal: to win. And now, Raw and SmackDown present.............Armageddon! Universe Mode Armageddon December 17th, 2017 Location: Las Cruces, NM Official Armageddon Theme Song- "The One Who Laughs Last"- Downplay Nia Jax(c) vs Bayley- SmackDown Women's Championship Match Bayley opened the match with a series of hard rights and lefts, which seemed to ha...