Henry's World

 Four days ago, the Dog League held it's annual draft, and now today, as commissioner of the league, I'm here to recap it for you. In 2021, there will be two new expansion teams joining our original quartet (Ridiculous Rascals, Tug of War, Leaping Girl, and Tailwaggerz) and the 2018 expansion teams (Rare Woofs and Bark Force) in the form of the Growlers and the Canine Comets. Today, we'll take a look at how all 8 teams drafted, what moves they've made thus far, and I'll also be recapping some changes to the Dog League playoff format and scoring rules. Let's get to it.  (Reminder: the Dog League is a custom fantasy football league run on NFL.com) Changes for 2021 This year, the playoffs have expanded from four teams to six, and if I understand how it's meant to work, it means that seeds 1&2 and 7&8 will not play in Week 15. Seed 3 will play Seed 6, while 4 plays 5, and the winners of those two games move on to face Seeds 1&2, while the losers go a...

 We now move into the "branded pay-per-view" era of the WWE, as Raw and SmackDown each got to host their own monthly event, before combining their powers at the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. Bad Blood was the first non-UK show to be exclusive to one brand, and featured three star-studded matches, to be capped off with a showdown between Kevin Nash and Triple H inside Hell in a Cell. It's no secret that I haven't been a fan of what those two have produced in their matches thus far, with their Judgment Day match turning out to be a slow, plodding affair that ended in a deflating disqualification finish. That being said, Triple H does have a record of turning out great matches inside the Cell, so I'm willing to give that a match a chance, in the hopes that it can offer some redemption to their otherwise lackluster feud.  - Bad Blood 2003 comes to you from the Compaq Center (now the Lakewood Church Central Campus) in Houston, Texas, whic...

 The first half of 2003 in the WWE really was defined by the massive airtime devoted to older stars, which began to severely impact the product. Two of the featured matches for Judgment Day were Kevin Nash against Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship, and Hulk Hogan, under a disguise as "Mr. America", taking on Roddy Piper. The drama between Hogan, Piper, and Vince McMahon on SmackDown had become an absolute farce, and there can't have been anyone besides Vince that was looking forward to seeing what Hogan and Piper could do in the ring this late in their careers. The story told between Nash and Triple H was at least heated, but Nash's body was in total disrepair by this point, so there wasn't much hope of this match being a classic either. Outside of the old farts division, the main event didn't hold a ton of promise, as the Big Show, rapidly devolving into the worst shape of his life, was challenging for the WWE Championship in one of the more out...

 Of all the potential big name signings the WWF missed out on after the WCW buyout, perhaps none were bigger than Bill Goldberg. Goldberg had become an absolute megastar in WCW, a world-ending conqueror who left absolute destruction in his wake and unleashed a type of violence that had never been seen in the business before. His star did dip as WCW struggled to figure out what to do with him after the ending of his ungodly (and statistically inflated) 173 match winning streak, and by 2003, Goldberg was no longer the draw he had been in his prime. Still, he had retained his quick-twitch intensity and animalistic power that had comprised of his main appeal, and any mention of his name was sure to get at least some fans to tune in and witness more unfortunate souls be devoured. Setting Goldberg loose on The Rock was a good first step for the WWE to take upon Goldberg's signing, as "The Great One" had been doing fantastic work in the build to WrestleMania 19, drawing nuclear ...

 This is the final King of the Ring pay-per-view to date, outside of a WWE Network special event in 2015 that you've probably forgotten existed. After many years of being one of the lowest bought events on the calendar, Vince decided to add some extra stakes to this year's tournament, offering up a WWE Championship match to the winner. Honestly, that's probably all it would take to bring in significantly more interest to the tournament in the future, but the stipulation only got a one year trial. As the years wore on, it did seem as if this decision was a mistake, as other annual events that would take the place of King of the Ring continued to bring in lower and lower buyrates, though that lack of success was evidently never enough for Vince to reconsider. It's a shame, as King of the Ring still holds some nostalgic value for parts of the fanbase, and I've seen through my reviews that it was, on average, more entertaining than the other non-Big 4 shows. With that i...

 Backlash was not the final pay-per-view to bear the WWF name, but considering Insurrextion was a UK-exclusive show, I think it's fair to call it the last major event before the company became the WWE. There is no more fitting way to end the days of the World Wrestling Federation than with Hulk Hogan in the main event fighting for the world championship, no matter how you feel about him. Hogan's match with The Rock at WrestleMania had re-established him as a household name, and Vince McMahon was more than ready to ride the nostalgia rocket to the moon, going all in on Hogan as a top star despite Hulk's body beginning to break down as he neared 50. The Hogan comeback tour is the lowest hanging fruit for me as a reviewer, an obviously desperate ploy that resulted in several comically bad main events while incredible athletes like Kurt Angle, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, and Chris Jericho mired in the midcard. And while we can all sit back now and have a hearty guffaw ab...

 The New World Order are quite easily the most influential faction in professional wrestling history. From the moment Hulk Hogan dropped the leg on Randy Savage at Bash at the Beach '96, the trio of himself, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall were a license to print money for WCW, who quickly took firm control of the "Monday Night Wars". For the first few years of their existence, the nWo were exceedingly popular, moving merch at record numbers and slowly enveloping every storyline in the company as the group continued to expand. By 2002, however, it's fair to say that most of the magic that original incarnation had captured was well and truly out of the bottle. Years of poor booking and totally needless additions to the first formula had diluted everything great about the New World Order, and with Hogan, Nash, and Hall all over the age of 40, any thought of them still moving the needle seemed rather foolish. But Vince McMahon was getting desperate, as business for the WWF ha...