Henry's World

The final Dynamite of 2019 takes place with almost half the month of December still left, as the following week's edition (which would be on Christmas Day) was cancelled. Facing a two-week layoff, the card was stacked for the ending to AEW's maiden year, headlined by a tag title match. SCU are in serious jeopardy of being overshadowed while champions, as the previous week's Texas Street Fight blew everything Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian have been involved in out of the water. They haven't had much of a narrative as title holders anyway, as weeks were spent bigging up Sky's quarrel with Chris Jericho, while Matt and Nick Jackson remained steadfast as the most popular babyfaces of the division. Pitting SCU against The Young Bucks has the potential to revitalize interest in Sky and Kaz's title reign, plus end out 2019 with one more tag team showstopper.  - AEW Dynamite #12 (airing December 18th, 2019) comes to you from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi...

Tag team wrestling goes loud and proud on Dynamite once again, as AEW puts forward a big money match for this episode, with The Young Bucks and Santana & Ortiz settling their rivalry in a Texas Street Fight. The Inner Circle has largely branched away from the initial conflict with The Elite, as the singles stars of both factions have moved on to other rivals, but these two duos have continued their guerrilla warfare throughout the opening months of Dynamite's history. Matt Jackson's kayfabe injury put the rivalry on ice for a couple weeks, but now the bad blood boils over in a match that provides both vengeance and opportunity. For the winners, a title shot against SCU next week awaits. Can Matt and Nick Jackson tame the fires of Santana & Ortiz, or will the duo of charismatic and devilishly violent Puerto Ricans reign supreme?  - AEW Dynamite #11 (airing December 11th, 2019) comes to you from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, just outside Dallas. Jim Ross, E...

Monday Night Raw in the spring and summer of 2004 charged full speed ahead into making Eugene the biggest character on the roster, which is as bold a call as the creative team had made in years. On one hand, I can see where WWE was coming from; Nick Dinsmore is a talented performer, the character had gotten over in limited showings in the past, and you had the opportunity for a more outgoing top babyface than Chris Benoit, who was simply never going to be able to handle his end of the main event theatrics. But WWE, making the same mistake they tend to always make, pushed Eugene far beyond where he should've reasonably been, far too quickly. Making him the GM for a night, and tossing him right into the center of Triple H and Benoit's program over the world title was always going to backfire, as fans would were guaranteed to get annoyed with this childish adult taking precedence over beloved, legitimate wrestlers. It hasn't happened quite yet, but the Eugene backlash would be...

One of the greatest stretches of playoff games in my lifetime culminated in one of the more random Super Bowl matches in recent memory, as the Rams and Bengals were tossed together to pump out a final battle of wills to decide the Lombardi Trophy. It's another palm sweater and knee trembler, folks, buckle up.  #4 Los Angeles Rams (23) def. #4 Cincinnati Bengals (20) A little home cooking for the Rams in this one, as in front of a somewhat loyal "City of Angels", Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, and the assorted troops brought Sean McVay to the promised land, 3 years after McVay was soundly thumped in his matchup with Bill Belichick. It was dicey for LA throughout, with the early injury to Odell Beckham crippling their receiving corps, an inability to run the ball allowing Cincy to commit extra defenders to the pass, and a secondary that had some of their aggressiveness exploited by big plays for the Bengals' electric receiver trio. But, with admittedly, so...

AEW pumped up the gas petal for last week's episode of Dynamite , stacking up the promotion's return to Chicago with a world title match, a Cody Rhodes return, a Kenny Omega and PAC rematch, amongst other festivities, which left very little left in the box for AEW's second consecutive week spent in the "Prairie State". The six-man tag pitting The Young Bucks plus Dustin Rhodes against Sammy Guevara, Ortiz, and Santana of The Inner Circle was the only heavily promoted match coming in, but it wouldn't go on last, and neither would Christopher Daniels' attempt to inflict vengeance on Pentagon Jr., a grudge that carried over from the third episode of Dynamite . Instead, the honor went to Joey Janela and Jon Moxley, who do have a miniature history that was built during their war to close Fyter Fest , but with Joey recently stuck in midcard purgatory, and Moxley obviously looking ahead towards a title match after being named the number one contender, it's no...

Of all the many moments to take place at WrestleMania 20 , none was as significant, or holds as much weight today, as The Undertaker's return to his "Deadman" persona. His "Biker" phase was enjoyable, especially during his heel run in late 2001/early 2002, but it had run it's course, and with the WWE down bad after the departures of Brock Lesnar and Goldberg, it was perfect timing for arguably the most iconic gimmick in company history to re-emerge. Paul Bearer leading Undertaker to the ring, once again brandishing his trademark golden urn, was the perfect blast of nostalgia for many, a throwback to a simpler time in wrestling, and all seemed to be right with the world. But it wasn't destined to last, because good things never do. I don't believe there's ever been a specific reason given, but WWE wanted to separate Bearer and Undertaker, which I'd assert was likely their way of attempting to mold Undertaker's image for the modern day. Whe...

Welcome to a slightly different New Japan Pro-Wrestling review today, as we take a look at the end of the inaugural Kizuna Road tour in the summer of 2012. I'm still not completely certain what the meaning behind the usage of the term "Kizuna Road" really is; since the Bushiroad buyout, all tours had to have the word "road" in the title somewhere, so that part is obvious, but "Kizuna" translates into "bonds" (which means human-to-human relationships, like family ties and friendships). My best guess is that this is intended to mean a tour that brings people together, a "bonding road" if you will, but it might just be a name that I'm overthinking. Either way, Day 10, the finale of the tour, featured a stacked card, with both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at stake, so I felt it was worthy of reviewing.  - Day 10 (July 22nd) of the 2012 Kizuna Road tour comes to you from the Yamagata City Sports Center in Y...

Three months ago, AEW established Chicago as a spiritual home of their organization with All Out , as a jam-packed card was headlined by the crowning of AEW's first world champion, when Chris Jericho defeated "Hangman" Page to close out the night. Jericho felt he needed that win to establish that he was still at the top of his game, and in the weeks that followed, Jericho took a complete stranglehold at the top of the pile. He formed The Inner Circle, aligning with hot prospects Sammy Guevara, Ortiz, and Santana, as well as adding muscle in legit grappler Jake Hager, to control wrestling's past, present, and future. Page, The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Dustin Rhodes, and others have remained thorns in Jericho's side, inevitably, they all fell to his veteran guile and array of finishers. But as AEW returns to Chicago for the first episode of Dynamite to air from the "Second City", Jericho's winning ways have been tested. Two weeks ago, he ...

The animosity between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels is as well traveled a road as any in wrestling folklore, as the two leaders of their era clashed frequently, both on and off the screen. As the WWF entered 1997, a year that would be defined by clashes between Hart and Michaels, with Bret slowly transitioning into an embittered heel, right in time to takes the WWF title away from Shawn at WrestleMania 13, one year after Shawn emerged triumphant from their historic Iron Man match . But as they often did when Shawn was involved, plans began to slowly unravel. Shawn claimed to be working through a painful knee injury he suffered in a match (one which conveniently also included Bret), and needed to take time off to heal. On the go-home episode of Raw, Shawn tearfully informed the fans that his knee was troubling him, and that he had "lost his smile", vacating the gold so that he could presumably head off to surgery, and chase down that rascally grin. Bret was riotous after this m...