Henry's World

All Elite Wrestling enters 2020 with a return to the organization's roots, as Daily's Place hosts Dynamite for the very first time, commemorating the event that was held to announce the formation of the new promotion in front of TIAA Bank Field, elsewhere on the complex. Behind the scenes, the end of 2019 saw a significant shake-up, one that wouldn't be known to many wrestling fans until months later, but it was central to the evolution of AEW's product. Initially, the thought had been that Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega would collaborate with Tony Khan to control the overall directive of AEW's programming, in addition to the minutia of individual matches and promos. But Khan reacted strongly towards criticism of AEW's current creative work, most notably the closing angle to the last episode of Dynamite , where The Dark Order's minions laid out every member of The Elite and SoCal Uncensored. Khan decided that one vision was necessary, the less...

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...

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...

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 ...

Jon Moxley is a man on a mission. For over a decade, Moxley toured the bingo halls and back alleys of America, creating a fearsome reputation as a sadistic soul that embraced the worst of wrestling. When Moxley finally got the call to the big time, he did what many thought he couldn't, and gained the trust of the most stubborn of wrestling minds, changing the game along with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in The Shield. But as the years waned on, Moxley, despite his gravitational charisma and solid in-ring skill, was passed over by his brothers, who reached a level that was fiercely guarded against the likes of Mox. In 2019, after over half a decade spent in the WWE system, Moxley was done. He was exhausted from battling with creative, depressed over his perceived lack of drawing power, and questioning his future earning potential after a cavalcade of damaging booking decisions. Moxley needed a new challenge and a new stage, and it was love at first sight for AEW, who saw a distingu...

Full Gear was a fabulous night for The Inner Circle, as Ortiz and Santana showed out in an impressive opening match victory over The Young Bucks, while Chris Jericho picked apart Cody Rhodes, securing a big title retention in an emotional contest after MJF betrayed the son of a son of a plumber. There's no time to rest on laurels, however, as Jericho already has more gold in sight, with he and faction mate Sammy Guevara (2-0 in matches as a team) challenge SCU for the AEW World Tag Team Championships in Dynamite's main event. Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky welcomed back Christopher Daniels on Saturday, entering at full strength for the first time in a month and a half, with a sterling record in recent competition to boot. Has AEW had enough of the Cinderella ride that Kazarian and Sky have been on, and will they be willing to place even more eggs in the Chris Jericho basket? Let's take a look, as AEW looks to continue building momentum after a stellar pay-per-view.  - AE...

At one time, the go-home show was a staple of weekly wrestling, the one episode out of the month that became appointment television for a promotion's fanbase. It strived to add excitement and extra importance to that upcoming pay-per-view, a critical step in converting an intrigued fan into a regular customer, and it was on these nights that promoters truly shined. WCW and the WWF poured blood, sweat, and tears into making their go-home shows the best that you could find, and TNA, ROH, and others carried the tradition into a new era as they sought to topple Vince McMahon's vast empire. At one time, you could feasibly skip everything before that one final episode prior to a big event and get a full dosage of where a company's product was at without any need for further context. But as the years waned on and the pay-per-view market became only a small portion of the WWE's profits, the folks at Titan Towers lowered the emphasis on the go-home show. By late 2019, with AEW g...

One aspect of the product that AEW has a gigantic edge over WWE in the long form story-telling, as the new company has remained committed to the concept that just about every segment and every match that you see on TV will be setting up an important plot point for a later date. Nothing is done in service of a singular cheap pop, it's all meticulously planned, sometimes months or years in advance. On the very first episode of Dynamite, AEW chose to broadcast what seemed like a complete throwaway of a segment, as the Lucha Brothers and SoCal Uncensored exchanged some trash talk, ostensibly to preview the upcoming tag team tournament. There was no reason to suspect that AEW had a greater purpose with these few minutes of airtime, and with many other wrestling promotions, it would've stayed as filler, an entertaining interaction between two teams that could be referenced at a later date. But the Lucha Bros and SCU weren't just filling time on that night; they were setting up th...