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| Was this Henry's hero turn? Screen Grab by me via WWE.com |
However, the second feeling I got was this strange tingling. No, my foot didn't fall asleep, nor was I having a stroke. It was this weird feeling that I had just witnessed a sea change in WWE's standard operating procedure. At the successful conclusion of Henry's trailer pull, he got congratulations from Lilian Garcia and applause from the crowd. Yeah, the argument against the latter part of that is that Smackdown audience reactions may be sweetened a bit, but doesn't that seem a little fishier if that was the case? I mean, the story from jump has been clear that the office wants you to boo Mark Henry. So why even have that straight up feat of strength happen if they weren't going to turn him? The fact that it was a straight up segment and not set up for Sheamus to come in and do Sheamus things to the proceedings was fishy in and of itself.
I was hesitant to call it a double turn then, and I still am now. I want to see how RAW plays out tonight, because while I don't know the man personally, I get the feeling that in his heart, Vince McMahon is the kind of guy who loves carny stunts and feats of massive strength. That could have just been to sate his own thirst for spectacle, and the normal alignment pattern might show up again tonight, regardless of how won over you were by Henry Friday. Don't look at me, Henry won me over the first time I saw him on ECW walk out like he wanted to hurt the world when I first started back into wrestling again after my hiatus.
But what if it was the first sign of Henry becoming a good guy again? There's no way that people would have rushed to his side before he pulled those trucks without them knowing that the real heel in the feud with Sheamus wasn't the World's Strongest Man. Even if there is a switch pulled off, attention would have to be paid to how they followed it up. Like, if we see the return of smilin' Kool Aid Man Henry, then it's a case of WWE just turning a guy based on small reactions and missing the reason why people would be gravitating to him. Likewise, if Sheamus stopped being a bully and just started running away from fights and "YOU PEOPLE-ing" everyone, then again, more of the same. But let's for a moment pretend that WWE saw the latent hypocrisy of its B.A. Star spokespeople being as big bullies as the people that they were preaching against, and they made the turn because folks love seeing a dude hoss shit around and look angry doing it. I mean, that's how Ryback got over initially. Henry is basically a much better version of Ryback in every category except maybe out-of-match promoing.
I will guarantee that if WWE started promoting good guys as people who were good in general but had flaws that they faced consequences for, and had heels do heel things that were more than run away from fights and prevent people from seeing wrestling, that the story quality would be enhanced. Let Henry and Sheamus run the classic cheap-shot artist vs. World's Strongest BAMF for a couple of months. It will get popular quick, I bet. Then, they could maybe start letting the other heels be the ones who do dastardly things, and let the stories be told on how the good guys react to them.
I'm not holding my breath here, but I do find that the window may be cracked just enough so that a cool breeze is coming in to refresh what has been a very stagnant WWE formula. The stunt Friday had a different feeling to it, and WWE does like to experiment in the post-Mania months. Usually, that involves a big return or a huge debut, but what if this year, it's a switch in how they tell stories, a final abandonment of the Attitude Era ideal of the anti-hero babyface-by-proxy? I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but this is certainly the most enjoyable development to come out of Smackdown on the angle front in a long, long time.