Its always lovely to be utterly wrongfooted as a wrestling fan, the more so because it simply doesnt happen that much anymore. One of the greatest examples of the last few years of a swerve that completely blindsided the audience was undoubtedly Mark Henrys bait-and-switch on RAW on June 17th, 2013. Having been off television due to apparent nagging injuries, Henry had been hinting on Twitter for some weeks that the end of his career might have finally arrived. Interrupting WWE Champion John Cenas in-ring promo, Henry would come to the ring in shirt, tie and peach jacket, holding his wrestling boots in one hand - deliberately playing down his most recent hyper-aggressive heel character, acting humbly towards the champion, even putting him over. Hed then proceed to deliver the news that fans and pundits worldwide were expecting: hes reached the end of his long career with the WWE, and would be retiring. Henry namechecked his family, tears in his eyes, and hugged WWE bobblehead Cena as the fans cheered him on and then came the swerve, a Worlds Greatest Slam to Cena out of a bear hug, and the return of the Hall Of Pain, as it was revealed that there was no retirement, and Henry had suckered Cena and us most of all in a bid to be taken seriously as a title contender. Skip to 5:00 in the video below for Henrys entrance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfMI9j8WwFE The wonderful thing here is that none of the fans even knew that Henry had it in him to act so well, let alone expected him to swerve them like that. It was a career-best performance from the perennially underrated big man. Hats off again, sir. We were indeed your puppets.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
