7 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 1)
6. Paying Tribute
Whenever Black History Month has rolled around, WWE has always paid some degree of lip service toward it, whether its running a short segment on Tony Atlas or Rocky Johnson or some other African-American wrestler. But Monday, WWE paid tribute to one of its current and longest-tenured stars, Mark Henry. It was a nice, if odd, retrospective that highlighted Henrys powerlifting accomplishments and his 20-year career in WWE. Everything was really well done, but it got strange when the announcers started talking about the Worlds Strongest Man as if he was no longer with the company, as if he had retired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPxfXDzgq0 Sure, Henry is winding down his in-ring career, which is what made this tribute so nice and genuine, but putting an epitaph to his career before he hangs up his boots is just odd.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
