On Brand Segunda Caida: Mark Henry/D-Lo Brown

I really liked the late 90s Mark Henry/D-Lo Brown team. It was early, raw Mark Henry trying out new things every week, and it was really the only time Mark Henry was a tag wrestler. For a guy around as long as he was, it's kind of cool that he was only a semi-regular tag partner to D-Lo, but they were a super complementary team. It didn't last long, so I'm going to tackle all of their matches.


Mark Henry/D-Lo Brown vs. The Head Bangers WWF Raw Saturday Night 9/12/98

ER: Damn this was good! It got robbed of an actual finish, but this was a good tag match. Fans responded louder to the Head Bangers than they did to a lot of people on this show, and D-Lo actively sought heat throughout played more to the crowd, which kept them much more engaged than during the other matches. D-Lo works some fun fast rope running exchanges with them and we get an actually awesome Santo up and over sunset flip spot between D-Lo and Mosh. Santo would join WWF a couple months after, I'm going to just assume that this was Mosh staking his claim to the offense before he got there. Thrasher is quoted on documentary film stating he was going to steal a move from Mike Modest. These Head Bangers are no good move thieves! It's a great spot, Mosh leaping up for a rana but D-Lo catching him, fighting for a powerbomb before Mosh goes up and over. They built nicely to Henry coming in, Head Bangers keeping him away. And Henry is cool when he comes in, moving quick and hitting a nice press slam. What didn't I immediately see in this man? The match was worked pretty even, which I liked here, as it gave us cool spots like Head Bangers hitting a cool vertical suplex on Henry, but also stuff like Henry catching a crossbody and holding it and walking around before hitting his powerslam. D-Lo hits his awesome running powerbomb (though for it unexpectedly made me feel odd, since I had seen Droz working a match earlier this same episode), they have a couple nice double teams, and I dig the dichotomy of D-Lo's nice legdrop and Henry's crazy vertical leap elbow. Chyna runs in to attack Henry, so we don't actually see where all this is going...but I see these teams matched up a couple more times. They had some magic going here. I'm curious if they can sustain it.

Mark Henry/D-Lo Brown vs. The Head Bangers WWF Raw 11/2/98

ER: A weirdly paced match, as it kinda felt like they were all killing time until the inevitable Kane run-in, and Thrasher clearly tweaks his knee within minute one and continues to work. You can easily see the moment the injury happens, as Mosh shoots D-Lo into the ropes and Thrasher comes off the middle buckle with a clothesline. Thrasher lands it on his feet and every part of the landing looks awkward. He still works as much of the match as Mosh, but he's noticeably hopping through it. There's a nice spot where Henry catches Thrasher on a crossbody, walks around getting him in position for a powerslam, but then eats a missile dropkick from Mosh to get them a nice nearfall. Later Mosh tries to leap up for a rana on Henry and - much like when he tried the same thing two months prior with D-Lo - Henry catches him, planting him with a spinebuster. Henry also throws a few nice low missed clotheslines, and drops a nice legdrop (something he didn't use for much of the rest of his career). Thrasher really impressively guys things out, even doing a team vertical suplex on Henry; I know it's a team spot, but he was still doing some lifting. D-Lo takes a big flapjack bump and Thrasher continues to surprise by hitting a pescado!! Now again, there was a feeling of waiting around for Kane, but I give them credit for getting Henry the hell out of Dodge so people didn't get a visual of Kane easily dispatching him with a chokeslam. That's something. We'll see if they mention Thrasher's knee injury during their Survivor Series match a couple weeks later.