{"id":14294,"date":"2018-02-15T20:03:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T01:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=14294"},"modified":"2018-02-15T20:07:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T01:07:21","slug":"indie-star-anthony-henry-heading-to-njpw-dojo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/02\/15\/indie-star-anthony-henry-heading-to-njpw-dojo\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Star Anthony Henry Heading to NJPW Dojo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With NJPW expanding their presence into the United States more in 2018, it came as little surprise the announcement of the new US-based <strong>NJPW Dojo<\/strong> opening its doors this March, beginning with a series of mini-camps. NJPW has tried this avenue before, back in 2002, when founder <strong>Antonio Inoki<\/strong> opened the <strong>Inoki Dojo<\/strong> in Santa Monica, California as a means to scout foreign talent for NJPW. It initially became one of the hottest wrestling schools on the West Coast (if not in the United States), featuring trainers like <strong>Rocky Romero, Samoa Joe, Rickey Reyes<\/strong> and <strong>TJ Perkins<\/strong>, boasting young talent like <strong>Bryan Danielson<\/strong> (Daniel Bryan). It even ran it&#8217;s own shows for years in the US. But when Inoki lost control of NJPW in 2005, the Dojo went downhill and by 2007 was but a memory. This time around, NJPW is in a far better situation than it was then, but it looks to follow a similar guideline &#8211; it will not only be a training center, but a scouting facility for potential new talent for NJPW.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The NJPW LA Dojo opens this March! If you have what it takes, step up and prove it!!<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/r905IEIc1B\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/r905IEIc1B<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7oldV8pN6x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7oldV8pN6x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpwglobal\/status\/962053525264936962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 9, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Try Out camps began taking applications on Valentine&#8217;s Day this week and one of the first major indie stars to announce his application was <strong>Anthony Henry<\/strong>. The 34-year old indie wrestler has become one of the indie scenes breakout stars the past couple years, but it&#8217;s hardly been an overnight success. Most fans are surprised to find out that Henry began his wrestling career back in 2002, debuting with <strong>NWA Wildside<\/strong> in Georgia. After a couple years, the promising young grappler turned his attention to MMA, leaving pro wrestling for several years while he focused on a new combat sport. He lost his first MMA fight in 2005, but when he went pro in 2007, he won both matches for <strong>Augusta Extreme Fight Night<\/strong>, both by submission.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And it begins&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0j3SG7KrtU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0j3SG7KrtU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony Henry- A Workhorseman (@Antnyhenry) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Antnyhenry\/status\/963972995189534720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Anthony Henry returned to pro wrestling in 2008, this time with Anarchy Wrestling, where he remained a regular for five years. In 2014, he began to turn heads when he joined North Carolina&#8217;s <strong>Premier Wrestling Xperience (PWX)<\/strong>, and from their it took off, working with <strong>Beyond, OMEGA<\/strong>, and <strong>CWF<\/strong>, before jumping to more national attention with <strong>CZW<\/strong> and <strong>EVOLVE<\/strong> in 2016. In July of 2017, alongside tag partner <strong>James Drake<\/strong>, they captured the EVOLVE Tag Team Championships at\u00a0<em><strong>EVOLVE 88<\/strong><\/em> from <strong>Catch Point<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Chris Dickinson<\/strong> and <strong>Jaka<\/strong>, holding them for 76 days.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14297\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14297\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14297\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/02\/EVOLVE-88-New-Tag-Champs-1024x590.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"369\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14297\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But Henry isn&#8217;t just a capable tag team wrestler &#8211; he&#8217;s also the current reigning PWX Heavyweight Champion, a belt he&#8217;s held for nearly a year (it&#8217;ll be 365 days this February 19). But despite a surge in attention and high profile matches the past two years, it&#8217;s clear by his application to the NJPW Dojo Mini-Camps that he wants to do better. As he stated in an interview with <strong>Lance Bradley<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/enzuigiri.com\/hello-indie-darling-anthony-henry-is-no-overnight-success\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last year for <strong>Enzuigiri.com<\/strong><\/a>, &#8220;That\u2019s always the goal, to continue to improve and just become the best professional wrestler that I can. As long as I continue on the path that I have been on before&#8230;I think it\u2019s going happen,\u201d said Henry. \u201cJust keep training, keep humble and always be a sponge. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do man. I want to be on the next level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14298\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14298\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14298\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/02\/16807241_10210445276626044_7934818459787846494_n-e1518742762214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14298\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: John Moses \/ facebook.com\/johnmosesphotog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_m8QZJDCuM8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With NJPW expanding their presence into the United States more in 2018, it came as little surprise the announcement of the new US-based NJPW Dojo opening its doors this March, beginning with a series of mini-camps. NJPW has tried this avenue before, back in 2002, when founder Antonio Inoki opened the Inoki Dojo in Santa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":14300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,14,6],"tags":[1137,136,188,2204,2203],"class_list":["post-14294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-njpw","category-north-america","tag-anthony-henry","tag-evolve","tag-njpw","tag-njpw-dojo","tag-pwx"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}