The World's Strongest Career: A Mark Henry Retroperspective

Billed at 360 pounds from Silsbee, Texas the World's Strongest Man Mark Henry powered through a 22 year long career. After signing his contract with the WWE, then WWF, in 1996 all Big Mark wanted was to make an impact and he sure did. This year Mark Henry will be inducted into the Hall of Fame after inducting people in his own Hall of Pain for many many years. The perfect opportunity to look back on an incredible and very unique career inside the robes.



Before joining the wrestling business he competed in the 1992 Olympics and did everything to proof that he is indeed the World's Strongest Man as a Weightlifter. His amazing achievements caught the attention of Vince McMahon and he was invited to a cameo-appearance at SummerSlam 1996. After that Mark Henry signed 10-year-deal with the WWE. In his debut match he defeated Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Faarooq invited him into the Nation of Domination, were Henry was able to improve among more expierenced talent. After The Rock turned on Faarooq to become the new leader of the NoD, Henry decided to go with Rock rather than Faarooq and remained in the Nation. After the stable disbanded Henry and Rock had a short feud with resulted in a permanent Tag Team of Mark Henry and D 'lo Brown, who helped in his war with Rocky.

In 1999 he became 'Sexual Chocolate' Mark Henry and was part some controversial segments, before he eventually became a Champion in WWE for the first time. After he helped Jeff Jarrett to become both Intercontinental and European Champion at the same time, Jarrett awarded him with the European Title. Henry entered a feud with former friend D 'Lo Brown, who Henry betrayed in order to make Jarrett a Double-Champion. One month later Henry lost the title again to Brown.

Henry with the European Title

After that Henry entered the infamous Mae Young storyline in which Young gave birth to a hand. Was followed was a feud with Viscera and minor storylines with the Sexual Chocolate character, which turned Henry into a babyface. Upon the millenium, Mark Henry was send back to Ohio Valley Wrestling to improve his skills. During that time he won the Arnold Classic Strongest Man Contest.

In 2002 he briefly returned with Theodore Long as his manager, taking on the likes of Goldberg, was not used much during that time. In 2005 he was sent again back to OVW to improve, before injuring himself during training. After he was cleared for competition and returned as the 'Silverback' Mark Henry, were he immediatly challenged Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship. After Batista had to vacate the title due to injury, Henry was driven to become the new champion, however it was Kurt Angle go won the Champion and Mark Henry was the first to challenge him. Shawn Diavari was later brought in as a manager for Mark Henry.
After Kurt Angle entered a feud with The Undertaker, Mark Henry decided to turn his attention from Angle to the Deadman, which resulted into Mark Henry's biggest career-match: The Undertaker vs. Mark Henry at WrestleMania 22 in a casket match. Shortley after that Three Six Mafia premiered Mark Henry's current and most popular theme song: Some Bodies Gonna Get It.
When his feud with Undertaker ended, Henry began taking on all covers and began attacking numerous superstars week after week. This led to the return of Batista, who got injured during his feud with Henry before. Unfortunatley the match between Henry and Batista did not happen, because Henry found himself injured yet again. After returning he had yet another feud with The Undertaker before making his move to the ECW brand. For a short while he began teaming with Big Daddy V, while Matt Striker was acting as their manager. The duo of heavy-hitters did not lost long, because WWE had different plans for the World's Strong Man. At Night of Champions in 2008 Mark Henry won only his second title in his career: The ECW Heavyweight Championship by defeating Big Show and Kane in the process. Now with Tony Atlas by his side, Henry seemed unstoppable for a short while. During his reign Henry, Atlas and ECW General Manager Theodore Long introduced a new championship design. During the Championship Scramble Match at Unforgiven 2008 it was Matt Hardy who dethroned Mark Henry as Champion. At WrestleMania XXV he was involved in the Money-in-the-Bank-Ladder-Match.

Mark Henry as the ECW Champion alongside Tony Atlas

Mark Henry turned babyface in 2009 and began teaming with MVP, another team that did not last long. What followed were a role as the NXT Pro of a wrestler called 'Lucky Cannon' and a buch of other Tag Team run with various wrestlers.

When the WWE Draft of 2011 arrived nobody thought that Mark Henry would shock the world: As soon as he got the news that he'd be drafted to SmackDown John Cena and Christian recieved a World Strongest Slam, making Henry a heel once again. Mark Henry was driven to make an impact with the new opportunities on the blue brand. After arriving on SmackDown Mark Henry went to on absolute tear, simular to his 'path of destruction' in 2006, but this time the path had a name, the Hall of Pain. Mark Henry began inducting each and everybody into his Hall of Pain who stood in his way, that including the likes of Sheamus, Christian, Kane and even WWE backstage personell. As for Kane Henry even crushed his leg with a chair, making Kane missing months of action in storyline. Henry's Hall of Pain caught the attention WWE fans and the tattered SmackDown brand suddenly drove home presentable ratings again. It was save to say: Mark Henry was the man in 2011! There was only one thing left to do, after 15 long years in the business and numerous failed attempts, Mark Henry once again challenged for the World Heavyweight Title, this time against Randy Orton.
This time not even the RKO could stop Henry and he finally won his first and only World Title in WWE: The World Heavyweight Championship.
Mark Henry ruled SmackDown for the months to come and did an incredible and highly entertaining job with it.

Mark Henry finally wins the big one:

His championship reached new hights when he entered a feud with Big Show. What sounded like slow-pase action on paper turned out to be an awesome display of power as these two giants clashed for numerous times in the squared circle. With the addition of Daniel Bryan, who found himself brawling with two large men, while being billed as 210 pounds, the feud reached even bigger hights of enjoyment. Henry claimed that Bryan couldn't win the big one, while Show tried to encourage Bryan to finally cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. In the end it was Show who pinned Henry to become champion, only for Bryan to rush in and turn on his friend, making Daniel Bryan the new World Heavyweight Champion with in seconds.
In 2012 Bryan found himself in a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match for the World Title again Big Show and Henry, which Bryan somehow survived as Champion. When the brand split was lifted in 2012, Henry also appeared on RAW, but suffered a huge leg injury shortley after, ending his incredible Hall of Pain run.

When Henry returned he was used for minor feuds to help buidling the next generation of professional wrestlers. He became a WWE Ambassador and started recruiting talent for the WWE all over the world. He also visited the Olympic Games as a WWE spokesman.
In Juni 2013 announced his retirement on Twitter. WWE announced that Mark Henry will be delivering his farewell speech on the June 17th episode of MondayNight RAW. During his emotional speech Henry was joined by the then WWE Champion John Cena, who praised Henry for his work.
But after celebrating with John Cena, Henry suddenly grabbed Cena and delivered the World's Strongest Slam. Henry declared, that his career is far from over and he will be going after the biggest prize in the business, a title he never held nor challenged for throughout his entire career: The WWE Championship. He set his sights to be the World's Strongest Champion.
  

Mark Henry made history that night in what has been called the biggest swerve in the history of professional wrestling. Unfortunatley Henry wasn't able to win the title from Cena at the MitB-Pay-Per-View. Shortley after his feud with Cena ended, The Shield attacked Henry, thus turning him babyface. Again Henry had minor feuds against the likes of Dean Ambrose until turning heel in the fall of 2014 against the Big Show to join Team Authority in their Survivor Series Battle against Team Cena. Henry only lasted fifty seconds in the match.
Henry once again returned in march 2015 to challenge Roman Reigns, after the match he showed respect to Reigns, turning face once again. He remained face for the rest of his career. His last big feud was against Rusev for the United States Championship, which he lost.

After WrestleMania 33 it was announced by Henry on an episode of Table for Three, that he retired from wrestling for good and he will become a producer in WWE.


Mark Henry can not only be described as one of the strongest men to ever wrestler for WWE, he was also the one with the biggest heart. His passion for the business is even bigger than his strength. During his career Henry bent pans, flipped over cars and pulled two trucks, but he also made us believe. I'd like to thank Mark Henry for his fantastic rope inside and outside the WWE ring and i wish him all the best in his future. It was a hell of a ride.