When approaching the A&E Biography, I was interested to see what else could be expanded upon when it came to the career of Mark Henry in WWE. Obviously for the “World’s Strongest Man”, he had already had a well known career up until making his way to AEW including some career highlight moments that WWE will make sure not to let go of for years in video packages such as the infamous Mark Henry retirement angle, and the Hall of Pain run. It turns out that with the A&E documentary crew at hand and even with most of the info career wise known, they were able to still put together a solid episode.
We open with a look at Henry introducing his upbringing and his old weight room that he began his journey in. Some of the footage used is rerun a couple times as they used what they had, but to me these clips are cool to see. As someone who only heard the history but never went back to see if I could find anything on Mark’s career before wrestling, I liked seeing everything before what we know in WWE/F of Mark Henry.
Mark was born in Silsbee, Texas, and grew up in poverty but was unaware while growing up. Mark would work to become the “strongest guy” because that is what he saw highlighted whether is was wrestling on TV or weightlifting competitions. We get an interview with Mark’s brother as well, detailing how he did not have a short fuse when it came to bothering Mark, but when he got pushed to the limit, that was not someone you would want to get angry. Mark was bullied in school and especially when he got diagnosed with dyslexia, bullies would bring out the word “retard” and that is the trigger word for him that there will be no looking back. This would cause a lot of trouble for Mark growing up as he would defend himself but could cause some trouble constant fights.
Once introduced to the weightroom, he found it a way to avoid trouble and save his life. Silsbee would then win state championships for weightlifting because of Henry and he was becoming known not just on a local level, but all over Texas as the next big thing. He was officially scouted and immediately was targeted as someone who could be the strongest person to ever live, but that would mean a transition to Olympic-level lifting. Mark was able to take a usual three-year time frame to nine months. Pretty remarkable stuff. Locally in Silsbee, Henry was treated like the biggest celebrity ever.
While waiting for the next round of the Olympics, Terry Todd, Mark’s manager and lifting trainer, would use his connection to Vince McMahon to introduce the two. With the connection at play, the WWE/F sponsored Mark’s powerlifting journey leading up to the 1996 Olympics. Mark would gain the attention of the pro wrestling world and mainstream media. I would have liked to see what more personalities of the mainstream media and pop culture’s thoughts on Mark were around this time, especially with them hyping his rise heavily during this segment.
The truth was, there was no money in Olympic lifting. With this realization, Henry took the offer at WWE and signed a guaranteed multi-year $10 million contract, the first of its kind at the time. It laid the foundation for what we commonly see now with NXT contracts or people coming straight from another world and making their way into WWE. The Rock makes an appearance here, and in typical Rock fashion, makes it known that he was there to train with Mark early on which I always find hilarious following the WrestleMania 40 doc where it seemed like Rock had a hand in everything.
Henry was hazed in his early days for not really getting the business and many were jealous of what he was getting so fast into his debut. Bret Hart took Mark under his wing and took him to Calgary following an injury and came back as a brand new wrestler. The Nation of Domination made their debut and this was the true start of Mark Henry in WWE. With the Attitude Era being a gimmick heavy time, following the Nation disbanding, Henry needed to find something new aside from being a strongman that would attract the audience and make him stand out.
Thus, Sexual Chocolate was born. The ladies’ man gimmick began as a joke, but Mark took it to a whole new level. The creative team was constantly outdoing themselves said Henry, though his natural charisma helped.
Sadly, shortly after, Henry’s mother would pass. As this was one of the hardest times of his life, Mark wanted to take his frustrations out needed to compete in weightlifting again as many in that world were calling him out.
Mark entered the ‘Arnold Strongman’, a different competition and possibly a more extreme one. He felt pressure to prove himself more than ever. In an astonishing moment, he broke another lifting record and made another career highlight outside of just wrestling. Earning the title of the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ once again and dedicating the moment to his late mother, he was set on moving forward.
The journey to fatherhood began as current day footage is shown at football games and interviews with Mark’s kids. A heartfelt moment to get away from the man we have spent the past hour with.
Mark’s wife, Jana, uses the word “seasons” to describe his career which is honestly the best word for it. After watching this and seeing the gimmicks and eras of this career compared to others, Henry went through so many variations even when something worked, he was still able to switch it up when needed.
As for the next season, it became my personal favorite in Henry’s career. The Hall of Pain. A vicious, no comedy, real version of what Mark Henry could be in a wrestling ring. It stemmed from a real-life rib from Vince where Mark was sent out for a dark match with no opponent. Henry got so angry that he was being humiliated that he caused a scene backstage with the destruction of everything in sight. This is “what Vince wanted” and ultimately led to Henry taking that frustration to his wrestling and winning his first world title in WWE.
This era had a couple of moments for Mark’s career that I kind of forgot about, like the ring break with Big Show.
The resurgence of Mark’s career and later stages allowed him to be a part of the anti-bullying campaign WWE was a part of and he details how he handled the bullying compared to how his kids should handle it as they also are getting bullied in school.
The salmon suit. The tweets. The Mark Henry retirement angle. This one is special, one of the true times that I remember everyone being completely swerved for ‘retirement’. It felt like a perfect time for Mark to retire. He did everything, won the world title, and was getting older. Although all of that was true, he “had a lot left in the tank” and signed a three-year deal.
Actual retirement came eventually along with an induction to the WWE Hall of Fame. I gained a new respect for Mark and his career here, and Biography highlighted moments that I never put much thought into and showcased what Mark Henry meant to WWE history.
Mark took his talents to broadcast and radio and started to work with Busted Open on Sirius XM. He also was scouting for new talent and found one of the biggest stars WWE has to offer today in Bianca Belair. Braun Strowman also gives credit to Mark for scouting and presenting him with a career in pro wrestling out of the weightlifting world.
In a shocking moment, AEW is showcased and Mark detailed the decision to leave WWE for All Elite Wrestling. I was expecting it to come up if they were to dive into Henry’s recent years in wrestling, but for a WWE documentary, it is a little wild to see it showcased so broadly and not hiding behind other terms like “Mark Henry went to another company” or something like that. It’s stated how much Mark loves Vince McMahon, which well, he is certainly a big part of Mark’s career.
Overall, this episode was a good watch. If you don’t know much or have not seen firsthand the footage of Mark pre-WWE, this gives you a new perspective on how much he has helped the sport of both pro wrestling but also weightlifting and the people who want to transition from one athletic career to pro wrestling. As Mark says, he is the living embodiment of “Yes you can.” Always make sure to keep a lot left in the tank.
RELATED LINK
- Mark Henry story archive
- Slam Wrestling’s WWE on A&E archive