Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
On June 17th, 2013 on an edition of Monday Night Raw…’The World’s Strongest Man’ Mark Henry entered the ring to give what was believed to be his retirement speech and walk away from his active WWE career. What we heard was raw (no pun intended) real emotion as Henry said his goodbyes to the WWE fans. What we saw was both Mark Henry and then WWE champion John Cena teary eyed as Henry spoke his words. What happened, was something not many expected to actually go down.
The career of Mark Henry was pretty much up and down. He signed an unheard of 10 year contract with the then WWF at age 24 in 1996. He was a former world heavyweight champion, a former ECW champion and a former European champion. Henry also suffered multiple injuries during his career that halted pushes. He was sent down to developmental to lose weight and become a better wrestler. Henry had gimmicks as the world’s strongest man (which he legitimately held that distinction from strong man contests) and as a sex maniac nicknamed “Sexual Chocolate” where he once had an affair with an elderly Mae Young, got her pregnant and she delivered a hand. Through all of that, Mark Henry was liked by fans and respected by colleagues for always taking whatever WWE creative gave to him in stride.
Before making that tearful, retirement speech in front of a packed arena….Henry legitimately wanted to retire. He was in a lot of pain physically and mentally was looking to spend more time with his wife and children. Henry was looking to become a trainer and possible backstage road agent. The thing was, Vince McMahon wasn’t ready to let him retire. McMahon convinced Henry to do an angle that would put Mark Henry directly into the main event.
The speech itself was truly heartfelt and had fans chanting his name and chants of “one more match” and “Henry! Henry! Henry!” The speech that Mark delivered felt real, because it was in fact how he truly felt. He thanked the fans, thanked all of his fellow superstars on the roster and more importantly talked about his family and thanked them for supporting him.
All this, as Cena handed Henry the WWE title and applauded him with tears filling up both wrestlers eyes and fans cheering along. It was perhaps, Mark Henry’s greatest promo in the 17 years he had been with the company.
The segment culminated with John Cena raising Henry’s arm in victory and then embracing in a hug. It was at that moment, when the rug was ripped out from beneath everyone’s feet and Henry grabbed Cena, lifted him up and then delivered ‘The World’s Strongest Slam.’ Instead of boos, there was thunderous cheers as Mark Henry faked everyone out and screamed that he had plenty left in the tank. It was all a set up to promote a WWE main event title match between Cena and Henry at the Money in the Bank pay per view.
That segment instantly made Mark Henry a red hot heel leading up to the event. Unfortunately, the feud really was a one shot deal for Henry. He lost their title match via a submission and the feud pretty much ended right there. According to Henry, he felt that the title should have been given to him that night and feels it was a big, lost opportunity for the company. To this day, the retirement speech is still well regarded and a true highlight of Mark Henry’s career.
Here is the speech in full…..