A man so notorious for his beatings that he’d induct people into his ‘Hall Of Pain’, Mark Henry can be inducted into something a little more joyous; The WWE Hall Of Fame.
As first officially reported by USA Today, Mark Henry is the eighth inductee into the 2018 class, alongside Goldberg, Ivory and Dudley Boyz.
First starting as powerlifter, he made his name at the 1992 Summer Olympics. One year on, he won gold, silver and bronze and the ’93 Pan-American Games, before heading to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. WWE signed Henry in the same year, making his debut against Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler at In Your House: Mind Games.
Henry went through a number of incarnations, an all-american olympian, a vicious henchmen of the Nation of Domination and most infamously, the lothario known as ‘Sexual Chocolate’ where amongst other things, he was known for his relationship with fellow Hall of Famer Mae Young. He then went back to strongman competitions, winning the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic, giving him the moniker ‘The Worlds Strongest Man’.
A few years later, Mark Henry would find his feet as a unstoppable monster, taking out such legendary competitors like The Undertaker, Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio and also winning the ECW Championship. Returning to SmackDown, he introduced the world to his ‘Hall Of Pain’ and captured the World Heavyweight Championship, beating Randy Orton as Night of Champions 2011. Rumours of his retirement have followed him for a number of years, even leading arguably his greatest moment to date, the infamous ‘fake retirement’ speech where he took out John Cena on WWE Raw.
He’s slowed down his in-ring work in recent years, focusing more of talent scouting and mentoring the likes of Braun Strowman, Baron Corbin and NXT star Bianca BelAir.