WWE Legends Biography - Mark Henry
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00:00:00What's happening right here?
00:00:03My God, this place still look
00:00:05exactly the same.
00:00:06Barnes, who is Barnes?
00:00:09This is a Henry locker.
00:00:10I was able to come in here and
00:00:13do something that very few people
00:00:17have ever done, do things that
00:00:22nobody ever done.
00:00:24From that point, I felt, man,
00:00:26I'm different, I'm special.
00:00:29When you come from poverty, and
00:00:31now you live in gated communities
00:00:33with million dollar houses,
00:00:35people see you and
00:00:36they judge you by that.
00:00:38They don't know that house that I
00:00:40grew up in.
00:00:41They don't know this.
00:00:44They had every advantage to be
00:00:46better than me, and they wasn't.
00:00:50The world's strongest man,
00:00:53Mark Henry.
00:00:55It was a lot of people in
00:00:56the locker room that doubted Mark,
00:00:58that wanted to test Mark.
00:01:00This isn't the Olympics,
00:01:02this isn't weightlifting.
00:01:04Mark Henry wanted to prove that he
00:01:06could be just as good of a wrestler
00:01:08as he was a weightlifter.
00:01:09I'd like to welcome all of you to
00:01:12the Hall of Fame.
00:01:14The African American kids seeing
00:01:17someone like Mark Henry,
00:01:18that was huge.
00:01:20I've always viewed myself as being
00:01:21the world's strongest man,
00:01:23now I get a chance to prove it.
00:01:25Mark Henry, breaking history.
00:01:27If he puts his mind to do the best
00:01:29at everything.
00:01:29Mark had a great idea of what his
00:01:31gifts were.
00:01:32I love his ability to evolve.
00:01:35I'm very proud of you.
00:01:37Just shows you as a wielders away.
00:01:38It's good to know where you came
00:01:42from, and know what you did now.
00:01:49I was born in a little
00:01:55small town called
00:01:59Silsbury, Texas, June 12, 1971.
00:02:06I'm one of those kids that grew up
00:02:10in poverty, but didn't know that I
00:02:15was poor.
00:02:16Mother, she always tried to make
00:02:20it peaceful for us at home.
00:02:23Man, my mom was arguably the best
00:02:26cook in Southeast Texas.
00:02:29My mom cleaned houses and
00:02:31cooked meals in people's house.
00:02:34And that's what she did for
00:02:35a living.
00:02:36I mean, she didn't make a lot of
00:02:37money, but she felt fulfilled
00:02:39because she was always doing what
00:02:41she was supposed to do.
00:02:42And that's cooking for other
00:02:44people, and seeing the smiles on
00:02:46their face when they tasted
00:02:47her food.
00:02:48They would go, my God, Miss Barbara,
00:02:51and she would just start smiling
00:02:53and rubbing her hands together.
00:02:55That was her passion, and
00:02:57I learned at an early age,
00:02:59you need to do what you love.
00:03:01But let's salute the strongest man
00:03:05in the world, Vasily Alexeyev.
00:03:08Vasily Alexeyev,
00:03:09was the first lifter that I ever
00:03:13saw, and I just love the fact that
00:03:16people threw roses at him, and
00:03:19they revered him, and
00:03:21they loved on him.
00:03:23And I wanted that.
00:03:26I figured that that came by being
00:03:28the strongest guy, so
00:03:30that's what I worked for
00:03:32my whole life.
00:03:34My mother bought the 225 pounds
00:03:38concrete weight set, and that's
00:03:41what me and my brother started on.
00:03:44Man, I was strong, but
00:03:46my brother was absolutely awesome.
00:03:49Andre's a little bit upset now,
00:03:51I think.
00:03:52As a little kid watching wrestling,
00:03:54it just identified with me.
00:03:56Body slamming 300 pounds.
00:04:00Me and my brother, we would go
00:04:02outside and wrestle in Miss Price's
00:04:04yard, the lady across the street
00:04:07There was a guy named Ricky Dixon,
00:04:09who was a grown up.
00:04:10Ricky was probably 20, 25 at
00:04:13the time, and I was probably 12.
00:04:16It got to the point where Ricky was
00:04:17trying to break everybody up, and
00:04:19he pushed me down, and he was like,
00:04:21hey, back up.
00:04:22There's a new sheriff in town,
00:04:23he's doing his whole stick, and
00:04:25I was like, don't push me like that
00:04:28again.
00:04:28And my brother said, do something.
00:04:32It takes them forever to get mad.
00:04:35Once he's upset.
00:04:38And I grabbed Ricky, and man,
00:04:40before you knew it,
00:04:41he was off his feet, and
00:04:43body slammed on the ground.
00:04:44And everybody was like,
00:04:47I see you, Mark, and it just felt
00:04:50good.
00:04:52Mark always had a smile on his
00:04:53face, he would laugh, and
00:04:55he would giggle, he was tender
00:04:56hearted.
00:04:57But when you push him in a corner,
00:04:59now leave him alone, because that
00:05:00bear's going to come out fighting.
00:05:01Boy, that's a lot of trouble,
00:05:05happening in these hallways.
00:05:08I tried to be good, though.
00:05:10I was trying.
00:05:12He would tell people to leave him
00:05:14alone, I mean,
00:05:15they were always agitating.
00:05:16And he told this one kid, and
00:05:18he kept on and on and on, and
00:05:20next thing I know, Mark is throwing
00:05:22him on the lockers.
00:05:24So I'm sitting there trying to get
00:05:25him off the lockers, and
00:05:26he turns around and tells the kids,
00:05:27she won't be here next time.
00:05:28I went, Lord, but
00:05:29that was just him getting pushed to
00:05:32his limit.
00:05:33I think that a lot of things was
00:05:35going on in his life.
00:05:37He was growing very fast.
00:05:40I was a troubled kid.
00:05:43I was very big, I mean,
00:05:45just at 10 years old, I was 225
00:05:48pounds.
00:05:49If it was big, if it was black,
00:05:53if it was derogatory,
00:05:55that's what I got called.
00:05:58I was Fat Albert,
00:06:00I was a McGillivary gorilla, but
00:06:03the worst of everything is,
00:06:06later they found out to have
00:06:08dyslexia, and
00:06:09the kids would call me retard.
00:06:12Bro, that's the trigger word for
00:06:15me.
00:06:17That's the word that'll get you
00:06:18smashed.
00:06:19Which led to me in middle school
00:06:23being put in juvenile detention
00:06:28because of violent outbreaks.
00:06:32They call it the box.
00:06:34You get in trouble,
00:06:35you go to the box.
00:06:36Sixth grade, seventh grade,
00:06:38I kept fighting everybody.
00:06:40All kids are kind of finding
00:06:43themselves.
00:06:44Martin was 350 pounds, and
00:06:46he came into high school.
00:06:48The guy was strong.
00:06:49I don't think that he knew how
00:06:51strong he was.
00:06:52Freshman year, Martin got moved
00:06:55to Varsity, and I remember his
00:06:58brother Pat, come on, Mark,
00:07:00get it.
00:07:01And he's like, I know what I'm
00:07:03supposed to be doing.
00:07:04They hiked the ball, and
00:07:06he took that whole defensive line
00:07:08out.
00:07:09So he started getting a little
00:07:11respect after that.
00:07:12This room still smells exactly
00:07:17the same.
00:07:19The smell of iron,
00:07:21the smell of blood.
00:07:23Craig McGallion, who was the
00:07:26strength coach at the time,
00:07:28he was like, Mark Henry,
00:07:30you got a past of getting in
00:07:33trouble and all of that.
00:07:35He was like, it ends today.
00:07:38He said, you can be special.
00:07:40I'm not talking about
00:07:42stills to be special.
00:07:45He said, people know you all over
00:07:47the world.
00:07:48We just want you to stay out of
00:07:51trouble.
00:07:51Boy, save me.
00:07:54I remember that first meet,
00:07:56the first competition, and
00:07:58he just ran away with it.
00:08:00I just saw a different Mark,
00:08:03he had that attitude.
00:08:05I'm the down, so
00:08:06he took it and ran with it.
00:08:09The first year that Silsby went
00:08:12to state, we won state.
00:08:14We went to state and walked it.
00:08:17He started flourishing and
00:08:19he got more and more and more.
00:08:22I totaled over 2,000 pounds,
00:08:25squatted 830 pounds.
00:08:27I weighed 832 pounds,
00:08:29three times state champion,
00:08:31three times national champion.
00:08:34Man, it felt good to be in
00:08:36the newspaper every week.
00:08:37Like, man, Mark Henry is the
00:08:40strongest kid in the world.
00:08:42Nice little flat top fade right
00:08:45there.
00:08:46When you do the right thing,
00:08:48you get the right rewards.
00:08:50In the late 80s, we had heard that
00:08:53at the state powerlifting
00:08:56meet, there was going to be this
00:08:58kid from Silsby, Texas.
00:09:00And they thought he was really
00:09:02going to do something big.
00:09:03And sure enough, he came out and
00:09:05squatted over 800 pounds that day
00:09:07as a high school student.
00:09:09I mean, I'd never seen anything
00:09:11like it.
00:09:11I ended up in the Guinness Book
00:09:13for about 15 years in
00:09:15Sports Illustrated and
00:09:16other people called me strongest
00:09:18woman in the world,
00:09:19things like that.
00:09:20I was married to Terry Todd,
00:09:22who was a pioneer in the sport of
00:09:24powerlifting.
00:09:25And also coached a number of
00:09:27athletes.
00:09:28Mark was so natural an athlete and
00:09:30also so explosive that he was
00:09:32ideally suited for weightlifting.
00:09:35Although he was much too old to
00:09:36really be considered as
00:09:37an Olympic weightlifter.
00:09:39If he had been in Bulgaria,
00:09:40they would have had him lifting
00:09:42weights when he was 10.
00:09:43But Mark's potential was just
00:09:45unbelievable.
00:09:46On the way home, Terry just said,
00:09:48I just think we ought to try to
00:09:49help him.
00:09:51Janet Terry came to my house and
00:09:54explained to my mom that, yeah,
00:09:56Mark, he can go to college and
00:09:57play football.
00:09:58He could be another football
00:09:59player, but Mark is the best in
00:10:01the world at something.
00:10:02She said, well, I'll let him come
00:10:05up with y'all, but he's a good kid,
00:10:08don't mess him up.
00:10:09And she meant it when she said
00:10:12that too.
00:10:13And Terry was like, we want him to
00:10:16work to his potential.
00:10:18I think that Mark could be
00:10:20the strongest person ever lived.
00:10:23I had to make a transition first
00:10:26from powerlifting to Olympic
00:10:28lifting, which are completely
00:10:31different things altogether.
00:10:34Olympic weightlifting requires
00:10:37athleticism, flexibility.
00:10:40You're pulling weight at a high
00:10:43rate of speed.
00:10:44My God, you have to be able to
00:10:47control that.
00:10:48That was the biggest challenge for
00:10:51me.
00:10:52That was something that had to be
00:10:54taught and it took about three
00:10:57years for most people to learn
00:10:59that art.
00:11:00And I was able to pick it up in
00:11:02nine months because of my strength
00:11:04and make the Olympic team at 92.
00:11:07I had to train so many hours and
00:11:10I was going to school at the same
00:11:13time, I was working at the YMCA.
00:11:16In my city, they banned it,
00:11:20said, man, we don't want you to
00:11:22work, we just want you to focus on
00:11:24the Olympic Games.
00:11:26It takes a whole community to
00:11:27raise a child.
00:11:28A child need to know that it's
00:11:30love.
00:11:31Mark know he's a love out of
00:11:32people in Seals Bay.
00:11:34It's undeniable how much that town
00:11:37means to him and how much he means
00:11:40to the town.
00:11:41Whenever he would come back home,
00:11:44when he showed up in town,
00:11:46the town shut down.
00:11:48And still to this day,
00:11:49people trying to see Mark Henry or
00:11:52talk to him.
00:11:52I'm just glad to see you,
00:11:54man, I remember you,
00:11:55I was glad to see you.
00:11:57I won't let you.
00:11:58They raised a little over $25,000.
00:12:02They all raised that money for
00:12:04me to go to the games.
00:12:06That place is special.
00:12:08I know it happens in other places,
00:12:12but it happened to me.
00:12:15In 92, I came in 10th place.
00:12:18I still have more to prove.
00:12:21He didn't do fabulously, but
00:12:23he was American champion by that
00:12:25time and he held most of the
00:12:26American records in weightlifting.
00:12:29And the idea of going back to
00:12:30the Olympic Games in 96 was
00:12:32a huge motivation for him.
00:12:34I like to stop and talk, but
00:12:35I gotta talk more history.
00:12:37I was focused, man.
00:12:40My God, man, you don't know the
00:12:42fire that was lit under me.
00:12:44I'm going to tell you a story.
00:12:49This is Jenna giving me static
00:12:52about making a mistake.
00:12:54I met Mark in 93.
00:12:58One of my best friends from
00:12:59childhood, we were driving across
00:13:00the country and
00:13:01stopped in Colorado Springs.
00:13:02They stopped in at the Olympic
00:13:04Training Center to meet a friend
00:13:07of mine.
00:13:07I come to Jared Lynch's door and
00:13:09I get ready to knock and
00:13:11I hear two girls laughing.
00:13:12And I stop and I'm like,
00:13:14this is a great moment.
00:13:16I'm going to get them.
00:13:17We hear the knock at the door.
00:13:22We have security.
00:13:22I'm like, my God,
00:13:23we're going to get Jair kicked out.
00:13:25I mean, it was scrambling,
00:13:28you hear me?
00:13:29She hid in the closet and
00:13:31not get in trouble.
00:13:33I come out the closet and
00:13:34I look at him and I'm like,
00:13:36you're the biggest human being I've
00:13:38ever seen in my life.
00:13:40He was kind and he's fun.
00:13:43And we were fast friends.
00:13:45But he would write me poems and
00:13:47sing.
00:13:47And I was like, yeah,
00:13:49this is the dude.
00:13:50When you find somebody that you
00:13:52would like to spend the rest of
00:13:54your life with, it's pretty damn
00:13:57cool.
00:13:57Go inside yourself, it's amazing.
00:14:02To see him as an athlete was so
00:14:05much fun.
00:14:06And I remember him calling me.
00:14:09And he's like, Jana,
00:14:10I think I'm going to win the Olympics.
00:14:12Mark Henry just got the world
00:14:14record at 800 pounds,
00:14:16exceeding the previous record by
00:14:18seven pounds.
00:14:20She hasn't seen this in a long
00:14:23time.
00:14:24So this is your Barcelona jacket.
00:14:29That was your warm up top from 92.
00:14:31And I actually have a shirt from
00:14:33that contest.
00:14:34I can't believe I was ever that
00:14:36wide.
00:14:37You were wide.
00:14:38Can you see that?
00:14:38Let's look at that on you now.
00:14:40When I think about you and
00:14:41proving how important you were in
00:14:44the 1996 Olympic Games and
00:14:46how famous you are as these.
00:14:48because this is one of their main
00:14:50posters for the games, people
00:14:52they're really focusing on.
00:14:54As they're celebs.
00:14:55And you're not the diver over here.
00:14:57But you are over here.
00:14:59There you are.
00:15:00After Barcelona, we're just trying
00:15:03to figure out a way to make him
00:15:07have a nice life so that he can
00:15:09train and focus on the next Olympic
00:15:11Games, which he wanted to do.
00:15:13Terry had the idea that they would
00:15:15go talk to Vince.
00:15:16Terry met Vince back when he was
00:15:18working on a long article that he
00:15:20did about Andre the Giant that ran
00:15:23in Sports Illustrated.
00:15:25Terry called Vince and
00:15:26explained to him that there was
00:15:28this really unusual young man.
00:15:30And that he'd been to the Olympic
00:15:32Games and he loved the WWE.
00:15:35Anytime you want some,
00:15:36you can get some.
00:15:37Ain't going nowhere.
00:15:38Mark had a lot of charisma.
00:15:40Mark has a dynamic personality.
00:15:42Mark's smile lights up a room.
00:15:44And Mark had dunked a basketball
00:15:47at 400 pounds.
00:15:48Immediately it was like,
00:15:50this guy's made for the WWE.
00:15:53From there, we sponsored Mark
00:15:56Henry's trip to the Olympics.
00:15:58And we were like,
00:16:00We sponsored Mark Henry's trip to
00:16:03the Olympics.
00:16:04Go ahead and get your gear on.
00:16:07I wore WWE merchandise.
00:16:10I wore the logo when I competed.
00:16:12It was pretty cool, man,
00:16:15to have the WWE be a sponsor.
00:16:18Vince agreed to support Mark for
00:16:21the next several years with really
00:16:23no obligations on Mark's part.
00:16:26Other than if at the end of
00:16:28the Olympic Games in 96,
00:16:30you want to wrestle, I want to ask
00:16:33you to come and talk to me.
00:16:34Seeing him lift,
00:16:36I don't know, it was 500 pounds.
00:16:39It was some heavyweight.
00:16:42And then lifting up his foot to
00:16:45showboat.
00:16:46And I was like,
00:16:47you've got that thing in you.
00:16:50I was covering the 96 games in
00:16:53Atlanta.
00:16:53And I don't think there'd been
00:16:56an American weightlifter who had
00:16:58generated this much excitement and
00:17:01anticipation in a generation.
00:17:04Mark was a very likable presence.
00:17:07He was the embodiment of the jolly
00:17:10big man.
00:17:11He just seemed very good natured.
00:17:14Mark became the de facto spokesman
00:17:17for the Olympic team.
00:17:19He was all over the place.
00:17:21He got photographed by
00:17:23Annie Leibovitz.
00:17:25He was on every late night talk
00:17:27show.
00:17:28How do you do 5,000 calories a day?
00:17:30What does that mean?
00:17:32I love bacon and sausage, man.
00:17:34Right.
00:17:34He did a lot of daytime shows,
00:17:36it's like Oprah.
00:17:37My gosh, she's your pig.
00:17:41That's beautiful,
00:17:42you got to take scum off.
00:17:45I was able to go and
00:17:46get a level of notoriety that very
00:17:49few people will get to have.
00:17:51But I tell people all the time that
00:17:54I competed in a sport that was
00:17:56corrupt, not making any excuses,
00:17:59but I was not going to trade my
00:18:01health for a gold medal.
00:18:03The whole question of animal like
00:18:06steroids was a big problem for
00:18:08Mark, because Mark didn't use drugs.
00:18:11Do you take performance
00:18:12enhancing drugs?
00:18:13No.
00:18:14Have you ever?
00:18:15No.
00:18:16And so in 96 in particular,
00:18:18there had been a lot of people
00:18:21there had been some weightlifter
00:18:23who had been banned by the IOC for
00:18:25drug use.
00:18:25And so the next thing we knew he
00:18:27was allowed in the contest.
00:18:29The positive drug tests that show
00:18:31up, the penalties for those are
00:18:34really not enough to deter somebody.
00:18:36And so for Mark,
00:18:37that was really disheartening.
00:18:39I'm hoping that the federations of
00:18:41lifting will get rid of some of
00:18:43these guys that are dirty.
00:18:45It's like a slap in the face to me,
00:18:48so I don't respect them at all.
00:18:51The city of Atlanta,
00:18:54home of the Olympic Games.
00:18:59I was focused man,
00:19:02I was there to compete.
00:19:06The US team had not made a top ten
00:19:09finish in the Olympics since 1972.
00:19:14I tore the muscle in between my
00:19:17ribs, I was like, you know what,
00:19:21man, I'm going to lift anyway.
00:19:25Mark Henry had a great work ethic.
00:19:28He didn't have to perform, but
00:19:30he went out there and
00:19:31lift just enough to make the team
00:19:34place.
00:19:34It shows that Mark Henry isn't just
00:19:36a great athlete,
00:19:38he's also a team player.
00:19:40I cleaned it, it felt like lightning
00:19:43struck me when I jerked that way.
00:19:53I finished the competition and
00:19:56my team got the points and
00:19:59we came in 10th place.
00:20:01I'm the most proud of that,
00:20:03of anything in my athletic career.
00:20:07He stood up and I was proud of him.
00:20:09He didn't do drugs, so
00:20:10he didn't try to cheat.
00:20:12He'd rather finish 10th and
00:20:14lose than to cheat and win.
00:20:16He wasn't scared to speak up
00:20:18against things that are wrong.
00:20:20Thomas, he told me in Atlanta,
00:20:23hey, you gotta stop talking about
00:20:27drugs and weightlifting.
00:20:30You're going to get the sport
00:20:32kicked out of the Olympics.
00:20:33And I told him, I said, no,
00:20:34you're going to get the sport
00:20:36kicked out of the Olympics.
00:20:37And I knew from after that
00:20:39conversation that I was never going
00:20:40to do weightlifting again.
00:20:42You can't make a living in many
00:20:46Olympic sports.
00:20:49People may admire the competitors
00:20:51and they may pay close attention to
00:20:53almost anything that's under
00:20:55the banner of the Olympics.
00:20:56But you can't make a living at it.
00:20:59So if a guy like Mark Henry is
00:21:01going to make a living, especially
00:21:03in the Olympics,
00:21:05being a springboard in terms of
00:21:07their notoriety and popularity.
00:21:09The world's strongest man,
00:21:12Mark Henry.
00:21:13Then the place to go is into
00:21:15professional wrestling.
00:21:17The closing ceremonies, baby.
00:21:24As soon as I left the Olympic
00:21:27Games, Terry Todd acted as my
00:21:31manager.
00:21:32He said, we're going to go to meet
00:21:34Vince.
00:21:34They want to talk to you about
00:21:36being a full time wrestler.
00:21:37I didn't even know that that was
00:21:40possible, but Vince had bigger
00:21:42plans than I did.
00:21:43He is the newest member to our
00:21:45family, the world's strongest man,
00:21:48Mark Henry.
00:21:50I signed a 10 year motion to
00:21:52get him out of the Olympics.
00:21:55I signed a 10 year motion to get
00:21:57him out of the Olympics.
00:21:59I signed a 10 year multimillion
00:22:01dollar deal.
00:22:02But the one thing that was
00:22:04different is I had the first
00:22:05guarantee contract.
00:22:07Whether I succeeded or not,
00:22:08I was going to get paid the money
00:22:10we negotiated.
00:22:11And no wrestler had that.
00:22:14I think Mark was in the
00:22:15neighborhood of $250,000 a year
00:22:19for the 10 year deal.
00:22:21Mark Henry was the first major
00:22:23developmental contract that we
00:22:26ever did in this company.
00:22:28The feeling was if Mark could come
00:22:31into our world and adapt,
00:22:33that it was limitless what Mark
00:22:35Henry could do.
00:22:37Put your top over,
00:22:38put your top over.
00:22:40A match was so much fun on
00:22:43television, in a pay-per-view,
00:22:46when I had no wrestling experience
00:22:49whatsoever.
00:22:51I thought, man, I had died and
00:22:53gone to heaven, man.
00:22:54So Mark's head,
00:22:56Mark was already there.
00:22:59I'm a star, these other guys
00:23:00working all this time, and
00:23:02they can't even get on the car.
00:23:03I'm featured,
00:23:04Mark Henry, World's Strongest Man.
00:23:07I am here with the world's
00:23:10strongest man, Mark Henry.
00:23:15Most of the stars at the time had
00:23:17spent years and
00:23:18years in the territories.
00:23:20And they had to scratch and
00:23:22claw for every spot, for every
00:23:24payday.
00:23:25Can you believe the strength of
00:23:27this human being?
00:23:28And then for this guy who's not
00:23:30from the wrestling world to sign
00:23:33a mega contract, then be expected
00:23:35to perform at a high level.
00:23:37There was a lot of people in
00:23:39the locker room that doubted Mark,
00:23:42that wanted to test Mark.
00:23:43Some guys are like,
00:23:45I could care less.
00:23:46And then there's other guys that
00:23:47were like, man, why this guy?
00:23:49This guy ain't taking a bump.
00:23:50He's getting a ten-year deal.
00:23:52This isn't the Olympics.
00:23:55This isn't weightlifting.
00:23:57We didn't care where you were.
00:23:58We didn't care what you had done.
00:24:00We respected what you had done.
00:24:02But you had to prove yourself
00:24:04with us.
00:24:05Mark, I don't think, understood
00:24:07the business well enough to know
00:24:08what was given to him at that time.
00:24:10I needed to learn, learn to take
00:24:13bumps, learn to run the ropes,
00:24:15all the fundamental things that
00:24:18young wrestlers have to learn.
00:24:21So I moved to Stanford,
00:24:23started training with Dr. Dom.
00:24:26The idea was in 1996 to have
00:24:28a training system in place where
00:24:31we could start training guys with
00:24:34potential.
00:24:35I was fortunate enough to be picked
00:24:38and chosen to come in and
00:24:40do that with Mark Henry and
00:24:42a young Dwayne Johnson.
00:24:45We came up together.
00:24:46We starved together.
00:24:47We were working out in the ring at
00:24:48that time in Stanford, Connecticut.
00:24:50Mark Henry was coming out of
00:24:51the Olympics.
00:24:52He's legitimately one of the
00:24:53strongest men in the world.
00:24:55And then Dory Funk Jr.
00:24:57came in with a funky dojo.
00:24:59And we started that crew.
00:25:01Think about what you're doing.
00:25:02Tom realized that being an aerobic
00:25:05sport that wrestling is, and
00:25:08me being a weightlifter and
00:25:10powerlifter, which is an anaerobic
00:25:13sport, that I was going to have to
00:25:16start training different.
00:25:21You know, the strongman of lifting
00:25:22was very different than wrestling.
00:25:24And he was humbled.
00:25:25And then he had to grow and learn.
00:25:28So we started training different
00:25:30and then putting in the reps.
00:25:39I kept getting hurt because I
00:25:41didn't know what I was doing.
00:25:42There was a setback of me tearing
00:25:44the ligaments and breaking my ankle.
00:25:47I didn't want to fail on top of
00:25:49the fact that I didn't want to let
00:25:51everybody down.
00:25:52You know, when you have such huge
00:25:55expectations put on you,
00:25:57it magnifies the pressure.
00:25:59In the beginning, Mark was resting
00:26:02on his laurels, when in reality,
00:26:05it was the company that put him in
00:26:07that position.
00:26:08We needed to see whether or
00:26:10not this investment was going to
00:26:11work out for us.
00:26:12A lot of the wrestlers thought
00:26:14that there was a level of arrogance.
00:26:17They hadn't paid any dues.
00:26:19I got a lot of heat from wrestlers
00:26:22about that contract.
00:26:24I got hazed.
00:26:26You know, you call it ribbing and
00:26:28having a good time, but
00:26:29it wasn't fun for me.
00:26:31Somebody had messed with him and
00:26:33it's crazy as that sounds,
00:26:34the world's strongest man.
00:26:36But just about everybody gets
00:26:37picked on at some point.
00:26:39I went through a lot of
00:26:42I went through it with one of
00:26:44the wrestlers over Joe getting
00:26:46ribbing, and I got mad and
00:26:47I told him I was going to hurt him
00:26:49when I healed up.
00:26:51And Bret Hart just happened to know
00:26:53about that situation.
00:26:54And he said, you know what, man?
00:26:56Come to Calgary.
00:26:57There's a lot you need to learn,
00:26:59not just about wrestling, but
00:27:00the culture of wrestling.
00:27:02And you need to learn how to
00:27:03coexist in a locker room.
00:27:05I don't think anyone disputed
00:27:07the value of guys like Mark Henry.
00:27:10It's a really complicated business
00:27:12sometimes mentally,
00:27:13emotionally, physically.
00:27:15You could tell that he really
00:27:17wanted to learn, like he was trying
00:27:18to soak everything up.
00:27:20You got a leg drop, would you go
00:27:22and do that elbow too, or
00:27:23would you just-
00:27:24He was really conscious of getting
00:27:27better, he wanted to learn right.
00:27:29A lot of the reasons why he's
00:27:31still in wrestling is because of
00:27:35Bret Hart.
00:27:36And I befriended his brother Owen,
00:27:38being able to hang out with him and
00:27:41him tell me what I did right and
00:27:43what I did wrong and
00:27:45what I need to do better.
00:27:47The pure power of the man,
00:27:48I'm a legend of my own time, baby.
00:27:52I came back and
00:27:53then they could see the growth.
00:27:54Mark Henry broke his ankle in
00:27:56training, as rehab,
00:27:58the ankle has come back and
00:28:00he's up in great shape.
00:28:03It's been a very long road for
00:28:05Mark Henry.
00:28:07Well, after all of the training
00:28:09that I did with Dwayne Johnson,
00:28:11we started talking about working
00:28:13together.
00:28:14The Rock is in the ring,
00:28:16Mark Henry, the newest member of
00:28:18the nation in the ring.
00:28:19The nation of domination was made
00:28:22up of superstars like D'Lo Brown,
00:28:25The Godfather, The Rock, and
00:28:28Ron Simmons, aka Farouk.
00:28:31The nation, we were rock stars.
00:28:34We were militant black guys that
00:28:36wanted to take over professional
00:28:38wrestling.
00:28:39It was good television.
00:28:43Through The Rock's tutelage and
00:28:45all he did for me,
00:28:46I thought it was even more special
00:28:49to get master's class from
00:28:51Ron Simmons.
00:28:52Go ahead and tell them, Mark.
00:28:53Now that I'm a member of
00:28:54the nation-
00:28:54You just hold it right there.
00:28:55You're not a member until I say
00:28:56you're a member.
00:28:57Then you can talk.
00:28:58Now he has some math skills,
00:29:00which has given him the versatility
00:29:01that he needs.
00:29:03And I think that's one of
00:29:03the reasons why they did want to
00:29:04put him with us, so
00:29:05it would take some to push off him.
00:29:07And at the same time,
00:29:09learning the process of everything,
00:29:11tag team wrestling, singles
00:29:13wrestling, character.
00:29:15And it was a good fit.
00:29:15That's your five member strong.
00:29:19I wouldn't have been the wrestler
00:29:21that I am today without
00:29:22Ron Simmons.
00:29:23I think my luckiest stars are being
00:29:25in the nation.
00:29:26This was known as the attitude era.
00:29:30WWE superstars were pushing
00:29:32the boundaries further than they
00:29:34had ever been pushed before.
00:29:36The Rock, he's gonna lay the smack
00:29:39down on your candy ass.
00:29:41After the nation of domination,
00:29:43Mark Henry being the strongman was
00:29:46not going to be enough to make
00:29:49Mark Henry a star.
00:29:50I told Vince that I want to call
00:29:52myself sexual chocolate, and
00:29:55he busted out laughing.
00:29:57He said, no, and I'm like, Vince,
00:29:59you said you wanted us to
00:30:01entertain.
00:30:01I want to entertain, so
00:30:04get ready.
00:30:05I'm nervous, I'm so nervous.
00:30:13I told Vince that I had this idea
00:30:16for a character, and
00:30:19the character didn't have to win.
00:30:23And the character didn't have
00:30:24to win.
00:30:25The character had to win.
00:30:29She's getting us over with, Mark.
00:30:31And Vince was like, listen,
00:30:34we spent a lot of money on you.
00:30:37Here we go, let's try one more.
00:30:41We want this to be a success.
00:30:42And I say it will be a success.
00:30:44You're going to be thanking me by
00:30:46the end of the night.
00:30:47Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:53Mark was a charmer.
00:30:55Mark loved the ladies, and
00:30:57the ladies loved Mark.
00:30:58Sexual chocolate was born.
00:31:02Sexual chocolate,
00:31:03we love the ladies.
00:31:04It was really a joke at first.
00:31:07We would drive around and
00:31:09laugh at Mark.
00:31:09Hey, sexual chocolate.
00:31:10Word of that got back to the office
00:31:12and next thing you know,
00:31:13Mark took it to a whole
00:31:14different level.
00:31:15Sexual chocolate, we're ready for
00:31:19you.
00:31:21As much as my children were under
00:31:23direct orders to turn off the TV.
00:31:26As soon as sexual chocolate came
00:31:29on the airwaves.
00:31:30Wow.
00:31:31Sexual chocolate was dynamic.
00:31:34I'm the kind of chocolate that
00:31:35melts in your mouth,
00:31:36not in your hand.
00:31:38My God, that character,
00:31:39we love sexual chocolate.
00:31:42Mark came in during the Attitude
00:31:43era.
00:31:44Come on, girls, let's go.
00:31:46It was a crazy time.
00:31:49What in the world?
00:31:50Well, you can just do anything
00:31:51you want.
00:31:51My God.
00:31:52To watch him have fun and
00:31:54use his big personality.
00:31:56It was easy for him to do,
00:31:57because he's naturally that.
00:31:59He's really kind of naturally
00:32:00sexual chocolate, I think.
00:32:01Baby, you ready yet?
00:32:04Sweetheart, here I am,
00:32:06you're about to die.
00:32:08My God.
00:32:10The storyline with
00:32:11Mae Young should have told anybody,
00:32:12Mark is willing to stretch
00:32:13the envelope.
00:32:14He embraced it.
00:32:15How could you not laugh?
00:32:19There's this big 400 pound black
00:32:20guy soaked in sweat.
00:32:22And there's Mae Young smoking
00:32:23on a cigar like she done
00:32:25wore his ass out.
00:32:26Was I really sexual to you,
00:32:27can you believe me now?
00:32:29I'm so spent.
00:32:31It may be juvenile humor, but
00:32:32I thought it was fantastic.
00:32:34I'm a sex addict.
00:32:35The creative team during that time,
00:32:38they were on their game.
00:32:41I get on base more times than
00:32:43Mark McGuire and
00:32:44Samuel Sosa together.
00:32:46I never came up with one of those
00:32:48sagas.
00:32:49They kept trying to outdo each
00:32:51other and out top each other.
00:32:52I was willing to 100% wholeheartedly
00:32:55pour my soul into that character.
00:32:58Sex with Chocolate got over, and
00:33:00it's still right now one of
00:33:02the greatest gimmicks I think ever.
00:33:05Sex with Chocolate,
00:33:07he hangs out with Ophage.
00:33:09I don't think his mother liked it
00:33:11too well.
00:33:12I know she did, but you know.
00:33:16A little discipline on the way for
00:33:18baby Mark from Mama Henry.
00:33:20She got him by the ear.
00:33:22How embarrassing.
00:33:23Around that time,
00:33:27my mother was really,
00:33:32really sick.
00:33:33And I did my best to try to be
00:33:37there for her as much as I could.
00:33:41With the cancer that she had.
00:33:45And there was about a month stretch
00:33:48where I was at the hospital.
00:33:51She would be like,
00:33:52you need to get out of here,
00:33:54go do something.
00:33:55I'm not going nowhere.
00:33:57I'm like, all right, mom.
00:33:58I get a call from my cousin Regina
00:34:02and she was like, hey,
00:34:04you might want to come back to
00:34:07the hospital, your mom passed.
00:34:12My mom on the end,
00:34:13she had her glasses on.
00:34:14She take them off,
00:34:15trying to be cute now.
00:34:16My mom passing away, I mean,
00:34:21it was the worst thing that had
00:34:26ever happened to me in my life at
00:34:30that point because she was
00:34:33my cheerleader.
00:34:35She was my reason for
00:34:37being the guy that I became.
00:34:39I was depressed,
00:34:41I was in a emotional state that I
00:34:45had never been in before.
00:34:48I'm in a time of mourning and
00:34:51it didn't help none that people
00:34:54were calling me out.
00:34:57There's only one strongest man in
00:35:00the world, he's Mark Henry.
00:35:02One of the strongest men in the
00:35:05world, he's Mark Henry.
00:35:07One of the strong men say,
00:35:08why is Mark Henry calling himself
00:35:10the world's strongest man?
00:35:12He don't compete in world's
00:35:14strongest man.
00:35:15Them bastards knew that I was
00:35:17the Michael Jordan of lifting.
00:35:20It was their only chance to poke
00:35:23the bear because they knew that
00:35:26the bear was in a different
00:35:28territory.
00:35:30I called Vince and I told him,
00:35:32I was like, listen,
00:35:34I'm a little bit pissed.
00:35:37I want to compete again.
00:35:39And Vince said, well,
00:35:41do you think you can win it?
00:35:43And I got angry and I told him,
00:35:45yeah, I can win it,
00:35:46I'm going to win it.
00:35:48And he said, well, you're putting
00:35:50your career on the line because we
00:35:53don't have a place for
00:35:55the second strongest man.
00:35:57Now I got the pressure of if I
00:35:59lose, I'm going to lose my job.
00:36:02I'm going to lose my job.
00:36:05I'm going to lose my job.
00:36:11I'm going to lose my job.
00:36:17I'm going to lose my job.
00:36:23This is it, man.
00:36:29The basketball goal is still up, but this is it.
00:36:38You look and you see, like, all of the experiences that happened.
00:36:48This magnolia tree, me and my brother and my mom planted that when I was probably six
00:36:56or seven years old.
00:36:58You know, it's just a lot of memories, you know.
00:37:05I don't want to tear it down because every dollar she ever made, she put into building
00:37:11this house.
00:37:12You know, I have cousins that, you know, do real estate.
00:37:16They're like, hey, Mark, do you want us to fix it up and rent it out?
00:37:22No.
00:37:24I don't want to rent it because then I would have to, like, basically rebuild it, which
00:37:31would require me tearing it down.
00:37:35Every idea requires me making a decision to, you know, move this house, and I just can't
00:37:47fix myself to do that.
00:37:53When I'm able to deal with it is when something will be done.
00:37:59Barbara Jean was amazing.
00:38:01Mark adored her and understood the enormous sacrifices that she went through to support
00:38:06him and Patrick, and gone way too soon, and it left a big hole for him.
00:38:12It left a really big hole.
00:38:16The only thing that I could do to take my mind off how much pain I was in was put my
00:38:23headphones on and go to the gym.
00:38:26I wanted to show them that I was who I was known to be, and I told Terry that I wanted
00:38:35to compete in strongman, and he said, well, I mean, we have a contest that we're putting
00:38:41on in Columbus, Ohio at the Arnold Classic.
00:38:45This is a fitness expo where we have every sport possible that has anything to do with
00:38:49strength or with fitness or with endurance or all of those things.
00:38:53On your mark and get set.
00:38:59It's not your functional, normal strength training, your Olympic lifting, your squat
00:39:02bench deadlift.
00:39:03You have to move around all these crazy different objects, and the whole aspect of it is finding
00:39:09out who the strongest human being is.
00:39:12You can do it, Mark.
00:39:13Come on.
00:39:14It was awesome to get back to working with Terry.
00:39:17Yes, you got it, you got it, you got it.
00:39:20It was the best medicine that I could have gotten.
00:39:23That was when I realized that, you know, I needed some counseling.
00:39:31Getting all of the negativity and the ill will that was in my heart out.
00:39:36I had to forgive myself for the things that I had done and said in my life.
00:39:44And I had to forgive God for taking my mother from me.
00:39:49It was a lot of messed up stuff going through my head at that time, and I appreciate the
00:39:57help.
00:39:58You got to work, man, they don't just give out them strongman titles.
00:40:07You got to earn them.
00:40:10I'm going to just go ahead and go to the heaviest dumbbell they got.
00:40:18So in Mark's case, he had never competed in a strongman contest.
00:40:23He actually was not in lifting shape.
00:40:25You know, being on the road doesn't make you stay in competitive shape.
00:40:29And so we didn't really know if he would win it or not.
00:40:33They're saying that Mark Henry shouldn't call himself the world's strongest man unless he
00:40:36was.
00:40:38You can't mess with a guy that's that strong and doesn't know how strong he is.
00:40:46I'm training like a wild man because I just want to prove to these guys that not only
00:40:53was I better than them, but there was a reason for me not being there in the first place.
00:41:00And that reason was wrestling.
00:41:02I took on another life to make means for myself and to get kicked like they kicked
00:41:08me.
00:41:09Now I wanted blood.
00:41:10I wanted them to know who I was.
00:41:15We have literally eight of the strongest men on the face of the planet as we stage the
00:41:22first annual Arnold strongman competition.
00:41:26I'm not going to let nothing stop me.
00:41:28I want to be able to go down in history as being somebody that's done something that
00:41:32nobody's ever done.
00:41:35That's going to happen this weekend.
00:41:37That big hunk of metal right there.
00:41:39It's 365 pounds.
00:41:40The Apollo wheels, fixed train axle, three inches in diameter.
00:41:48You can't grip it.
00:41:51You can't put straps on it, it'll break both your wrists.
00:41:56And I love that because I didn't want help.
00:41:59Which of these strongmen today are going to take these wheels and put them overhead?
00:42:17Haven't been done in 50 years.
00:42:21Mark Henry literally bent over to the ground.
00:42:24365 pounds with both hands, went like this, and went like this.
00:42:28And I was just like, what the?
00:42:30Now four men in history to take this thing overhead.
00:42:36Two times by Mark Henry, breaking history.
00:42:40There's so much that goes into it.
00:42:42And it just made it look like a paperweight.
00:42:46Boom.
00:42:48Three times.
00:42:51Such an incredible feat of strength as we've never seen before.
00:42:55It was an unbelievably historic moment.
00:42:57And it also demonstrated how amazing he was.
00:43:01It's one of those moments that people still talk about.
00:43:05It was by far the highlight of that contest.
00:43:09Let's go!
00:43:11I was so angry that my mom was gone.
00:43:18I had a wristband that had my mom's name on it.
00:43:32This is our final competitor.
00:43:34Stay in first.
00:43:36You've got to do it in under 20 seconds.
00:43:38I've got to do it in under 20 seconds.
00:43:42He has dedicated this performance to his mother who recently passed.
00:43:46She feels that she's watching him, she's with him.
00:43:48Here we go!
00:43:50This is one of the most difficult events ever.
00:43:52Grab that 800 plus pounds and head up the ramp.
00:43:58Mark Henry!
00:44:00You're looking at the strongest man.
00:44:08Nobody on the planet could have beat me that day.
00:44:12I was invincible that day.
00:44:16It was about proving who I was.
00:44:20And who I became.
00:44:22Legitimately the strongest man on earth.
00:44:24That's what I'm talking about!
00:44:30Steal the man!
00:44:36I told you when I was 18 years old,
00:44:38am I strong enough to be in one of your movies?
00:44:40And you said, how much did you lift?
00:44:42And I said 740.
00:44:45And you said, not yet.
00:44:47Well, I'm the strongest man in the world now.
00:44:49I know, I know.
00:44:51It's really unbelievable what you can do.
00:44:53It just shows you as it wields its way.
00:44:55I'm very proud of you.
00:44:59I think now the guys understand
00:45:01that he's somebody who could have competed
00:45:03at their level if he wanted to stay in it.
00:45:05But he already had a better gig.
00:45:09My mom was helping me again.
00:45:11She gave me life.
00:45:13More than once.
00:45:15She gave me life at birth.
00:45:17And she gave me life again.
00:45:25In my career.
00:45:33Making his return,
00:45:35the newly crowned
00:45:37world's strongest man,
00:45:39Mark Henry!
00:45:42After about six months away,
00:45:44Mark Henry returned to the WWE
00:45:46with a new level of confidence
00:45:48and credibility.
00:45:50I was back
00:45:52as the world's strongest man
00:45:54in wrestling again.
00:45:56And legitimately the strongest man on earth.
00:45:58Well, I can't wait to see what this is all about.
00:46:00This is that
00:46:02feat of strength of Mark Henry!
00:46:04Mark's embracing
00:46:06the feats of strength
00:46:08kind of gave him
00:46:10a different attitude and gave him
00:46:12a newfound confidence.
00:46:14He's going to back up against that wall.
00:46:16He's going to hold this big black ass
00:46:18Slimboy in place for 30 seconds.
00:46:20There were challenges
00:46:22literally every week
00:46:24in the locker room.
00:46:26Mark Henry's an animal, man.
00:46:28He's strong as an ox.
00:46:30Can you believe Mark Henry's doing this?
00:46:32Oh yeah, can you do that?
00:46:35That's what I'm talking about!
00:46:37That's what I'm talking about!
00:46:39There were some things that we had
00:46:41Mark do. One of them was rolling
00:46:43a frying pan.
00:46:45Now,
00:46:47when we did it,
00:46:49I asked Mark, I said, okay, what kind of pan do we get?
00:46:51Of course, in the process,
00:46:53the ribbing started
00:46:55again. Vince
00:46:57just knew that he was going to get a big
00:46:59kick out of seeing
00:47:01me get angry and
00:47:03one of the feats of strength not working.
00:47:05So he had them go out and get this
00:47:07frying pan.
00:47:09They brought out
00:47:11an iron skillet.
00:47:13I said, what's the deal here?
00:47:15They said, Noah, we're going to use this
00:47:17with Mark.
00:47:19What the hell are you talking about?
00:47:21See this pan? The bet is
00:47:23that you can't bend it.
00:47:25Hey man, what's wrong with you?
00:47:27You can't bend it. I saw the red light
00:47:29and I was
00:47:32standing in front of it with this pan
00:47:34and
00:47:36when I first started
00:47:38to try, it just wouldn't
00:47:40bend.
00:47:42And I remember looking
00:47:44up and seeing everybody's
00:47:46faces start to turn to each
00:47:48other like, oh man, this is embarrassing.
00:47:50And
00:47:52man, I cranked back
00:47:54down on that thing and
00:47:56the metal screamed.
00:47:58It was just like
00:48:01an iron bending sound
00:48:03that I had never heard in anything that
00:48:05I bent in my hands before.
00:48:13Fear of failure
00:48:15just was too much for me.
00:48:21It is absolutely
00:48:23impressive when I
00:48:25watched that. And believe me, I had
00:48:27a newfound respect
00:48:29for his ass being okay.
00:48:39I can't believe it.
00:48:43So around that time, we started
00:48:45thinking about having
00:48:47kids. And
00:48:49I said, well, I'm waiting on the right
00:48:51woman to propose to me.
00:48:53And she was like, oh, stop it.
00:48:55Nobody's proposing to you.
00:48:58If you want to marry me, you have to propose to me.
00:49:00And
00:49:02of course, that didn't go off very well.
00:49:04I ended up doing a
00:49:06proposing, and we got married.
00:49:08We got married
00:49:10at Jane and Jerry Todd's
00:49:12beautiful estate.
00:49:14And it was time. And then
00:49:16he's like, are we going to have some babies? Let's go.
00:49:18Jacob was born
00:49:20October 12, 2005.
00:49:22And Joanna
00:49:24was born December 30,
00:49:262010.
00:49:28I don't know if I've ever loved anybody
00:49:30like I loved those kids.
00:49:36Mark is an amazing dad.
00:49:38And he's just proud.
00:49:40No! No!
00:49:44And so he wants to be the daddy.
00:49:46Like, I want to be the dad. I want to be in the stands.
00:49:48I will help you out.
00:49:50And you just got to feel it, like, come off those
00:49:52three fingers.
00:49:55We just got to practice.
00:49:57There you go. It's been great
00:49:59watching the kids succeed in sports.
00:50:05But they also realize that they come from
00:50:07on defense.
00:50:13He wants me to be the best,
00:50:15and I want to be the best. So for it to come
00:50:17from him, it means a lot to me.
00:50:19And at the end of practice, when you're tired
00:50:21and you don't want to do it,
00:50:23that's when you practice stuff like that.
00:50:25He's one of the
00:50:27best coaches I've ever had,
00:50:29and he's a great dad.
00:50:35I was always in awe of him
00:50:37being that strong.
00:50:41One time I was arm wrestling
00:50:43my hand against his
00:50:45pointer finger, you know? And I still lost.
00:50:47If he can beat me
00:50:49in arm wrestling with his pointer finger,
00:50:52that's a whole other level.
00:50:54I see my dad
00:50:56as an inspiration,
00:50:58and it definitely brings the whole
00:51:00family joy to see him
00:51:02in his element.
00:51:04On a scale of 1 to 10,
00:51:06how hard was this compared to everything else?
00:51:08This is about like a 900-pound squat.
00:51:10Okay, what do you think about
00:51:12the hair, y'all?
00:51:14I don't hate it. I loved it.
00:51:16I've had at least
00:51:1850 to 100 people in my life
00:51:21come up and go,
00:51:23hey, how did you do that?
00:51:25I went home, and I tried
00:51:27to lift my mom's four tarts.
00:51:33I love that. I love that.
00:51:35I love Ron hugging you.
00:51:37Oh my gosh, it's so sweet.
00:51:39If somebody's doing something inhuman like this,
00:51:41there's going to be fans that are going to be like,
00:51:43nah, what is he going to do next week?
00:51:45I want to go to see that.
00:51:47Here we go.
00:51:49He's had these different seasons of his career.
00:51:51Who's the strongest man? Me!
00:51:53Who's the man? Me!
00:51:55At that time, we did the strongman gimmick.
00:51:57We did the sexual chocolate.
00:51:59I think they were trying to figure out
00:52:01what do we do with Mark next?
00:52:03Here's this
00:52:05charismatic 400-pound
00:52:07world's strongest man
00:52:09that you know
00:52:11has the ability to be a megastar.
00:52:13He's got it.
00:52:15We just got to get it
00:52:18out of him.
00:52:24That brings back some memories.
00:52:26Talk about old school.
00:52:28At a certain point,
00:52:30I think fans started
00:52:32to feel like they had seen
00:52:34everything Mark Henry had to offer.
00:52:36And I think WWE
00:52:38was under the impression that
00:52:40they had gotten almost everything they could
00:52:42out of Mark Henry.
00:52:44And that's why his career
00:52:46starts to kind of slow down.
00:52:48The
00:52:50Hey Kool-Aid era
00:52:52is what I called it
00:52:54where I was wearing red
00:52:56and I wasn't being
00:52:58really serious or mean.
00:53:04Vince wanted to
00:53:06make me angry and push the envelope.
00:53:10Vince McMahon played a practical joke
00:53:12on me that went bad.
00:53:16After Smackdown had gone
00:53:18off the air, Mark Henry
00:53:20was headed to the ring for a non-
00:53:22televised match, which is
00:53:24customary in the WWE.
00:53:30Here's how that started.
00:53:32Vince sent him out to the ring by himself.
00:53:34And so when Mark got down to the ring,
00:53:36he was just down there by himself
00:53:38but nobody never comes out.
00:53:42Just because they wanted to poke the bear,
00:53:45leave Mark Henry standing in the ring
00:53:47with nothing to do.
00:53:49If you want somebody
00:53:51to come out here, bring somebody out here.
00:53:53I paid my dues.
00:53:55I don't need this bull.
00:53:57Where's the microphone?
00:54:01And he was given the microphone.
00:54:07And the microphone wasn't on.
00:54:11You want me to get fired?
00:54:13He was so angry.
00:54:15And then they were like, Mark, it's over.
00:54:17We would like to thank you all for being a part
00:54:19of this evening's event. We certainly hope that you
00:54:21enjoyed yourselves. And we look forward to
00:54:23coming back here sometime in the near future.
00:54:25Thank you.
00:54:33Now I'm pissed.
00:54:37I just felt that it was a disrespect,
00:54:39not just to me as a man,
00:54:42but to the business.
00:54:44We don't play in the ring.
00:54:46I don't play, man. That's my office.
00:54:50He got so f****** mad out there, man,
00:54:52until everybody that was
00:54:54in the guerrilla position up there with Vince
00:54:56and everybody left. They didn't even want to be up there
00:54:58when Mark came back, okay?
00:55:00I come to the back.
00:55:02It's a ghost town. Nobody's there.
00:55:04And I just started
00:55:06destroying and tearing s*** down
00:55:08and pulling the lights and
00:55:10punching the walls and just
00:55:12Darth Vader's s***. I just wanted
00:55:14everything to melt.
00:55:16It made him so mad.
00:55:18Once he gets to that thing,
00:55:20don't get him there.
00:55:22Because as a child, he got there.
00:55:24Thus he was at duty.
00:55:26Mark wanted to destroy Vince McMahon.
00:55:28But that's the night that
00:55:30Vince actually saw
00:55:32the real Mark Henry come out.
00:55:36Vince is cold and that's what I want.
00:55:39You see how you are now? That's what I want.
00:55:43And after that, I portrayed
00:55:45that anger and
00:55:47hatred that I had when I came from
00:55:49the ring
00:55:51as a character.
00:55:53Mark Henry, just
00:55:55fury and anger like we've
00:55:57never seen before.
00:55:59That's when he really
00:56:01felt like he was in control of
00:56:03who he really was.
00:56:05What does this do?
00:56:08No, baby, no!
00:56:12I was angry and it was real.
00:56:16And everybody's out here
00:56:18trying to get in the
00:56:20Hall of Fame.
00:56:22Every last one of those
00:56:24people, I will put in the Hall
00:56:26of Pain.
00:56:28The Hall of Pain is
00:56:30by far my favorite era of
00:56:32Mark Henry. And I think that's when Mark Henry
00:56:34really came into his own
00:56:36as a WWE superstar.
00:56:38Look out!
00:56:40He had to remind us
00:56:42the fact that you're still in one piece
00:56:44is my choice.
00:56:46He's got a switch.
00:56:48You know,
00:56:50when that switch goes off, you're going to get mowed over.
00:56:52Oh my God!
00:56:54Wow!
00:56:56You fire him up and that's what everybody wants to see.
00:56:58They want to see that the nice guy is gray
00:57:00and everything but you want to see that
00:57:02darker side where he's just
00:57:05unpredictable.
00:57:07I don't get no respect!
00:57:09Ain't nobody going to get no peace
00:57:11around here as long as I'm doing this!
00:57:13I think he finally understood how to channel
00:57:15anger. How to become
00:57:17a mean dude.
00:57:19Mark wanted
00:57:21to be the man. And
00:57:23in doing so, finally that
00:57:25light bulb clicked
00:57:27to where Mark was willing
00:57:29to find that aggression
00:57:31inside of him and be able to bring it out
00:57:33in the ring. And Mark Henry became that
00:57:35guy that we were looking for
00:57:37in 1996.
00:57:41When you're loving something,
00:57:43it's not work.
00:57:45I didn't feel like I was working.
00:57:49I was just living.
00:57:53The next thing I knew, I was
00:57:55in a world championship match.
00:57:57You only get one chance
00:57:59to be great in this business.
00:58:02Mark Henry is going to have to take it tonight!
00:58:04Mark Henry!
00:58:06The world's strongest slam!
00:58:08Mark Henry!
00:58:10Mark Henry!
00:58:12Mark Henry is the world's champion!
00:58:16Here is your winner,
00:58:18Andrew B!
00:58:20Me winning a title was special.
00:58:22It meant a lot to me.
00:58:24We're all working for each other.
00:58:26We're working for that validation from our
00:58:28peers.
00:58:30The fact that my peers thought that I was worthy.
00:58:32That they thought that I was
00:58:34good enough.
00:58:36Mark takes a huge
00:58:38amount of pride in
00:58:40what he does. I think that kind
00:58:42of solidified
00:58:44for him that he really had arrived.
00:58:46I was really proud of him.
00:58:48The 15
00:58:50year odyssey is over!
00:58:52Mark Henry is
00:58:54world champion and all
00:58:56doubters and cynics be damned!
00:58:59Andrew!
00:59:01The emotion
00:59:03that came out of Mark that night that he won
00:59:05was absolutely incredible.
00:59:07Because that's the real Mark.
00:59:09He knew how hard he had worked
00:59:11to get to this point. And he finally proved
00:59:13it to everybody.
00:59:15I'm going to be the most dominant
00:59:17champion of all time!
00:59:19Oh I lost it.
00:59:21I lost it. Jacob lost it.
00:59:23It was fun.
00:59:25And I was proud of him.
00:59:29Isn't that awesome?
00:59:33I love the people's faces.
00:59:39They did not expect that.
00:59:41They didn't expect it.
00:59:45You can feel it.
00:59:53And I'm just sitting there
00:59:55thinking to myself like
00:59:57Man, I'm a world champion.
00:59:59I cannot believe this.
01:00:01Everything felt like
01:00:05like it all
01:00:07came together. Like man
01:00:09what an unbelievable
01:00:11ride.
01:00:17From Shelby, Texas
01:00:19is the world
01:00:21heavyweight champion
01:00:23the world's strongest
01:00:26Mark Henry!
01:00:30I hope this ring
01:00:32is reinforced again!
01:00:38You gotta be kidding me!
01:00:40Mark has a really strong desire
01:00:42to do well. To exceed
01:00:44people's expectations.
01:00:46Mark Henry is still
01:00:48the world champion!
01:00:50My spirit and my career
01:00:52helped validate the title.
01:00:55I feel like I helped the title
01:00:57and the title helped me.
01:00:59Mark Henry is more confident than he's ever been in his career.
01:01:01This says world
01:01:03heavyweight champion!
01:01:05It meant the world to me to be champion
01:01:07because of the way that my
01:01:09kids looked at it.
01:01:11And not just my kids
01:01:13but all kids.
01:01:15And I wanted
01:01:17people that looked like me to be proud.
01:01:21Mr. Henry!
01:01:23You got a responsibility
01:01:25to people that look like you
01:01:27to go out and set a standard
01:01:31and not mess it up.
01:01:33And I took that
01:01:35to heart.
01:01:39Mark went out and he did the work.
01:01:41Young African American kids seeing someone
01:01:43like Mark Henry could grow up
01:01:45and aspire to be like a Mark Henry
01:01:47that was huge.
01:01:49Mark is such a good ambassador
01:01:52because you can't help but love the guy.
01:01:54You get in the room with him, you can't help but love him.
01:02:00The thing that's really not about us
01:02:02is more about them.
01:02:04Just to see them smile
01:02:06they get the same reaction out of me.
01:02:12Confidence is very important
01:02:14and I see him when he was talking to young people
01:02:16he talks to them about being
01:02:18secure in themselves.
01:02:20I want you to respect each other.
01:02:22And then he'll laugh with them
01:02:24and he'll joke with them.
01:02:26You look at me and you say, man that dude 400 pounds
01:02:28ain't nobody bullying him.
01:02:30Well you would be surprised.
01:02:32Mark became a really
01:02:34big part of the WWE's
01:02:36anti-bullying campaign.
01:02:38He doesn't like injustice so he's the one
01:02:40who stands up for the bullied.
01:02:42And so what's been hard for Mark
01:02:44is watching Jacob and Joanna
01:02:46be bullied.
01:02:49Alright, you'll get it.
01:02:51Being the child of the world's strongest
01:02:53man puts an extra pressure
01:02:55on the kids to do well.
01:02:57People expect so much
01:02:59from you. People wouldn't
01:03:01see me for who I
01:03:03was as a person.
01:03:05And he really helps me with that.
01:03:07You got a target because
01:03:09you Mark Henry kid.
01:03:11You gotta be ready for that and know that it's coming.
01:03:13It's inevitable.
01:03:15You've gone through bullying,
01:03:17Jacob's gone through bullying and
01:03:19I've definitely gone through bullying too.
01:03:21They've gone through
01:03:23some things that
01:03:25the schools need to do a lot
01:03:27better about.
01:03:29In my class, this boy called me a gorilla
01:03:31and
01:03:33it was
01:03:35terrible.
01:03:37I went to a teacher and I told
01:03:39her. It almost seems like
01:03:41they didn't believe me.
01:03:43The people at the school, they don't
01:03:45realize what I went through
01:03:47and what other people that I know
01:03:49have gone through.
01:03:51I got picked on a lot and
01:03:53I retaliated.
01:03:55I'm teaching my kids to handle it differently
01:03:57than I did.
01:03:59We asked, how can we keep you safe?
01:04:01It is my concern for you.
01:04:03What did dad do? He fought.
01:04:05I probably would have wiled out.
01:04:07And I'm not going to fight.
01:04:09And I'm starting to feel better now that
01:04:11I'm not in such a
01:04:13bad environment.
01:04:15We are here to share that with you.
01:04:17For us to give you some direction.
01:04:19Just not feeling like
01:04:21you're alone in the matter.
01:04:23I've enjoyed every minute
01:04:25of the relationship we have
01:04:27with our kids.
01:04:29I don't know if we
01:04:31could have done a better job.
01:04:35They are tough as nails.
01:04:39Good.
01:04:41And that's after a workout.
01:04:45All right, Joe.
01:04:47At the end of the day,
01:04:49they've taken those negatives
01:04:51and made positives.
01:04:53Like we raised them to.
01:04:57There you go.
01:05:05Wait till your grandmama
01:05:07see that.
01:05:11I love being an ambassador
01:05:13for the sport that I love so much.
01:05:17But I was missing being at home.
01:05:21I didn't get to see my kids compete.
01:05:23And I wanted to be
01:05:25closer to them.
01:05:27And I couldn't do that wrestling.
01:05:29I went in Vince's office and I said
01:05:31my body's beat up, my kids cry
01:05:33when I leave.
01:05:35Mark kept playing with the idea
01:05:37of retiring. But he loves
01:05:39professional wrestling. He didn't want to retire.
01:05:41I remember when my dad was talking about
01:05:43he's like, you know, I think I'm gonna
01:05:45come home.
01:05:47Look at this. There's been rumors running
01:05:49rampant over the past 24 hours
01:05:51after cryptic messages that perhaps Mark Henry
01:05:53is gonna retire tonight.
01:05:57The things that last
01:05:59in sports entertainment
01:06:01are the things that make people believe.
01:06:05Mark Henry,
01:06:07the world's
01:06:09strongest man.
01:06:11Rumors have been running rampant
01:06:13over the past 24 hours that
01:06:15Mark Henry is here tonight to retire.
01:06:17I don't think those are rumors. Those are his boots he's put down.
01:06:21That's the old cliche, hanging up the boots.
01:06:25I'll tell you if the rumors are true,
01:06:27this man right here, Mark Henry, has accomplished
01:06:29a lot of things here in the
01:06:31WWE.
01:06:33John,
01:06:35I want you to stay.
01:06:37There's something I want to tell you.
01:06:39I want to tell the boys
01:06:41and the girls in the back
01:06:43and all of y'all.
01:06:47I'm at home
01:06:49watching TV crying like
01:06:51a damn baby
01:06:53because he didn't tell me he's retiring.
01:06:55To my beautiful wife,
01:06:57Jana, I think
01:06:59you're seeing more of me than you want to.
01:07:01He didn't tell me about
01:07:03the retirement speech.
01:07:05I cried. Jacob cried.
01:07:07I'm texting him. I can't believe it, man.
01:07:09Good luck. Go out there tonight. Enjoy this.
01:07:11Take it in.
01:07:13But I stand before you a proud,
01:07:17proud man.
01:07:19I was just shattered
01:07:21because this is a good guy and it's way
01:07:23too soon for him to walk away.
01:07:25I respect all the people
01:07:27that work for this company
01:07:29because I know how difficult it is.
01:07:31Mark was authentic.
01:07:33He was real and
01:07:35vulnerable
01:07:37and genuine.
01:07:39He's dressed up. He's not usually dressed up like that.
01:07:41It all kind of made sense.
01:07:43To my son, Jacob.
01:07:45To my little girl, Joanna,
01:07:47who cries when I leave home.
01:07:49Baby, I'm coming home.
01:07:55I was trying to figure out
01:07:57what am I going to wrap this up?
01:07:59What am I going to say about this man and his career?
01:08:01How can I do Mark Henry justice?
01:08:03Obviously, I didn't have to.
01:08:13I think I called him a mother.
01:08:15I was like, dude,
01:08:17you could have warned me.
01:08:19Biggest double cross I've ever seen.
01:08:21I went from tears of confusion to anger.
01:08:23I was like,
01:08:25all right, you got me.
01:08:27That's messed up.
01:08:31That's what this is all about, man.
01:08:33Being able to take people on a ride
01:08:35and make them believe, right?
01:08:37I can't imagine how swerved everybody else felt.
01:08:41Oh, that son of a bitch.
01:08:43He got me.
01:08:45I called him and told him, what a good angle, brother.
01:08:47That was poetry.
01:08:49That was beauty.
01:08:52Mark put on a performance
01:08:54that was so good, we're talking about it now,
01:08:56a decade later.
01:08:58That's what I do!
01:09:02When I think of the retirement speech,
01:09:06I think about how real
01:09:08that speech was.
01:09:10Because I originally
01:09:12wanted to retire.
01:09:14But once again, I went in there in the office
01:09:16and talked to Vince.
01:09:18He said, we need you in this business.
01:09:21And I came out with a three-year deal.
01:09:25It was so special
01:09:27to get the love and respect
01:09:29from the fans.
01:09:31But it took another year and a half
01:09:33of me still wrestling
01:09:35at a high level
01:09:37and being able to say,
01:09:39without a doubt, I've done enough.
01:09:43Mark would never retire,
01:09:45ever, if he didn't have to.
01:09:48But the body starts to
01:09:50not be faithful to you.
01:09:52So it was hard for him.
01:09:54Moving on was hard.
01:10:01You ready? Y'all gonna start with the first.
01:10:03We're gonna hang down, stretch hamstrings.
01:10:06Oh, man.
01:10:08Woo!
01:10:10The whole point of doing this
01:10:12is to get your body ready
01:10:14to do something explosive.
01:10:16Don't move suddenly.
01:10:18If your body is not stretched out
01:10:20and pliable, it will tear.
01:10:22Oh, man.
01:10:24Oh!
01:10:26On Sunday, you got a call on Jesus.
01:10:28Woo!
01:10:30I don't lift nothing heavy. I do my workout.
01:10:32And some days I can,
01:10:34some days I can't.
01:10:36My body just don't feel right.
01:10:38But I feel more at home,
01:10:40more comfortable with myself
01:10:42when I'm working with young people.
01:10:44To be human and to be in something better,
01:10:46the best is no greater feeling.
01:10:48I've been blessed
01:10:50to be a world champion
01:10:52in three sports.
01:10:54But a lot of people consider me crazy
01:10:56because I did
01:10:58everything the hard way.
01:11:00I didn't cheat.
01:11:02We don't need to take no drugs.
01:11:04We got God, our family, and our teammates.
01:11:06When I say that I hope
01:11:08to live to see somebody break my records,
01:11:10I mean it.
01:11:12On three. One, two, three.
01:11:14Because I know how much work
01:11:16that person put in to being able
01:11:18to beat what I did.
01:11:22Congratulations to Mark Henry,
01:11:24the latest inductee to the
01:11:26WWE Hall of Fame.
01:11:28Man, I wrestled in this
01:11:30building probably 50 times.
01:11:32The Hall
01:11:34of Fame meant a lot to me
01:11:36because I feel
01:11:38a sense of accomplishment
01:11:40and validation from my peers.
01:11:42I'm going to be crying like a little
01:11:44baby up in here, man.
01:11:56That night was one of the biggest nights of his life.
01:11:58That meant a lot to him.
01:12:02The highest honor he could achieve
01:12:04is to be recognized worthy enough to be in
01:12:06the Hall of Fame.
01:12:08He got a smile.
01:12:10You know, he got a smile.
01:12:24Thank you.
01:12:28Seeing him appreciated for
01:12:30all the work that he had done,
01:12:32I was starstruck.
01:12:34I'd like to thank my beautiful wife, Janet,
01:12:36my little girl, Joanna,
01:12:38my son, Jacob, who's over there dressed up like me
01:12:40with my tie.
01:12:42Oh my God, I'm so cocky here.
01:12:46I know I wasn't home as often
01:12:48as I would have liked to,
01:12:50but I was doing that so you
01:12:52could have more than I had.
01:13:02But before I go, there's just one more thing
01:13:04I need to do.
01:13:08The lion-ass jacket.
01:13:10That's what the boys
01:13:12referred to it as.
01:13:14Some of y'all might think that I have a lot left to entertain.
01:13:18And you're right.
01:13:22No, I'm just playing, y'all.
01:13:24I'm just playing.
01:13:26It was hard for me to transition out.
01:13:28It's hard not to be on the road.
01:13:30I think it's hard not to walk through the curtain.
01:13:32So we have to think about, like,
01:13:34what do you want to do next?
01:13:36Welcome
01:13:38to Busted!
01:13:40Open!
01:13:42Dave LaGreca and my tag team
01:13:44partner, Mark Henry.
01:13:46Mark, how the hell are you?
01:13:48New York City!
01:13:50Top of the world, ma!
01:13:52I asked him,
01:13:54did you ever want to do radio?
01:13:56Because I think you would be perfect for it.
01:13:58And he actually said it was always a dream of his
01:14:00to be on air.
01:14:02I'm still tied in my heart to the WWE.
01:14:04Contractually, I work recruiting talent.
01:14:06And I just have an eye for talent.
01:14:08You do?
01:14:10I see it, and I'm like, listen, this person can do it.
01:14:12They have it.
01:14:14Come on now, push yourself!
01:14:16Keep it moving, keep it moving!
01:14:18It's a hard life, but it's worth it.
01:14:20I think you look at the WWE roster right now,
01:14:22and you see a lot of the influence
01:14:24of Mark Henry.
01:14:26I started doing CrossFit,
01:14:28and Mark Henry
01:14:30commented on one of my photos.
01:14:32It was a big deal that Mark Henry
01:14:34was reaching out to me saying that
01:14:36he saw something in me.
01:14:38He opened the doors for me.
01:14:40The EST has arrived!
01:14:42You know,
01:14:44when you have someone like Mark Henry
01:14:46back in your name...
01:14:48Look at the power!
01:14:50I have to follow through with this.
01:14:52I have to prove that he was right.
01:14:54The new champion!
01:14:56The monster of a man!
01:14:58Braun Strowman!
01:15:00There is no Braun Strowman without Mark Henry.
01:15:02I mean, it's that simple.
01:15:04Mark took a shot on this
01:15:06kid that no one else ever did,
01:15:08and
01:15:10put his name on the line.
01:15:12Man, I'm not going to get emotional about this right now.
01:15:14He put his name
01:15:16on the line for me
01:15:18because he saw something in me.
01:15:20And he paid for my plane ticket.
01:15:22He went to Vince and said,
01:15:24You need to look at this kid. He's got something.
01:15:26A 335-pound
01:15:28frog splash!
01:15:30You have got to be kidding me.
01:15:32I feel like
01:15:34a proud papa, actually.
01:15:36I feel like they're my kids.
01:15:38What I look for is when the people
01:15:40walk in the room and go,
01:15:42Oh my God, who is that?
01:15:44They have an energy.
01:15:46That's who I want to make wrestlers.
01:15:48That's what Vince did with me.
01:15:52At a certain point,
01:15:54Mark Henry had gone through
01:15:56every challenge the
01:15:58WWE had to offer.
01:16:00And I think that Mark
01:16:02got to a point where he had to show
01:16:04what else he could do.
01:16:06For the first time
01:16:08in years, a new
01:16:10national wrestling
01:16:12promotion was created.
01:16:14And all of a sudden,
01:16:16Mark Henry was at a crossroads
01:16:18in his career.
01:16:20AEW wanted somebody
01:16:22to help teach the young people
01:16:24because it's such a young company.
01:16:28As much as I respected
01:16:30Vince McMahon,
01:16:36it was a hard decision.
01:16:38But, you know, it's what I had to make
01:16:40for my family.
01:16:42It was sad.
01:16:44It was sad for him.
01:16:46Because I'm going to tell you what,
01:16:48he loves himself as
01:16:50Vince McMahon.
01:16:52That's who took a chance on him
01:16:54and who believed in him.
01:16:56But sometimes you got to leave home
01:16:58to prove yourself.
01:17:12You work your ass off
01:17:14your whole life and,
01:17:16you know, you can afford
01:17:18to take a day off every now and then
01:17:20and just enjoy yourself
01:17:22and family.
01:17:24You know, I've owned
01:17:26this place for over 20
01:17:28years and
01:17:30it seems like we're the only ones
01:17:32that come to the park. So it's kind of like
01:17:34the Henry Park, man. It's pretty cool.
01:17:36We fish.
01:17:38Like, we just play
01:17:40with the dog, walk the trails.
01:17:42I want to go
01:17:44paddle boating. Me too.
01:17:46Y'all go ahead.
01:17:48Tell me how it was.
01:17:50You know what I do find
01:17:52myself?
01:17:54Having a lot less time in the day
01:17:56right now.
01:17:58In a lot of ways, I'm busier than when I was
01:18:00wrestling.
01:18:02I'm raising two kids with my wife.
01:18:04I work in
01:18:06coaching and producing
01:18:08and announcing
01:18:10in pro wrestling
01:18:12still and
01:18:14I wouldn't
01:18:16have it no other way
01:18:18because I get to teach.
01:18:20Not only do I
01:18:22get to teach, I'm
01:18:24fundraising for my own events.
01:18:26I'm doing something
01:18:28I never did before.
01:18:34If I could
01:18:36go back in time and me be the
01:18:38representative of weightlifting
01:18:40from the executive side
01:18:42to them and say, guys, this is
01:18:44what I see.
01:18:46Everything came out
01:18:50This is what could happen
01:18:52if we do this. And that's what I'm
01:18:54trying to do. I got the opportunity to
01:18:56not do it for myself and
01:18:58for my teammates, but
01:19:00do it for the other teams
01:19:02that are coming along.
01:19:04Please welcome the big man himself,
01:19:06Mark
01:19:08Henry!
01:19:14I got away from weightlifting because
01:19:16of the corruption and now that
01:19:18the U.S. is fighting
01:19:20and trying to make it better
01:19:22then they got me. I'm on the team.
01:19:24It's what I do.
01:19:26Mark has a lot of
01:19:28influence elsewhere and does a lot of real
01:19:30good things and uses
01:19:32his identity and
01:19:34his reach for a lot of great stuff.
01:19:36I respect all he's done in the weightlifting
01:19:38community, all he continues to do for
01:19:40USA Weightlifting.
01:19:42Now I need to ask my friend Mark Henry
01:19:44to come back to the stage and help me with
01:19:46something we're doing tonight.
01:19:52Each year
01:19:54the United States Weightlifting
01:19:56Foundation presents
01:19:58the Strengthening Humanity Award.
01:20:00There was a
01:20:02unanimous vote
01:20:04for our friend Mark
01:20:06Henry as this year's recipient.
01:20:08How about that?
01:20:16When I joined the board
01:20:18of the U.S. Weightlifting
01:20:20Foundation
01:20:22I was there to raise money.
01:20:24I didn't think that
01:20:26they were going to give me an award.
01:20:28Y'all suck!
01:20:30I'm very proud that
01:20:32good work is being done
01:20:34and I love them and thank them
01:20:36for that.
01:20:40I come from a little small place.
01:20:42There's no reason
01:20:44that I should have been able to do
01:20:46all the things that
01:20:48I've been able to do.
01:20:50When it's not about me
01:20:54I'm stronger.
01:20:56But I appreciate
01:20:58the coaching,
01:21:00the coaching,
01:21:02the uplifting.
01:21:06I've had a lot of people in my life
01:21:08not believe in me
01:21:12and I have to thank
01:21:14all of those people
01:21:16because it drives me.
01:21:18Mark Henry
01:21:20is the world champion!
01:21:24You don't always get
01:21:26to see the good guy win.
01:21:30You saw it tonight.
01:21:32Thank you.
01:21:38Mark wants to leave a positive legacy.
01:21:40Legacy's huge.
01:21:42I think he's done a pretty darn good job
01:21:44especially from such meager beginnings.
01:21:46Seeing his growth
01:21:48it makes my faith stronger.
01:21:52They say pressure
01:21:54makes a diamond.
01:21:56If it doesn't
01:21:58it doesn't burst the pipe.
01:22:00As a big brother and as a man
01:22:02I am so proud of him.
01:22:04The world's strongest man
01:22:06Mark Henry!
01:22:08Mark went from the guy
01:22:10who was being teased backstage
01:22:12whose life was made more difficult
01:22:14than it needed to be
01:22:16to being one of the most respected guys
01:22:18to being a leader.
01:22:20I love his ability to evolve.
01:22:22His ability to take chances.
01:22:24You're looking at the strongest man
01:22:26The strongest man!
01:22:28I think Mark had a great idea
01:22:30of what his gifts were.
01:22:32I don't think he realizes how
01:22:34they might have affected other people.
01:22:36Good luck to the athletes
01:22:38and let the games
01:22:40begin!
01:22:44One of the things that Mark should inspire
01:22:46the younger talent to see
01:22:48that it's okay to be a big star
01:22:50but don't forget
01:22:52where you came from.
01:22:54The boy from Silsby, Texas
01:22:56The kid from Silsby
01:23:00who nobody ever expected
01:23:02to do the things that I've done.
01:23:04Mark Henry
01:23:06a human demolition machine.
01:23:10My mother
01:23:12always used to say
01:23:14it takes a village
01:23:16of people to raise one kid.
01:23:18Mark Henry!
01:23:20That's right!
01:23:22I'm very proud of my career.
01:23:26I feel accomplished.
01:23:30I am the living embodiment
01:23:34of Yes You Can.
01:23:48Yes You Can.
01:24:18Yes You Can.
01:24:48Yes You Can.