88 Facts About Mark Henry

Mark Henry is best known for his 25-year career in WWE.

Mark Henry is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class, as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.

In weightlifting, Mark Henry was a three-time US National Weightlifting Champion, an American Open winner, a two-time US Olympic Festival Champion and a NACAC champion.

Mark Henry was born in the small town of Silsbee in East Texas, 90 miles northeast of Houston.

When Mark Henry was 12 years old, his father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes.

When he was 14 years old, Mark Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia.

Mark Henry played football in high school until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist during the first game of the year and scored below 700 on the SAT.

Mark Henry's mother bought a set of weights for him when he was ten years old.

At the Texas High School Powerlifting Championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Mark Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting.

In July 1990 at the USPF Senior National Powerlifting Championships, 19-year-old Mark Henry came second only to the legendary six-time World Powerlifting Champion Kirk Karwoski.

At the age of 19, Mark Henry had already managed to qualify for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the Super- Heavyweight class.

Ten months before the 1992 Olympics, Henry had begun training with Dragomir Cioroslan, a bronze medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics, who said that he had "never seen anyone with Mark's raw talent".

At the 1995 Pan American Games Mark Henry won a gold, silver and bronze medal.

In 1996 Mark Henry became the North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands Champion.

Mark Henry earned the right to compete at the Olympics by winning the US National Weightlifting Championships in the Spring of 1996 for a third time.

Mark Henry guested at Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and The Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured on HBO Inside Sports and The Today Show.

Mark Henry had planned to continue heavy training in powerlifting, although his travel schedule as a professional wrestler with the WWF has made sustained training difficult.

At the age of 24, Mark Henry made his first appearance on World Wrestling Federation programming on the March 11,1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, where he press slammed Jerry Lawler, who was ridiculing Mark Henry while interviewing him in the ring.

At the pay-per-view event, SummerSlam in August 1996, Mark Henry came to the aid of Jake Roberts who was suffering indignity at the hands of Lawler.

Mark Henry's debut wrestling match was at In Your House: Mind Games on September 22,1996, where he defeated Lawler.

Mark Henry was set to team with Windham, Marc Mero and Rocky Maivia to take on the team of Lawler, Goldust, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Crush at Survivor Series, but was replaced by Jake Roberts when he was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury.

HMark Henry worked a couple of shows for United States Wrestling Association.

Mark Henry's career was then stalled as, over the next year, he took time off to heal injuries and engage in further training.

Mark Henry joined the faction with Farooq, The Rock, Kama Mustafa, and D'Lo Brown on January 12,1998.

Mark Henry competed at WrestleMania XIV in a tag team Battle Royal with Brown as his partner, but they did not win.

Mark Henry first resumed his storyline with former enemy Chyna, but it ended with her betraying him in a controversial angle including a transvestite.

The next night, Mark Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help.

Mark Henry lost the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.

Mark Henry feuded with Viscera during this time, as part of a storyline where Viscera splashed Mae Young while she was carrying Henry's child.

In 2000, Mark Henry was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling to improve his conditioning and wrestling skills.

Mark Henry worked a couple of matches for Heartland Wrestling Association.

Later that year, Mark Henry's mother died, causing him to go on hiatus from wrestling.

Four months prior to the contest, Mark Henry began lifting the heaviest of weights and trained for the first time since 1997 for a major lifting competition.

Since Mark Henry had only trained for four months and defeated the creme-de-la-creme of worldwide strongmen, who had been practicing for years, his win was a shock for strongman experts worldwide, but remained basically unnoticed by the wrestling audience.

Mark Henry proved to be worthy of the title "World's Strongest Man" not only by winning the contest, but by achieving it in record time.

At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Mark Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery.

Mark Henry was then utilized by WWE as a public relations figure during his recovery, before returning to OVW to finish out 2005.

Mark Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title.

Mark Henry was finally eliminated by Kurt Angle, who won the title.

Mark Henry then performed a diving splash on Undertaker, driving him through the announcer's table.

Mark Henry was then challenged to a casket match by Undertaker at WrestleMania 22.

Mark Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, but The Undertaker defeated him.

Mark Henry entered the King of the Ring Tournament, and lost to Bobby Lashley in the first round.

Mark Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Mark Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill.

Mark Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars.

Mark Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Doctors later found that Mark Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.

Mark Henry attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract.

Mark Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand.

Two weeks later, Mark Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Mark Henry.

At Night of Champions, Mark Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a triple threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar.

Mark Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, and had a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but failed as he was unsuccessful.

Mark Henry was unsuccessful at WrestleMania as CM Punk won the match.

Mark Henry mentored Lucky Cannon in the second season of NXT.

Mark Henry reacted by destroying the audio equipment and attacking a technician.

Mark Henry faced Big Show in a singles match at Money in the Bank and won.

Mark Henry did the same to Kane on the next episode of SmackDown, and in the months ahead, Vladimir Kozlov and The Great Khali suffered the same fate.

At SummerSlam, Mark Henry defeated Sheamus by count-out after slamming him through a ring barricade.

At Night of Champions, Mark Henry defeated Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.

Mark Henry successfully defended the title against Orton at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match.

Big Show then urged Bryan to cash in his contract, but Mark Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start.

At Survivor Series, Mark Henry retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show after a low blow that disqualified Mark Henry.

However, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Mark Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Mark Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan.

At the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Mark Henry faced Bryan and Big Show in a triple threat steel cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship; Bryan escaped the cage to retain the title.

In reality, Mark Henry had hyper-extended his knee the previous week.

Four days later on SmackDown, Mark Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the number one contenders' Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber.

Mark Henry then began a feud with Ryback after several non-verbal confrontations.

Later that month, Mark Henry reignited a feud with Sheamus by repeatedly attacking Sheamus backstage.

Mark Henry continued his face turn the following week, by confronting The Shield and teaming together with The Usos to fend them off.

Four days later on SmackDown, Mark Henry, Show, and Van Dam defeated The Shield in a six-man tag team match.

That same week on SmackDown, Mark Henry formed a tag team with Big Show to defeat RybAxel.

Mark Henry then took another hiatus due to an unspecified injury.

Mark Henry returned on the March 12,2015 episode of SmackDown, confronting Roman Reigns for having a lack of identity and for not being respected, resulting in Reigns attacking Mark Henry.

The attack caused Mark Henry to become a believer in Reigns, and turning face in the process.

Mark Henry was unsuccessful in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, replacing Rusev who was injured, but was eliminated by Sheamus At Royal Rumble pre-show on January 24,2016, Mark Henry teamed with Jack Swagger to win a Fatal 4-Way tag team match to earn their spots in the Royal Rumble match.

At WrestleMania 32, Mark Henry entered his third Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he made it to the final six competitors until being eliminated by Kane and Darren Young.

On July 19, at the 2016 WWE draft, Mark Henry was drafted to Raw.

Raw General Manager Mick Foley gave Mark Henry a United States Championship match, but Mark Henry would lose by submission to Rusev.

Mark Henry returned at the Royal Rumble on January 29,2017, as entrant number 6, only to be eliminated by Braun Strowman.

Mark Henry unsuccessfully competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.

Mark Henry later made his return in a backstage cameo at the Raw 25 Years event in January 2018.

On March 19,2018, it was announced that Mark Henry would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Big Show, who was one of his closest friends in WWE.

In early 2019, Mark Henry took on a backstage mentoring role helping talent work on their off-air attitude, including cleanliness and respect in the locker room.

Mark Henry appeared on the January 4,2021 episode of Raw, on its Raw Legends Night special, where in he appeared riding on a scooter due to an injured leg.

Mark Henry was verbally confronted by Randy Orton in what was his final appearance in WWE.

Mark Henry made his debut for All Elite Wrestling on May 30,2021, at Double or Nothing where it was announced that he will be a part of the commentary team for its new show AEW Rampage, as well as a coach.

On September 10,2012, Mark Henry served as one of the pallbearers for actor Michael Clarke Duncan's funeral.

In March 2019, Mark Henry pledged to donate his brain to CTE research once he dies.