During a recent whirlwind tour of India, Mark Henry hinted that he may be thinking of retiring soon, and this weekend, in a lengthy interview with the Wrestling News Source Podcast, he again reflected on his long career and the looming closure of the Hall of Pain.
“Time only flew by when I was not injured. Whenever you’re injured, it’s like paint drying. The time slows down and your’re able to get in your own head too much. But, for the most part, these last 19 years have been amazing. I’ve watched peoples’ kids grow up. From crawling and ‘Hey, can you take a picture with my baby?’ to ‘My son is a sophomore in college.’ Nineteen years is a long time.
I want to go out in dramatic fashion. Win, lose or draw, I want to have a retirement match and a lot of guys have done it throughout history, and I’m going to go back and kind of see what style of match. Maybe even let the WWE Universe decide what my match will be. I’m not sure yet, but it’s imminent. It’s coming.”
So, when that retirement match does happen, who does Henry want it to be against?
“Daniel Bryan is one of my favorite wrestlers. As a talent, as an entertainer, the way our fans love and revere him. There’s never been a match he and I have been in where it was bad. He is one that I would definitely like to consider. He’s been gone a long time dealing with injuries, and I know how that feels, and I know that somebody like Daniel with his credentials would be really really cool.”
Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry in a “two stand-up guys battle-scarred warriors whose careers may be winding down” retirement match? I’d be all over that.
Henry also reflected on his most memorable runs from his long career. On people still remembering and chanting Sexual Chocolate at him…
“It’s hilarious to me. I embrace it. I start dancing and sweet talking and blowing kisses at girls and all kinds of stuff so… I embrace it. It’s a part of my career that the older fans remember and like, and now the young kids are watching the network and they’re seeing it and going, ‘Why was Mark Henry smiling and dancing all the time?’ They don’t realize that I’ve been about four or five different things in the industry.”
Henry’s thoughts on his career-defining Hall of Pain run…
“I think it was the best and most serious part of my career. I don’t think it was the most entertaining part of my career. But it was the more validating point in my career. Anytime that you dominate the best talent in the world and not only become world champion, but main-event pay-per-views. Some guys in our industry, to have only one main-event on our TV show. The Hall of Pain era is a thing in wrestling that existed and I’m just proud of my career.”
The full Mark Henry interview is a whopper (more than two hours long), and Henry is a charming sonafagun as usual, so I highly recommend you check out the whole thing if you have the time. You can listen to the interview at the top of this post, or at the link below.
