Anthony Henry on Why EVOLVE Had One of the Best Rosters, Being at Peace With His Career

– POST Wrestling and Andrew Thompson recently spoke to EVOLVE veteran and wrestler Anthony Henry. Henry addressed his announcement that he was retiring at the end of the year, EVOLVE’s talent roster, and more. Below are some highlights and video of the chat:

Anthony Henry on EVOLVE’s talent roster: “I don’t say this being cocky but I knew it anyway, really without the validation. If the validation came, that’s great but like, we knew, everybody knew what we had going on. There was nobody on that roster that I would really pick out as a weak link. Everybody had their thing they did, everybody brought something to the table and was unique, and I knew we had it all, especially during the end. We had a lot going on for us and it’s no surprise to me that everybody’s kinda moved on and doing great things.”

On his tweet last June on retiring from wrestling at the end of the year: “So it was a combination of a lot of different things. The pandemic, obviously put everybody through a lot, still is and a lot of people have gone through depression, I was one of those people. So… not just the pandemic as a part to where it relates to everybody suffering, but also just wrestling suffering because the pandemic in terms of not that many shows going on. There’s not a lot of work going on and the whole #SpeakingOut thing which was something I already knew about. Not ‘knew about’ but — we talked about earlier about me keeping my circle tight. One reason for that is also because I didn’t — and this is me in general but, I don’t agree with a lot of people and the way their live their lives, and wrestling, I know and I knew that there are plenty of bad people in wrestling and that’s not just to say it’s the wrestling culture or wrestling is bad. You go to any workplace, that’s gonna be the case. You’re going to have plenty of people that are not good people. That’s just life. So it wasn’t surprising, necessarily for it to happen, but just the fact that it did happen, combined with depression, combined with the pandemic, all that stuff in mind kind of led me to that, that I’m gonna be done and as far as where I’m at now with it, I would say maybe until February as far as independent wrestling shows, I’m done. So, unless you see me pop up somewhere under contract with a lot of money, I will more than likely be done with independent wrestling for now, come February.”

On being satisfied with his career: “I’m cool with it man. I’m at peace. Like I said, most of that comes from the pandemic and my experience through that and learning who I am without professional wrestling because for the longest time, that’s all I knew. It was like, who am I without professional wrestling? Who is Anthony Henry without professional wrestling? But I figured that out, so now if nothing great happens with professional wrestling, my life’s still great and I’m not suffering anymore and I’m good with it. I’ve done more than what most people have done in professional wrestling, you know what I mean? Traveled to other countries, worked for different promotions, wrestled the majority of all the biggest independent wrestling stars at least. Yeah. How can I complain about that? I’ve done great things, my way so I’m good with it.”