Mark Henry On His Favorite Matches In His WWE Career, Making the Decision To Leave WWE

In a recent interview on Talk Is Jericho, Mark Henry discussed making the decision to leave WWE, his favorite matches, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Mark Henry on making the decision to leave WWE: “I want to be an executive. I know enough about this business and every facet of it. There were people that were in jobs in talent development, people in jobs in talent relations, and people in jobs that were in corporate that I knew the business better than them, and I had a way of fostering relationships. That’s been the number one thing that I’ve been able to accomplish in my life more than anything else is I foster good relationships with people. People realize I’m not a screw-up. I’m going to do stuff that is going to be well thought out and is going to benefit kids because that’s where my heart is. I want kids to have experiences. The WWE was not at a place where they wanted to hire me for that. I asked. I wrote it up. I spent months putting together a two-year plan of events. I was like, ‘What else can I do?’ I just had to call and say, ‘I’m going to start looking for work because I know what I can do well, and I don’t feel like I’m valued in that capacity.’ When I got the no, it didn’t come from Vince or Brad Blum, it came from Johnny, who is an employee. It’s not his place to tell me no. If the dude has got delegated to somebody that is not their job to tell me, then it’s over.

“You have to know when the door has been closed…..it felt like a divorce. It was painful. I love the people over there. Man, just the thought of not seeing people like [Tony] Chimel, and Sean Sellman and the production office, it hurt me. Them people like family to me and not to mention people in the office and the talent. They’re like our brothers, but if I can’t work there, I got two kids. They go to private school, and it costs a lot of money. I’m only 50. I can’t get my retirement and tax-sheltered annuity until I’m 53. I have to work until at least I’m 53 before I get my money, but I feel a lot of joy in talking to Darby Allin, and talking to [Powerhouse] Hobbs and mentoring guys and Dante [Martin] and all these people that have come up to me. They came to me and was like, ‘Man, just tell me what you see.’ That’s the beauty of this business. People who are already over, but everybody wants to be more over, and I’m gonna do everything I can while I’m here to get those people to be you [Chris Jericho]. You’re gonna have some competition in the next two to three years, you watch.”

On AEW having timing issues with his debut segment at Double or Nothing: “I never had an ego like that. I’ve never been that dude. My thing was, what’s good for the brand is good for me, and I didn’t have to address the talent. You did, and I appreciate you doing that and you did it with class. Tony [Khan] was pissed, and came in at the end and was like, ‘This is bullshit! You do it again, and they’re gonna be consequences!’ He ran, and I was like, oh snap, but you know what, it’s important to know your role and to be giving of the brothers behind you. I was never notorious for going long because I would usually get tired after about 15 minutes and want to go home anyway, but there’s some guys, they just got to get all of their shit in, and sometimes, if it takes another four minutes and they got to take that out of somebody else’s match, they don’t care, but they need to. If anything, you should be able to go, ‘Bro, you think we can get two minutes because I really want to put this over.’ Just be straight up and find out. Go and find out if you can get more time. Somebody else might be injured or hungover or whatever. They might want to give you that two minutes. I just want people to be cognizant of there are other people beyond their nose that’s important, but as far as me getting bent out of shape, I appreciate y’all being relaxed like that and saying, ‘Hey man, we don’t mean for it to be that way.’”

On his favorite matches in his career: “WrestleMania 22 with Undertaker is way up there. I mean, anytime you get in the main event at WrestleMania, you made it. And winning the World Championship from Randy [Orton] in Hell in a Cell. I still thank Randy all the time because Randy was on fire at that moment, and I came in and it was shocking to the world that it happened, especially the way that it happened. You appreciate it. I’m really appreciative of the people like Daniel Bryan, and Big Show, and Ric Flair. I still told a friend of mine about this Ric Flair match in the gym the other day. Ric chopped me 10 times, and then I head-butted him five times. He fell over, rolled out. I picked him up, threw him into the post. He wiggled behind, pushed me into the post. We got back in and went into the championship sequence. I always call it Ric Flair’s championship sequence where he starts taking all this stuff, and I was like, man, I experienced that. I had a match of Ric Flair, and he chopped me like a mark, like a fan. And I’m gonna take that to the grave with me being in the ring with people like him and what I learned.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.