Mark Henry Recalls His Fake Retirement, Says Hulk Hogan Called Him About It

Mark Henry famously made a fake retirement speech to lure out John Cena in 2013, and he recently looked back on the angle. Henry came out on the June 17th, 2013 episode of Raw, interrupting John Cena to deliver an emotional speech in which he said he was retiring from the ring, only to attack Cena with a World’s Strongest Slam as a prelude to a World Championship match. The angle — and Henry’s salmon-colored suit jacket — has become known as one of the most memorable moments of the Olympian’s career, and he looked back at it during an appearance on the Attitude Era Podcast.

On how it came about: “You know what man, during that time I was actually — my contract was expiring, and I was thinking about taking a break. And so I went probably about six, eight months basically really preparing myself for retirement. So it was like 50-50 [whether he’d retire or not]. And then Vince talked to me and said, ‘You know what? I think this would be a really good time to really pull the wool over people. Everybody thinks you’re going to retire. You won’t re-sign, like what’s the deal? Is it more money, this or that?’ I said, ‘No.’ It’s like, ‘It’s not the money, I just want to go home.’ When you’re on the road for like 18 years, and I was missing stuff, seeing my kids growing up. And at that point I was like, ‘Man, I’m done, I made enough money. Let me go and you know, be the dad that I always wanted to be.’ And it ended up being Vince talked me into it, and all of that emotion and the reality of it was true. It’s just that I ended up putting it into the show.”

On the reaction to the segment: “It ended up being one of the best moments in pro wrestling history. I had people calling me, I didn’t even know how they got my phone number. Hulk Hogan called me. I was like, ‘How in the hell did you get my number?’ And he was like, ‘Look, you pulled the wool over my eyes. And it’s been a long time since that happened, you should be proud.’ And I was proud.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Attitude Era Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.