Mark Henry Talks About How He Would Like To Retire, Says Daniel Bryan Is His Favorite Wrestler & More

– WWE Superstar Mark Henry recently spoke with WNS Podcast. He discussed who he would like to retire against, Daniel Bryan being his favorite wrestler, talent that he’s having a hand in signing and upcoming book. The interview starts from 1min 28sec. Check out the highlights below or listen by clicking here.

His Perosnal Greatest Accomplishment: Multiple times in my life I’ve had people walk up to me and said ‘Hey man, you don’t know me from Adam but I just want to let you know that I was inspired by you. By you lifting, by you wrestling and it changed my life’. Every story of people telling me that I inspire them to be better supercedes any accomplishment that I ever made

On How Much Longer He Thinks He’ll Want To Perform: 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’. 19 years is a long time

On The Numerous Storylines He’s Been Involved In And How It Feels When People Still Chant ‘sexual Chocolate’: 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 4 or 5 different things in the industry

His Thoughts On The 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. To main event just one time is an accomplishment but to main event a few hundred times and to main event Wrestlemania with The Undertaker and to main event multiple pay per views and actually create an era in wrestling, The Hall Of Pain era is a thing in wrestling that existed and I’m just proud of my career. I don’t have a problem walking away. And, being 44 years old and approaching 45 and kids in school crying and complaining when I leave, my son doesn’t but my daughter does. Nonetheless, it’s a family affair and I look forward to getting to Beaumont not only to see my family but also our friends and a lot of people I kept in contact with

On How He Would Like To Go Out When He Does Retire: I think that 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.

Any Preference On Opponent: Daniel Bryan is one of my favourite 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 reslly cool

What Appeals To Him About The Sport: The thing that made me a wrestling fan was I used to get so mad at people and I loved the bad guys for some reason I wanted to see a bad guy really get it. And it’s not even so much the good guy. I wanted to see the bad guy get it. And the badder the guy is the better it is for me. The happier I am when he gets his butt kicked. And I can watch wrestling today. I sit at home and watch old wrestling that’s how I entertain myself and I have my son on the couch, the dog’s sitting there watching, we’re all invested and that’s kind of like what our fans want. They want to see somebody get it. If they’re a fan of the good guy and they want to be angry then the Hall Of Pain era would have been great for them because there wasn’t a good guy walking that didn’t get his face stomped in. As far as a match, there’s two. Sgt. Slaughter and Pat Patterson (Boot Camp Match) back in ’86. It was hard for me not to be wrestling fan watching that match. And more in the modern era, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels 1. If you have not seen that match you have got to go on Youtube or WWE Network and pull that match up. It is breath-taking. There is just so much stuff that goes on that you can’t even watch it just one time and get it. You have to watch it at least 2-3 times. I may even put together a list of my Top Ten Favourite matches and have them put it on the Network or WWE website. Pat Patterson was one of the more gifted psychologists and told the best stories and that’s something I like about wrestling. It’s not just physical, it tells a story. It’s an emotion, it’s a book in 15-20 minutes. So much happens and if you know the history of the two it’s even better. But if not, you get invested and so well entertained.

On Helping Out Any Of The Younger Talent: A lot of the guys come to me and ask about different eras. The Attitude Era, The Pre-Attitude Era and the time now. What do I think about this or what do I think about that and I’m honoured to be able to give that advice and I feel like it’s necessary to give back. There were guys that were very selfish when I came into the industry. They wouldn’t tell you nothing unless they were forced to tell it because they were worried about you taking their spot. And now, it’s just a lot different. I feel like what I owe the industry is the advice and all the lessons that I’ve learned to help make the business better than when I came into it. And when I came in Ernie Ladd was the first black booker in professional wrestling and he told me there’s a stigma of the african-american wrestler and I need you to exemplify greatness because that’s the way people see you and don’t mess it up for everybody after you. At that time, there was only three african-american wrestlers in the industry at the WWE. And now, there’s at least 12 that I know of in the company So, I have helped change a lot of things and looking forward to working with the company long after.

One Thing He’s Learned About Being On The Road: Everything you earn, don’t spend. That’s a hard lesson a lot of wrestlers throughout history have come into the industry, earned a lot of money, spent a lot of money and then when they’re done they have no retirement and they’re broke. Another thing is diversify yourself. Do some movies, go to acting school, write a book. Learn other things that involve your journey and your experience