WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry has opened up about one of the most intense moments from the very beginning of his WWE career, detailing a heated confrontation involving Shawn Michaels that ultimately led to Henry being sent to Canada.
Speaking with Inside The Ropes, Henry revisited the infamous situation, which stemmed from locker room hazing while he was injured early in his run with the company.
The interviewer addressed the long-standing story directly, asking Henry about the incident that resulted in his temporary removal from the WWE locker room.
Inside The Ropes: “I do have to ask you, kind of off the back of the hazing thing you were talking about—and you’ve talked about this publicly—that you were sent to Canada because you threatened to kill Shawn Michaels.”
Henry then laid out the circumstances in detail, explaining that the situation escalated after his crutches were hidden while he was dealing with a broken ankle.
Henry: “I broke my ankle, and like I said, wrestlers always act—in some ways—very childish, and they hid my crutches. So now I’m sitting there. I can’t go to the bathroom. I can’t go get something to drink. I can’t leave the hazing. Everybody’s just like, ‘Oh man, that’s messed up, man. They took your crutches.’”
According to Henry, matters took a serious turn when members of The Kliq arrived. “And then right about that time, the Kliq shows up. It’s Shawn, it’s Razor, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sid. X-Pac wasn’t there yet. It was like, you know, them guys.”
Henry said he made it clear he wanted the situation to end—but Michaels continued to provoke him. “I told Shawn, I said, ‘Hey man, I don’t feel like playing. Enough is enough. I’ve been doing this all day. I’m done.’ And he was like, ‘But how are you going to get home?’ He just kept pushing the button.”
That moment pushed Henry over the edge. “And I said, ‘You’re too little to be talking to me, man. I’ll kill you.’ I said, ‘There ain’t enough people standing behind you right now to stop me from taking your life, and you over here playing with your life like that.’”
Henry recalled Michaels responding in disbelief. “And he’s like, ‘What? Who are you talking to?’ I said, ‘I’m talking to you, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it. If y’all want to do something, now is the time.’”
Despite wearing a cast, Henry doubled down, daring anyone to act. “I had a cast on my leg. I said, ‘Go for it. If you don’t kill me, I’m gonna kill every last one of you when I get back.’”
Henry also singled out Sid, suggesting he wouldn’t stick around if things turned physical. “And Sid is—I said to him, like, ‘Get out of here, man. He’s gonna be the first one to run like a coward when he sees what I do to one of y’all.’”
Reflecting on the confrontation, Henry explained why he felt unafraid in that moment. “It’s the guys that talk the most. It’s the guys that get all bent out of shape. They ain’t comfortable with pain. I grew up with pain. I’ve seen murder as a kid. I’ve seen dead bodies. You think I’m afraid of you?”
Henry said Michaels eventually turned to management. “Shawn was like, ‘Hey, y’all need to do something with this dude. He is nuts.’ I wasn’t nuts. I was real.”
The situation soon reached Vince McMahon, who took issue with the threat. “And Vince [McMahon] was like, ‘Damn it. You can’t threaten the top guys.’”
Henry stood firm in his response. “I said, ‘He wasn’t acting like a top guy. He challenged me. Ain’t no man gonna stand in front of my face and challenge me like that and not be suited for it. At least have a gun in your hand or something.’ I’ve had guns pulled on me before. I’m still here.”
Rather than releasing Henry, McMahon made a different decision—one that would send him north of the border. “So Vince was like, ‘Look, Bret [Hart] has a camp up there in Calgary, and I can’t fire you. I can’t. So you’re going to have to go away and learn how to be more tolerant in this business.’ And so Bret basically was the one that invited me to Canada.”
The story provides a rare, raw glimpse into the locker room culture of WWE during one of its most turbulent eras—and highlights just how close Mark Henry came to seeing his WWE career take a very different path.
