While speaking with Inside The Ropes, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry revealed that he was seriously discussed as the man to end The Undertaker’s legendary undefeated streak at WrestleMania 22.
According to Henry, the idea came directly from Vince McMahon and The Undertaker himself—but Henry immediately sensed it was a bad idea. “Yes. And that was them. Vince and Taker. They thought that Taker needed sympathy. I was like, ‘Not with me.’ Everybody’s gonna hate me, man.”
Henry admitted he believed the proposal would make him a lightning rod for fan backlash, rather than elevate him. “They were like, ‘Do you realize how over you’ll be?’ I was like, ‘No, I won’t. I might be over with the office, but I’m not gonna be over with the fans. They’re gonna hate me.’”
Henry pointed to the long-lasting outrage that followed Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania 30 as proof that his instincts were right. “Still to this day, there are people that are mad at the fact that Taker got beat. They thought that streak should have went to the grave with him.”
He explained that even years earlier, he could sense the emotional weight attached to the streak. “You know how you can just feel when something’s wrong? I’m like, ‘Ah man, this don’t seem right.’”
Despite not ending the streak, Henry revealed that the WrestleMania 22 match was intentionally structured to make The Undertaker appear vulnerable for the first time on that stage. “I was the only one that whooped his ass at WrestleMania. Go back and look at the match.”
Henry recalled dominating large portions of the bout, explaining that the goal was to show the audience that The Undertaker could be beaten.
“They wanted him to be put in a situation where it looked like he could be beat. Because Undertaker had beat so many people, everybody just expected him to win.”
Although he didn’t walk out with the historic victory, Henry takes pride in his role in shaping one of WWE’s most iconic characters. “Just to say that I was a part of a process that helped humanize the Undertaker—I can go to my grave and be happy with that.”
The revelation adds another fascinating chapter to the mythology of The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, and highlights just how carefully WWE weighed the consequences of ending it long before Brock Lesnar ultimately did.
