Awesome / Mark Henry

• The awesome story Mark told Vince that got him into wrestling when he was ready to sign with them. As a kid, Mark's family took him to a wrestling show, and it was a bit crowded, so much so that Mark fell over the barricade. As he was getting up, someone came over and picked him right up and made sure he was okay. That person was none other than André the Giant.
• At the end of their feud, on 1998 Sunday Night Heat, Henry MILITARY PRESS DROPPED Big Van Vader. Even if Henry edged the drop by making Vader land on his feet before collapsing face first, the latter might still be the heaviest wrestler ever gorilla pressed. And, appropriately, he was pressed by the World's Strongest Man.
• Performing a scoop slam on the 500 pound Viscera in No Way Out 2000. Especially after Henry had been buried over months and profiled as an useless wrestler whose strength had been lost in his libido, it was awesome see him slam and pin the heaviest wrestler in the promotion, which only the bigger and infinitely more pushed Big Show had accomplished.
• Forcing Batista to vacate the title due to the injuries he inflicted on him.
• After receiving a frog splash headbutt by Rey Mysterio in 2006, Henry looked defeated... and then he kicked out, held Rey on his arms and freaking rolled backwards to get up totally standing, still holding Rey against his chest and ready for the World's Strongest Slam.
• On an episode of Smackdown, Three 6 Mafia played Henry out to the ring, and he proceeded to go out and utterly destroy Chris Benoit.
• A bit of Squick, but after a match with Tommy Dreamer, Dreamer found out he had crapped himself during the match, and after checking in with his doctor, the doctor said that it was likely due to a big impact that forced his crap out. In other words, Mark Henry literally slammed the shit out of someone.
• Mark Henry breaking the legs of The Big Show, Kane and Vladimir Kozlov via corner slingshot splashes.
• Not only defeating, but utterly destroying Randy Orton to win his first World Heavyweight Championship.
• Retaining the title against Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell 2011 by kicking out of the RKO, then proceeding to counter Orton's running punt with a World's Strongest Slam for the pin.
• He threw John Morrison in the air and caught him as if he was a football. TWICE!!
• Once upon a time, Big Show was leaning against a steel cage - only for Mark Henry to break the cage and have Show toppling over via an avalanche clothesline.
• He superplexed The Big Show off the top rope, which caused the ring to implode at the Vengeance PPV!
• Outside of wrestling, he is one of the only men (and disputedly THE only man) to date to clean and fully press the infamous Thomas Inch Dumbbell single-handedly, bolstering a legit-claim to his nickname. Note that because of a combination of the sheer weight (172 lbs.) and the abnormally thick handle, this was a feat that had been recorded as not having been done in a century.
• His commentary during the Bryan vs. Big Show title match on the 1/6/12 Smackdown. Whenever a heel commentates during a match, Michael Cole typically gets very sycophantic towards them. During the match, Cole tries sucking up and attempts to bait him with a joke about "Bryan vs. Hornswoggle". Henry smacks down Cole's disrespectful commentary, and even tells him to shut up. By effect, this probably also makes this the best Daniel Bryan match commentary-wise, by virtue of the excessive burying him being toned down and Henry even putting over Bryan in the process.
• It doesn't really hit you until later, but the time Mark Henry tore the chain off a steel cage to get inside counts. The chain was supposed to be gimmicked so that it would break more easily, but someone forgot to do so, and what Henry found was a completely locked steel chain. Instead of telling somebody, Henry decided he would do it anyways, spent a couple minutes pulling and checking the chain to find the better way of breaking it, and then he broke it for real. What at first looked like a Special Effects Failure turned out to be a frightening real life feat: Mark Henry broke a steel chain with his bare hands.
  • On the WWE Network's Story Time show, Mark told a similar story about his gimmick of bending frying pans as a demonstration of strength. Vince McMahon decided it would be funny to get a stainless steel frying pan and sneak it to him, just to see his face when he couldn't bend it. Indeed, when Henry got the pan, he couldn't bend it... until he heard Vince and company laughing, at which point he got pissed off enough to bend the steel pan. Vince later told Mark never to get mad at anybody, because he had scared the shit out of EVERYONE.
• He went on a rampage in the 2013 Elimination Chamber, entering number 6 and tearing everyone to pieces. He eliminated both members of Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) by himself with the World's Strongest Slam (in Kanes case, by catching him mid-diving clothesline), threw Randy Orton like a dart clean through the pod, shattering the lexan in the process, and was only brought down after taking 3 consecutive finishers (Jack Swagger's knee tackle, Chris Jericho's Codebreaker and Orton's RKO), and even then, returned 30 seconds after leaving and laid all 3 of them to waste with a WSS each.
• His "retirement" speech, beginning to end. He had everyone suckered in: The superstars in the back, the audience, the announcers, and even John Cena. He went the whole nine yards, bringing out his boots as a symbol of how he's "hanging up his boots", talking about the things he's accomplished, putting over Cena as one of the greatest and lamenting how he never held the WWE Title. He thanked the audience, his family and John, all while shedding tears, something we've never seen Mark do, which made a lot of people think that this could actually be legit. Then Cena goes in to hug Henry... BOOM! World's Strongest Slam!

  Henry: YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY? I GOT A LOT LEFT IN THE TANK! *picks up WWE Title and chucks it onto a prone Cena* That'll be mine soon!

  • Based largely on this promo, the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted him the 4th best interview of 2013, alongside Paul Heyman, CM Punk, and The Rock (the 1st-3rd places).
• A minor one during 2015 Elimination Chamber Intercontinental Championship match: Mark Henry was thrown into the match as a substitute for an injured Rusev. After Wade Barrett spent a lot of the beginning of the match taunting him, Barrett would inadvertently break open Henry's pod by tossing Dolph Ziggler into it. At first, Henry didn't know what to do since he wasn't officially called into the match, but decided to come out early and make Barrett pay for it.

  Henry: (Holding Barrett by the jaw as he's slouched against the post) YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY NOW?! SURE HAD A LOT TO SAY WHEN I WAS LOCKED UP!

• After 22 years with WWE, Mark Henry goes from the Hall of Pain, to the Hall of Fame!