YMMV / Mark Henry

• Ass Pull: The revelation of Chyna being just pretending to be his girlfriend in order to teach him a lesson. This came out of nowhere after weeks of showing Henry slowly gaining Chyna over and Chyna eventually becoming his amazon lover.
• Awesome Music: His most famous theme music, courtesy of Three 6 Mafia.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • In 2007, in midst of his SmackDown! push, Henry made an appearance for Ohio Valley Wrestling against Daniel Rodimer of WWE Tough Enough fame. Rodimer proceeded to beat the crap out of Henry for most of the match, until Henry eventually recovered and won with a full Nelson slam, which was Rodimer's own finishing move. This was the first time they met on the ring, and afterwards Henry returned to the main roster and never faced Rodimer again. What was the story behind this match remains unanswered, but it has been speculated it might have been part of an Aborted Arc.
  • Later into that year, Henry made another return for OVW and suffered a clean loss to Paul Burchill of all people, presumably because Burchill was an OVW main eventer at the time. Sending a pushed monster from the main roster to job in a developmental territory was one of the bookers' usual shenanigans towards Henry, as it led to absolutely nothing and was followed by Henry squashing jobbers in SmackDown! just like he had been doing up to that point (and was made even worse because Burchill himself jobbed to him the next time he stepped on the main roster).
• Creator's Pet: An example of how wrong can this go in real life. As Vince McMahon loves big, strong men, and Henry is very large and extremely strong, Vince thought it was a good idea to give Henry an unprecedented ten year, $10 million contract and a significant initial push. Only two years after his signing, however, things went awry: as this column puts, around this time the company realized Henry didn't have the Midas touch Vince had seen on him, and when they ran off of ideas about what to do with Henry, they started the infamous Sexual Chocolate angles in a more than likely attempt to drive Henry to rescind the contract and disappear from their sight. It was Henry's professionalism (and the unexpected fact that he apparently genuinely enjoyed the gimmick) that led him to endure the continuous humiliation and patiently stick around through the end of his contract (and the beginning of a new, less outrageous one) while waiting for a booking rescue that might never come. Even although it would take more than a decade, Henry ultimately proved Vince right when he showed with the Hall of Pain act that he could put on a great show if given a good angle to work with - which made the company's attitude towards him Harsher in Hindsight and himself one of the most wasted wrestlers in the story of WWF/E.
• Critic-Proof: His early career in WWE didn't bring him much dignity, respect or success. It did however bring him literally millions of dollars.
• He Really Can Act: For the longest time, Mark Henry was seen as your stereotypical superheavyweight. Big and intimidating, but who couldn't talk worth a damn. Then he gave his now infamous "fake retirement" promo, and everyone's jaws collectively dropped.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Courtesy of his infamous "Fake Retirement" speech: "Y'ALL ARE A BUNCH OF PUPPETS!" and "YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY? I GOT A LOT LEFT IN THE TANK!"
  • His "Sexual Chocholate" gimmick is still remembered by fans, to the point that "SEXUAL CHOCOLATE! *clap, clap, clap-clap-clap* SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!" chants to him are still common.
• Mis-blamed: Although the nickname was a bit creepy, the Sexual Chocolate character wasn't by itself what got Henry completely deflated in 1999. The gimmick started as just a joking title he gave himself early into his supercouple with Chyna, during which he was still a very competent wrestler that could even be a bit of an evil schemer at times. The cringe-worthy moments that everybody associates to Sexual Chocolate, like Henry being deceived by transvestites, sleeping with his sister, and being a sex addict idiot, actually came later, when the executives decided to completely derail the act in the process of de-pushing Henry.
• Never Live It Down: Sexual Chocolate, including Mae Young. Especially the hand.
• Older Than They Think: Henry's killer runs in 2006 and 2011 were neither the first nor only times he was pushed as a proper monster. During Henry's rookie time, first as a patriot wrestler and then as the muscle for Nation of Domination, he got put over Terry Funk, Vader and even The Rock, and also gave tough matches to Ken Shamrock, Mick Foley and other big names. It was actually late into his storyline with Chyna that his push waned and he was turned into a joke.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Prior to his 2011 heel turn, Mark Henry was just an Informed Ability-strong Mighty Glacier who was known mostly for banging Mae Young (fortunately in kayfabe) and looking like the Kool-Aid Man. Afterwards, everyone can pretty much agree his booking has been spot on and has allowed him a decent run at the top of the food chain.
  • His 2013 return received a massive pop, even as he decimated Rey Mysterio Jr. in the ring. This would have been downright unthinkable just a few years before.
• The Scrappy: His run as a commentator for AEW Dark has not been well-received. Especially when partnered with Paul Wight (who later improved notably in comparison).
• Shocking Moments: Still amazing to see him pick up Vader, Viscera, the Big Show and The Great Khali like they're nothing. And some of the stories of his incredible feats of strength make his title of World's Strongest Man sound more like a factual description than a nom-de-guerre.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Even if his moveset was small and his mic skills needed work, Henry still gave a very convincing impression of a classic power wrestler during his time as Nation of Domination's enforcer. The decision to turn him into a sexually-themed loser, instead of keeping him as a strong midcarder like his partners D'lo Brown and The Godfather, ended up giving WWF absolutely nothing more than some cheap laughs and the economic losses of a ten million dollar contract they never really tried to amortize.
  • The Hall of Pain angle showed off a rather impressive wrestler in Henry, but left fans wondering what kind of great work they could've gotten out of a Mark Henry at his prime. The 2006-2007 Silverback push was the nearest to a properly booked prime Henry we ever got, with Henry being a force of nature, featuring a variety of interactions with wrestlers, and testing many new moves in his repertoire; and even then, the bookers were too wary to give him a title or use his push as anything more than cannon fodder for Kurt Angle and The Undertaker.
  • Henry and Big E seemed tailor made to do a Student–Master Team storyline together, given that both are heavily decorated black powerlifters. Even though Big E joined The New Day, Henry is hardly alien to goofy comedy, so he could have still worked fine as an occasional mentor figure for the team, especially during their serious tag team championship tenures or any other instance that required a veteran on their side. However, while Henry did appear briefly with The New Day, nothing of the kind ever materialized.
• Win Back the Crowd: Henry was generally detested throughout the 2000s by many fans due to his lack of mobility and inconsistent booking. This all changed after his transition into WWE's resident monster heel in 2011. Aside from the fact that he was finally being booked to be the unstoppable force he was capable of being, Henry was busting his ass to put on the best matches he possibly could to prove he was worth it and gain support. According to the ratings for SmackDown! between 2010 and 2012, the highest level of interest came during Henry's reign as World Heavyweight Champion, and he is nowadays beloved by both casual fans (despite remaining a heel) and smarks.
• X-Pac Heat: As Mark Henry was walking to the ring for a match against CM Punk on the April 2, 2012 edition of Raw, a fan behind him held up a sign that said this:

  "Sir! I feel compelled to stress that we are not booing because of your effective heel work, we are booing because you are simply awful."