Chris Van Vliet welcomed WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry as the interview guest on his YouTube channel.
Henry talked about his Sexual Chocolate character, the storyline with Mae Young, his fake retirement speech and the salmon jacket he wore on that night, why he didn’t get a championship run in his program with John Cena, and much more.
Mark Henry on racism: “I could see why people wouldn’t want to stand for the flag or stand for the Anthem. But, it’s different for me because I’m an athlete and I represent this country. I love this country. Every athlete that I’ve ever known felt the same way. You look at the sideline. When that flag starts flying, people start crying. Most know about the moment they are emotional about representing their country. All my uncles were military guys. I always wanted to be a policeman. I wanted to be a soldier like them but God had different plans for me. It’s one of those cases where if things were better from the beginning when this country was established, we would be better off. But, that’s not the case and now we are in this moment of change and people’s eyes are opening. I have friends who ask me questions and when I answer them, they cry. They say I never knew you faced that. They didn’t know I’ve been put on the ground at gunpoint in dress clothes going to church. I’ve been pushed in the back to try to incite a riot so something could happen. I’ve had to say listen man, you’re barking up the wrong tree. This is before and after I was a WWE Superstar. I went through some stuff. I have friends of mine that are policemen that are sick because they’ve seen stuff equally as bad as we have experienced over the last three months. They never had the courage to say anything because they would be ostracized and kicked off their forces.”
What was the plan with Mae Young being pregnant and then giving birth to a hand?: “I still pick on Vince everytime I see him. I still ask him what was the deal with the hand and he just starts laughing. Everything didn’t make sense, but it was entertaining as hell. I don’t know what the plan was. I just go with the flow. I was just curious. Out of all the things, why a hand? Vince just busts out laughing everytime I ask him. It’s the biggest ongoing joke. I think it was just to entertain himself.”
Mark Henry spoke about his fake retirement angle: “It was the highlight of my wrestling career as far as setting an example. There was no Undertaker, no Randy Orton in there to save me. I had to go out there and perform. I take a lot of pride in the fact that it built four months. It took me four months to get everybody conditioned that I was retiring and it was going to happen. So, I basically lied to everybody’s face for four months. Sorry guys, but that’s what I had to do to make it happen and make it real. I finally came to the conclusion that just like any method acting philosophy, I embodied that and that was my real retirement. I never did one after that because that was the one I was going to be known for. That was the one I was going to thank all the people that supported me, and backed me, and worked with. I did that. I got to thank the fans from the bottom of my heart. It was 100% real. But like every film and every show, you have to play the tunes to what made that show good. It was about wrestling, so John Cena had to face the heat.”
You can watch the entire interview by clicking below.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
