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"The World's Strongest Man: The Mark Henry Story" is one of the most wholesome documentaries that you can watch on the WWE Network.
This special showcases Mark Henry's journey that saw several ups and downs along the way. Henry has even had many critics throughout his career as a WWE wrestler and even as 'The World's Strongest Man'.
However, the documentary provides a deeper look into Henry's life from a fresh perspective that involves all factors contributing to each and every major point in this journey.
Nevertheless, here is a list of '5 Things That We Learned From Mark Henry's WWE Network Special'
#5 Mark Henry's Early WWE/WWF Career was off to a rocky start
When Mark Henry first arrived at the WWF in 1996, he was ecstatic. However, The World's Strongest Man made a lot of mistakes before he was accepted as a legitimate Professional Wrestler inside WWE's inner circles.
Even some of Henry's best peers criticized him when he first arrived in the company. JBL went on to mention that there was a point in Henry's career, right at the very beginning, where he was trapped between two professions.
His love for Professional Wrestling clashed with his career as a Strongman/Weightlifter and in the WWF, people only respected what you had done in the past, but it was very well known that one had to start from the beginning when it came to the WWF in 1996.
Therefore, Mark Henry's career was already off to a rocky start. He wasn't fully aware of what it really took to become a Professional Wrestler. But eventually, Mark used those criticisms and learned from each and every one of his experiences in the ring.
It was only after joining the Nation of Domination where he really felt that he belonged in the WWF/WWE.
#4 The weirdest moment for Mark Henry during his wacky character turn in the Attitude Era
After gaining some confidence during his run with the Nation of Domination, Mark got featured in several entertaining and outrageous skits, one of them being the infamous scene where Mae Young gave birth to a human hand in 2000.
Oddly, the weird aspect here is not the scene itself, but what really happened behind the scenes with Mark Henry and Vince McMahon regarding this skit.
The segment itself sounded so bizarre, that Henry wondered whether or not the hand was supposed to symbolise something. Therefore, he asked Vince McMahon about it, and the Chairman of WWE just roared with laughter instantly. There was no symbolism behind the human hand.
Weird segments have weird behind-the-scenes stories.
Even if the segment turned out to be controversial, McMahon just found it funny. That's all.
#3 There would have been no Mark Henry without a man named Terry Todd
Mark Henry's father passed away when he was just 12 years old. There is a reason as to why this whole documentary is dedicated to Terry Todd, who passed away last year.
After Henry's father passed away, Terry Todd proved to be an important father figure in his life. Mark Henry even goes on to mention that Todd was the 'father he never had'.
Terry Todd helped to train Mark Henry for the Olympics. But the reason why the World's Strongest Man broke up several times in the documentary while mentioning Todd's name, is because Terry Todd also taught him important life lessons along the way.
Without Terry Todd, there would have been no Mark Henry in WWE, and the fact that this documentary dives into Henry's early life proves to be one of the most wholesome aspects of the documentary itself.
#2 The infamous 'retirement' promo
Most hardcore wrestling fans know about this promo. As a matter of fact, Mark Henry showed some of his best acting chops during this infamous segment, as opposed to him struggling with promos during his unwanted time in OVW.
Henry had texted D'Lo Brown to watch Monday Night RAW during the week where he was supposed to 'retire' all of a sudden. Of course, D'Lo had no idea what was going to happen, and he also comically mentioned how Mark never texted him except for this particular case.
As the segment rolled on, even Big Show was 'crying like a baby' when Mark Henry announced his 'retirement' during that segment. To be fair, Henry's performance was surreal, and a lot of fans felt the same way Big Show did.
That is, until Mark Henry eventually slammed John Cena, thus, duping everyone through his acting chops.
Big Show mentioned he was typing an emotional text to Henry in the middle of this segment, and couldn't believe that Mark Henry was ribbing the entire WWE Universe all along. The same can be said for D'Lo Brown.
Truly, the fake retirement speech was one of the best highlights from Mark Henry's career.
#1 How the documentary sums up Mark Henry in a nutshell
A Strongman, Powerlifter, Father, Olympian, Friend, Champion, Hall of Famer, Ambassador, Record Holder, Mentor, Role Model, Inspiration: All of these words are used to describe Mark Henry in a promotional feature for this particular documentary.
It goes without saying that Mark Henry is one of the most genuine superstars to ever wrestle for WWE, and many even believe that he was perfect to represent WWE as an ambassador.
But there was a lot of conflict in between. There was anger. The 'Hall of Pain' persona was created out of frustrations leading up to that particular point in his life.
The documentary starts off by portraying Mark Henry as a small-town boy who only hoped to make his community proud. Between the beginning and the end, we see how Mark Henry went through several ups and downs to achieve that goal. The documentary ends with Henry contemplating about the things he would have left for the community even after he is gone.
In the end, Henry realizes that he has achieved his dream, and from a broader perspective, the documentary does a great job in summarising his life outside WWE too, all of which provides a fresh perspective towards the life and career of the World's Strongest Man, Mark Henry.
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