Two weeks ago, something happened in the WWE that would've been completely unthinkable even two years ago. The possibility of it happening was always there, usually in the background. Maybe some of the more naive fans could see it happening. But the smarks, the assholes who think they understand how wrestling works and think they get "the industry", people like me, would've never thought it possible.
Nonetheless, it happened. A bruised and battered Randy Orton went for the RKO, but was brushed away easily. A powerful and painful slam followed. And Mark Henry was the World Heavyweight Champion.
On face value, it would seem logical. Mark is an intimidating sight to behold: 6'4, 400+ pounds, including arms that look bigger than the average human head. This fits in perfectly with Vince McMahon's long-term logic that says bigger = better; little guys (which is to say anyone under 6'4) have to prove their worth in WWE over the course of many years, usually involving sacrificing their bodies in painstaking match after match, in order to build up enough credibility with the crowd/Vince even get a shot at the main event. Bigger guys have this credibility based on their looks alone, and can be shot to the top after a few squash matches.
His "World's Strongest Man" moniker isn't made up; an Olympian, Mark had broken several US weight-lifting records before his wrestling career began. In kayfabe terms, Mark had spent the previous months on the wrestling equivalent of a killing spree. He had beaten the (usually highly protected, booking-wise) Big Show, cleanly, at Money in the Bank; he scored a victory over major WWE prospect Sheamus, including a nicely done barrier-breaking spot. This on top of 15 years of WWE employment, easily putting him towards the top of WWE wrestlers in terms of experience. So, great look, wrestling experience, good booking. Why would such a victory be surprising?
Let's start at the beginning. Any discussion of wrestling is going to be marred in rumor and unconfirmed sources, so bear with me.
After making an appearance earlier in the year to promote the US Olympic Weight-Lifting team, the rumor goes that Vince McMahon took an immediate liking to Mark Henry and demanded he be signed. Whether Henry made a hard bargain or Vince McMahon was completely enamored with "highly muscular guy" (a very real possibility) is unknown, but when all was said and done, Mark Henry had an unheard of 10-year contract with WWE. He started off with a long-term feud with heel commentator and wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler, culminating in Mark Henry's first televised match at Mind Games (includes bonus Mick Foley promo). When the company believes your debut match can be even a mid-card PPV selling point, they must have some faith in you.
The first thing you'll notice about the match is that it is not good at all! In the rare moments when the apparently super-patriotic Mark Henry isn't standing like a rock in the middle of the ring, he manages to nearly screw up a handful of wrestling slams. Notice how much Lawler carries the match, selling every bump into Henry as though being hit by the train, involving the crowd with his heel techniques, and generally being the best asshole he can be...but really, there's no saving this one. Henry wins with a torture rack. Yeah, a torture rack.
Surprisingly, the crowd did not immediately react to the immobile and awkward Mark Henry as the mega face Vince McMahon must've been hoping for. The rest of 1996 involved him staying on the sidelines in a handful of midcard feuds, until needing a year off to cover for injuries. He returned at the tail end of 1997, being given a mild winning streak over a handful of jobbers (best part of this video: Jim Cornette on commentary, somehow getting Mark Henry over as a force to be reckoned with while openly acknowledging he sucks at the whole 'wrestling' thing).
Needing to become more 'polished' (to paraphrase Cornette), the WWE did a logical move, putting Henry in the successful heel stable The Nation of Domination. A play on the Nation of Islam (race issues + wrestling, always a fun mix), Henry was able to play off his natural tough look while being tossed into the background enough to get away with his limited skill set. Originally designed as a launchpad for prospect D-Lo Brown, the Nation's biggest success was no doubt Rocky Maivia, who found his voice when he changed to heel persona The Rock.
In kayfabe terms, the Nation split between original leader Faarooq and The Rock, with Henry taking The Rock's side. Noticing that the once unpopular babyface had become immensely better during his time in the Nation, the WWE decided to use the storyline as a building block to a new major star. Mark Henry would actually play a role here; the remnants of the Nation turned on The Rock, turning him face again, and Henry would actually pick up a cheap victory over him at Judgment Day 1998, completely separating The Rock from the group. There is, of course, a world of difference between this effort and the 1996 match, but it would be generous to call Mark "good" at this point; The Rock, who was just finding his footing in WWE, carries the vast majority of the match. The Rock would use the separation from the Nation to build a major babyface following that would quickly culminate in him becoming one of the finest wrestling stars of all-time.
Mark Henry, meanwhile, would not quite do that. It was a deadly combination: Mark Henry hadn't done all that much for himself in the Nation; the WWE had a long-term contract with a guy they didn't really want, and this was the era of Vince Russo, a man who prided himself on nonsensical sex-based plotlines. Henry would team up with the other remaining aimless midcarder from the Nation, D'Lo Brown, and form a tag team.
The dynamic of the team wasn't the worst idea. Aimless midcarders being tossed together can sometimes yield great results: this is how the New Age Outlaws were formed (a team that, incidentally, would kick Brown/Henry's asses on a regular basis). D-Lo Brown's smaller-man energy contrasted nicely with Mark Henry's big man intimidation factor. But, for the aforementioned reasons, Mark Henry went from a gimmick of "large strong man" to "Sexual Chocolate". It wasn't that the Sexual Chocolate gimmick wasn't successful; anyone who watched wrestling in the Attitude Era likely remembers what those words mean. But in terms of establishing Henry as any kind of credible competitor, it was less than useless, it was actively harmful.
Brown/Henry would be on roughly the second string of tag teams of the era, jobbing themselves out to the likes of Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett and X-Pac and Kane, along with the New Age Outlaws. Eventually the tag team would be broken up when, at Summerslam 1999, Henry would assist Jeff Jarrett in defeating his tag partner for the Intercontinental and European Championships. In exchange for his assistance, Jarrett would award Henry the European Championship. Designed originally as a gimmick for The British Bulldog, the European Championship was a title so completely worthless that Triple H and Shawn Michaels literally had a gimmick match built around how shitty and stupid the title was. This would be Henry's first title, and his only one until 2008.
With his tag team gone, Henry's matches essentially became second priority to backstage segments playing on the Sexual Chocolate gimmick. The following period would be the type of wrestling run that he would spend the remainder of his career hoping the fans would forget. In this time frame he was given embarrassing, horrifically written segments in which he chased after the likes of Debra and Ivory to comic effect, admitted sex addiction, and impregnated a nearly 80 year old woman who eventually gave birth to a hand. There's a chance you might've glossed over the third thing, or think I'm exaggerating, but no. Mark Henry kayfabe impregnated 76 year-old Mae Young, the storyline dragged on meaninglessly for awhile, and then this happened. Yes, that is a video of Mae Young giving birth to a hand while Mark Henry watches. This happened.
That clip I just linked? That happened on TV. Somebody wrote it, it was recorded, and then it aired on live television, to a very large (this was when WWE was getting record-breaking ratings) audience. It isn't fake. Well, it is fake insofar as she didn't really give birth to a hand, but this was a real storyline that WWE found acceptable to put on TV with the intent of entertaining someone. I do not think I can overemphasize how much this thing actually happened. The rumor was that Vince McMahon didn't want to honor Henry's contract and wanted him to walk, so gave him embarrassing material in the hopes he would quit. Russo was the best man to pull this off.
Anyway, turning Henry into a racially-charged sex joke didn't exactly jump his career into superstardom. His ring work had actually somewhat deteriorated; while doing what he was told, Henry had understandably lost some of his drive, and had gained weight. For this and other reasons, Henry would spend the next few years in WWE's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, sporadically making appearances on TV to little reaction. Henry's heart probably wasn't into it much either; while fulfilling his obligations, he went back to some weightlifting competitions.
It wouldn't be until 2003 that Henry returned for any sustained period. In an apparent attempt to replicate the success of the Nation of Domination, Henry was placed into Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprise under manager Theodore Long, a group of minorities being held down by "The Man". The success was not replicated and, outside of tertiary involvement in a main event Triple H/Goldberg feud, they were largely unused. As the group dissolved slowly, Mark would feud with the (criminally underused in this period) Booker T at Armageddon 2003 after winning a few victories over him. It should be no major spoiler that Mark Henry is never going to be Shawn Michaels in terms of his ring abilities, but this match shows some improvements from his late 90s days; he now has a handful of nice looking power spots, can sell at least somewhat, and can work the crowd a bit better. Only major fuck up is a badly botched powerbomb at ~08:45. Booker T, of course, is carrying the match, but Henry has legitimately progressed. However, Mark's progress would be slowed yet again when he suffered an injury while training in early 2004. Keep in mind, under our normal time frame, that Henry is still on his initial contract.
It wouldn't be until the beginning of 2006 that we would see Henry again. He was quickly thrown into a championship match at the Royal Rumble in a match that was more about champion Kurt Angle's manager, Daivari, than about Mark Henry (side note: the Royal Rumble match sells itself, which is why you rarely see good championship bouts at the Royal Rumble PPV). Henry would, of course, lose. But Henry's contract was apparently renewed, and he started to play into his hoss role a bit better than he had been. His new theme music, from Three Six Mafia, certainly helped, and indicated the company hadn't quite given up on old Mark.
He was considered credible enough to be an opponent for the Undertaker at Wrestlemania (and fell victim to The Streak) before continuing his Angle feud with the title no longer on the line, even picking up a win at Judgment Day 2006. This period would also see one of Henry's most infamous moments, involving his failure to tear open a cage door, which in fairness wasn't entirely his fault. Actually, in some ways, the fact the door wasn't properly rigged and Henry still managed to break it open is kinda badass. Sadly, the Batista/Henry feud that the cage incident was supposed to represent would never quite see the light of day, as Henry suffered another injury after a tag match on "Saturday Night's Main Event", and spent some more time on the sidelines.
Now a veteran of more than 10 years, Henry was a solid portion of the background in WWE by 2007. Vignettes hyped his return in May 2007. His return instigated another feud with the Undertaker, attacking the champion after a tag match and setting up for Edge to cash in his Money in the Bank opportunity. The subsequent build and feud was largely standard issue WWE material, and one-sided in favor of the Undertaker.
In this time period, WWE had purchased the rights to the ECW name, and the brand had developed into a sort of training ground/retirement village. By the time Henry showed up in late 2007, ECW was largely about:
- giving new guys some TV time without cutting into Raw/Smackdown
- giving long-time veterans who were never world champion material some time to shine
Henry fit the second category fairly well. Late 2007 and early 2008 saw Henry involved in marginal midcard storylines on Smackdown and spending a decent amount of time in ECW, which he was 'officially' drafted to in 2008. A wrestling viewer could've fairly predicted that this would be the end portion of Henry's career, helping the new guys learn the ropes while waiting out his contract, perhaps getting some people over in the process.
Enter the Michael Hayes incident. Hayes, one of the top writers on Smackdown! and a major member of the McMahon inner-circle, got a little drunk at a WWE event and was ribbing on Henry's lack of success. He attributed Henry's failure to connect on him "not being black enough", allegedly adding, "I've got soul, brother. I'm more of a [n-word] than you are!" The story became public, creating a potential publicity problem for WWE enough to have them send out public releases regarding their diversity efforts. It would also be the best thing to happen to Henry's career in years, as it would lead to his run as ECW champion.
This is obviously partly conjecture, but the timeline lines up enough that it's hard not to believe it (and besides, it's my blog). It might also seem a bit crass to attribute Henry's success on ECW entirely to an unfortunate incident, but welcome to the world of wrestling. The backstage inner dealings of workers and management have a tendency to work their way on-screen; shortly after impressing Vince McMahon by punching out wrestler JBL, Joey Styles was suddenly given an on-screen appearance. Draw your own conclusions.
Regardless of how he got there, Mark Henry made the best of the situation. Winning on a kayfabe fluke in a three-way match at Night of Champions 2008, Henry took full advantage of his first championship in 9 years. Henry was definitely a heel, but there was a certain infectious enthusiasm to his heeldom; note his big (and probably legitimate) joyous smile upon winning the title, a trademark he would keep for the run. Legendary wrestler Tony Atlas would be brought on as Henry's manager, and perhaps to keep him disciplined on the road. The old ECW championship was replaced with a more fitting huge silver belt. Henry's character was straight-forward: big hoss heel that looked generally unbeatable, feuding with upper midcarders like Matt Hardy (before he became a worthless piece of shit) and ECW mainstays like Tommy Dreamer.
The thing was, despite Henry's generally disappointing career, his role as the centerpiece of the C-show kind of worked. Even the most hardened and cynical fan who had viewed Henry as dead weight for years couldn't help but feel good he was getting the 'gold watch' run, or so it seemed. Henry would lose the belt in 70 days, without directly being pinned for it, in an uninspiring "Scramble" match at Unforgiven 2008. If you don't know what a Scramble match is, imagine a really dumb match that leads to nonsense like this image. Henry would round up his ECW run with forgettable feuds with the likes of Finlay/Hornswoggle and Evan Bourne, but his ECW Championship run would give him a taste of the credibility that WWE had likely seen in him from the get-go.
For a while, it actually seemed like Henry's newfound credibility would actually go somewhere. Drafted to Raw in the 2009 draft, Henry would come in with a bang by pinning champion Randy Orton at the tail end of a gauntlet match, turning face in the process. The response was likely the biggest of Henry's career, and he was given newfound credibility as a face challenger, perhaps the next title challenger to Randy Orton.
WWE would follow up with this by...well, not anything on that level. He was placed into a tag team with (also freshly face) MVP, in a somewhat successful tag team that didn't do much to elevate either man. This was when WWE was in "Saturday Night Live" mode on Raw, with episodes focused on terrible comedy segments with the usually B-level celebrity of the week. This was a uniquely bad time to get into the main event; the highpoint of MarkVP was probably feuding with the excellent Jericho/Big Show tag team (to no avail), while the low point was a godawful segment in which Henry attempted rapping with Verne Troyer to no one's enjoyment (thankfully, video of this event is not on Youtube). As has become standard issue with WWE, an initial flirtation with the main event level eventually petered out into midcard staleness, and Henry ended his Raw run with a series of forgettable "big man/small man" tag teams (Evan Bourne, Yoshi Tatsu). He was also Lucky Cannon's on NXT, but you didn't watch that show. While the face period didn't push Henry up the card, he would continue to improve in the ring to the point where he had adapted to WWE style quite well; he couldn't exactly carry the match himself, but against a good opponent (like, say, Christian), he could have a match of decent quality.
Henry would be drafted back to Smackdown in April of 2011. In the main event of the draft night, Henry would turn heel again by attacking Cena (amusingly, within a month, Christian would also be a heel and Cena would be back on Raw). It was the first indication of a real attempt to do something with Henry, and to everyone's amazement, WWE actually followed up on it:
- A feud with the Big Show, who is usually protected in the booking, was heavily tilted in Henry's favor and ended with Show being kayfabe injured at Money in the Bank
- A shorter term feud with Sheamus ended with a countout victory for Henry, but included a neat little spot that got Henry over on its own
- He was well-protected in the booking and generally was seen as unbeatable to anyone else in the roster
The logic here is so simple that it's bizarre we don't see it much in the WWE. Henry's turn was given some importance. He got heel heat by his arrogant and demeanor, not the standard "cowardly heel" persona that WWE feels fits all nowadays; the fact he was legitimately unstoppable in the ring is only going to make the crowd hate him more. He said he was going to destroy his opponent in promos; he then went on to destroy his opponent. This kind of booking did something that years of bad comedy and half-assed pushes couldn't do: the average fan actually cared about Mark Henry.
The build-up to the Night of Champions match with Orton cleverly played up Henry's mixed WWE history: 15 years in the WWE without ever holding the championship belt, Orton presented Henry as a bad investment and punchline. The build was fairly brutal on Henry; if he had lost, he would've lost all credibility because of it. Thankfully, not only did Henry win the match, but won clean, a rare feat for any Orton opponent who isn't John Cena. Henry then proceeded to give the best promo of his career; when a handful of smarky fans cheered his win, he shunned them out, correctly identifying that they were the same people who didn't believe in him for years. This was his moment, and he wasn't sharing it with anybody. (No video is available as this is a recent PPV)
Henry's career has happened largely in the sidelines of WWE, but he has been the victim of wrestling logic at its worst and its best. An Olympian weightlifter with a memorable look, he has rapped with midgets and fathered a hand, for reasons unknown to anyone. A mediocre worker and limited promo at best, he was successfully built into hoss heel that earned the ire of fans worldwide against all odds.
How long his title reign lasts, and what he'll be able to do with it, remains to be seen; his victory against Orton at Hell in a Cell indicates this wasn't going to be treated as "gold watch" two week run with no ultimate purpose. For the moment, all we can know is that when the Three Six Mafia music hits, wigs are probably going to get split.
No comments:
Post a Comment