10 Most Successful Wrestling PPV Debuts
8. Mark Henry
Fresh off signing an unprecedented 10-year contract, the Olympic weightlifter transitioned from the gym to the squared circle, facing Jerry 'The King' Lawler at In Your House: Mind Games in September 1996. For several months, Lawler had been mocking Henry for being all brawn and no brains, insisting that he had forgotten more about wrestling than Henry would ever know.
The future 'Sexual Chocolate' finally took Lawler up on the offer, and tossed the legend around the ring for about five minutes. Once hoisted up for a backbreaker, The King quickly submitted to the World’s Strongest Man. The New Rockers and Hunter Hearst Helmsley jumped Henry afterward, trying to dispose of the intimidating rookie. Alas, Henry smacked all three men around, and managed to turn that guaranteed decade into a 20-year (and counting) career.