10 Things We Learned From Mark Henry On Stone Cold's Broken Skull Sessions

2. Why He Was Worried About His New Character

Mark Henry
WWE.com

Initially, Henry was tentative about playing his new bullying 'Hall Of Pain' character for multiple reasons.

Firstly, he was worried he wouldn't be able to control himself - he'd genuinely been angry when ribbed, and thought it'd be a bad time for everyone if he got that mad again. McMahon assured him that he'd learn to discipline himself, and he was right.

Mark was also fretting about the message his character would sent to young kids though. He adores entertaining children (and apparently scarring them for life by impregnating pensioners with oversized human hands, but that's another story), and didn't want them to see the negative stigma of, "big black dude scaring everybody else".

It took him a while to realise that he could separate the gimmick he played on WWE television with the person he was around kids at signings, personal appearances etc. It's clear when listening to Mark talk about this stuff that he took a long time to find his comfort zone as a performer.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.