10 Wrestlers Who Were Only World Champion Because Of The Brand Split

7. Mark Henry

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Mark Henry is technically a multiple World Champion, having won the ECW Championship and then given a run on Smackdown with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

It seemed to take Henry a decade or more to click and realise his potential, and his whole Hall of Pain shtick made for great television. Even then, though, his World Heavyweight Championship run felt like it was largely a case of rewarding his loyalty.

If it wasn't for the brand split then Henry may never have had the chance to reach his potential and finally find himself as a performer, and if that was the case then there's a chance that he may even have been future endeavoured let alone given a main event push and a run as the World Heavyweight Champion.

More than any other talent on this list, the brand split allowed Mark Henry to develop hugely as a performer, going from a stale monster who had never gotten over to becoming the alpha male beast that we've seen since around 2011.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.