11 Wrestlers Who Waited The Longest To Win A World Title

After setting a host of powerlifting records, Mark Henry was billed as the World’s Strongest Man upon arriving in the then-WWF. In fact, he’s kept that nickname for much of his two-decade career, and yet it still took him 4298 days to find the strength to pin a world champion's shoulders to the mat.

Henry first appeared on WWF programming in March 1996, though he didn’t make his official debut until the In Your House: Mind Games show on September 22.

Things didn’t quite take off as hoped, though. Henry would go on to spend multiple stints in developmental and underwent various gimmick changes—including one run as a sex addict who had an on-screen relationship with the septuagenarian Mae Young—while he also had a brief excursion into the world of strongman competitions.

Back in the ring, his big push finally arrived during the company’s relaunch of ECW when Henry became the brand’s world champion in June 2008—almost four-and-a-half thousand days after first taking to the ring.

And for those who don’t deem the ECW title a proper world championship, it was another three years before he won the World Heavyweight title: over a decade-and-a-half after initially debuting.