Why Mark Henry Was NEARLY WWE's Biggest Ever Flop

Henry, to his credit, got over as an affable Lothario, improving in the character department. His in-ring work remained abysmal, even by pre-Radicalz Attitude Era undercard standards, necessitating a return to developmental four years into his professional career.

He emerged from an Ohio Valley Wrestling stint designed to humiliate him yet further in yet another racially-charged portrayal, swapping the Nation of Domination for ‘Thuggin’ And Buggin’ Enterprises”. This repetitive career arc made emblematic his continued struggles. Henry, it seemed, was doomed to repeat his failures in an expensive and tedious Möbius strip - a curse reinforced when he suffered another major injury in the developmental arena, tearing his quadriceps muscle during a 2004 OVW practise session, the likes of which, as a nominal eight-year pro, he should have long since graduated from.

McMahon sought to maximise his investment upon Henry’s return to the WWE arena, positioning him as the Undertaker’s Monster Of The Week in a WrestleMania 22 casket match. This, by some distance, was Henry’s best WWE match. While his opponent was no coincidence, the stipulation, infamously naff, leveraged the argument in his favour. He had arrived into the elusive realm of the respectable. More so than the success of the match itself, Henry deserves credit for emerging from it with a degree of credibility intact. If ever there were a talent irreparably stigmatised, it was - or should have been - Mark Henry.

So respectable was the match that Henry even generated sympathy upon suffering his next major injury. He split his patella tendon completely in two on the July 16, 2006 Saturday Night’s Main Event, in what was, near enough, his 10-year anniversary with the company - a tenure extended by virtue of the shrinking pool of wrestling talent, post-Monday Night War.

Over 10 years, several wrestling lifetimes, Henry contested precisely one memorable singles match and embarked on precisely one memorable character run. Had WWE anything in the way of viable competition facing it, Henry, surely, would have ranked as the single greatest and most expensive flop in the history of the industry.

Henry, however, achieved elusive consistency upon his next comeback, indirectly benefitting from John Laurinaitis’ disastrous mismanagement of the company’s in-house developmental system. Having quietly enhanced his reputation as a limited but imposing and believable freak show attraction as ECW Heavyweight Champion, Henry, with so few of his successors ready for the main event (or at least deemed ready for the main event), was given the World Heavyweight Championship in 2011. CONT'D...