Mark Henry recently reflected on his infamous “retirement” speech from 2013.
In the segment, Henry “retired,” as the WWE fans showed their support for the now retired Superstar. During the closing moments of the segment, John Cena made his way down to the ring, and congratulated Henry on his career. In a stunning turn of events, “The World’s Strongest Man” picked Cena up for the World Strongest Slam, and dropped Cena, as well as the jaws of the WWE Universe.
Earlier this week, Henry stopped by the AEW Unrestricted podcast, and spoke about the unforgettable moment. Henry explained why the segment worked so well, and told viewers:
“It was real. That's why it works so well, because I truly wanted to retire, and not wrestle anymore and become more of an executive, do more coaching and training, and work in support. But they didn't want me to do that, they wanted me to keep working as a talent. So I was basically going to retire anyway. Vince just talked me out of it. I knew for about four months, but I still prepared like I was retiring that night. It was one of the more emotional moments in my life because I mourn the death of my career. That's the way that I looked at it. That's why I was so emotional. It was over. When I put the boots on the steps, and I walked through the ring, I said everything that I would have said [in a real retirement.] My kids did cry, at that time, when I left home. It used to hurt me being on the plane going, 'I'm going to miss ballet, I'm going to miss tap dance recitals,' I'm going to miss -- my kids are in a band, you know, Jacob is the lead singer in a funk and hip hop band and my daughter plays the drums, so I would miss them. So it was tough... It was easy to draw on the emotion of the moment because it was real. I just knew that at some point, I'm gonna have to shut the waterworks off and focus on doing business with John Cena. John Cena, you know, was standing at ringside and it was really impromptu. It wasn't something that was planned. John tried to give me the [WWE Championship belt], and I just told him ‘No, I don't deserve to hold that. I never won that. I'm not gonna do it,’ and he just started crying because I had emotionally gotten to him. I knew when I looked over there and I saw him crying. I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, this is definitely [different].’ I knew it was different, and you know, from the time that ‘...A lot left in the tank’ came out of my mouth, to walking in the back. When I got in the back for the first time in my career, and it was the end of my career, all the wrestlers were in the back waiting on me. It was like walking into a concert, a concert crowd. You walk off the stage and walk into the people... Everybody was there. Everybody was applauding and clapping kind of coming up and hugging me and I was like, ‘Damn, I would have retired a long time ago if I would have known that it would get everybody's attention.’ But it did work.”
