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The Steve Austin Show
WWE Hall of Famer "World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry PART 2 - SAS CLASSIC
01:00:41
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- [00:02]
Steve Austin
This is the Steve Austin show going.
- [00:05]
Steve Austin (Host)
Back to your weightlifting accomplishments, and your mother bought you your first weight set. When you're about 10 years old and you've always your. Your side of the family or Yalls family had big men in it. Oh, yeah, but you had an uncle, Uncle Chud Chud Adams, who was six, seven, about 500 pounds.
- [00:24]
I wanted to.
- [00:24]
Mark Henry
About. About 450. He was a big, big dude. It would be easy for me to get up to £400 again if I ate like that in the country. He worked in the woods and my grandmother's favorite cousin and never really had a pair of shoes. He used to wear moccasins or what they call brogans. It was like a sole with a shoe that kind of wrapped around your foot. Just unbelievable. Like, my family, when they used to talk about him, it was like Bigfoot. It was like they was telling you stories about some monster that existed a long, long time ago. And they spoke with reverence when they talked about him. My grandmother used to say, mark, remind me so much of Chud. He just smaller. I'm six four, you know, 400 pounds. And she referred to me as small.
- [01:15]
Steve Austin (Host)
Was he able to get in any kind of sports or anything like that?
- [01:18]
Mark Henry
Nah, this was known as the strongest.
- [01:20]
Steve Austin (Host)
Man in the piney woods.
- [01:21]
Mark Henry
Yeah, this was. He used to, like, pull logs and do. He was a log, right. And this was during, golly, it was the 30s. So, you know, it was no opportunity for him to do anything other than just work. You know, he wasn't educated, never went to school, nothing like that. It was long before integration. Like, I mean, it was, you know, you're in the early 30s, you know, just 30 years before that is slavery. Yeah, you know, my grandmother, you know, you know, she used to talk about him, you know, like, with that reverence. But nah, it was no opportunity for him to play any sports or anything that didn't exist for black people.
- [02:01]
Steve Austin (Host)
So when you started, your mother bought you that weight set at 10. When had you started training prior? Because I know that they formed a powerlifting team around you at Silsby High School. But what drove her to buy you that weight set? When did you figure out that you were put on earth? I mean, I know like in fifth grade, you was like, what, 225.
- [02:21]
Mark Henry
Yeah, I was pretty big. But I remember seeing the Olympics for the first time in 76. And there was a guy by the name Vasily Alexiev.
- [02:30]
Steve Austin (Host)
Oh, yeah, man.
- [02:31]
Mark Henry
And Alekseyev was big.
- [02:34]
Steve Austin (Host)
Drum on him.
- [02:35]
Strong As a house.
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Mark Henry
When he came on tv, it was like he was Muhammad Ali. Like, you know, he didn't speak English, but they threw roses at him, like he was revered. And I told you I'm externally motivated. Anything that looked like, wow, they respect that guy. Like, that's what I wanted to do. And I figured, you know what? I feel strong. I'm gonna be like him. And I told my mom I wanted weights, and that was all spawned off, you know, I'm like six or seven years old. She like, you can't lift no weights, you know, And I begged her from that time all the way until I was 11 when she bought those weights. And she was like, well, these your brother's weights. And, you know, y' all can lift them together. Like, you know, so my was always inclusive. She like, look, y' all doing this together. But it was me that was begging for him, and that's all we did. Like, you know, some kids go out and ride bikes. You know, me and my brother, we went and lift weights. And all the kids in the neighborhood used to come to our front yard. We be out there lifting weights, man.
- [03:43]
Steve Austin (Host)
What kind of weight set did you get?
- [03:44]
Cause I remember back DP for life.
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Mark Henry
They was concrete.
- [03:48]
Steve Austin (Host)
Concrete and a plastic gimmick. Yep.
- [03:50]
Mark Henry
With the little plastic coat. Yep. Little bitty, tiny boy bent that bar, and we ended up using a pipe, like, a real thick metal pipe, kind of like just a little bit bigger than rebar. And it's kind of what they call cold roll. And so we lifted with that. And that thing itself was probably 30, 40 pounds, just, you know, just a piece of metal. You know, I had never done. The only way that you could do a squat is if you did a good morning, because it was a bench press that the rack was on, and it only went up to a certain height. So we would do a good morning, and then we'd do squats. We copy everything we saw on TV during that time. They had the world's strongest man, this guy Bill Kazmaier. You know, they used to throw rocks and, you know, lift logs and different stuff, and that's what I did. Anything that looked remotely challenging, I tried to replicate it in my backyard. There was a show that used to come on at noon called Body Shaping with Corey Iverson. And I met.
- [04:54]
Steve Austin (Host)
Watched all the same stuff.
- [04:55]
Mark Henry
I met Corey Iverson. She got inducted into the International Sports hall of Fame, like, four years ago. And I was there, and I told her, I said, you know, I want you to know this because a lot of people don't. The reason that I am who I am today is because I watch Body Shape. And I copied everything y' all did. And I used to do it in my backyard and in my front yard. And she just laughed and cried and laughed and cried and told me that that was one of the sweetest things that she had ever heard. And I was very congratulatory for her because she was one of the pioneers for women lifting. And they used to call people muscle bound and used to say that women look like men and all that stuff when lifting weights. And she had to endure all of that. And I idolized her. And she, you know, I learned a lot of my technique from watching Body shape.
- [05:54]
Steve Austin (Host)
How'd you strike upon a relationship with Terry Todd? Because he was a kinesiology professor at University of Texas. I followed his weightlifting career probably as long as you did. Then he becomes, I guess, a mentor for you.
- [06:06]
Mark Henry
Yeah.
- [06:07]
Steve Austin (Host)
Your father at a young age. And why were you able or how. I guess you're saying it's athletic ability. Because most highly successful powerlifters don't make the transition to the Olympic lifts.
- [06:19]
Mark Henry
How I met Terry. Terry actually came to Silsby to see me lift because he had heard that this 15 year old kid has squatted 700 pounds and deadlifted 700 pounds. He's like, there's no way that that's humanly possible without drugs. He's like, that's bullshit. Like somebody need to go down there and get them people in line. And he went down. He came to Silsby with the intent on taking people to task over harming some kid. He didn't know me. Unbelievable. He had no idea who I was. And he came down and it was just God's work that his wife Terry and his wife Jen sat next to my coach's wife in the audience. They sat right next to him and he was like, I can't wait for this to see this, this kid lift. And she was like, oh, Mark, that's him right down there, That's. And she. Oh, you know him? He was like, yeah, that's my husband is his coach. And he was like, so that's great. Is he, Is he. How much drugs is he taking? You know, kind of poking the bear. Oh, no, Mark, Mark. Mark is not taking any drugs. Like his mom is sitting right over there. Like, go, you can go talk to her. That's his mom, Barbara Jean right there sitting on the front. And Jan went and talked to my mom and Terri stayed there and talked to her. They was getting cross information. And then after the competition, my mom told me to come here. And she said, hey, this is the strongest woman in the world. Cause Jan had talked to my mom for hours. And they came down here to see you lift. They got to see you lift. And I was like, oh, that's cool. Jan straight out asked me. She was like, mark, you never took any drugs before, have you? And I was like, drugs? I had no idea. I didn't even know people took drugs, like, for lifting. Like, I mean, I know you take. When you go to the hospital, you get sick or something like that, Some aspirin or something. And that was the extent of medicine for enhancement. I had no clue. They was like, so you never did any drugs? And I was like, no. And then she talked to the coaches, and they was like, got all of us together, and we went to eat Little place in Silsbury, Blue Bonded Inn. There was no big restaurants. There's only 3,000 people there. Everybody know everybody. And we sat and talked. And Terry, that was the first time that I'd ever heard somebody talk about me with reverence. And Terry said that. Ms. Barbara Jean, I just want to let you know I've been in and around the world of physical culture since the 60s, since the 50s. There's never been another human born like your son. Like, Mark is different. Like, if he never took any drugs, what he's doing is impossible.
- [09:18]
Steve Austin (Host)
And that's a heavy statement.
- [09:20]
Mark Henry
It's heavy, man. It's heavy for a kid to hear somebody talk about them. And Terry said that. So you're like, everything age appropriate. Like, you know, he's. He's 15. Yes. No drugs. Yes. And he's been training under the supervision of, well, the junior high coaches. And that's his coach right there. And like, that was it. So when I came into my sophomore year, we got a team. Like, I was it. There was nobody else on the team. And they started raising money in the town. They went to the city of Silsby and said, hey, we need to buy some weights for the high school. So all of the. In the eighth grade and ninth grade, I was lifting more than my brother, who was the strongest kid at the school. And he had worked out with me every day since from the beginning. And he used to tell people, hey, my little brother's stronger than me. You never want to hear that. You know, like, my little brother's stronger than me. So we would. We trained together. And even when my brother went and played football at A and M, his nickname was Shorty but it was short for Shorty Strong because he had a 650 dead, 650 squat, 650 deadlift and 400 pound bench. Like I come from strong people.
- [10:52]
Steve Austin (Host)
Yeah.
- [10:52]
Mark Henry
And some of it is genetic, but it's also the fact that that's just how we worked. We just. It was nothing else to do in my town. It was either go to the park and play basketball, softball or something or lift weights. And everything was structured around going, getting ready to play football. I was a better than average football player. But once I found out that I was special in the lifting and throwing the discus and shot put, football was second thought to me. You know, it was like, man, I won the junior worlds. I was the strongest kid in the world. Little boy from Silsbee by then Sports Illustrated got ahold of it. They had this article called Teenage Mastodon in Sports Illustrated and they start chronicling all the numbers that I put up and my improvement every year up until my senior year in high school. And once I got to plus 800 pounds in the squat, then I was on the world landscape like, you know, people like Magic Johnson were commenting, knew who I was and stuff like that. So I had worldwide notoriety. And I'm just a little country boy from Silsby. It was my powerlifting career is the one that launched me into the world of sports.
- [12:19]
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- [13:28]
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- [13:44]
Steve Austin (Host)
I was watching a thing on YouTube explaining to what's the. What's the wheel? The Apollo wheel.
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Mark Henry
The Apollon's wheels. Adolph Apollon was a lift in the 1800s and he lifted a train axle. And a train axle. You know, trains were not what they are today. When we say a train, it's like a car in the 1900s. 1800s, you know, was not what the car is today. Car weighed 5,000, 6,000 pounds. The car weighed about 500 pounds back then. This little trolley train axle was 386 pounds. The handle on it was three and a half inches in diameter. And it was fixed. It didn't rotate like a Olympic bar or weightlifting bar you would go see in the gym. And he apparently lifted this, which to Terry Todd. Terry Todd thought this was all bullshit. He just said he lifted that. There's no way he lifted that. But any way it go, it was a lift. People used to try it all the time. And then there was an American lifter named Norbert Shymansky and John Davis, both Olympians and world champions, they both lifted it. And now it becomes the standard of strongman feats. 2002, I came out of retirement and I went and competed in the Arnold Classic World's Strongest Man.
- [15:17]
Steve Austin (Host)
And this is what I'm getting at.
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Mark Henry
And I lifted it. I lifted it three times and no other.
- [15:26]
Steve Austin (Host)
You lifted it. It was so explosive, when you cleaned it or snatched was unbelievable. It was frightening how fast that thing came off the ground. It's a shoot. Because you got to understand when we're talking about this bar, I got pretty big hands.
- [15:42]
Mark Henry
And you're bigger than a water bottle.
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Steve Austin (Host)
Yeah. So you can't wrap your hands all the way around it. And it's 386, give or take, whatever it's called it 400. But just the way that thing come off the ground and the dude that just come off before you had struggled with it.
- [15:55]
Mark Henry
Everybody did.
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Steve Austin (Host)
Everybody did. And then all of a sudden, because this is when you was making your comeback because. Right. Everybody's saying, hey, you're calling yourself the world football.
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Mark Henry
You're done wrestling.
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Steve Austin (Host)
You ain't done nothing.
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Mark Henry
Yeah. You ain't do nothing. How you, how can you.
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Steve Austin (Host)
So I'll let you tell the story, but I just want to say, dude, how it exploded, you could see the guys are trying to. No sell it behind you. But if you watch that film back, these guys are thinking, holy shit, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Tell us about it.
- [16:22]
Mark Henry
So during that time, I was failing in wrestling. I had just got back from Canada, I had just got back from Louisville. I started to wrestle and was this, like had got into the nation and started to get my footing and things was looking good and I was happy with my life. And then all of a sudden the rug get pulled out from under me because, you know, they was like, we got the world's strongest man, you know, and this. And there was a couple of guys who, I'm not going to mention their names because I wouldn't give them life if they was on life support. Started saying I shouldn't be calling myself the world's strongest man because that's how they make their living. And I wasn't the world's strongest man because I didn't compete against the world's strongest men. And there was some truth to that. But I was given more attention to lifting, being in the world landscape of pro wrestling than anybody that was in the sport. And rather than bash me, it would have been, it would have came across better if they were like, hey man, you should come to a competition and show people who you are in both worlds. That didn't happen.
- [17:30]
Steve Austin (Host)
They trash talked.
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Mark Henry
They trash talked me, so now I'm angry.
- [17:33]
Steve Austin (Host)
Well, they messed up.
- [17:34]
Mark Henry
And I told Terry Todd, I said, hey man, I wanna, I wanna come out of retirement. He was like, I don't know if Vince gonna like that too much. They. They paying you to wrestle. You should just do that. Unbeknownst to Terry, I go to Vince, I said, hey man, I can't sleep at night knowing that people say that I shouldn't call myself the world's strongest man. And Vince, that's how much of a.
- [18:01]
Steve Austin (Host)
Shoot it was for you.
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Mark Henry
That's how much it was for me. It was real to me. It was me. It was my identity.
- [18:07]
Steve Austin (Host)
Yes.
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Mark Henry
I'm not Superman no more. Come on. I mean, I couldn't sleep. I literally could not go to bed. And I told Vince, I was like, I gotta go and beat these dudes. And he was like, can you beat him? And I almost cussed at him. I was like, you downed me too. Like, it was like, I'm crazy Steve. I can't, I can't see, you got.
- [18:32]
Steve Austin (Host)
To be here to feel the intensity when he looks at you.
- [18:35]
Mark Henry
I said, I'll beat him. And he said, you know what? If you want to do it, go ahead and do it. He said, but I'm going to tell you now, if you get beat. He's like, there's no place for the world's second strongest man. He said, like, you win because your career depends on it. And I don't know if a lot of athletes would have even done that if they was making the money that I was making a year. And to say, you know what? I'm going to go take a chance on this. It wasn't a chance to me. I wasn't taking a chance, really. It was me going and proving who I was. It was me taking the glasses off, taking the cape off and saying, hey, I'm not Clark Kent. I'm Mark Henry. And those guys found out exactly who I was. And I retired from, you know, Strongman the next day. I went for one competition to prove and let everybody know who I was. And I went back to wrestling. And it was the best thing because it was like a shot in the arm. It was like, mark Henry is truly the strongest human being on earth. And that is what took me to the next level in wrestling.
- [19:53]
Steve Austin (Host)
I got two questions before we go there, because I want to go there. When you prove that you were the world's strongest man, then what did those guys say to you?
- [20:02]
Mark Henry
Then they were like, mark, you are the man. Like, I never seen nothing like you. The strongman world is a brotherhood, just like wrestling. We might disagree with each other and we might have beef with each other, but if it's us against them, they finna get they ass kicked. And that's. That's the same way it is in Strongman. I've loved Strongman, but I don't think that the world of strongman loved me back. And I had to get away from it. I don't think people got drug tested the way they should get drug tested. And I was the guy that was always like, hey, you drug test me any day of the week. Twice on Sunday. Yeah, I don't care. And I got took up on it in 96, during the Olympics, I said that. And I got drug tested 23 times in one calendar year. In 12 months, I had 23 drug tests. There ain't another human being that ever walked the planet athlete that got drug tested as much as I did.
- [21:04]
Steve Austin (Host)
And I believe you through all your tests that you passed for a shoot. I know you're 100% drug free when a lot of people say they are. But they're not to do a cycle and get off so they can test clean. I flat out 100% believe you. End of story. Moving on. You keep bringing up your talks with Vince and when he gave you the first call and you go down to Stanford, y' all come up with a 10 year deal and then you're doing some things wrong. They're trying to. You go over to Canada, you go down to Ohio Valley, what's it called?
- [21:37]
Mark Henry
Louisville, Ohio Valley wrestler.
- [21:39]
Steve Austin (Host)
Yeah. And hey, man, you gotta get your attitude right. And then you want to go prove yourself to be the strongest man again. You're always in there talking events. Now, 20 years later, a little bit more than that. But you've known a man over 20 years. Tell me about your relationship with that guy, how it's developed and what he's meant to you. Because I watched that special, one of the things I was watching that we network did on you, and he's there with you when you're doing the sexual chocolate stuff and he's getting you to come into your own. And we'll get there when we come back from, you know, the hall of pain and more stuff like that. But what is your relationship with that man? Because it's a very complex thing. And you once went in to retire, he got five more years out of you. But there's gotta be a lot of trust and respect. You tell me, dude.
- [22:31]
Mark Henry
There's a lot of trust and a lot of respect with Vince because Vince always was a straight shooter with me. He never. I hear these stories about him double talking people and he never did that to me. In part, there was a time to just put in perspective. Vince had these. We always talked about his fashion sense. And I think Vince realized that I was kind of off a long time ago. But he had these shoes and he was like, I know you like these, these are stylish. And I was like, they look like clown shoes. And he was like, what do you mean they look like clown shoes? He was like, you can't talk to me like that. You're not afraid of me. And I said, you can't whoop me. What I'm gonna be afraid of you for? And he just started laughing. He was like, that's why I like you. He respected me as a man and he knew I wasn't no punk, that I wasn't gonna be wishy washy, I was gonna hide how I felt or nothing like that. If I Had a disagreement with him when I came in his office. He what's wrong? Because he can see it. I'm pretty self explanatory for people that, that are listening. Like, I can't. I'm. I'm not a liar. I can't hide behind something. If I feel a certain way and you're around me, you automatically feel it too. That's just the way God made me. And he knew when I walked in his office. And there's a. There's a level of love and respect that he and I have for each other. And he has told me he loves me. I've told him I love him back. And more than anything, I respect what I've learned from him. And a lot of people in power hide knowledge. Knowledge is the key to unlocking anything that remotely is possible for any human, regardless of what color, creed, religion, sexual orientation. Knowledge and teaching is the key. He didn't have to teach me the understanding of pro wrestling. He did. And I provide for my family based off what I've learned from this human being. And I had people offer me more money during that time of the wars. And I didn't take it. I was loyal because he was the one that got me into wrestling and that was where I was gonna stay. And he knew that because I told him, it's not like giving no leverage. Hey, man, they offered me some more money. I didn't tell him because I wanted them to up my pay. I told him because I'm not going. Good talk. Let's be out. And that was it. So he knows who I am, as opposed to what anybody else would say. And we fought, we've argued, and he's had to tell me, hey, that's not smart. And I was like, well, you didn't have to tell me. I wasn't smart. You could have told me. He's like, but that wouldn't be me being honest. You've had conversations with Vince. You know what it's like. Yeah, he's telling you the truth. From his perspective, it might not be gentle and coddling, but he's telling you his truth. And if you feel like he's wrong, then prove it to him. Tell him where he wrong. He not gonna fire you or bitch and moan at you because you proved him wrong. He wants you to. If he's wrong, tell him, hey, man, you wrong. This is where you wrong. And then he'll go, oh, okay, well, let's fix that. It's that simple. But people are afraid of him. And I'm Gonna tell you right now, he will resent you. He'll hear this. I know he gonna hear this. He will resent you if he can't trust you to be a man of your word and your character.
- [26:54]
Steve Austin (Host)
Agreed.
- [26:56]
Adam Carolla
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- [27:51]
Mark Henry
And I'm not gonna say everything because I know he's real private, but I'm just saying there's a certain level of respect that I have for somebody that's gonna give me the whole truth and nothing but the truth. When I was wrong, he told me I was wrong. My wife is the only other person on this planet that's able to look me in my face and say, mark, you're wrong. This is what I said. Get out of your own head. And how you come up with a solution. Them the only two people that's able to tell me, and me drop everything and listen to what they saying.
- [28:28]
Steve Austin (Host)
So a great relationship exists. I was just in there talking with your buddies on their show and I told them I kind of got along the same year. A very deep relationship with a guy, he'd known him forever. I told those guys over there, I said, man, just as far as learning. I learned more from working for Vince McMahon than I did in five years of college. You know, just about anything, business, especially in life. And at times when you look at it, you know, he's been either the father figure, brother, whatever, mentor, mentor, just shrink, psychologist, psychiatrist. For how many guys.
- [29:06]
Mark Henry
When I was mad at my wife, Vince was the one who was like, hey, you married? You got married? You do what she said. Ultimately, she's right. Even when she's wrong, she's right. He said that to me, you look at stuff from how it benefits you think about how it benefits everybody else. It's like, man, stop shooting, stop telling me the truth. I don't want the truth. You supposed to be on my side. I'm not on nobody's side. I'M on the side of truth.
- [29:41]
Steve Austin (Host)
Let's talk about. And I know you don't have all day, and I appreciate the time you've given me, but let's talk about. Maybe it was in that 2002 period when you came back, you were a house of fire. I guess my question to you is maybe it was all fun to you. Did you like working heel or baby more? One of the things my takeaway is going back to your high school powerlifting days when they had the cameras rolling. Man, you were hamming it up and, you know, high energy. And that goes hand in hand with weightlifting, but it also goes hand in hand with our business and passion and emotions. And I say emotions sell tickets. You've always been that kind of guy. But when you finally found your way, okay, the simple question. Heal or baby heal?
- [30:25]
Mark Henry
Because I didn't know. I didn't know that as nice as I was, that I was controlled by my feelings. You can make me angry, but you are not allowed to hurt my feelings. If you hurt my feelings and you get on the bad side of me, I already have a hole dug with bags of lime around it for the person to hurt my feelings. I'm not shitting you one bit. You hurt my family. You hurt my, like, my soul, my feelings. Like, if you have to go, you have to go at that point. Honestly, I've never screwed nobody over. Ain't nobody could say Mark Henry, man, he screwed me out my money. He lied to me. Nobody. On a couple occasions, I lied to my wife. She knew I was lying when I said it because I'm not a good liar. And when you have to apologize because you did something stupid or wrong, it's is hurtful to your feelings because you got caught more than because you did something wrong. And that's the stuff that has made me the man that I am, is I've. I've evolved from worrying about how I see stuff as a part of. To how everything that I do affects everybody else. I'm everybody else dude now. But my feelings is what is not allowed to be hurt. I don't get angry very much because I can't, because, you know, it's not a good place for me. Anger is not a good place for me.
- [32:05]
Steve Austin (Host)
But what about that period when you were in the wwe? Was it coming back from a strongman stuff or was it a couple of years later? But you said there was hatred there. I think it was. You didn't feel like you were appreciated by the WWE audience and you just said that you weren't appreciated by the strongman community. You had to go back and you was angry about that and prove them wrong. And so was it the under appreciation that brought out the anger?
- [32:33]
Mark Henry
It was. It was.
- [32:34]
Steve Austin (Host)
It was like, hey, man, what do I gotta do to get some appreciation here? I'm gonna get my ass off every.
- [32:39]
Mark Henry
I'm killing myself for y'.
- [32:40]
Sponsor Representative (Huel)
All.
- [32:41]
Mark Henry
I'm killing myself for y'. All. And you boo me. And the same thing happened with Dwayne. Rocky sucks was real. They hated Rocky Mavia. They thought he was soft. They thought he didn't work tight enough. They thought that it was hokey. And Dwayne hated it. And you could see it in his face and his demeanor. He hated his hair. He hated everything about it. He loved his culture. And he felt like it was pissing on his culture for him to dress like that and not really be that hated it. I felt the same identical way with how the fans relate. I was out there killing myself. I'm absorbing other people's energy. I was the guy that caught everybody 250, 200. I pressed Vader when he was 400 pounds. It hurt my shoulders, but I did it. There was things that I did that hurt so bad that for somebody to boo. I was like the same guy that had the conversation a few weeks ago and busted open about Undertaker Goldberg match. How angry I got at the fans for them having audacity to go on social media and say that that was horrible or they messed up or whatever. I was like, you don't respect these people. So the character from 2009 to 2013, the hall of Pain era, was me hating the fans. It was me being honest with how I felt about the way that I was portraying. Vince got me to portray how I truly felt. And I told him I didn't want to do it because I didn't want people to see me hate. I didn't want people to see me angry like that because I was basically being what people thought I was anyway, if that makes any sense to you. Because, you know, I'm a six four, 330 pound, now 330 pound black dude. And I walk down the street and women changed they purse to the other side. They moved to the other side of the street. Street. Like, I'm gonna eat somebody.
- [35:03]
Steve Austin (Host)
Yeah.
- [35:04]
Mark Henry
I'm a human being. And I didn't want to perpetuate a negative. I wanted to try to transcend the negative. And I realized that Vince was right, that I needed to scare everybody. And he played a practical joke on me. To prove the point, to make me angry. And I was in Des Moines, and he ribbed everybody. But he did it specifically to unlock the monster in me, I guess the way he described it. I had a match against Sin Cara, and I'm out there. First. The music plays. No Sin Cara. They play the music again. No Sin Cara. I look at the referee, Scott Armstrong, and I said, man, what's going on? I think he retaping his knee or something. I don't know. He's like, mark, I just don't know. Then somebody else. Music plays. Then they play Rey Mysterio music. Then they play Vader.
- [36:02]
Steve Austin (Host)
It's Vader.
- [36:04]
Mark Henry
Vader has been retired from wrestling for, like, six years, eight years at this point. And now I'm angry. I realize I'm being ribbed. And I say, you know what? The rib is on y'. All. I'm not going nowhere. I get the microphone, and I start talking about how I hate everybody.
- [36:20]
Steve Austin (Host)
This you shoot.
- [36:21]
Mark Henry
You bring me out here and embarrass me in front of all these people. The dark match. And I was like, you know what? It's funny. Y' all probably back there laughing. Ha, ha. I said, let's see if you laugh when I get back there. And now I'm coming out of the ring, and I go to Gorilla. It's ghost town. It ain't nobody back there. And I just start kicking and knocking shit over. I run to Vince office. He gone. He in the limo. He on the way to the airfield. And I called him, and I cussed his ass out. And I said, you wait till I see you. You gonna have to see me eventually. And I'm angry to the point to where I didn't care. I called my wife. I said, I'm done. No more for me. They done messed with me for the last time. Vince called me in the next week, and he was like, big Henry, Big Mark, you coming to work? And I was like, no, I'm not coming to work. I was like, you didn't answer last week when I called you. He's. I just wanted you to calm down. I was like, vince, you hurt my feelings. I was like, nobody's allowed to hurt my feelings. Nobody. Not you, not nobody. And he said, well, that wasn't my intention. I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings. I was trying to make you mad. I was trying to kick you in the ass. And I was like, I don't understand that. I was like, you have to explain different to me. He said, I want you to come to Baltimore, come, come, come to. I miss tv. I didn't. So I flew to Baltimore for smackdown. And we sat there in his office and he said, pull. You know, he leaned forward, pull his glasses down. And he was like, you were really mad. He said, oh, my God. He said, I want you to see something. And he called the people in the truck and he said, hey, play that footage from last week. And he's kind of leaning forward and he kind of smiling at me, half ass smiling. And I'm looking at him. The sound comes on. I look at the monitor and it's me, but I don't even recognize. I don't even recognize that's me. I was angry. I was walking, I was pacing. I was. That was. That wasn't me. That was a monster. That was a mean person. That was somebody. I was stomping mad. I ain't never stomped mad like a little kid. Never in my life did that. That was probably the maddest I had ever been in my life. And he said, if you can be that guy, you can make a lot of money, which means that the business will be better and we all will make a lot of money. And I said, I can't control that. He said, yes, you can. You can control it. I'mma help you control it. And he did. Hall of Pain error.
- [39:20]
Steve Austin (Host)
But that was just taking a shoot and working with it.
- [39:25]
Mark Henry
Yeah. Four best years of my career and put me in a hall of fame.
- [39:29]
Steve Austin (Host)
But when you look back at it and all I got is a recorder going. But I can see the emotion. I can feel the emotion coming out of you.
- [39:36]
But that was taken.
- [39:37]
I get what he was trying to do when he showed you the footage, but when you look back at that and you're like, yeah, he ribbed you or he made you mad, but when you saw it, it's taking a shoot but trying to work it and riding really a fine line of. A little of both. Because I believed everything I did out.
- [39:59]
Mark Henry
There, but I did at that point and I had to control it, which was the biggest part of me not thinking I could. And I didn't want to perpetuate that.
- [40:10]
Steve Austin (Host)
And with the understanding of when I looked at that and what you just told me, that was the intensity that he needed out of you.
- [40:18]
Mark Henry
Yeah.
- [40:18]
Steve Austin (Host)
And not about.
- [40:20]
Mark Henry
But that's what coaches do. Yes, that's what coaches do. They push your buttons, they get you to respond, and they win championships. I guarantee you that. There are guys that have been coached by Belichick and Popovich, Pat Riley, and the List of great coaches that you hear about, they didn't always do it kindly, right? Because it probably was different. Some people you pat on the back, say, look, I need you to do this right there. And you might get it out of them. But for me, it took for me to be angry and to see what that felt like again. It'd been a long time since I felt like hate and anger. That's why I do my best not to let myself get angry because it's hard for me to control that.
- [41:13]
Steve Austin (Host)
But once you've been in the business as long as you have, for that light to go on like that after that many years, you know, it's like, ah. I mean, it's a wake up call, right?
- [41:22]
Mark Henry
Yeah.
- [41:23]
Steve Austin (Host)
And it's like, hey, man, I've been doing this and you wanted the crowd's respect. But now this is at that moment when you do the hall of pain run, put you in the hall of fame. You found the money, you was making money. But that's. This is the real money drawing you.
- [41:39]
Mark Henry
Drawing for the business. And your name is on the posters and people are coming to see you get a whooping. People wanted to see me get a whooping. And I'm like, who gonna give it to me? Was my mentality. It's like, you came to see me get a whooping. Now every week I had to change the narrative to stay angry. And I remember my son Jacob, dad, you know that kids ask me at school, are you mean like that to us? He said, he said, no, man, my dad's nice, man. You just go, I remember that like it was yesterday. And I just started laughing. Because perception is reality. What people perceive you as is almost like people saying, hey, this is the exact truth. That's what people gonna believe is the perception. Like it's real. Which is a wonderful thing in pro wrestling because it creates suspended belief. And the comic books that people write about Batman and Superman and Iron man and all of these characters, they write it in wrestling, you perform it. There's no smoke, there's no strings that tie you to fly. When you fly, you fly. Xpo. When he flew, he flew. When I wrestled Daniel Bryan and he flew. He actually flew. And Rey Mysterio, they flew because I told them, as long as I got a breath in my body, you're gonna have a place to land. Trust me, I'm not gonna let you crash and burn the big guys. When we collided, we collided. I'm not gonna cry that you hit me too hard. I can take it. Let's go. I got the main event with the Undertaker off. The fact that there was nobody in the business that could put him in jeopardy except me. It was a great, great feeling those four to five years, like, did a lot. And at the end I was still Mark Henry, but I was tagging wearing red with mvp and I would go and do this sometimes and I would go back and forth and at the end it was like it was time.
- [44:04]
Steve Austin (Host)
For me to go before it's time to go and before we go. I think the year was, I think it was September 2013. When you won your World Championship.
- [44:13]
Mark Henry
Yeah.
- [44:13]
Steve Austin (Host)
From Randy Orton.
- [44:14]
Mark Henry
Yep.
- [44:15]
Steve Austin (Host)
What did that mean to you?
- [44:17]
Mark Henry
I can never thank Randy enough because you're only as good as who you work with. Randy's damn good as, you know, very easy. But I beat somebody to become champion and that's what was even more impressive to the people that I was allowing to see the monster, that I was allowing to see the hate. It was for the fans. And I started to realize that I was not just entertaining them, but I was actually working for them. They needed somebody to hate and I gave them that. And a lot of people played a part in getting them that entertainment. But ultimately it came down to me being able to go and do that. And I took a lot of pride in the fact that leading up into winning the World Championship for Randy, I beat Batista, I beat Big Show, I beat Rey Mysterio, I beat Daniel Bryan, I beat about seven hall of Famers in about a nine month span. Back to back to back to back. I got built, I did the work, but it was a build. And my win, it was on the backs of the guys that helped build me the stuff that Big show and Kane did. Even the guys that were enhancement talent. There was a guy, Robert, he was a soundboard operator guy. And I don't know if people remember it, but he was standing up there and I went up there and I knocked all the stuff down and I grabbed him and I told him, I said, man, I'm going to be charged up. And when I'm energized like that, I'm strong, I'm going to try to throw you as flat and safe as I can. I was like, put your chin to your chest and just go. And I remember looking back at it, I knew where the padding was that I was throwing him. It was about 8ft away from me and I told him to move it out further because when I get charged, I'm going to be stronger. And I side I threw him with a 1/2 step and throw and he went exactly 12ft, almost a free throw distance, 3ft from being from a free throw line to a basket. And I challenge anybody to go grab 190 pound dude and throw him that far. I couldn't do that when I wasn't charged. So that's one of the God given gifts that I've able to channel my power and luckily I was able to use it the right way. I didn't end up, you know, doing something stupid and ending up locked up for my rest of my life.
- [47:23]
Steve Austin (Host)
But what did meaning you talk about Randy, but what did meaning the world championship mean to you on a personal level or professional level?
- [47:30]
Mark Henry
Validation is the ultimate word. It means that Vince trusted me with the company to be the champion, to be there every day, to make every show, to do every pre tape, to start the show, to finish the show, do all the pre tapes and stuff in between. Wake up at five o' clock in the morning and go to the radio station, go do the live TV feed, go to the children's hospital and then come to the building at 1 o', clock, 2 o' clock knowing I'm gonna be in opening the show, being a pre main or main event and then do the dark match. People don't realize how much goes into being champion. There's a lot of reason why championship title runs are usually short, because it's hard to maintain that over a two or three year period. When you see a guy like you that was able to carry the title for two or three years in a row, I don't know how the hell you did it. And Dwayne and Ric Flair and undertake, I don't know how they did it. I don't know how y' all did it. I did it for four years, y' all did it for like 15 years and consecutive years. I had breaks in between my titles. Like it.
- [48:47]
Steve Austin (Host)
But that validation you speak of, I mean it's what you wanted from the weightlifters, the strongman. You got it from the crowd and when you got it from the old man, from the company, I mean that.
- [48:59]
Mark Henry
Was the ultimate stamp.
- [49:01]
Steve Austin (Host)
And obviously hall of Fame is going to go right there as well. Yeah, validation, which is what you seem.
- [49:07]
Mark Henry
It seems like that's, that's what I work for. That, yeah, I want to be. I got the validation and holding that championship over my head. Pretty damn sweet. Next to my kids being born. I don't know if I've ever felt a, a more prideful and accomplished feeling. People say, man, you went to the Olympic Games, you won world championships. And I did that by myself to an extent with my body. But with wrestling, it was a lot of moving parts. And for all them stars to align and for that to happen, it was a lot of work. But it was, man, it was so worth it.
- [49:51]
Steve Austin (Host)
People get in passing, say, eh, it's work.
- [49:54]
It's work.
- [49:55]
Been blowing off his work and Shampoo's work. The business might be a work, but there's certain things that are shoot. And there's a reason behind why a particular decision is made, and it's for all the things you just stated. So to echo off what you just said, holding that damn thing up, man.
- [50:13]
When I got a chance to hold.
- [50:15]
That some bitch up on six different occasions or the IC or whatever it was, it was validation for your work.
- [50:21]
Mark Henry
For and for your level of intelligence. You ain't never gonna be proud if you ain't proud of being champion. Because it's funny that all the times that I've been interviewed, one, I've never talked about Vince. I can't believe that all of that came out. But I've also never factored all of the things together when all I was doing was looking for validation. I was looking for people to give me my just due. And if I didn't get it, my feelings got hurt, which is ultimately the worst thing that can happen to me because it's gonna make me go to the gym for five hours a day until I win. And I've been. I've had my validation, like, in everything that I've ever done, and it didn't all make me millions and millions of dollars. Wrestling did really good by me. And my kids are gonna go to good schools, and they're exposed to a world that they probably would have never been otherwise, because the other sports that I did, powerlifting, weightlifting and strongman, there's not millions of dollars to be made in those sports. I did it out of love. And all I wanted was them sports and to love me back. And, like, that's what I got from wrestling. I got wrestling loved me back.
- [51:47]
Steve Austin (Host)
You're in the hall of Fame. Your wife just called. You gotta pick your son up. You gave me two hours out of your day. Got to do your show. Thanks for having me on your show. Thank you for giving me so much time. Is there anything you'd like to say in closing or something that we didn't cover that you would like to cover, or are we good here?
- [52:09]
Mark Henry
The. The main thing is, is I. I'm gonna say this about you. As far as all of the. The guys that I've been around in my wrestling career, me and DLO had the most fun with you. And we always joke around and stuff. And DLO would be like, man, Mark, I can't leave the building. I'm like, what the hell you talking about? Let's go. And he's like, I didn't take a stunt of the day. And I'm like, get out of here, man. Let's go. And he's like, no, no, no, Serious. Come on, let's go. Take a stunt. Because we both marks. Me literally, and him figuratively. And we would always come and we would massage his shoulder, like, put his chin in, and he's, nah, I'm not feeling it. I'm not feeling it.
- [52:58]
Steve Austin (Host)
I would be somewhere in the building, and I'd be talking to somebody, and Mark Ordito would come from behind me and start giving me the karate chops on my right trap. Like, they're getting me ready because that's where they're going to place their chin to take a stunner. And I. I'd work it, and I'd say, not, not. Not yet. They start massaging my trap and cinch their chin down. I say, yeah, it feels good. And I jump up and down and land on my feet. But it'd be a. A gimmick stunner in the dressing room. I don't know how many times you still do that to me to this day.
- [53:28]
Mark Henry
Like, D. Like, I don't even know.
- [53:29]
Steve Austin (Host)
You'Re in the building. If someone snaps and sneak up behind me, start tapping me on the trap, I said, I know it's Mark Henry Stunner.
- [53:35]
Mark Henry
Me and D. Lo, we was together at an appearance the other day in Richmond, Virginia. We had a conversation about that, like, how much fun it was to be around the business during that attitude era. And even now, being older guys and having a relationship with somebody that's, you know, on the Mount Rushmore wrestling. And I don't know if you. You know, you said that it's like you can't see the forest for the trees. And, like, you get inducted into the hall of fame in 2009, and you don't always give yourself that validation that we were just talking about. And I hope that you are able to do that because, like, you were special to the business. There ain't been many. I mean, all of us had played our role. As Ron said, know your role. We all had our role. But there's only one Mount Rushmore there's only one top 10, and people's top 10 varies according to who they love the most or who had the most influence on them or whatever. But I have never heard a top 10 that didn't have you in it.
- [54:45]
Steve Austin (Host)
That's crazy.
- [54:47]
Mark Henry
That is. That's where it's at, man. I'm proud to know you.
- [54:52]
Steve Austin (Host)
Thank you very much. And now, I guess when you put it like that, now I know how all of your weightlifting achievements, because you're on top 10, everything. So I never thought about it like that. But I never blow smoke up my ass. My mama told me a long time ago, man, they always asked me, said, man, you know, because most people say I was kind of always the same guy at the end that I was in the beginning. And I always been a little crazy, too. But my mom always said, man, the way we was raised, he goes, I don't care what you do. Don't you. Don't you ever get a big head. We kept everything in perspective. She said, as soon as you get something, it can be taken from you. And that got proven to me when I got dropped on my head. You go from being the hottest thing on two feet to on the sideline, shit. So I kept everything in perspective. But I ain't gonna sit here and.
- [55:38]
Blow smoke up my ass.
- [55:39]
I gotta say, last night I was sitting at my hotel and this was a short notice on this podcast. I'm honored to talk to you. And I was like, after I started trying to research, I said, I cannot do marketing this service by not having studied everything he's done. But he's done so much. I'm just going to do the best I can. This has to be, and I'm telling you like it is. This is probably one of the favorite podcasts I've ever done. To sit across from you and feel. Feel. I'm a feel guy. To feel what I felt when you're talking and to hear some of the knowledge that you dropped. I hope everybody listening to this how much enjoys it as much as I did doing it. So thank you.
- [56:20]
Mark Henry
I appreciate you, Steve.
- [56:26]
Steve Austin (Host)
All right, everybody, give me the go home cues.
- [56:28]
I'm gonna wrap up this podcast and ride off in sunset.
- [56:30]
But before I do that, I want.
- [56:32]
To thank my guest, Mark Henry, World's Strongest man and WWE hall of Famer, for having me down there at the Iheart Studios where he does his morning radio show, Busted Open. I believe they are number one on the airwaves five days a week, so check out their show. Always talking about everything. Pro wrestling and always putting a good spin on the business.
- [56:52]
I had a fantastic time hanging out.
- [56:54]
With Mark and like I said, I could have talked to the man all day. He's got stories for days and he comes from the heart and Mark is the real deal. If things ever go bad, I want Mark on my side. So thank you Mark for helping me out. No, I never got a chance to talk to Earl Campbell. I had my time frames messed up. He was not going to get back in town until Wednesday and I left Saturday night after speaking with Mark and checking out those cars. So hopefully I get a chance to get down there and talk to Earl again and maybe even Mark again because I'd love to keep talking to him. Earl Campbell's one of my favorite running backs in the history of the sport of football and that's the bottom line. If you missed my podcast last week I talked with All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan and had a fantastic conversation with him. I took a six month break from podcasting for various reasons. Maybe on the next show or the show after that I'll have a bullshit session where I'll tell you all the things that I've been up to and why I've been gone as long as I have been. One of the reasons I was gone I filmed my new show for the USA Network straight up Steve Austin. The season premiere is August 12th and it will be on right after Monday Night Raw. So get ready to set your dvr. This show is where I hang out with some celebrity guests. We do some neat activities, get to know them and have conversation. It's a 30 minute show. I appreciate the opportunity given to me by the USA Network. Hopefully enough people will watch this show so we can get season two out of it and continue raised in hell and having a good time. Please check out Straight up Steve Austin August 12th for the season premiere after Monday Night Raw.
- [58:36]
Hey, don't forget to rate and review.
- [58:38]
The Steve Austin show on Apple Podcasts and tell your friends to check us out. And if you want to reach me here on the podcast, send an email to questionsteveaustinshow.com Folks, I'm also in the beer business. I happen to have the formula for the best IPA on the planet. It is Broken Skull IPA from El Segundo Brewing Company and you can get Broken Skull IPA at Whole Foods and Total Wines if you live in California. Or you can have it shipped to.
- [59:04]
You via the Internet.
- [59:05]
But if you ain't in Cali, you might be. Sol, if you're looking For a badass pocket knife, I have two the Cold Steel Broken Skull Knife is a high end, super sharp, unbelievable knife and the Working Man's Knife High quality cheaper price point. Find them at my Amazon store. Amazon has the best price of both knives. Or just go to Amazon.com shop steveaulson or go directly to the Cold Steel Knives website and check out all their badass stuff. Folks, if I'm out in the woods I will be riding the Kawasaki and that's the bottom line. That's what I ride.
- [59:42]
I want to say one more thank.
- [59:43]
You to all divine sponsors of the Steve Austin show, especially BetOnline AG. They've been sticking with me for day one. That's how I'm able to do this podcast for you twice a week for free. Please support them because they support us. And if you need more info on my sponsors, check out the show description to this episode for details. Folks, until next time, I try to round up my next guest to open up a can of audio.
- [60:06]
Sponsor Representative (Huel)
Whoop.
- [60:07]
Mark Henry
Action.
- [60:07]
Steve Austin (Host)
My name is Steve Austin and I will catch your ass down the road.
- [60:14]
Steve Austin
This has been a podcast 1 production download new episodes of the Steve Austin show every Tuesday@podcastone.com that's podcastone.com this October, Fear is free on Pluto TV with horror movie collections from Paranormal Activity, the.
- [60:34]
Sponsor Representative (ByHeart)
Ring, you will die in seven Days.
- [60:37]
Steve Austin
Scream and From Dusk Till Dawn.
- [60:39]
Mark Henry
This is my kind of place.
- [60:41]
Steve Austin
And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the World Ending Chaos in 28 Days Later.
- [60:48]
Mark Henry
There's Something in the blood.
- [60:50]
Steve Austin
All the scares, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay Never.
- [60:57]
Sponsor Representative (ByHeart)
The questions start early. How do I know when he's full?
- [61:00]
Steve Austin
Do babies hold grudges?
- [61:02]
Sponsor Representative (ByHeart)
That's why we make one formula that feels right right away. One that's clinically proven with immune supporting benefits in every scoop. Learn more@byheart.com.