“Tightening the screws requires you to be able to break your tool kit out. No (AEW did not give me a screwdriver to work with). So, there was a point where I realized that I wasn’t there to tighten the screws. I was there for name recognition and visibility, and that’s a horrible place to feel if you’re a creative and there’s people that do a good job that I like, they’re thinking and their thought processes. But even them, they don’t get to do all the things that they wanna do. Because it’s not their action figures being played with. So you have to do what you’re told. If I own a company, you best believe you better do what I ask you to do or you won’t work for me. So I get it. Go and get your check and go home. Do what you’re asked to do, handle your creative and you make a suggestion, don’t get the boo-boo face when you get told no.
Nah, that’s what you said (Henry responded when the co-host said Henry was insinuating there’s a maturity issue in AEW). Yeah, you’re wrong because it’s Tony’s company and Tony gets to do whatever he wants to do… You can make all the suggestions in the world. But if he don’t wanna do that, he’s not gonna do that. The same thing with Triple H running WWE. He’s the boss. But the difference is Triple H leans on the fact that he has brilliant minds around him and he’ll go, you know what? I think it would go better this way but we gonna do it your way to see, and when it works, ‘Aye man, good job. That was a good call. That’s a good call.’ When he messes up, ‘Uh, we should’ve did it my way,’ or, ‘I’m gonna let somebody else get a shot next time, at making a call.’ You’re still handing the pie different directions. You gotta do things on a timely manner too. I like rehearsal at noon, 1 o’clock. I don’t want to be under the gun at 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock to put a show together. Because now people are pressing and they’re, ‘Ah.’ Some people, they don’t thrive well under pressure. So, there’s a lot of things that can be fixed. But you look at the ratings, that’s not good, and that’s a byproduct of the fact that there’s some people that have already mentally checked out. They took their ball and they went home. They surrendered. ‘Hey, whatever you wanna do. Ah, I don’t care,’ and when you get the, ‘I don’t care. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do,’ it’s not good. You can’t win. Now, there’s no contest. Pro wrestling is based on the fact that it’s art imitating life. We’re imitating competition. We’re putting on a show. But we want you to feel a competition is going on. Tell me when the last time you saw competition. I’ll tell you. The last time you saw a competition was CM Punk and MJF, and before that, it was Cody Rhodes and Dustin (Rhodes), brother versus brother. Those were the competition. The competitive nature in the matches, and you can name two or three matches that are in that vein. But, they don’t stand above those two matches, and you have the people that were in those matches, and I don’t know. I don’t wanna come across — I’m not whining and I’m not complaining. I’m stating the facts. If people wasn’t worried about losing they jobs, or getting fired or not getting paid, they would be like, yeah, you right.
But right now, everybody gonna be like, nah, Mark Henry just mad and bitter. I’m not mad and bitter. I took a pay cut to go work at AEW. Don’t get it twisted. I went there because I wanted to get experience being an executive and I wanted to help that company flourish and help those people that were over there be better than they were and you ask the talent, did Mark Henry try to help you? Hell yes. All the time. He would come and tell me this and I would try it and they would come and, ‘Man! That was good! Thank you.’ That’s what I was working for. I was working for those high fives from guys and girls coming back and then there’s some bad apples and the bad apples have to be disciplined. Oh, they’re disciplining people now. But nobody wasn’t getting suspended or disciplined when I was there. I don’t remember.”
You can check out the complete show below:
(quote courtesy of PostWrestling.com)
