Mark Henry recently appeared on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Henry commented on signing with AEW:
“I talked to Tony Khan and you know, Tony is a big fan of wrestling. We talked and he asked me why I wasn’t wrestling. I said, ‘Man, I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m old.’ He laughed, and I was like, ‘I want to be more on the executive side. I want to be able to help build the business.’ He said, ‘Man, don’t tease me.’ I said, ‘Tease you how?’ He was like, ‘Would you come to AEW?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah I’ll come to AEW if you hire me on the executive side and I get to help the talent.’ He was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna have my legal call you today.’ That’s how it happened in one day. It was not like I knew that I was going to talk to Tony Khan. Who knew I was going to run into a billionaire wrestling company owner? I didn’t know that.”
His role in AEW:
“I do a lot of their psychology. I’m considered a coach, but I don’t do the matches. I don’t produce the matches that you see on TV. I go to each individual guy and I talk to them about their personas. I talk to them about their character and, ‘Hey, man, I think if you change this, can you try to do this differently?’ You know, so we go back and forth. There are some people that listen better than others and you can see the development of those people. I love working with Orange Cassidy. I love talking to him. He’s a sponge, he’s smart as hell, and he wants to be great, and I like passion. I like people that’s like, ‘Man, they got me on fifth, it’s gonna suck for everybody that’s going after me.’ I’m like, sh*t, let’s go. I love it. I love people like that, man. Orange Cassidy is like that man. Will Hobbs man, golly.”
An official retirement match:
“You know what? I’ve thought about it, and every time I think about it, I think who? Who would be the person? I guess you could put up a poll someday and say, ‘Who would you like to see Mark Henry have his last match against?’ You better do it fast because every day I wake up, I’m thinking I might have to just go put that to bed.”
When asked if he would have one more match in AEW, Mark said, “You know what? I have to think about it and I would have to start training and see how my body feels. I haven’t taken a bump in years. I’d be open to a conversation.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
