7 Times WWE Tugged On Fan's Emotions
WWE and professional wrestling as a whole can get people to produce a whole range of emotions, from rage to anger, to misery, to confusion, to... you get the picture.
WWE has also produced moments that have made fans unbelievably happy and made them laugh as well. It's all a part of the roller coaster experience that is being a member of the WWE Universe.
Very rarely, however, does the WWE manage to make wrestling fans have genuine moments of emotional feeling. Wrestling fans being a jaded bunch, tend to reject any sort of tender moments in a bid to protect themselves, from getting hurt, or to protect their tough image (despite spending countless hours watching what is the equivalent of a violent soap opera).
However, when an emotional moment does come up in professional wrestling, you can bet that the audience's reaction is not only genuine but being caught on several different cameras for WWE's use in the future. Already, since Roman Reigns announced that he was battling with leukemia and would be taking a leave of absence from the WWE, the video from the segment has been trotted out across Raw, Smackdown, and NXT.
Roman Reigns' like the retirement of Edge and Daniel Bryan was not a scripted moment by the WWE. It was a spur of the moment thing, due to the fact that Reigns' had been given the unfortunate news of his diagnosis of leukemia. It also won't include the tribute episodes to Eddie Guerrero or the first Smackdown after 9/11, because while they were incredibly emotional. Neither of those events was scripted by the WWE's creative team.
These moments in this article, are ones that are purely scripted by the WWE, intended to make fans feel. These are the rarest of moments because it runs the risk of being dismissed by the audience.
#7 Mark Henry Retires
When Mark Henry came down to the ring on the June 17th episode of Raw, wearing the now famous salmon jacket and after teasing his retirement on social media.
Henry thanked the fans, the wrestlers in the back and his family in a touching speech. It was all a ruse, and Henry would finish the speech by hitting a World's Strongest Slam on John Cena to announce that he wasn't done yet and had plenty left to give.
Prior to 2013, wrestling fans would have said that Mark Henry had a decent career in the WWE, but probably not a career that matched his potential. Till that point, Henry had filled a variety of roles in the company.
Holding the Tag Team, ECW, Heavyweight and European titles during his career. Henry was also a part of the Nation of Domination stable alongside The Rock, Farooq, and tag team partner D'Lo Brown.
During his tenure with the company, Henry was also used as a comic relief during his gimmick as "Sexual Chocolate", which included the now infamous segment in which Mae Young was "impregnated" by Henry and gives birth to a hand.