AEW star wanted to quit WWE after Vince McMahon disrespected him
Vince McMahon has been known to joke around with WWE Superstars in real life, but one particular prank involving Mark Henry almost went too far. In a recent interview, Henry opened up about the time he felt "disrespected" by the WWE Executive Chairman.
In 2011, McMahon sent Henry to the ring at the end of a WWE show to face Sin Cara. While The World's Strongest Man waited for his opponent, his boss left the arena in a limousine. Henry soon realized that he had been set up by McMahon, who had no intention of staging the match.
On Chris Van Vliet's Insight podcast, the current AEW personality recalled how the incident made him angry:
"I felt disrespected, I feel trivialized," Henry said. "Out of all the work that I did, like all of the sacrificing, and you people say, 'Oh, you got paid a lot of money.' You know what, man? I didn't get paid enough money to dummy down my pride and my respect as a man. Ain't no price for that. And when that happened, I felt like, 'Okay, I'm expendable, I'm useless to them. They don't respect me.'"
In a conversation with McMahon, Henry threatened to quit WWE if something like that happened again:
"Being that I am a man and that I was able to say my piece to Vince and everybody involved, like, 'Just know who I am, because that won't ever happen again. If it does, like us talking will not be an option. And I quit.'"
Mark Henry talks about that time he lost his temper in WWE
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Henry added that he "didn't have any interest" in returning to work after the joke. He only agreed to go back after his wife persuaded him to talk things through with McMahon.
How Vince McMahon felt about pranking Mark Henry
WWE shows are usually attended by thousands of people, meaning fans and wrestlers can sometimes get stuck in traffic while leaving arenas. Vince McMahon did not want any travel delays, so he thought it would be amusing to escape the building when Mark Henry was in the ring.
.@TheMarkHenry is one of those big men who is fearful yet wholesome! Decades in the business and he is still around training the upcoming talents.
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Looking back, Henry believes McMahon did not take his feelings into consideration:
"He [Vince McMahon] said that he thought it was funny. And they wanted to get to the cars and get to the airport. And that was gonna give them time to get out of there without any traffic. Not thinking, 'How's Mark gonna feel after this?'"
In 2021, Henry left WWE after 25 years with the company. He now works for AEW as a behind-the-scenes coach.
Do you think Vince McMahon was wrong to prank Mark Henry? Let us know in the comments section below.