Is the time of the giants up in WWE?

Mark Henry

In the context of WWE, what comes to your mind when I say a ‘giant’? Maybe someone who’s freakishly tall, having gargantuan dimensions and for the spectacle that is professional wrestling, he/she presents a larger than life image, quite literally.

To be a giant in the WWE is to be a wrecking machine. A monster that has been unleashed at its worst. According to the above stated characteristics of a giant, only a handful people qualify, namely Andre the Giant, Giant Gonzales, Kane, The Undertaker, Big Show and the short-lived (no pun intended) NXT contestant Aloisia, who at 6 feet 9 inches, was the tallest diva ever.

But if we don’t consider being tall as one of the necessary parameters to make the cut as a ‘giant’, we have had a plethora of performers who’ve left their mark.

I’ll start with Crusher Blackwell, who was 5 feet 8 inches in height, but his weight spluttered around anywhere between 375 pounds to 450 pounds, and for a man his size, he was known to give terrific dropkicks. As part of one of his gimmicks, he drove nails through his head and following it by lifting his head and showcasing the scarlet volcano erupting from his head. He had a whispery, eerie voice for his interviews to draw the viewer in.

He was one of the firsts, and after him wrestlers like Eric the Red, The Mongolian Stomper, Gorilla Monsoon and Apache Bull Ramos followed who, even though were taller than Blackwell, were predominantly known for their huge build or the protuberant body.

The first most popular and well-known wrestler to inhabit such a personality has to be Vader. Oscillating anywhere between 330 to 415 pounds on his six-foot-four frame, he awed audience with what many never thought a giant could do – a moonsault.

He was huge and agile. He had many admirers, one of them being Paul Heyman who once said, “When a man that size does a moonsault with a blown-out back, when a man that size does the things he does and is willing to do for other people, that impresses me a lot more than when a 230-pound guy does it.” Undoubtedly, he got quite a good pop when he returned in 2012 in the follow up to RAW’s 1000 episodes to wrestle Heath Slater.

Jump to the 21st century and what do we have in front of us? We have Big Show and Mark Henry, the only talked about giants today, and once enemies, they are now going to be a probable tag team with the Corporation angle against the Shield. Brodus Clay and Albert (Lord Tensai, Tensai, Sweet T) are the other bulging presence but hardly effective. Bray Wyatt looks promising, but it’s too soon to make statements.

The only spectacle Big Show offered was when he was superflexed by Henry from the top rope at Vengence 2011 which led to the collapse of the ring, reminiscent to the original Brock Lesnar and Show spectacle on Smackdown in 2003.

Mark Henry, on the other hand, had the greatest run of his career being a heel which led to a World Heavyweight title run and the memorable faux-retirement speech. The entire Mark Henry-Cena feud for the WWE title was memorable only because of Mark Henry’s mic work.

But now that they’re faces, Big Show’s iron clad contract does not apply anymore and Mark Henry is not that intimidating. And given how WWE has lost its novelty to present the unbelievable, the giants slamming someone really hard doesn’t guarantee much of an attention anymore.

Now, a Mark Henry becomes intimidating only because of his attitude or heel character traits. How they carry themselves when not wrestling makes a huge impression and Bray Wyatt is doing a tremendous job of being creepy and weird.

Hence I don’t think that the Giants’ time is up in the WWE as long as their heel persona prevails.