Mark Henry Talks Steroids, Impressing Hulk Hogan, Whether WWE Is A Better Place Than Before, More
Last year in a memorable Raw moment Mark Henry returned from a television absence to deliver an emotional retirement speech that was revealed as a ruse when Henry gave John Cena a World's Strongest Slam. According to Henry, it was one of the reasons Hulk Hogan contacted Vince McMahon to return to WWE.
"It was a performance I'd always aspired to. The ultimate compliment was Hulk Hogan saying it was one of the reasons he called Vince to come back to WWE, calling it one of the greatest performances he had ever seen," Henry told BleacherReport.com in an interview. "If Hulk Hogan thought it was pretty damn good, who am I to argue with him?"
Other highlights from the interview are as follows:
BR: "Coming up on Friday we have the 15th anniversary of SmackDown. What makes you special, Mark?you talk about resilience?is your longevity. Very few people have walked that path the way you have for that entire 15 years. You've seen wrestling change a lot in that time. Is it in a better place now, or do you miss those glory years?"
MH: "I think it's definitely in a better place. We have more international markets, and the hand of the WWE stretches a lot further around the world. We're PG so more people can actually watch our programming.
"There's a lot more mandates on safety and health and fitness. That itself is a lot. But the biggest thing, I expect the athletes have gotten better, the business is stronger than its ever been and I can really sit back and appreciate the changes."
BR: "By high school you were setting weightlifting records. Is it true you were so far removed from the drug scene that permeates power lifting that when someone asked you what kind of juice you were on you said, "Orange juice"? Performance-enhancing drugs were never part of your world?"
MH: "Not at all. I was kind of sheltered. I grew up in Silsbee, Texas, a town of 3,000 people. I didn't really understand what steroids and anabolics were until I became kind of famous as a kid. They did an article on me in Sports Illustrated. Before that, I had no clue what steroids were.
"At the state meet my junior year, this was in 1989, somebody said, "What are you taking? What kind of juice you on?" I guess I was kind of dumb and naive and I did say, "Orange juice." That's how sheltered I was."
Henry also spoke on WWE sponsoring him during the 1996 Olympic Games, his wrestling trainers, why competed in the Arnold Classic in 2002, and more. The full interview is available here.