One of the most popular gimmicks Mark Henry had was his persona as the Sexual Chocolate. Recently he reflected on his former gimmick.
Recently, the World’s Strongest Man was a special guest on the Kurt Angle podcast. During the episode, Mark Henry shared the story about how Sexual Chocolate came to fruition.
“Sexual chocolate was my invention. 100%. Not one writer. Nobody. Me and D’Lo were driving after The Nation, and The Nation broke up, so everybody was starting to go and do their own things and trying to figure out what was next. You had the Godfather go his way. You had Ron Simmons go his way and just be Ron Simmons. D’Lo had the chest protector. I was fu**ing kind of just like out in the cold, I was like, you know what, man. I just saw this movie Coming to America. They had this band called Sexual Chocolate and I just loved the name. He’s like, ‘Sexual Chocolate’, and I say, ‘You know what, man? I’m gonna kind of be a ladies man and I’m gonna do this.'” [H/T Wrestling News.co]
Vince McMahon gave Mark Henry Eight Minutes
“Then D’Lo said, ‘They’re not gonna let you say sexual chocolate on TV’, and I said, ‘Man, you watch. I’m going to Vince.’ I went to Vince and Vince was like, ‘No. We have too much money invested in you Mark. We want to make you serious. We’re gonna just wait a minute. It’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna get you going.’ I said, ‘Just let me try it one time. I’m telling you, if you see me do it, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about’, because I was starting to get the psychology of wrestling, and how to tell stories, and how to make people feel a certain way rather than see something. He said, ‘God dang it. You got eight minutes,'” Mark Henry said. [H/T Wrestling News.co]
Vince McMahon loved Mark Henry’s Sexual Chocolate gimmick
The World’s Strongest Man also revealed what the then Chairman and head of creative Vince McMahon thought about the gimmick.
“I went out there with Val Venis, Sean Morley. I said, ‘Hey, man, anytime that I down you and leave you, just stay there. I’m going to do enough to put you down, but I’m going to leave you. It’s going to feel like a long time, but it’s really not. They’re gonna be looking at me.’ He was like, ‘Oh, God’, like he didn’t want to do it either. We’re wrestling around. We do our normal sh*t and then about that time, he fires up and I give him a power slam. Bam, he’s down and I jump up and I look at the hard camera like, ‘Hey, what’s up.’ I get out of the ring.
“I go and I started talking to this girl in the front row. I said, ‘Can I have a hug’, and she gave me a hug. Then Sean, you know, I told him, the referee came, ‘Morley, you got to get back in the ring.’ ‘Tell him to come stop me.’ Then Sean comes out. He was like, bang, bang, and I turned around, boom, boom. I press him and throw him in the ring, and then I go back to talking to the girl, ‘Hey, you know, maybe later on we can do this and this.’ Man, we finished the match. I come in the back and Vince is like, ‘Come here you big son of a b*tch.’ Done. He loved Sexual Chocolate. He loved it and Sexual Chocolate is one of the most memorable characters in WWE history.”
Mark Henry is now part of All Elite Wrestling.
Were you a fan of the Sexual Chocolate gimmick?
