Mark Henry Opens Up About Current Backstage Friction In The WWE, Reveals New Role With The Company

WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry was Sam Roberts’ guest on the Notsam Wrestling podcast. Henry opened up about his latest WWE role as locker room general, “Me being gone this last year and a half, there’s a lot of stuff that’s happened in the locker room that would have never happened under my watch.” Henry continued, “I kept hearing too much negativity. Talent relations and different people that I’m friends with, I was like, ‘Do something about it.’ I was like, ‘Listen, I’ll do it. I’ll take the heat.’”

Henry elaborated, “People are arguing and fussing about stuff. There’s been some disrespecting my wife or my girlfriend type of stuff. There’s been a couple of people habitually late, which Vince [McMahon] hates, but he doesn’t have Undertaker, or me. Booker T is still there, but only on TV. Big Show has been injured, so all the guys that hold people’s face to the fire is not there.”

Sam Roberts asked Mark Henry if Roman Reigns was once that guy, i.e. a locker room general, “Roman was kind of that guy. He was kind of getting there.” Roberts asked if John Cena was the type to keep control, to which Henry responded, “No. John is on his bus and off to the next place. He’s got so much to do, he doesn’t have time, but he will go, ‘OK guys, the place is a pigsty, don’t leave your trash.”

Henry continued regarding today’s locker room environment, “These young guys now – somebody told me that they asked some young guys to clean up and they were like, ‘Man, it ain’t my job to clean up.’ That sh*t is about to come to an abrupt stop because I will be at all TVs, at all pay-per-views now and this is really new, like in the last two weeks. Every pay-per-view, we finna re-establish the leadership chain of command.”

The WWE Hall of Famer talked more about his new role with the company and what it entails, “Just keeps everybody’s checks and balances. There’s no title for it. I really am not a title guy anyway.” Henry confirms that the position never existed before, “You never had to do that. I like structure, and I like discipline, and people doing the right thing. I don’t like the perception of me walking into a room and somebody saying, ‘Oh my God, one of those wrestlers’ because somebody screwed up the image. They tarnished the way people see us. Back in the old days, guys used to wreck hotel rooms and trash rental cars and all that dumb stuff. When I came into wrestling, they were like, ‘We’re out of cars. You’re one of those wrestlers. No, we’re not renting a car to you.’ It was like that. We had to re-create, re-establish the trust. Me, The Rock, and Kane, and D’Lo, and Brian Christopher, Scotty 2 Hotty – the young guys back then twenty years ago were reaping the benefits of people being butt holes. We had to fix that.” Henry attests that he and the wrestlers of his era worked too hard for their reputation to have it regress now.

Henry continued, “That’s the last thing Vince McMahon wants is people having a harder time getting to work.” Henry has no fears about reporting unruly talent to the WWE CEO, “One: I ain’t scared of nobody whooping my ass and Two: I’ve been there and done that enough where I know if I go to Vince and say, ‘Hey, he don’t respect nothing. His ass needs a fine. Maybe he’ll respect $1,500 taken out of his check.’”

If any talent were to confront Henry about being reported to McMahon, Henry has a simple answer, “Damn straight, I did and I will do it again. The next time you’re late, it will go up probably by $200, so I suggest you get there early. That’s the conversations that will be had in the next year. You’ve got to be responsible. I don’t want the business to suffer because of one or two people not respecting it.”

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone) 

Readers may listen to Sam Roberts’ interview with Mark Henry in its entirety below:

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