Mark Henry On Which WWE Legend Stopped Him From Fighting JBL, Who Is The Best WWE Female Wrestler
Recently on The Jim Ross Report, WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross was joined by fellow WWE Hall Of Famer, Mark Henry. Among many other things, Ross talked about the late great Owen Hart's 'unusually' good reputation backstage.According to Ross, Owen Hart is one of the only people who WWE talent never said anything negative about.
"Owen Hart [was] classic," Ross said. "I loved Owen. Owen Hart is one of the few guys, Mark, I've been in the [professional wrestling] business since 1974 [and] he is probably in one handful of guys that I can honestly say I've never heard any of the boys knock, or diss, or say anything bad about and that's highly unusual."
In response to Ross's recollection above, Henry told a story of wanting to beat up JBL and Owen Hart giving him advice about how to handle it.
"I was having a disagreement with a wrestler that we both know and love and I wanted to fight," Henry recalled. "And I think I told [Ross] that I wanted to fight him. I didn't want to get fired. I was like, 'I'm going to beat him up and don't fire me.' And [Ross] was like, 'well, if you beat him up, I will have to fine you and I may have to fire you.' And I'm like, 'well, s–t. I can't win!' Owen came up to me and said, 'listen, don't get mad. You get very entertaining when you get angry. I like to see you angry too as long as you aren't angry at me.'
"I realized I was putting a show on and me fighting somebody that's my peer would not be good. It wasn't going to look good anyway. And this guy, by the way, was the artist formerly known as Justin 'Hawk' Bradshaw and I just wanted to whoop him and Owen said, 'don't do it.'He said, 'the next time you see John by himself, just walk up to him and say, 'John, I don't appreciate you picking on me and I wish you would stop.' And if he says he won't stop, then you just tell him, 'well, the next time that I see you by yourself like this, nobody's around, I'm not going to be screaming and yelling. I'm just going to take the opportunity to let you know that I don't particularly like it and it might not be with words.” And he taught me how to communicate and I love that dude. He was my brother because he helped me keep my job, one. He taught me how to relate to people in the locker room and nobody got hurt. That's a lost art and there needs to be more Owen Harts in the locker room."
In Henry's view, one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Bayley, is the best female professional wrestler in the world. Moreover, 'The World's Strongest Man' suggested that there has never been a stronger roster of women professional wrestlers than in WWE right now.
"There's not one ugly woman in that locker room," Henry professed. "Not one. I mean, but on skill level, they're about as skilled of a group of women wrestlers that there ever was at any time in history. Bayley can go up against any woman any night of the week. She's good, real good, double good. And I remember when she came in, I was like, 'I know you taught a lot of these girls how to work, but I don't want you to go in there and look like a coach or a teacher. I want you go in there and try to rip their face off. Like, go and be you. Like, you can respect them, but you're not going to ever get over if you just go out there and want to do, do, do. You've got to take a little bit and you've got to make people understand, feel your pain, and celebrate with you, and have that emotional tie to the audience.' But she didn't have it at that time, but the light switch flipped in her and still, for your money, man, Charlotte [Flair], and Becky [Lynch], and Sasha [Banks], and the list goes on with the girls, but I'm still going to hang my hat on Bayley. She's an unbelievable talent."
Additionally, Henry put over Asuka as being precise like the legendary WWE Hall Of Famer Bret 'Hitman' Hart.
"[Asuka is] very underutilized," Henry claimed. "She's as special as Bayley is and more aggressive, actually. And I love her work and I've never seen her bloody [anybody's] mouth. She is talented! She's like Bret Hart in the sense that for all the striking and stuff that she does, I don't see bloody teeth."
Also during the conversation, Henry stated that being sent to Canada to learn from the Harts was the best thing that ever happened to him in his pro wrestling odyssey.
"I think that the biggest gift that I received in [pro] wrestling was me going to Canada and training with Bret Hart and learning from Stu Hart about the history of wrestling," Henry remembered. "It gave me a different newfound respect for wrestling from a historical standpoint."
Listen to the show here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit The Jim Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Jim Ross Report