Mark Henry Elaborates On His Role Behind The Scenes In AEW
During a recent appearance on "Insight," Mark Henry opened up about how his role in AEW came to be following an interaction with AEW President Tony Khan on "Busted Open."
"No, I didn't reach out to no talent. I talked to Tony Khan," Henry said. "Tony was a big fan of wrestling and we talked and he asked me why I was not wrestling. I said, 'I don't want to wrestle no more. I'm old.' He laughed and I was like, 'I wanna be more on the executive side. I wanna be able to help build the business.' He said, 'Man, don't tease me.' I said, 'Tease you how?' He was like, 'You would come to AEW?' I was like, 'Hell yeah, I'd come to AEW if you hire me on the executive side and I get to help with talent.' He was like, 'I'm gonna have my legal team call you today.' That's how it happened in one day."
Henry explained how he called Vince McMahon and told him man-to-man that he was going to take a job with AEW after people within WWE told Henry that he didn't have enough experience to work on the executive side. "The World's Strongest Man" then made his AEW debut at Double or Nothing 2021.
Mark Henry Helps AEW Talent With Characters
Regarding his current role, Henry told Chris Van Vliet that he works with the talent as a coach but does not produce the actual matches.
"I do a lot of the psychology, I teach," Henry responded. "I'm considered a coach, but I don't produce the matches that you see on TV. I go to each individual guy and I talk to them about their persona and character. 'Hey, man, I think if you changed this, can you try to do this differently?' So we go back and forth, and there's some people that listen better than others, and you can see the development of those people."
The WWE Hall of Famer noted that loves working with Orange Cassidy, who he called a "sponge" and is "smart as hell." Henry said that the current AEW International Champion just wants to be great and that he loves working with people who have passion.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Insight" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.