Mark Henry On Talking With Jimmy Uso After His Arrest, WWE Stars Not Wanting To Lose, Changes Coming
Jim Ross was recently joined on The Jim Ross Report podcast by fellow WWE Hall Of Famer Mark Henry. Among many other things, Henry talked about his new role with WWE.
Ross and Henry talked about the importance of young professional wrestlers traveling with veterans. Additionally, Henry talked about talents not wanting to do 'jobs' anymore, his pep talk to the recently arrested Jimmy Uso, and positive changes on the horizon in WWE.
According to Henry, his new role with WWE is a backstage position working with talent. 'The World's Strongest Man' suggested that the mindset of talent has fundamentally changed and his job is to "reprogram" many of the performers.
"I work as an Ambassador for the company, technically, and I've always worked with the talent development team and marketing team as far as dealing with all the charities that the WWE endorses and sponsors," Henry explained. "And then, I kept hearing all these stories about people being too prideful to clean the locker rooms and the buildings that we frequent and veterans feeling like some people were too full of themselves to take advice. And when I talked to Vince [McMahon] about this role, I said, 'man, I'm hearing a lot of negativity' and he said, 'do you know what, man? It's a lot of entitlement.' And I was like, 'why?' I was like, 'y'all didn't allow us to have any entitlement! Like, what changed?' And what [has] changed is the mentality of the entertainer, and I was like, 'I'm not happy with that. I'm not good with it.' And so, I'm basically trying to reprogram everybody that I walk pass and say, 'hey man, this is really the mindset that you need to be in being here.'"
Henry said he now works all WWE pay-per-views and will attend sporadic TVs.
"I'm going to all the pay-per-views and an assorted [number] of TV shows that I'll be going to now," Henry shared. "And anytime that I communicate with guys, I walk the room. I just individually walk up to? if I see Velveteen Dream, I'm going to go talk to him. If there's a guy that I feel like I've heard something, I walk up to them and I tell him, 'hey, I'm hearing this. Let's try to fix this. This is my phone number. Call me if you need some advice, like, that's what I'm here for.'"
Even though Ross has "one foot out the door" with WWE, 'The Voice Of The Attitude Era' claimed that he perceives that some young WWE talent are not focused on the professional wrestling business and improving their craft.
"It seems to be, and I haven't been around. I'm under contract with WWE, with Vince, until March 29 [2019], I think that's my end date. And being fully transparent, I've got one foot out the door, and I'm not saying that in the 'oh, we need to have a telethon for old JR,' [kind of way]. I'm good. I'm pretty good." Ross continued, "but I sense this, and again, like I said, I want to bracket it by saying I'm not there, so I'm assuming and we all know what can happen when we assume, I see some of these kids are just products of their own generation. Listening to some of their conversations, not eavesdropping, but in catering or wherever, their line of discussions and what they discuss and talk about, Mark, is normally not about the [professional wrestling] business. And I just think about the territories and those classrooms on wheels that you took every night to get to the next town, that was so huge in the formation of philosophies, correcting errors, explaining a better way of doing things, 'you're going to screw up – don't do this, don't do that; you can't be late; blah, blah, blah,' but I don't see that same love across the board."
Henry agreed with Ross, saying that young talent are only riding from town to town with other performers who are equally inexperienced.
"They're trying, but the problem is they're getting in the car with people that are as new as they are," Henry professed. "It's not like, for lack of a better term, I had Owen Hart, and Teddy Long, and Godfather and I would drive. I would get in the car and say, 'hey, is the cooler in the back with the beer on ice? And we have a three-hour drive and if you need to knock out, knock out. But I'm going to ask you a couple of questions on the way to Piscataway [New Jersey], so before you get too liquored up, if you don't mind answering a couple of questions for me and telling me how my match was.' Some people, they don't care to hear how their match was. They don't ask [anybody], 'what did you think about my match?' They're getting in the car with their peers. They're not getting in the car with people that can actually critique what they've done and say, 'hey, this is how you can make that better.'"
Also during the podcast, Henry talked about talent not wanting to do jobs anymore and not really understanding it. Perhaps doing a 'job' is not perceived as a 'favor' if the losing WWE Superstar does not feel like WWE will ever return the 'favor'.
"Like nobody wants to do jobs [anymore]," Henry stated. "They feel like it's beneath them somehow. And I would be, Hall Of Famer or not, I would go back in a heartbeat if my body would allow it, do jobs and show people the way to get it done. But it's unfortunate for me, my body gave up."
Apparently, Henry offered up some advice to Jon Fatu, also known as Jimmy Uso, following the SmackDown Tag Team Champion's arrest in February 2019.
"I don't think he'll be mad for me saying this, but I talked to Jon," Henry began. "He got arrested recently and I told him, 'don't hand your head. Everybody goes through struggles.' I was like, 'what you need to do now is to speak up for yourself and not let people create the narrative. Like, you let people know what it is.' And just like we've all run into police officers that are overzealous sometimes, if you will. He was not at a point where he was being belligerent. He felt like his wife got talked to in a way that she shouldn't have gotten talked to. We're all going to stand up for our wives and our significant others."
Henry suggested that positive changes are on the way in WWE and we have already seen somewhat of a change in the philosophy of finishes.
"I think it will [change]. I don't think it's for the worst. What I do think is you'll see a different perspective with the way finishes are. I've already seen different styles of going into a comeback." Henry added, "and I've already seen, right there, difference. And I think some of it has been for the best and people like Fit Finlay, their style will never get old because it works and it's exciting."
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Source: The Jim Ross Report