Mark Henry planning to retire soon

In a recent interview with the West Australian, WWE veteran Mark Henry said the time is coming for him to hang up his boots.

The World's Strongest Man said he will retire within 18 months despite the fact that he thinks he still has "a good three years left in me."

Well, considering that he's 39 years old, I'd say Henry is making the right decision to call it quits at a relatively young age.

Though he's never been one to wow us with his in-ring skills, Henry has undoubtedly left his mark on the wrestling business.

For me personally, I'll always remember him for three things: Being the most ridiculously strong wrestler I ever remember watching, his "Sexual Chocolate" persona, and the fact that his lovechild with Mae Young turned out to be a prosthetic hand.

Ah, those were the days, huh?

Anyway, I'll admit that I get a good laugh out of Henry every once in a while. He's so big and immobile, and he resembles the Kool-Aid man so closely that I actually do enjoy seeing him pop up on WWE programming every once in a while.

And, though he's never been a favorite of mine, I thought it would be appropriate to give Henry a shout-out for what's been a very lengthy--he started with the WWE in 1996--and reasonably successful career.

That being said, I pose a question: What, if any, type of legacy will Henry leave once he retires from the WWE?

_{taken from Bleacherreport.com}

I've never had a problem with Henry to be honest, I wouldn't say i liked him but I'd not have had a problem with him getting the World Title on SD instead of Khali, I like his simple but devastating finisher and I like his version of the Vadar Bomb

I'm actually surprised he never got a run with the strap, at times he really was built up as a huge monster heel and decimated people only for a superman squash by Taker etc.

What will his legacy be? It has to be the Strongman gimmick, man i remember when he debuted, it was only 5 years after the last strongman gimmick left in Dino Bravo and that seemed like a life time before

Yeah i remember when Undertaker came back in 07 they just had a match at Unforgiven, no build up or hype, just killed Henry in about 7 minutes

I've got a lot of respect for Mark Henry. Sure, he's been involved in some horrible matches but the fact is he took all that Vince McMahon could throw at him and came out on the other side with a smile on his face.

It was Vince's own fault for tying him up to a 10 year contract and then when he realised he'd made a mistake he tried embarassing Henry into quitting. From having 'relations of an intimate nature' with a transsexual, the infamous relationship with Mae Young to then being carted off to OVW and told to lose weight (with regular 'weight loss updates' on the website from Jim Ross).

And despite all that, Henry just got on with it. He realised it was only entertainment and went with whatever they gave him. So fair play to the guy I say.

I thought his tag team with D'Lo Brown? was really entertaining and the whole angle with him trying to get Chyna to go out with him was funny as well, until the end with 'Sammy' at least - "Oh sweet Jesus! You've got a Pork sword!"

I think he deserves a lot of credit for sticking around for so long, and as Hero says he'll still be quite young when he retires. It's good that he'll be getting out on his terms. He deserves a thank you from the WWE for his longevity, maybe him and MVP could be given a run with the tag titles.....

Mark Henry almost had an even greater legacy...

When he wrestled Undertaker at WM22, the initial plan was for him to win the match, ending the streak. If you remember around this time he was in a world title match with Kurt Angle and was getting a main event push as the Silverback Gorilla (proof that racist gimmicks didn't die out with the territories!).

I bet you Vince would like nothing more than to paint Henry's lips white and have him sing 'Shortenin' Bread' whilst calling everybody Mammy.

Imagine if Mark Henry had ended the Streak?!

I remember being convinced at Wrestlemania 19 that Taker was going to lose as part of Failed Push #74 for A-Train. I wouldn't have put it past Vince the silly Bar Steward.

While I may be wrong I would suggest that if we want an object lesson in where Brodus Clay's career will go we need only look at Mark Henry. He had the ability to be a monster heel but was made too often to look like an idiot.

When did Henry start piling on the weight? He is considerably bigger now than he was when he got to the WWF

Hero wrote:In a recent interview with the West Australian, WWE veteran Mark Henry said the time is coming for him to hang up his boots.

_{taken from Bleacherreport.com}

Oh that's cold Sara!

Sara if big Sexual Chocolate gave you the banter you'd just be another notch

Its some of the best wrestling news I have heard in a long time

Mark Henry = :sleep:

I quite like Henry tbh, evidently loves what he does and while he's not that great in the ring he has always been prepared to be put other people over.

Plus he's ALWAYS a threat to win the rumble!