Mark Henry – ‘Jim Ross Asked Me To Retire Before WWE Main Event Push’

On the latest episode of Busted Open Radio, WWE Hall Of Famer Mark Henry recalled working through injuries and being told by the then-Head of Talent Relations for WWE Jim Ross that he should consider retiring from the sport prior to his main event push.

Henry and Ross currently work as commentators for AEW.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On why he pushed through injuries: “It was money and position they invested. I had an injury-driven career. My first five years, I just kept getting hurt. And a lot of that was because I was doing stuff that I shouldn’t have been doing, and nobody told me, hey man, why don’t you just really learn how to wrestle first and then? Then you can do that. They invested a lot of time and money in me to be in that main event type of spot and I felt like I was letting Vince down. And giving other people the reason to agree because Jim Ross was like, you should cut your losses and just you know. You know, keep it moving. And I did not want to let them win. Of course, I work my ass off and I got better to be in that spot, but I’ll be damned if I stop because. I was a little hurt.”

On Jim Ross telling him to get out of the wrestling business: “Jim Ross had thought that I had, you know, lived out. The highest that I was going to be, you peaked and that you know they should move on from me being not only with the company but wrestling period. He was like, ‘You know, maybe it’s not for you.’ And he said that in front of Vince. He said that in front of my manager. That was another reason why, when I had him by the tie after I won the championship, it was so f*cking sweet to say. ‘You were wrong about me.’ Here I stand, the champion of the world in this business. Any s**t you could say now and all of that s**t was real. And so the fans got the feel of what I felt like in my heart, not wrestling. It was like you get to tell your boss. In which he was the head of talent relations and one of the guys that did a lot of hiring, firing. And you get to tell that person you don’t know everything you think you know. So that was a good moment for me, but to go back to the deal.”

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