WWF trying to ride on Henry's coatails?

[Guest Risk]

Mark Henry has greatly improved in OVW and now IS the world's strongest man.  Is the WWF trying to ride on his coatails?  Henry has become a GREAT brawler type wrestler in OVW, he may get out of there now, but are they trying to take his heat?

[Guest Tony149]

I think they are. The WWF sent him down to OVW and supposedly stucked him in angles to make him quit.

[Guest J*ingus]

Mark Henry was reportedly signed by the WWF to a HUGE ten-year contract for pretty big money.  At the time, he was a favorite to win the Gold at the Olympics.  But then Henry got injured and came in dead last in his category.  And proved to be a pretty bad wrestler.  And the audience didn't care about him.  

 

So the WWF wanted to get rid of this financial liability.  Remember all the hideously bad angles they stuck poor Mark with?  The male prostitute, the crush on Chyna, Mae Young's pregnancy, etc, etc?  They were trying to get him to quit, in which case they wouldn't have to buy out his contract, which they would if they'd fired him.  But he stuck around.  So, under the pretext of "weight loss", they sent him down to OVW.  Out of sight, out of mind, except for the occasional Ross Report mentioning how Mark Henry had made progress, but still had a ways yet to go.  

 

But according to reports, he's actually turned into a decent wrestler down there.  Will the WWF admit its mistake, and bring him back up to the big leagues, perhaps with some decent angles this time?  Or are they petty and small-minded enough to keep him down there?  Time will tell.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

The WWF always tries to ride anything that resembles a "credible" athlete.  See Angle, Kurt and his constant pushing/rookie year winning everything...or Shamrock/Ken and his immediate push.

 

The only thing standing in the way of a future title reign by Mark Henry is crowd approval...something I doubt he will ever get enough of to warrant a reign.

[Guest Tony149]

I read a report las time that said Mark lost a lot of weight (More than Big Show), but the WWF told him to put it back on to complete in the "Strongest man" contest.

[Guest Some Guy]

I think they are trying to do anything they can to justify the guy's ten year, multi-million dollar contract.  oddly enough now thy're trying the exact same thing that didn't work the first time in 96.  Hopefully we'll get another Henry/ Lawler classic on PPV soon.

[Guest Risk]

Maybe Henry could destroy Maven and retire the Hardcore belt..or stiff the hell outta Taker.

[Guest X-Factor Corperation]

They tryed to kill him but he left and now they gotta use him. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

 

Perhaps they'll update his WWF bio.

[Guest Risk]

Too bad we won't see Angle vs Henry...we have to see "Bad Gimmick #234".  I really hope Henry squashes Maven.

[Guest Redhawk]

Well, they wouldn't have mentioned it if he'd come in 2nd, or if they weren't planning on bringing him back. So look to see him back at or right after WM.

[Guest Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

It's amazing that he got signed to that kind of contract at all. That's usually reserved for franchise players and disgruntled Harts isn't it?

 

Good for him sticking it out when they tried to get rid of him. Can't deny his fortitude i guess.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

yeah here's to pulling in sick amounts of money

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

He was bloody awful before. He'll have to have improved a lot in OVW to be of any use on an already packed roster.

[Guest hunger4unger]

I don't understand why the WWF would put him in bad angles on purpose in an attempt to get him to quit as bad angles obviously hurt the overall TV show (s). As for the WWF riding his coat tails, they've given him a huge contract (both in length and salary) and they allowed him time off from their employment to train and compete for the contest, so I think any publicity the WWF get is well deserved.

[Guest Tony149]

If Mark lost, you probably would of stayed in OVW the rest of his contract. I think the WWF had big plans for Mark back in 1996. Kinda weird to know what they would of done with Kurt Angle back then.

[Guest buffybeast]

Mark Henry does indeed have a huge, ten year contract.  But the key point everyone is missing is that his contract is annually renewable.  The WWF has an out clause they could exercise if they wanted to.  Now of course, it would cost WWF more to release him versus if Henry quit.  But that is besides the point.

 

I think the WWF will definitely capitalize off of Henry's victory this past weekend.  They've got to get something out of their investment.

[Guest Risk]

Henry seemed to have a found a good wrestling style in the category of brawling.  I hear he had some good matches with Prototype.  I was hoping when WCW got most of the old roster they could bring OVW and HWA guys to the WWF to start making NEW stars like they used too.

[Guest Ripper]

If Mark Henry bust out the Shooting Star Press he will instantly be over.  And I am not trying to be funny, he actually bust that move out a couple of times in the minors.  It was kinda like the Angles moonsault(I never saw it hit) but it is a sight to behold.  The guy was in tremedous shape and was wrestling damn fine matches against some really green guys and some really good matches against guys that are establish (He had a couple with D'Lo that were great).  They should call him back up....but probably won't.

[Guest dreamer420]

I doubt the WWF would be riding on Henry's coatails.  They guy is pretty luck to still be employed by them IMO.  JR did say that he would be back IN THIS VERY RING soon so the WWF still has some hope left for him.

[Guest RetroRob215]

If he didn't win the competition I'm sure he would remain in the minors until his contract expired in 2006.  Now he has some credibility, so I'm sure he'll be back after the split.

[Guest Shaved Bear]

they might also make henry lose the weight he was told to gain for that contest

[Guest the jesuit pig]

I think the WWF deserves to pay Henry's contract signing him to such a fucked up deal. Plus they got to get their investment back. Plus Henry's coat tails msut be big enough for a few dozen elephants so they must be big enough for Vince.