Henry further speaks about his time with AEW.
At AEW Double or Nothing 2021, it was revealed that Mark Henry would be joining the company. He joined the Rampage commentary team in addition to having a behind the scenes role and working with AEW’s Community Outreach program.
Henry’s time with the company came to an end in May 2024 as his contract expired. He dove into his time there and exit while chatting with Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas on their Huge Pop podcast. Henry said he realized he was not at AEW to ‘tighten the screws,’ but was there for recognition and visibility. He went on to shut down a comment from DaSilvia, who interpreted that Mark was saying there’s a maturity issue at AEW.
Henry said it is Tony Khan’s company and he can do as he pleases. He feels the difference is that with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, he leans on the experienced minds around him. Henry believes AEW’s ratings are a byproduct of people being checked out. He stated that the last time there was ‘competition’ there was CM Punk versus MJF and Cody Rhodes versus Dustin Rhodes. Henry expressed that if people were not afraid of losing their jobs and/or not getting paid, they would agree with him.
He shared that he took a pay cut to work at AEW. On the topic of working with talents and providing advice, he enjoyed doing it but said there were some ‘bad apples.’
Tightening the screws requires you to be able to break your tool kit out. No (AEW did not give me a screwdriver to work with). So, there was a point where I realized that I wasn’t there to tighten the screws. I was there for name recognition and visibility, and that’s a horrible place to feel if you’re a creative and there’s people that do a good job that I like, they’re thinking and their thought processes. But even them, they don’t get to do all the things that they wanna do. Because it’s not their action figures being played with. So you have to do what you’re told. If I own a company, you best believe you better do what I ask you to do or you won’t work for me. So I get it. Go and get your check and go home. Do what you’re asked to do, handle your creative and you make a suggestion, don’t get the boo-boo face when you get told no.
Nah, that’s what you said (Henry responded when the co-host said Henry was insinuating there’s a maturity issue in AEW). Yeah, you’re wrong because it’s Tony’s company and Tony gets to do whatever he wants to do… You can make all the suggestions in the world. But if he don’t wanna do that, he’s not gonna do that. The same thing with Triple H running WWE. He’s the boss. But the difference is Triple H leans on the fact that he has brilliant minds around him and he’ll go, you know what? I think it would go better this way but we gonna do it your way to see, and when it works, ‘Aye man, good job. That was a good call. That’s a good call.’ When he messes up, ‘Uh, we should’ve did it my way,’ or, ‘I’m gonna let somebody else get a shot next time, at making a call.’ You’re still handing the pie different directions. You gotta do things on a timely manner too. I like rehearsal at noon, 1 o’clock. I don’t want to be under the gun at 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock to put a show together. Because now people are pressing and they’re, ‘Ah.’ Some people, they don’t thrive well under pressure. So, there’s a lot of things that can be fixed. But you look at the ratings, that’s not good, and that’s a byproduct of the fact that there’s some people that have already mentally checked out. They took their ball and they went home. They surrendered. ‘Hey, whatever you wanna do. Ah, I don’t care,’ and when you get the, ‘I don’t care. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do,’ it’s not good. You can’t win. Now, there’s no contest. Pro wrestling is based on the fact that it’s art imitating life. We’re imitating competition. We’re putting on a show. But we want you to feel a competition is going on. Tell me when the last time you saw competition. I’ll tell you. The last time you saw a competition was CM Punk and MJF, and before that, it was Cody Rhodes and Dustin (Rhodes), brother versus brother. Those were the competition. The competitive nature in the matches, and you can name two or three matches that are in that vein. But, they don’t stand above those two matches, and you have the people that were in those matches, and I don’t know. I don’t wanna come across — I’m not whining and I’m not complaining. I’m stating the facts. If people wasn’t worried about losing they jobs, or getting fired or not getting paid, they would be like, yeah, you right. But right now, everybody gonna be like, nah, Mark Henry just mad and bitter. I’m not mad and bitter. I took a pay cut to go work at AEW. Don’t get it twisted. I went there because I wanted to get experience being an executive and I wanted to help that company flourish and help those people that were over there be better than they were and you ask the talent, did Mark Henry try to help you? Hell yes. All the time. He would come and tell me this and I would try it and they would come and, ‘Man! That was good! Thank you.’ That’s what I was working for. I was working for those high fives from guys and girls coming back and then there’s some bad apples and the bad apples have to be disciplined. Oh, they’re disciplining people now. But nobody wasn’t getting suspended or disciplined when I was there. I don’t remember.
As the conversation moved along, Henry shared that he heard from a reliable source that AEW Vice President Q.T. Marshall called him ‘stupid.’ Henry never brought it up to Marshall. He does not believe Marshall said it and if he did, it was in a joking manner.
Speaking about the match producers, Henry feels they’re handcuffed. He reiterated that they will not admit it, but one day it’ll come to the light. He circled back to his comment about taking a pay cut. He added that he did have corporate insurance from AEW. When it comes to the company’s marketing for shows, he feels there’s a ‘hole’ in that department.
Closing out his comments, Henry said as long as nothing negative is said about him via AEW, he won’t tell-all about his time there. He wants AEW to succeed because it gives leverage to the wrestlers, referees and production crew. He mentioned that there are some people in office roles that should not be there.
I love Sonjay (Dutt), Pat Buck, Q.T. (Marshall) — I heard from a reliable source that Q.T. called me stupid, and guess what? I looked him in the face every day and smiled and said, ‘What’s going on man? How you doing?’ You know how I can do that? Because one, I know it’s not true, and two, if he said it, he probably said it in jest. Mark Henry’s probably stupid, for coming over here and taking a mitigated role. I’m sure that there was some extra before or some extra afterwards. I’m not assassinating anybody, and when I say a reliable source, I mean I know that this person would take a bullet for me… Those guys have worked their rear-ends off to be in the positions that they are and they’re very good at what they do and they work for the best company in the world in production. They understand what they’re doing, what their role is. But they are handcuffed by doing what they’re told, and they won’t admit to that because they got a good job, they got a good gig going. But one day, the story’s gonna be told, and I’m not gonna look so ‘angry,’ because I’m not. While, when I said I took a pay cut to go to AEW, the best part of it was the insurance. Having corporate insurance, and I didn’t have to pay the maximum amount anymore. Because with my weight and the size in my family, I was paying over $4,000 a month on insurance alone. When I say I took a pay cut, I mean I could have a $40,000 month easily. God has really blessed me, and I got irons in the fire that well superseded what I was making there. So I’m not bitter at all. But the people that are in charge have to have power, and I wish they did, but they don’t and there’s people in the office that shouldn’t be in the office. Because they’ve never been over before. They don’t understand the nuances of how to get over. Sometimes, grassroots marketing. Can we grassroot market? Can we go to the barbershops and hair salons like the old days? Social media is not the only means of advertising and letting people know you’re coming to town. How can I go to a market and go to a gym, a popular gym in a town and they go, wrestling’s here? Wait a minute, what? Tonight? So the marketing… there’s a hole in the marketing, and then why would you book a show in a town — the same town as the largest musical festival in the world. I dare you to look at the calendar. The hotel rooms are $400 to $700 dollars a night and now people gotta drive 40 miles out of town to get a hotel. Oh, I lived through that. So don’t make me write a book about it, because then everybody’s gonna be like, oh, God. That happened? I don’t wanna do an exposé. I’m trying to keep my mouth shut. As long as nothing that’s negative is said about me, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Y’all are probably like, oh my God. I wish they would say something bad about Mark Henry, so he can just spill the beans. I want them to succeed because that gives leverage to the wrestler, to the referees, the lighting technicians, the sound technicians, the producers, the grips, the truck drivers. All these people have jobs because of AEW and I want ‘em to have it. I want them to make it.
Henry’s son, Jacob Henry, revealed that he signed an N.I.L. deal with WWE. To read Jacob’s thoughts about the decision, head over to this article.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Huge Pop with Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
