Black Widow
07-23-2008, 10:54 PM
6 feet 1 inch. 380 pounds. When Austin-based Olympic-weightlifter-turned-professional-wrestler Mark Henry enters the ring, announcers call him the world's strongest man. He is currently one of the biggest names in sports entertainment, as his employers at World Wrestling Entertainment call it. His most recent bout in Austin, on Feb. 4, was in front of 13,001 screaming fans in a packed Erwin Center. In June, he became the champion of ECW (one of WWE's three top-rated TV shows, along with Raw and Smackdown) and the standard-bearer for the brand. "What it means is there's a lot of trust and respect for what I've done," said Henry. "For me to be the primary focal point on the show, it means that business is getting done."
Growing up in Silsbee in East Texas, neither strongman contests nor pro wrestling seemed to be in Henry's future. Taking to the gym was just a way to be more competitive on the football field. "Every team that was a winner had a powerlifting program, so we started one," said Henry. Silsbee High School's coaches were faced with a freshman stronger than most college athletes. He became the superheavyweight backbone of their new powerlifting team, a three-time high school state champ and a Texas High School Powerlifting Association hall of famer.
In 1990 he came to the attention of Jan and Terry Todd of the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. "We were at the state high school powerlifting championship, and more than one person said, you have to see this superheavyweight," explained Terry Todd. "Over the years, I've heard that a lot, but we went over to see Mark and realized that he was something special." They saw him do a 732-pound squat, 385-pound bench press, and a 705-pound dead lift ("My dead lift was pretty shabby back then," said Henry, who set a world record in 1996 of 935 pounds). "It was obvious that he had this almost unlimited potential," said Terry. They moved Henry to Austin to train him to fulfill the ambition he talked about the first time they met. "He told us that day that his dream was to be the strongest man in the world," explains Terry.
Henry wasn't the average competitive strongman. He was a late starter for formal training. He wasn't part of an NCAA program. He had the explosive strength of an amateur powerlifter rather than the control of an Olympic weightlifter. But he had an extraordinary physique. Two hundred twenty pounds at 10 years old, 412 pounds when he was 21, but faster and more limber than most men in his weight class. With his natural size combined with the determination Terry Todd recognized, he soon became world and two-time national weightlifting champion, a two-time Olympian, and in 1995 he set the current unequipped squat world record of 948 pounds. "The fact that he's such a nice young man is such a bonus," said Terry.
Just as Terry Todd helped Henry move from powerlifting to weightlifting, he was pivotal in moving him to pro wrestling, as well. Henry had first talked to WWE (then World Wrestling Federation) President Vince McMahon in 1994. "He understood that Mark was media-friendly and larger than life," said Terry. But there was one last big weightlifting challenge. In 1996, he competed in the clean and jerk at the Atlanta Olympics with a ripped intercostal muscle to ensure the U.S. team got points, which Henry called "one of my proudest Olympic moments."
Like success in weightlifting, success in the ring took time. "This is my 12th year in the WWE, and I'm just now becoming champion," said Henry. In wrestling parlance, he's a monster, a physically dominating force.
Sometimes he's booked against smaller, more agile wrestlers in David and Goliath-style fights; other times, it's against other giants in a battle of behemoths. "None of it's easy, because any time you're out there, your life is in somebody's hands, and their life is in yours," said Henry. "If I pick up anybody, whether it's one of the biggest or smallest guys, they're going to go down and hit the ground. It's 100 percent attention whenever you put your hands on anybody."
Most importantly, and almost miraculously for someone in both weightlifting and wresting, he did it clean. No steroids, no performance-enhancing drugs, no human growth hormone. Calling Henry a true prodigy, "I could barely get him to take a dietary supplement," said Terry. "He was asked, 'Don't you ever think, when you're looking at the Eastern Europeans and the big Russians, what you could lift if you took steroids?' He said, 'No, but I have wondered what those other men could lift if they didn't take steroids.'"
Even though he's at the top of the wrestling industry, it's no celebrity life for Henry. "We don't have an off-season. We do 250 shows a year, 52 televised shows per brand. That's a lot of television and a lot of traveling," said Henry. But he sees the championship as a responsibility and an opportunity. "It's a lot to hold, but my shoulders are pretty wide."
austinchronicle.com
Growing up in Silsbee in East Texas, neither strongman contests nor pro wrestling seemed to be in Henry's future. Taking to the gym was just a way to be more competitive on the football field. "Every team that was a winner had a powerlifting program, so we started one," said Henry. Silsbee High School's coaches were faced with a freshman stronger than most college athletes. He became the superheavyweight backbone of their new powerlifting team, a three-time high school state champ and a Texas High School Powerlifting Association hall of famer.
In 1990 he came to the attention of Jan and Terry Todd of the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. "We were at the state high school powerlifting championship, and more than one person said, you have to see this superheavyweight," explained Terry Todd. "Over the years, I've heard that a lot, but we went over to see Mark and realized that he was something special." They saw him do a 732-pound squat, 385-pound bench press, and a 705-pound dead lift ("My dead lift was pretty shabby back then," said Henry, who set a world record in 1996 of 935 pounds). "It was obvious that he had this almost unlimited potential," said Terry. They moved Henry to Austin to train him to fulfill the ambition he talked about the first time they met. "He told us that day that his dream was to be the strongest man in the world," explains Terry.
Henry wasn't the average competitive strongman. He was a late starter for formal training. He wasn't part of an NCAA program. He had the explosive strength of an amateur powerlifter rather than the control of an Olympic weightlifter. But he had an extraordinary physique. Two hundred twenty pounds at 10 years old, 412 pounds when he was 21, but faster and more limber than most men in his weight class. With his natural size combined with the determination Terry Todd recognized, he soon became world and two-time national weightlifting champion, a two-time Olympian, and in 1995 he set the current unequipped squat world record of 948 pounds. "The fact that he's such a nice young man is such a bonus," said Terry.
Just as Terry Todd helped Henry move from powerlifting to weightlifting, he was pivotal in moving him to pro wrestling, as well. Henry had first talked to WWE (then World Wrestling Federation) President Vince McMahon in 1994. "He understood that Mark was media-friendly and larger than life," said Terry. But there was one last big weightlifting challenge. In 1996, he competed in the clean and jerk at the Atlanta Olympics with a ripped intercostal muscle to ensure the U.S. team got points, which Henry called "one of my proudest Olympic moments."
Like success in weightlifting, success in the ring took time. "This is my 12th year in the WWE, and I'm just now becoming champion," said Henry. In wrestling parlance, he's a monster, a physically dominating force.
Sometimes he's booked against smaller, more agile wrestlers in David and Goliath-style fights; other times, it's against other giants in a battle of behemoths. "None of it's easy, because any time you're out there, your life is in somebody's hands, and their life is in yours," said Henry. "If I pick up anybody, whether it's one of the biggest or smallest guys, they're going to go down and hit the ground. It's 100 percent attention whenever you put your hands on anybody."
Most importantly, and almost miraculously for someone in both weightlifting and wresting, he did it clean. No steroids, no performance-enhancing drugs, no human growth hormone. Calling Henry a true prodigy, "I could barely get him to take a dietary supplement," said Terry. "He was asked, 'Don't you ever think, when you're looking at the Eastern Europeans and the big Russians, what you could lift if you took steroids?' He said, 'No, but I have wondered what those other men could lift if they didn't take steroids.'"
Even though he's at the top of the wrestling industry, it's no celebrity life for Henry. "We don't have an off-season. We do 250 shows a year, 52 televised shows per brand. That's a lot of television and a lot of traveling," said Henry. But he sees the championship as a responsibility and an opportunity. "It's a lot to hold, but my shoulders are pretty wide."
austinchronicle.com