JohnCenaFan28
08-22-2008, 10:47 PM
He's a brick house, baby.
http://www.cantonrep.com/photos/2008/08/m_22mwt5_mark_henry_08.jpg
WWE superstar Mark Henry stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 392 pounds. Imagine entering a wrestling ring and seeing this bad boy glaring at you.
"I draw attention," he says, when asked about venturing out in public. "It's an adventure every day walking out of the house."
"It's like being a really pretty girl. People want to grab you and take pictures with you and call you and introduce you to their friends."
Henry will take on Matt Hardy when WWE Smackdown Live rolls into Canton Memorial Civic Center at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Before joining the WWE ranks in 1996, Henry was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team. At age 22, he competed at the 1992 summer games in Barcelona as a weightlifter in the super-heavyweight division. He placed 10th.
"I was the youngest to ever compete in the super-heavyweights," Henry, 37, says. At 366 pounds, he was also the heaviest weightlifter in Olympic history. The people of Silsbee, Texas, his hometown, raised money to help send his mother to Barcelona.
"It was like being under the microscope, real nerve-wracking. You know billions of people are watching you at that moment," he recalls about competing in Barcelona. "But at the same time it's a real great feeling to be one of the athletes from America representing the country."
Henry went on to compete at the 1995 Pan-American Games in Argentina, where he won gold, silver and bronze medals. Things didn't go so well at his second Olympic games, in 1996 in Atlanta, where he suffered a back injury and finished 14th in a field of 19.
"It was really excruciating pain, but I went out there and lifted anyway," he recalls. "Being team captain, I felt it was my responsibility. I sucked it up for my team and my country."
Henry also has competed in Strongman events, and in 2002 took first prize in the World's Strongest Man competition at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic. In a recent issue of Flex, a bodybuilding magazine, Henry placed second on a list of the strongest men in history. (Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania is No. 1.)
"It was great to be considered the second strongest," he says. "But the thing is, if I hadn't retired in my prime at the ripe old age of 26, I could've had another 10 years of breaking records and breaking my own records."
Growing up in Texas, Henry spent a lot of time watching pro wrestling on television and in person. "I used to go to the Beaumont Civic Center and watch all the time — Ernie Ladd, Mr. Wrestling II, the Von Erich Family. WWF had Andre the Giant," he says. "It was pretty hard to beat."
And did he ever dream as a boy of one day being a pro wrestler himself?
"I never thought I'd be a wrestler," Henry says. "My focus was on being the strongest man in the world."
In the ring
WHAT: WWE Smackdown Live with Triple H, Undertaker, the Great Khali, MVP, Mark Henry, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy and others.
WHEN: Sunday, 5 p.m.
WHERE: Canton Memorial Civic Center.
TICKETS: $60, $40, $30 and $20 at the Civic Center box office and Ticketmaster.
-CantonRep
http://www.cantonrep.com/photos/2008/08/m_22mwt5_mark_henry_08.jpg
WWE superstar Mark Henry stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 392 pounds. Imagine entering a wrestling ring and seeing this bad boy glaring at you.
"I draw attention," he says, when asked about venturing out in public. "It's an adventure every day walking out of the house."
"It's like being a really pretty girl. People want to grab you and take pictures with you and call you and introduce you to their friends."
Henry will take on Matt Hardy when WWE Smackdown Live rolls into Canton Memorial Civic Center at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Before joining the WWE ranks in 1996, Henry was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team. At age 22, he competed at the 1992 summer games in Barcelona as a weightlifter in the super-heavyweight division. He placed 10th.
"I was the youngest to ever compete in the super-heavyweights," Henry, 37, says. At 366 pounds, he was also the heaviest weightlifter in Olympic history. The people of Silsbee, Texas, his hometown, raised money to help send his mother to Barcelona.
"It was like being under the microscope, real nerve-wracking. You know billions of people are watching you at that moment," he recalls about competing in Barcelona. "But at the same time it's a real great feeling to be one of the athletes from America representing the country."
Henry went on to compete at the 1995 Pan-American Games in Argentina, where he won gold, silver and bronze medals. Things didn't go so well at his second Olympic games, in 1996 in Atlanta, where he suffered a back injury and finished 14th in a field of 19.
"It was really excruciating pain, but I went out there and lifted anyway," he recalls. "Being team captain, I felt it was my responsibility. I sucked it up for my team and my country."
Henry also has competed in Strongman events, and in 2002 took first prize in the World's Strongest Man competition at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic. In a recent issue of Flex, a bodybuilding magazine, Henry placed second on a list of the strongest men in history. (Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania is No. 1.)
"It was great to be considered the second strongest," he says. "But the thing is, if I hadn't retired in my prime at the ripe old age of 26, I could've had another 10 years of breaking records and breaking my own records."
Growing up in Texas, Henry spent a lot of time watching pro wrestling on television and in person. "I used to go to the Beaumont Civic Center and watch all the time — Ernie Ladd, Mr. Wrestling II, the Von Erich Family. WWF had Andre the Giant," he says. "It was pretty hard to beat."
And did he ever dream as a boy of one day being a pro wrestler himself?
"I never thought I'd be a wrestler," Henry says. "My focus was on being the strongest man in the world."
In the ring
WHAT: WWE Smackdown Live with Triple H, Undertaker, the Great Khali, MVP, Mark Henry, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy and others.
WHEN: Sunday, 5 p.m.
WHERE: Canton Memorial Civic Center.
TICKETS: $60, $40, $30 and $20 at the Civic Center box office and Ticketmaster.
-CantonRep