Mark Henry On Conversation He Had With Vince McMahon About Signing With AEW

Mark Henry joined Busted Open Radio this morning to discuss him joining AEW. Henry works for Busted Open as a co-host. He revealed what led to him signing with AEW and why he left WWE.

“My deal was up. This is not something that was recent. I can go back to five months? Six months? I wanted a position in the office and I wanted everything that comes with it. And I talked to Vince himself. And he said ‘write it up. You’re somebody that I’ll hear from, I’ll listen to.’ And I was told there was a lot of cleaning house and there was a lot of cuts that were happening. There was a lot to come.

I’ve seen hundreds of people in the company go. I still felt like ‘well, knowing this, I feel valuable enough that I’m not going anywhere. So that’s cool.’ But when you’re deal comes up, and the rights, the legality part of it comes up to where you’re going to go next and what you’re going to do, I felt like I wanted to do more. I always wanted to do more. You know me, I’m a busybody. If I’m not doing what I know I can do, especially if I feel I can do it better than somebody else. If I can’t get that opportunity, I have to start looking for that somewhere else. And I did."

Mark Henry went into the topic of the conversation he had with Vince whenever he signed with AEW

“It wasn’t negative. Everybody knows me and Vince got love for each other. And more than love, respect. Me calling him and saying what needed to be said came from a place of like, a brother telling his older brother ‘man I’m tired of being in the shadows. I feel like someone beneath you is holding me back. And if somebody’s holding me back, I’ve got to go.’ Cause you can tell everybody what to do, but there might be something that comes with that. I felt like I’m being held back, I’m not getting what I want. I want to be successful. You know I want to be able to learn more, I want to get those pelts on the wall.

And man, it was just like the coolest thing. He was like ‘man, you know everything you need to know. You go and if you feel like you need to go, (I) don’t necessarily want it, but if you feel like you need to go, then go. I know you’re going to be successful.’ That’s what you want. I’m not going to run from a conversation like that. There’s a lot of people that are kind of scary and unloyal or whatever. Nobody will ever say Mark Henry is unloyal. I’ve been loyal. There were times where I was offered more money and I didn’t leave. Twenty five years, with the same company, through the good and the bad, I was there. Everything wasn’t perfect, but what family has a perfect existence? Not very many. But mine was really good. I had a really good experience, I learned a lot. I spent more time in the production office and in the trucks than I did around the ring and in catering. I always had an executive mindset.”