Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Mark Henry on his fake retirement, Mae Young giving birth to a hand, The Rock for president, racism in wrestling

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

Mark Henry chats with Chris Van Vliet from Austin, TX about his legendary Hall of Fame WWE career that started with him as an Olympic powerlifter. He talks about his Sexual Chocolate character, dating Mae Young and her giving birth to a hand, his fake retirement speech, the infamous salmon colored jacket he wore that night, why he didn't get a WWE Championship run after his match with John Cena, what made him want to retire for real, the racism he has experienced in his life and much more! Thanks to Bet Online for their support with this episode! Use the code BLUEWIRE for a new welcome bonus on your first deposit at http://BetOnline.ag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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especially with your help. It's all about you guys. Well, thank you for being part of this conversation with me and Mark Henry. And you'll hear he was sitting in a park dropping his kids off at practice. And he had some time to hang out and we chatted before practice was done.

And we covered it all here. From his background in powerlifting to the Olympics to meeting Kurt Angle for the first time as a fellow Olympian, getting ready for the 1996 Olympics. Of course, we get into his WWE career, which started with a 10-year contract offer from Vince McMahon and led to a 23-year Hall of Fame career that he had. Sexual chocolate, we talk about that. We talk about his run with May Young and, of course, giving birth to a hand.

Why a hand? Well, that's something that Mark still asks Vince about and Vince doesn't really give him an answer. You'll hear about that. And of course, we talk about the fake retirement speech. and how much thought he put into that now infamous salmon colored jacket. That wasn't a mistake. He put a lot of thought into what he was going to wear for that. And I found it really interesting to hear him talk about how he never gave an official retirement speech

because he truly did believe it. The one he gave that night with John Cena in the ring with that salmon colored jacket on was his true speech. And if he gave another one, it wouldn't have lived up to that. But there's so much here. So ladies and gentlemen, the Hall of Famer himself, It's Mark Hendry. It's good to see you again.

I saw you last week. We were on a panel together for GalaxyCon, which was mind-blowing to me that I was sharing a panel with you. I didn't quite understand that one. I don't know. I'm down for whatever, though. I mean, I've never been a situation. I feel that I was out of my own. Well, and that's what's made you have the career that you've had right now.

Now, the last time that we spoke, you were dropping your son off at Trayette. track practice, a similar situation today, too? Same thing, man. Like, they hard workers. They love it. And if they want to do it, I'm going to bring them. So, you know, you're a former Olympian. Does that mean that you're raising some potentially, you know, future Olympians?

Well, they've both been to the Junior Olympics already. It's in the blood, man. Also, they're not afraid of work. Wow. So what are their events? It's successful. The common denominator they'll tell you is it's a lot of self-discipline involved and it's a lot of I want to.

I want to prove something. And they don't rest on their laurels. They don't rest on the fact that they're Mark Henry's kids. They want to go out and be special. What are their events? My daughter's a sprinter. My son came in second at Nationals last year. and the discus and is a really, really good football player.

And for his age, he works out with the varsity teams at two schools that we were potentially going to go to. He was doing workouts with both teams on the same days to see where he wanted to be. And I was like, you know, we could just pick one. And he said, I don't know yet. I don't know where I want to be. And in Texas, you know, football is like college in high school. So being an eighth grader going to the ninth grade, he probably won't ever play freshman football.

He's already 6'1, 250 pounds at 14 years old. And he's a really, really explosive athlete. And I enjoy watching him work. But, you know, now I have to tell him not to work so hard because he's, he feels like you got to prove it to everybody all the time when that's not really the case. Well, speaking of, you know, your kids, when you were growing up as a kid, when did you realize that you had the strength, you know, to be as strong as you are? You know what? I actually tried hard. Like, I begged my mom from the time I was six years old

and I saw the first Olympics with Basilia Alexia. I begged for weights. And I got to at weights at 11 years old. So I was kind of ahead of the curve. And just like my kids, you couldn't tell me to stop. I was outside lifting weights for sometimes four and five hours a day just to see if I could do better than I did a couple hours ago. And when I got 13 or 14, I was wrestling the grown-ups in my neighborhood. You know, it was just like I boxed.

I did martial art. And guys were like, man, I hope you don't hit none of these kids like that. Like the kids, your age, you go out to jail. So I got a lot of good advice and I got a lot of good training from the bigger and older guys. And then, you know, from there, you just kind of went into powerlifting and realized, oh, my God, I'd lift a lot more than other people. Well, my brother was the one that told me that he was like, man, you lifting the same thing as me. and you're two years younger than me.

And he said, when you get the junior high, you're going to have to come and train with us at high school. And that's exactly what happened. I got the junior high, and they didn't have free weights. It was only, you remember the stack machines. Yeah. I had the stack machines to work with, and it really wasn't enough to push me.

So I would go to high school and work out with free weights with the coaches and my brother. So what path were you on if Vince McMahon hadn't come around and offered you? I mean, it was a 10-year deal, right? Yeah, 10 years. It was kind of like a sports life expectancy was around 10 years. If you had everything go right. In the NFL, you played 10 years.

You had a great career. Yeah. And that was my thought process. After the Olympics in 96, my goal was to go back and play football again because I love football and I hated not being able to play because I knew I was better than a lot of people that I saw play. And any time that I worked out for a pro team, I worked out for the Cowboys, I worked out for the Oilers, and I worked out for Jim Hannafin at the Redskins. And all of them wanted to sign me. They were like, okay, we'll make do, but nobody was offering me money. And come along with Vince McMahon who says, look, it's going to take you three or four years just to learn how to do what we do.

And once you mastered it, you know, at least we'll have five more years, maybe six years of you being an outstanding talent for us. and that's exactly what happened. It really took me five years to really get it, to be able to go in there with anybody and not only not hurt somebody, but entertain people at the level that they pay money to be entertained. Who were you modeling yourself after when you got into wrestling? Because, I mean, let's be honest,

there really wasn't anyone like you before you came along. You know what? I watched a lot of Vader, You know, when I say tapes, we had VHS back then. Not none of this. You go to the Internet, you get DVDs with a bunch of wrestling matches on it. I love Junkyard Dog when I was a kid. And Andre the Giant.

And I watched a lot of the matches and why they did things rather than how they did things. And that's what I try to tell all the young. aspiring wrestlers coming in, don't look at what people do, but ask why. Look at why they do things. And when you can get the why and the win, the how, you can be taught to how. I mean, it's crazy to think that you signed a 10-year deal, but even crazy to think that you had the career that you had, 23 years, right? 23 years and by choice. I mean, it could have. these last three years,

I could have easily been in the ring, but I thought it was time for me to give my kids that expertise that only a father really could do. A father that's experienced in physical culture and health and kinesiology of their athletes. And of course, they're both singers and dancers and actors and, you know,

in big play productions here in Austin at Zach Theater. Jacob, they're both in a band. You know, they sing and dance. So if they wanted to be entertainers, I want to be able to have my hands on the whole process because we both know that everybody in the business is not good people. Yeah. And, you know, I got to go and be to Joe Jackson.

I got to, you know, push people to do the right thing and push my kids to do the right thing. Did you have moments in your, career where you experienced people that weren't good to you or maybe experienced people that were racist to you? You know what, man, I had it. I had all of that growing up until, you know, in every facet of my life because that's just the way I looked at America being. It's sad. It's unfortunate that there's a double standard, but there's always been a double standard. And, you know, even I go so far as,

to, I think the education of what's going on should be the thing that people worry about the most. And not the fear of if black people had the same advantage, would they be as mean or as aggressive toward people as they've had it toward them? And that's, I don't think that. I think that's completely wrong. you look throughout history like, you know, people of color were not the ones that started stuff. The history of violence against white people is very, very low. And the ones that have had hate crimes and stuff like that, it could have been avoided by having systems in place where people didn't feel subservient. because, you know, you look at the history of the Middle Passage, there were a lot of Africans that just jumped into the ocean because they didn't want to be slaves.

And that history has not been taught to white America. I mean, you look at the Star Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key was a slave owner and a very highly aggressive slave owner. And the third stanza of the national anthem has been taken out. but he said it was the land of the free and the home of the brave. What's the opposite of that? And the third stanza explains why that is. And that means that, you know, we're the slave and the coward.

And that's not what it was, but that's the way it was betrayed. And I can see why people wouldn't want to stand in, and stand for the flag or stand for the anthem. But it's different for me because I was an athlete and I represented this country and I loved this country. And every athlete that I've ever known felt the same way. You look at the sideline and when that flag starts flying, you know, people start crying.

People are emotional about the moment. They're emotional about representing their country. All my uncles were military guys, you know, And I always wanted to be a policeman. I wanted to be a soldier like them. But, you know, God had different plans for me. But, you know, it's one of those cases where if things were, if things were better from the beginning the way this country is established,

it'd be better off. But that's not the case. And now we're in this moment of change. And I think that people's eyes are open. And I have friends of mine that have asked me questions. And when I answer them, they've cried. They're like, man, I never knew you faced that. They didn't know that I've been put on the ground at gunpoint in dress clothes, going to church.

You know, I've been pushed in the back to try to incite a riot so something could happen. And I've had to say, listen, man, you're barking up the wrong tree. This is after you were a WWE superstar? This is before and after. Oh, wow. I mean, I mean, I went through some stuff. And I have friends of mine that are policemen, that they are sick because they've seen stuff that's equally as bad as what we've experienced over the last three months. And they just never had the courage to.

say anything because they would be ostracized, that they would be kicked off their forces and that the other cops, they, they, they, they're the blue brain. They're a blue game. And for you to take a side of anybody means that you're not for them. And I feel sorry for some of the cops that are in the place that they're in, but now is the time that you're not going to get fired. Now is the time that you can step up and stand up and say, hey, this is what's going on. And hopefully we can get this change. Certainly seems like there's some change coming. And I'm very sorry to hear that that were things you had to deal with. And I hope that things are on their way to being a better place.

You shouldn't apologize. You shouldn't apologize. I'm sorry to hear it. And that's, that's, you know, I told my buddy today, I'm like, look, man, I don't want you to have white guilt. I just want you if some, if shit ever happens to stand up and you see a lot of organizations that are doing things to help provoke change, go be supportive. Go help out. It takes all of us. All right now. We've got to take a second right now to thank our sponsor for this episode, Bet Online, and there's no shortage of action going on on our exclusive partners betonline.ag. Sports are slowly making their way back, and Bet Online is leading the way with the best odds and lines for all UFC,

NASCAR, boxing, and soccer matches. And if you need even more, well, they have simulated NFL, NBA, and UFC simulations all day, every day, and it's live on their website. Looking for something other than sports? Well, Bet Online has hundreds of casino games, poker tournaments, and prop bets for you to check out. So visit betonline.ag. Use the promo code Bluewire for a free welcome bonus. That's one word, Bluewire, B-L-U-E-W-I-R-E. Bet-Online, your online wagering experts. I certainly want to talk to you about wrestling. And it's funny that, you know, the last two conversations we've had, you've been like full-time dad. So it sounds like you've gone from full-time wrestler, retiring there. now you're into full-time dad mode.

I'm sure the kids are happy to have you around. Yeah, man, I loved. I always wanted to be a dad. You know, there's a lot of people that being a dad just happy. But, like, I always wanted to have my own family. I always don't want to have my own kids. And if my kids said, look, I want to be a rodeo clown. Look, all right, let's find somebody that's a rodeo.

your clown and you become the best rode your clown there is. I'm not pushing them one way or the other. I just want to be there to help them up and when they fall because it's not a question of if the win. And, you know, I just want them to have the support that I didn't have as a kid going out. Do you still keep in touch with the child you had with May Young? It's five years old.

No, I'm a clown, man. And I still pick on Vince every time I see him. So are you ever going to tell me what the deal was with the hand? And he just starts laughing. It's a hand. What was the original plan with this? I mean, she was pregnant. She was going to have an actual baby, I'm guessing, right?

No. Welcome to the world of pro wrestling. There was a hand the whole time. Everything don't make sense, but it's entertaining as hell. So the plan was a hand. the whole time. I don't know what the plan was. Hey, look, I just go with the flow.

But I did think, like, why, you know, I'm just curious. Like, of all the things, why hand? And Vince, he just bust out laughing every time I ask him. Like, it's the biggest ongoing joke. And I think that's what it is. He just did it to entertain himself. When you look at your 23-year career, what stretch of time did you have the most fun during? Oh, sexual chocolate.

Like, you know, near the beginning, that was so much fun. Like, I got to go out every week and make a fool of myself and to play with the ladies in the crowd. And it didn't matter if I lost or not. It was because the whole point was to entertain people and make people laugh. and I'm a comedy guy. You know, I've done a couple of stand-ups. You know, I like making people laugh. I like seeing people enjoy themselves,

and that was my chance to do that. You know, you talk about your kids being performers and singers and dancers. I don't know if everyone knows that you are, too. Like, you sang in the last interview that we did together. I was a clown, the last interview that we were on to cover. That was fun. I like show tunes. I like Broadway.

You know, I just saw that Hamilton is going to be on Disney Plus. And I have Disney Plus in my phone because, you know, I watch all of the cartoons and stuff on Disney with my kids. And I've actually been the voice of a couple of characters. So it's, you know, I'm a big kid, man. I love having fun. And I want to do more voice work. It's so much fun.

it's so easy to do and you get to be a clown. Anytime that I can wake up in the morning and I get to laugh myself to sleep, then that's a good day. What is your favorite Broadway show? Little Chop of Horrors is my favorite.

But I've seen stomp like five times. I've seen cats about five times. I would still have to say that my favorite as Little Shop of Horrors. You know, like, if they did a remake of Little Shop of Horrors, I definitely want to be the plan.

You know, you talk about having a lot of fun as the sexual chocolate character, but the infamous fake retirement speech, the salmon jacket, you must have had so much fun in those five minutes with the crowd and the palm of your hand, knowing that at the end of it, you were going to turn on them. I did, man. And it was like the highlight of my wrestling career as far as setting an example, only marked setting the tempo. There was nobody, there was no undertaker, no Randy Orton in there to save me. I had to go out there and perform that.

And I take a lot of pride in the fact that it built probably four months. It took me four months to get everybody conditioned that I was retiring. that it was going to happen. So basically, I lied to everybody's face for about four months. Sorry, guys. But that's what I had to do to make it happen and make it real. And I finally came to the conclusion that just like in any method acting philosophy, I had to embody that.

And that was my real retirement. I never did one after that. Yeah. because that was the one that I was going to be known for. That was the one that I was going to get to thank all the people that supported me and backed me and that I worked with. And I did that. And I got to thank the fans from the bottom of my heart. Like it was 100% real.

But, you know, in every film and every show, you got to play tunes to what made that show good. And it was about wrestling, so John Cena had to face the heat. Whose idea was this storyline originally? Vincers. Because I told Vince I wanted to retire. And he was like, no. And I was like, yeah, for real. Like, I miss my kids.

Like, I get to see my family like two days a week. And, you know, I made a good living in my life. And I didn't buy Ferraris and, you know, $36 million palace. and stuff that you had to upkeep them. I did okay. And, you know, it was one of those things where I think the most joy that I'm getting in my life is what I'm doing right now and that's hanging out with them. Did you realize when you showed up to Raw that day that the salmon jacket was going to be

as infamous as it became? I did not. I just wanted to look sharp. And I never had any costumes. or wardrobe people. I always dressed myself. I thought I did a pretty good job. And when I saw that jacket,

I was like, that's what I'm retiring in right there. That's the one. And, you know, when I showed up, dressed up, Vince just started smiling. He was like, just shook his head because he realized the moment that what was about to happen. I honestly, I, I knew that we were going to get them,

but I didn't think about the jacket being iconic. I think the real wasted moment here is after that, you should have won the title. I feel like it would have made so much sense if you beat Sina and got a run. You know what? That wasn't Sena's fault. That wasn't the WVE's fault.

If anybody should be mad, it should be mean because I'm the one that said, look, man, I want to go home. Like, I love to stay. here and play with the boys and get out here and make some more money and all of that stuff. But like I said, the most important thing to me was going home and doing what I'm doing. Like this is God's work as well as, you know, what's expected out of a man. And, you know, for lack of a better way to describe it, is me giving back.

because I have to teach my kids how to be me. One of these days, they're going to be parents. And the ultimate thing that makes you a parent in sacrifice, there's a lot of things that I could have done, but I didn't do. And I want them to know that. There's stuff that you're just not going to be able to do. I never went on spring break. I was an Olympic athlete.

I trained during the summer in the spring. I had to work, and I want them to see that hard work pays off, and if you sacrifice, you get rewarded. And a lot of people, they, you know, I don't think they fully give it up. But, and then when the success don't come, they have nobody to scream that but themselves. And I point that out to them every day. You don't want to be that person looking in the mirror going, man, I can't stand you. You should have did this. what do you think was the best piece of advice that you got growing up that allowed you to become the man that you are now

I was blessed man I got a lot of good advice from a lot of really really smart people but if I was to have to pick one thing be willing to work harder than anybody else and I've been a world champion in three different sports that have nothing to do with each other and You know, I've really, really worked hard at everything that I've ever tried. And I was a national champion in another sport. So I've had success in everything pretty much that I've tried. And I won't let my marriage or my family or my faith in God suffer. And, you know, everything I try to do, I try to do to the max.

Was there, since you were an Olympian and Kurt Angle was an Olympian, Was there any point in the 96 Olympics where you guys cross paths? We trained together. Oh, I didn't know. Wow. Kurt was at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs when I was there. And, you know, like we lived on the same floor sometimes where the wrestlers and the weight lifters lived in the same floor. Our gyms were separated by double doors. If I walked through the double doors, I was in wrestling.

and I knew exactly who Kurt was. Matter of fact, me and Kurt, nobody could hold Kurt. If you grab, Kurt won the Olympics off and escaped. And they wanted to see if I could hold them. And we got together one day, all the weightlifters and the wrestlers. And I went in the wrestling room and they showed me how to grab him and all of this kind of stuff. And then it's, okay, Kurt, it's the strongest guy in the world. Get away.

And he got away. And I was just like, damn. Like that, Kurt Angle is one of the more special athletes that I've ever seen. I would have loved to seen Kurt Angle play running back in NFL. He would have been a monster. Hmm. You talk about living close to Kurt Angle. I don't know if everybody knows this, but when you broke into wrestling, the Rock was living with you.

Yeah. Like when we started, he came from Canada, didn't have any money. Hey, is the famous seven bucks in his pocket? Yeah, that's seven bucks entertainment. It's for real. And I told him, I was like, man, I got an extra room in my apartment. If you want to, you know, crash there until you can get on your feet, you know, more power to you. And he was like, yeah, I love to.

And we ended up staying together for like seven months. rather than even when he got money, he didn't move out. You know, he just paid a light bill or something. I don't know what he did, but we were like brothers, man, and still are. And he works hard. He's the hardest working human being I ever met. I mean, harder than me, because I know when to rest. He never rests.

If he's not finished, he's not done. Wow. Like, man, the dude is, he wakes up, you watch the video. He was him training. He's working out at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. So he could have more daylight to get his work done. And I'm not waking up at 4 o'clock to work out.

I've interviewed the Rock many times for his movie rules. And what's interesting is he builds the working out into his day. So he says, 4 to 5.30, that's my time. And you could have me after that, which I think is actually something we can all really learn from. Oh, yeah. And you talk about, um, like a really charming disposition. Like when he walks in a room

and smiles at everybody, like everybody feels like they've known him for years. Yeah. He gives off a presence when he walks in a room. And I hope that in the future we get him to be a public servant.

I can see him being president down the road. It's funny that you say that because it seems like it could be a real possibility. I mean, who better than somebody that embodies hard work and you will never see an embarrassing moment? It's kind of like LeBron James. Like, you know, people always looking for the other shoe to drop. There is no other shoe to drop.

They're both on the floor. They are who they are. And, you know, I love the fact that people work hard and have success, and they try to put other people alone, and you have the interest and making somebody else look great, that you want somebody else to benefit. Like, that's a beautiful thing. You're sacrificing, and I keep going back to the sacrificing yourself for others.

That's what we need to do. If we all have that in mind, this world will be a better place. So what do you think? You'll be Rock's vice president? No, I think, you know, I'll be there, comic relief. Are your kids coming? Yeah, I thought they were trying to sneak up on me.

But they wait and they see them doing so. Oh, well, then we'll wrap things up then. But I just want to be respectful of your time, but super thankful and grateful to we get to hang out here. So thank you very much. Man, anytime, man, anytime. Like, I'm proud of your work, man. You do a hell of a job.

Ah, that's very kind of you to say. And I'm seeing you unbusted open has been a great pleasure in my life. You're so awesome on there. I appreciate that. You know, I'm one of those people that is hard to take a compliment. I love being on there with Dave LaGreca and bully and Tommy. Like, you know, I live for that show now. You know, that's my wrestling release.

You know, I'm able to still be involved without being involved. That's a lot of fun. It's also so weird. Like, I was at double or nothing last year, and we're in the media room doing the, you know, the interviews. And I look over and, well, there's the world's strongest man standing right next to me doing these interviews. It's so wild because you're next to all the other reporters when you see these videos on YouTube. The world strongest reporter. I enjoy it, man.

Like being able to cover sports in a way and cover wrestling in a way. that I never was able to have an opinion, I was just a part of the whole thing. But now I get to analyze and say why and how and I love it. I mean, it's the best thing in my week other than hanging out with my kiddos. Well, when everything clears up and they get this thing figured out with coronavirus, I would love to do this interview in person with you. Man, let's do it, man. Hell, we gotta have you on.

Sign me up anytime. All right, it's a deal. All right, brother. I really appreciate you, and I'm just grateful for the person that you are, so thank you. You're very welcome, man. Well, give it out for Mark Henry.

Man, thank you to him for taking the time out of his day in between picking his kids up from practice to do this interview here. It ended a little abruptly, but we actually got more time than I was expecting there, but really looking forward to round two when we're able to do this interview in person. You can just tell. You just tell from talking to him, especially the first part of that interview,

just how much he loves being a father. So take a screenshot. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Tag Mark. He is at the Mark Henry. Let us know what you thought about this. Let us know what stands out for you the most.

Maybe it's the fact that his child that he had with May Young is five years old. Yeah, holding up his hand. Five years old as he said that. And I also, I just love his reaction to the May, Young thing. Why a hand? Why a hand? Vince will never tell him. I stumbled across the five by five rule this week.

Have you heard of this? If you haven't, I want to share this with you. If it's not going to matter in five years, don't spend more than five minutes being upset about it. One more time. The five by five rule. If it's not going to matter in five years, don't spend more than five minutes being upset about it. You might be asking yourself, why did we have a Tuesday release this week?

Well, that's because we got another interview coming up this Thursday. Oh, yeah, so two interviews this week. So this one today on Tuesday and then another one on Thursday. So we will see you then. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes.

So I don't want to hear from you lava. pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banjov, but get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.