Mark Henry admitted defeat when he faced this AEW star for real.
After his release from WWE in September of 2023, speculation swirled that Shelton Benjamin was headed to All Elite Wrestling. Sure enough, Benjamin made his AEW debut and joined MVP on the October 2nd episode of Dynamite.
Speaking on a recent edition of Busted Open Radio, former AEW broadcaster and WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry recalled working with Benjamin during his early days at OVW. According to Henry, those in charge at the training school would sometimes have wrestlers face the World’s Strongest Man in legitimate competition as a way to test their skills. Despite his size and strength, Henry admits he was no match for Benjamin or fellow collegiate wrestler Brock Lesnar.
“And Shelton and Brock, both put it on my ass. It ain’t no way around it.”
Henry detailed how both men were able to wear him down and bring him to his hands and knees. Benjamin was even able to lock Henry to the ground and chop him before taking things even further, mounting the big man and forcing him on his back. While laughing about the fact that he’d never learned to get an opponent off him in this position, Henry said:
“I ain’t never been on my back in my life! And then finally I just — ‘Okay, get off me, you won!’ I couldn’t breathe!”
Mark Henry Jokingly Warns Swerve Strickland About Shelton Benjamin
Mark Henry admitted that a real fight would never end with someone giving up, and that he easily could have been knocked out in the position he was in if Benjamin were facing him in a real fight. He continued, pointing to Benjamin’s tension with Swerve Strickland in AEW:
“Swerve better pray to God that Shelton don’t ask for a full-contact match. Man, I’m telling you, it’s a world of pain!”
Back in 2021, Mark Henry gave his thoughts on Shelton Benjamin’s stable The Hurt Business.
h/t WrestlingInc