Do not let the seedings above fool you into recklessly voting Chris Benoit, because this is a terrible match-up for Chris Benoit for multiple reasons which I'm going to go into shortly.
Before I begin, I'd just like to point out that I consider the prime of Benoit to be 2004 during his World Title Reign, and 2011 for Henry during his own reign, so those are the times that I am going to be analysing. I will factor in Henry's escalating hall of pain at the time also, as well as Benoit's Royal Rumble victory and gain of momentum
Let's first discuss the title defences that these men had to endure throughout their reign. After Benoit won his title in an outstanding triple threat match at Wrestlemania against Shawn Michaels and Triple H, he first defended it in a rematch at Backlash, which was fair enough as both challengers were entitled to rematch clauses. But then it went down-hill VERY quickly. I'm talking about as early as Badd Blood 2003. Now, don't get me wrong, Kane is one of my favourite wrestlers, but this was during his very awkward period of the career where he was a glorified mid-carder and didn't mean nearly as much as he had done before (he feuded with Snitsky at the end of the year. See what I'm getting at here?), and Benoit was tasked with defending his title against him, in once again, a good match and one of Kane's best. But then you had the Cell match afterwards between HHH and HBK, and something was clearly evident: Benoit was overshadowed by Triple H, and with that Evolution and HBK on the Raw roster. We then move onto Vengeance, where the main catalyst for the Triple H and Benoit feud was not the title, but Eugene, a comedy character. This lead to the ENTHRALLING clash of HHH vs Eugene at Summerslam, but Benoit defended the title, but once again being made to look weak by HHH. At Summerslam, Benoit lost the title in an underrated classic against Randy Orton, and he was pretty much struck out of the main event for the rest of his WWE career, and stayed in upper-midcard/midcard territory until his death.
Mark Henry begun his reign by defeating the top Smackdown babyface Randy Orton and firmly established himself as a dominant champion, losing only ONCE by pinfall due to interference from Cena (I don't count the early Bryan cash-in because it was never an official match) while he was champion, while Benoit lost many tag team contests. He defended his title against Orton at Hell in a Cell before colliding with a surprisingly excellent big man feud with the Big Show, with both men showing extreme dominance throughout the feud (a rarity), before Henry finally lost his championship at TLC, before DESTROYING Big Show for Bryan to cash in MITB, but that's a story for another time.
The difference between the two title reigns is conspicuous. Henry was established as the top guy on Smackdown during his reign, as he usurped the top babyface and became a dominant heel of his brand. Benoit wasn't even the second biggest star on Raw at the time, as Triple H and Shawn clearly overshadowed him even when he was champion. Henry was clearly made out to be the biggest star of his show, and with guys like Orton, Big Show and Sheamus on Smackdown to deal with, while Benoit was just treated as upper mid-card. Before anyone throws any stupid stuff about Smackdown being a B-Show, Randy Orton was the second biggest babyface at the time of Henry's reign (Punk had only just started to rise during this time period) in the entire WWE, and Henry beat him clean twice. Benoit and his tag-team partner Edge (midcarder at the time) were losing to La Resistance of all people consistently, and yeah, Edge was getting pinned, but a pinfall loss is still a pinfall loss. Kane was no longer a big deal at the time of his match, and Triple H was made to look dominant during his match against Benoit and lost because of Eugene's interference. Benoit had to enlist the help of a ******ed guy to beat Triple H in a one on one match. Mark Henry beat his closest competition, the biggest babyface outside of John Cena clean twice.
OK, now that's out of the way, let's look at the other reasons why Benoit should lose this match, and another reason is that Benoit's style is simply not very good against a man like Mark Henry. He could scarcely suplex Kane, and Henry is 100lbs heavier than he is, and a harder frame to throw around, leaving strikes as his only means of primary offence, which simply isn't enough to stop 2011 Henry unless you're a very heavy hitter, which Benoit is not. Don't get me wrong, his chops hurt, but not to the extent that they would knock Henry off his feet like a boot from the Big Show would, unless Benoit jumped from the top rope which would leave him INCREDIBLY vulnerable to being caught and slammed down to the mat.
What's more, Mark Henry is billed as THE world's strongest man. People who aren't Mark Henry have powered out of his submission holds before (hell, Kane did it in 2004 I believe), even the Crossface. Mark has enough in the tank to power out of Benoit's grip quite a few times, giving him MUCH more time to dish out punishment to Benoit. Benoit has an excellent fighting style, but it just simply isn't very effective against a man like Mark Henry.
The final main reason that Benoit should lose here is that Benoit matches the criteria for a person that Henry would dispatch in his Hall of Pain. He's a credible threat being an upper-midcarder during his time as champion, but not enough to overcome the monster heel that is Mark Henry. If Benoit was still alive in 2011 and still the upper-midcarder champion that he was back in 2004 (let's say he's overshadowed by Orton), then Henry would have dispatched him just like he dispatched the TOP babyface Randy Orton. Benoit was playing second fiddle to HBK through a large portion of his title reign as the top Raw babyface. Nobody could match Mark Henry as a heel or a monster until the Big Show finally stood up to him and won the title, but it took him THREE chances to win the title from Henry, before Henry annihilated him and Bryan cashed in. It took Orton only one chance against Benoit, and he successfully defended his title against him the next night on Raw.
I know the seeding suggests that Benoit should win, but Mark Henry was an absolute FORCE during his peak as champion, unlike Benoit's peak at champion, where was the third guy on the Raw Roster.
Benoit is simply outmatched here, and is inducted into the Hall of Pain.
Vote Mark Henry.
