Mark Henry - How strong is he really?

[Bernkastel]

Mark Henry is one strong motherfucker. That's common knowledge. Is he currently the worlds strongest man? No. I'd say that would be Zydrunas Savickas. But at one point in time good ol' Mark actually had a legit claim as one of the strongest human beings in the world. And at the age of 43 he's very likely still the strongest guy on the WWE active roster.

Is he the strongest man to ever compete for the WWE? His only real competition would be men like Andre, Big Show, the Warlord, Scott Steiner, Tony Atlas, and maybe Brock Lesnar [when he was younger.] And even then I don't think any of those men can really begin to approach Henry's level of raw power.

So here's the question... is Mark Henry the strongest man to ever lace up a pair of boots as a pro wrestler? I'd say his closest competitors would be Ken Patera and Bill Kazmaier.

So where does Mark really rank among the pantheons of the strongest pro wrestlers ever?

 

[TheICChampion]

Go back and watch when he pulled (I think it was) 2 trucks. If that ain't strong, I don't know what is.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I have no idea but gun to my head I would guess that most people would assume Mark is overall the strongest. But I don't even know how to judge. I just wanted to stop in and ask if there is any footage of Bill Kazmaier in WWE? If he competed in WWE he is probably the strongest. And mention that Ted Arcidi was in WWE for a cup of coffee.

 

[OYDK]

Yeah, I would ASSUME Mark Henry was the strongest man to ever lace a pair of boots, but of course, we can never really know for sure, can we. I base my opinion on the things I've seen Mark Henry do and the accolades he's collected; He holds about 19 weightlifting records and still holds the greatest raw squat of all time; He has squatted and deadlifted 900 POUNDS; Throughout 91-96, Henry placed first or second in over 6 national championships, and he won the Arnold Strongman Classic in 2002. He's also the only man to clean lift 174 pounds with a single arm.

Also some of the feats of strength he showed in 02 must be taken into consideration.

Admittedly, I've heard stories of Ken Patera but have never seen him wrestle so I can't really make the comparison, but I think it would be tough to find anybody stronger, pound for pound than Mark Henry.

 

[TDFG]

I'm sure he's one strong man, but he's definitely not "The World's Strongest Man" and should never be able to claim that title.

He won The Arnold Classic when he apparently had quite some time to train the events ahead of the other guys. If you had have put Henry in the actual World Strongest Man contest he would be lucky to make the Finals.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It depends on what you mean by strength. I know that it seems pretty self explanatory but it's not when you think about it. I've worked out with weights since I was in my early teens and one thing I've learned is that there are different types of strength.

For instance, when you look at someone that's supremely defined or cut like a bodybuilder, people often assume that the guy is strong as an ox and that's not usually the case. That's not to say that they're not strong of course, but Herculean physiques don't go hand in hand with Herculean strength. Bodybuilders and fitness athletes work out to get that definition and symmetry whereas guys like Henry are genuine powerlifters who lift primarily for great strength. Also, when you consider strength, you also have to ask about people who compete in these strongman competitions; you obviously have to have a great deal of strength to be successful in those events, but you can be the, technically, strongest weightlifter in the world but not do at all well in strongman events. Some of those events require not only strength, but also a certain amount of leverage, some events rely on grip strength, a combination of physical force & technique, height & body weight can be a hindrance or a benefit, depending on the event.

When a person thinks of measuring upper body strength, the bench press is considered the quintessential exercise but, comparatively speaking, Mark Henry isn't as strong in that particular lift as one might think. Officially, Henry's best raw bench press is 585.3 lbs. and while that's certainly a huge amount of weight, the current world record for the raw bench press, without any sort of bench shirt for support, is 722 lbs. and is held by a man named Eric Spoto, who weighed just slightly over 300 lbs. when he did it in 2013. Wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino set the record in 1959 at 565 lbs., which stood for 8 years, a he weighed about 270 when he set it. Powerlifter Ted Arcidi signed with the WWF in 1985 and set the raw bench press record in 1984 with 667 lbs. with a body weight of 286 lbs. He didn't accomplish much in the WWF, the guy flat out sucked and guys like Big John Studd would potato the shit outta the guy during matches whenever they could.

Henry's biggest feats of strength, in terms of lifting weights, came in the squat & deadlift with personal bests of 953.5 and 904 lbs. respectively. In terms of snatch and clean & jerk, Henry's best totals were about 400 and 485 lbs. respectively, so when you look at how much he could lift as a whole, he may very well be the strongest in the history of the WWE, at least at one point in time. At 43 years of age, he's probably not what he once was considering the sort of wear & tear a lifetime of lifting such massive weights can put on your joints.

 

[Bernkastel]

And those are Henry's official competition lifts. I've heard claims of a 650 pound raw bench press and a 1006 pound raw squat. Lord knows what the man could have accomplished, or still can accomplish, with the aid of a power lifting suit.

Check out this interview with Tony Atlas. Some of the things he discusses are ridiculous.

[youtube]wl-uWqGy1xU[/youtube]

Mark Henry pushed a loaded charter bus up a hill running, on top of casually lifting small cars.

Realistically I think Kazmaier is close. His bench press is 661 pounds, His dead lift is 837 pounds, and his squat is 925 pounds. He's a 3 time World's Strongest Man, and has like 15 competition titles to his name. And then you have Andre deadlifting a one ton weight off the ground. Kayfabe, yes. But that's technically his best feat other than flipping a car, which Big Show has done. And then The Great Antonio [known for getting his head stomped in by Antonio Inoki in a shoot] once pulled a 433 ton train and made it into the Guinness Book of Worlds Records, on top of pulling 4 loaded city buses. As seen here...

... and even offered to tow a 747 down the tarmac. But he actually wanted one for his own personal use in exchange LOL.

Mark certainly does have a claim to be the strongest pro wrestler ever, but he has at least 2 primary challengers.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane from "Game of Thrones" is competing on those "World Strongest Man" contests and won some of them. And he is ridiculosly strong. Granted, Henry got older and, today, dont believe that he could ever beat "The Mountain" but in comparasing to average WWE Superstar, make no mistake, he is really strong.

If anyone has doubts about that, he/she can look this.

[youtube]3Ai7vJp0sgE[/youtube]

 

[Mustang Sally]

Is he currently the worlds strongest man?

He isn't now....and never was. In his Olympic performances, he finished 10th in 1992 and 14th in 1996. The "title" was a gimmick, no different than other gimmicks in pro wrestling.

Yes, if there were a weight lifting competition with other WWE performers (can you imagine?) Mark would win because he has the biggest body and knows how to go about it while the others wouldn't.

Still, I wonder what Mark's regular fitness routine has included all these WWE years. When you look at photos of him now as compared to when he first joined the company, you can see the difference in his weight and level of conditioning. Sure, growing older accounts for a lot of that, but what kind of weight lifting regimen has he observed these many years?

Yes, he's naturally strong because he's naturally big in body size, but the same might be said for Big Show, who doesn't strike me as a powerful man at all, considering his size.

But the "world's strongest man" is a slogan akin to the "most electrifying man in sports entertainment."

In the real world, both are meaningless. If either becomes a category for the Academy Awards and has qualified people voting on it, I'll change my tune.

 

[TDFG]

Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane from "Game of Thrones" is competing on those "World Strongest Man" contests and won some of them. And he is ridiculosly strong.

Hafþór Júlíus "Thor" Björnsson. The guy is a beast and will be WSM someday.

Adam Scherr (NXT as Brawn Stowman) competed in strongman as well.

 

[Big Sexy]

He isn't now....and never was. In his Olympic performances, he finished 10th in 1992 and 14th in 1996. The "title" was a gimmick, no different than other gimmicks in pro wrestling.

Henry was widely considered the strongest man in the world when he came to the WWE in 1996 so it wasn't just a gimmick. His Olympic performances are misleading for a few reasons. during the 92' Olympics he was only 21 years old so not yet at his peak in terms of strength. In 1996 the reason he performed poorly was because of a back injury he suffered right before the Olympics. He was winning every competition you could think of before the Olympics that year. You also have to keep in mind that Henry was one of very few weightlifters who was not using steroids at that time, yet he was still doing things no one else could.

 

[Glacier]

Dude got an 80 year old woman pregnant.

He's got mad skillz.

 

[justtxyank]

From wikipedia...

Mark Jerrold Henry[16] (born June 12, 1971)[1] is an American powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman and professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE. He was a two-time Olympian in 1992 and 1996[3] and a Silver, Gold and Bronze Medalist at the Pan American Games in 1995.[6] As a powerlifter, he was WDFPF World Champion (1995)[7] and a two-time U.S. National Champion (1995[8] and 1997[7]) as well as an all-time raw world record holder in the squat and deadlift.[2] Currently, he still holds the WDFPF world records in the squat, deadlift and total[17][18] and the USAPL American record in the deadlift[19][20][21] since 1995. He is credited for the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug tested athlete, regardless of weight class,[22] as well as the greatest raw deadlift by an American citizen.[19]

In weightlifting, Henry was a three-time U.S. National Weightlifting Champion (1993, 1994, 1996),[10] an American Open winner (1992),[13] a two-time U.S. Olympic Festival Champion (1993 and 1994)[2] and a NACAC champion (1996).[6] He holds all three Senior US American weightlifting records of 1993–1997.[23] In 2002 he won the first annual Arnold Strongman Classic.[6]

 

[Wrestling2015]

No doubt Henry is a strongest man of WWE.

 

[Wrestling2015]

Undertaker is the best one for ever. Great Wrestler for all time