Mark Henry Recalls Some Madison Square Garden Memories, Including The Rock Losing His Cool

Ah, Henry memories. Sometimes in wrestling you forget just how much pressure there is on the people in front of the camera. It’s easy to see someone go out there and electrify the crowd but it’s not quite that easy and people can get shaken. Being in front of a camera going to millions of people is hard enough, but it might be easier than going in front of a live crowd of tens of thousands of people. No one is immune, including the Great One.

Mark Henry was recently a guest on the Talk Is Jericho podcast to talk about a variety of things, including going into detail on Madison Square Garden. Henry said that it was the one place where he ever saw the Rock get flustered during a promo. The stories also include a time when Henry was nearly in a riot getting out of the arena. Here are some highlights, with transcription courtesy of WrestleZone.com:

On What Henry Doesn’t Like About Madison Square Garden

“There are some things that make it special; but, there are also some things that are not so special about it. So, George “The Animal” Steele was standing by a monitor in the back….I was like, ‘Mr. Steele, you want me to get you a chair?’ He was like, ‘Nah nah.’ I said, ‘No no, I’m gonna get you a chair. You don’t need to stand up.’ So I go get these two chairs, two folding chairs. I walk down the hallway and the guy’s like, ‘Woah woah, you gotta stop!’

“I was like, ‘Man are you serious?’ He was like, ‘You can’t carry those. You gotta give me that. I’ll get fired.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘No no, you’re not allowed to move furniture in this building. That’s our job. We have to do that. I’ll have to go get somebody. That’s what they do.’ I was like, ‘Get the hell out of here. He’s 50 feet that way.’ The guy stood in front of me with his arms out. He said, ‘Sir, no no.’

“He would not let me move those damn folding chairs. Jimmy Korderas came out. He used to put the ring up. He was saying how it was the same thing. They had a guy that came in and put the metal structure up. Then they had to call a group of people to do the carpentry. They would put the boards and carpet on. Then they had to call somebody else to put the ropes on. It takes all day to put together the Garden to do a show because of the union and it sucks.”

On The Fans Nearly Rioting

“We’re in the Nation. Me, The Rock, D-Lo are going – Dwayne of course was like, ‘Hey guys, you gotta pull the car right up to the entrance because if I come out, it’s gonna ridiculous, it’s gonna be a sh*t show.’ I say, ‘Alright Rock.’ Me and D-Lo, we go across the street. D-Lo gets hit in the face with a piece of pizza. That was the light of the sh*t they were throwing at us. So we get in the car and we whip out of the thing and Dwayne is supposed to run, throw his bag in, get in the backseat and we drive off like we own the place.

“Dwayne throws his bag in, gets in the car, the window goes out, somebody busted the window out. They started beating the car. They totaled the car with their hands. They totaled a Lincoln Town car with beating on it with their hands. We got back and they said, ‘This car is totaled.’ They had mashed the hood in so much that it broke the carburetor. I don’t know how we made it to the airport. By the grace of God we made it to the airport and the car wouldn’t start after that.”

And On The Garden Getting The Better Of The Rock

“At the Garden is the only time I ever seen him shook. That was the only time I ever saw him not be sure of himself because The Rock was always sure of himself; but, Dwayne got mixed up in The Rock that day. He wasn’t as sure as he had been and I remember looking at D-Lo, ‘Did you see this?’ He’s like, ‘He said that already.’

“And I said, ‘Yeah, he said that already.’ He had said something and said the exact same thing right after. I remember coming to the back and he was cussing at himself. I was like, ‘Aww man don’t worry about it. It’s the Garden. Everybody messes up every now and then.’ He was like, ‘I don’t mess up.’ He was so pissed at himself; but, The Garden gets everybody. Nobody’s exempt.”

You can listen to the full interview here.

 

Rock and Henry did work well together.

The Rock gives The Nation of Domination gifts: Raw,

Opinion: This is the kind of stuff I could hear about all day. Henry has been around for over twenty years and has seen a lot of major names come and go. It helps to be able to have someone around that much and see all kinds of things from big to small. Henry comes off as a nice guy in these interviews and is someone who is a valuable asset to WWE, which he has been for a long time.

What is the rowdiest you’ve ever seen a WWE crowd? What is your favorite Garden moment? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the the Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

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