On what he used to summon up the tears in his retirement speech: “Man, you’ve got to be able to get into whatever you’re doing. Not only am I trained, but I’m also one that really gets into anything that I do, and it was real to me. I made it real, and there’ll come a day when I have to do stuff like that again, but right now, that’s not the question. The question is, ‘Is Mark Henry going to be WWE Champion on Sunday?’ I can see myself being WWE Champion. I can see what it’ll do for the business. I see what it’ll do for me. I took a 50 percent pay cut when I signed that last deal five years ago because I was looked at as being a middle-of-the-road performer. During that time, John Cena made millions, and that’s what I want. I mean, Money in the Bank is not just the name of the pay-per-view, it’s a chance for me to get my will to where I want it so when the time does come for me to officially retire, I won’t have to worry about nothing.”
On whether he was ever pitched a gimmick different than “Mark Henry, All American” at the start of his career: “I always say smart marks talk about gimmicks and heels and faces and all that stuff. All that’s irrelevant. When I was a fan of the WWF at the time, I made note on a TV show that when I was asked, ‘What does the World’s Strongest Man do in his spare time?,’ ‘Watching the WWF on weekends and Monday’ was my response. Then, [WWE] called me and asked me if I would like to come and check the business out. That was my introduction to the WWE. As far as anything else, I’m focused on what’s going to happen on Sunday. The past is great to dwell on, but we live in the now, and me being WWE Champion is the most important thing in this universe to me. My family wholeheartedly support me, but because I’ve been less than honest, I’m probably kind of in the doghouse, but hey, I’ll take being in the doghouse and winning [at] Money in the Bank rather than having everything milk and honey.”