Chris Jericho looks back on Mark Henry’s AEW debut.
The World’s Strongest Man joined the promotion at the 2021 Double or Nothing pay-per-view from Daily’s Place and has remained in a key backstage/on-screen role ever since. However, Henry’s debut segment was actually shortened at the event due to the Stadium Stampede main event between the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle, a match that officially ended the COVID-19 era of AEW.
Chris Jericho spoke about this topic during the latest AEW-some podcast, where he revealed that he apologized to Henry for getting his segment cut for time and assured the former world champion that wasn’t an indication of how things worked at AEW.
That was the debut of Mark Henry that night. He came out and literally had 30 seconds. As a pro, he was mad, but as a vet, he knew that’s what he had to do to save that time. Kudos to Mark. I remember apologizing to him, ‘this is not how things work here. We apologize that you had to make the sacrifice.’ He got a longer segment on Dynamite, so it all worked out.
Henry would get to properly introduce himself to the AEW fanbase at the ensuring Dynamite, and has famously conducted interviews prior to the headlining match on AEW Rampage. This is where Henry coined his catchphrase, “It’s Time For The Main Event.”
In a separate interview, Jericho spoke about his 2021 feud with MJF and how he believes it helped elevate the current AEW world champion to the main event. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
