The late ’90s were a wild time for pro wrestling. WWE’s “Attitude Era” was forged during the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW and as a result there were storylines on both flagship shows that strayed outside the normal boundaries of pro wrestling — and television standards in general — in the battle for securing higher ratings.
One of the most aberrant storylines to come out of that time period involved former Olympian and “The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry, who during the more sexually-charged and adult-themed Attitude Era took on the cognomen of “Sexual Chocolate.” Henry, who was in his mid-20s at the time, formed a relationship with former female professional wrestler Mae Young, who in her late 70s. Although the on-screen relationship, which culminated with Young giving birth a hand on live television (don’t ask, we don’t get it either) was certainly strange by any measure of the word, Henry also explained that the storyline with Young was one of the funniest and most fun experiences he had as a pro wrestler.
“The most fun I ever had in wrestling was the Valentine’s Day special with Mae Young in the hotel,” Henry explained on a recent interview on the Monopoly Events show. “The guy that was producing that segment, everybody knows Bruce Prichard, Brother Love. Bruce almost died, like he was laughing so hard that he started hyperventilating and went to his butt. He fell back and he was against the wall … laughing at him pass out, was funnier than everything else.”Â
Henry went on to talk about Mae Young’s legacy as a pioneer in female professional wrestling and how during her heyday she was one of the most beautiful women in the industry — as well as one of the toughest. He also reminisced about an instance where Young put a popular wrestler at the time in his place for being disrespectful.
“We used to ride on the road all the time, where during that time men used to mistreat the women wrestlers. They disrespected them and [Mae Young] told some wrestler that was really popular at the time, if you’re going to be disrespectful to a woman, you could at least zip your pants in front of everybody. He bent down to zip his pants, she kicked him in the balls and stomped him,” Henry recalled, laughing.
Do you think the Mark Henry and Mae Young storyline during the WWE Attitude Era was as funny and entertaining as the “World’s Strongest Man” remembers? Let us know in the comments.
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