7 Years Ago Today, Mark Henry Fake-Retired, And We All Bought It Hook, Line, & Sinker

This is one of my favorite promos I've ever watched live - probably a Top 5 of the 2010s as well. Mark Henry had grown men and women in tears during an absolutely beautiful "retirement" speech, and then tore each and every one of those people's hearts out of their chests Kali-Ma style with a World's Strongest Slam over John Cena....

It was just so well executed from start to finish, I'll never forget it - reports started leaking out through dirtsheets that Mark might've made the decision to retire the day prior (brilliant to leak the story early), he followed up the reports with a pretty serious string of tweets.....

.....and then that mothafucka WORKED the everliving shit outta us marks! Made us cry!

Unfortunately, they didn't run with Henry on top after this; John Cena just beat him on pay-per-view a few weeks later at Money in the Bank. Shame, because I feel like he could've had a second "HALL OF PAIN" type run with the championship at that point.

I won't fault the company for that too much, though, because the night after Cena beat Henry on PPV, the #YESMovement really kicked into high gear, proving they at least had some plans in place....