The Big Show might be one of professional wrestling’s most iconic giants, but even he was once made to feel inferior by Mark Henry.
Standing seven feet tall, there were few feats of strength that he failed to showcase during a legendary WWE run.
The seven-time world champion made a career out of dominating his opponents in the ring, perhaps thanks to his crazy 18,000-calorie daily diet, but there was one thing that Big Show couldn’t do — bend a quarter.
He did once witness Henry do just that, though, and it left him feeling ‘completely insignificant as a man.’
During a radio interview back in 2015, he recalled the moment he found ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ sweating in the locker room, having bent the coin with his bare hands.
“I came in the locker room one time and Mark was hunched over, pouring sweat,” Big Show began.
“He just had this real concentrated look on his face. I’m like, ‘Ah, something happened.’ So I set my bags down, I sat next to him, I put my arm around him. I said, ‘Are you alright man? Is everything cool?’
“He goes, ‘Yeah. I’m trying to tear a quarter and all I can do is bend it.’
“And he had bent a freaking quarter with his fingers. So I just took my arm, pat him on the shoulder. I said, ‘Okay, just checking on you.’
“I went over to the corner and felt completely insignificant as a man. Because there’s no way in hell I could ever bend a quarter. I don’t think I can do it with pliers.”
Even as a seven-foot WWE superstar nicknamed ‘The Giant’, the locker room could be an imposing place, especially if Henry was present.
After all, he was famously said to be capable of squatting 1,000lbs in his prime.
Henry was also a two-time Olympian who won gold, silver, and bronze weightlifting medals at the Pan American Games in 1995.
The 360lb star won the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic and an array of other powerlifting championships alongside his successful WWE career.
And when he wasn’t intimidating the Big Show by bending quarters in the locker room, the pair were causing carnage in the ring.
Together, they provided an iconic pro-wrestling moment, shattering the ring under their combined weight.
At WWE’s Vengeance pay-per-view in 2011, Big Show uncharacteristically scaled the turnbuckle, but as he stood on the second rope, Henry countered with a crushing superplex.
When the two giants came crashing down, the ring crumpled into a heap, bringing the stunned San Antonio crowd to their feet.
Henry, of course, isn’t the only intimidating figure the Big Show faced during his sure-to-be Hall of Fame career.
He famously stepped into the ring with Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania XXIV — and suffered a brutal knockout.
The prizefighter flattened the 441lb giant with a brutal right fist — aided by brass knuckles — to hand Big Show a memorable defeat on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
Their bout came weeks after Mayweather’s famous right hand broke Big Show’s nose for real in a segment that built up to WrestleMania.
“At that time the angle was so much fun because it’s really hard to do that boxer vs wrestler angle that’s been done,” Big Show told talkSPORT, recalling the iconic feud.
“It’s an interesting dynamic and try to do it differently and also pull the fans in and make them excited I thought the way that whole thing was done and the story we told it worked out.”
