WWE: Night of Champions 2011. Its Mark Henry's Time

Since April of this year when he was drafted to Smackdown Mark Henry's theme song has never been more fitting. He has been on a rampage of destruction; injuring and dominating everything in his path. This type of devastation in the WWE is typical of the brawler wrestlers on the roster and often ends with another brawler portraying the face/good guy and putting an end to the mad brawlers wrath. The Big Show, the world's largest athlete failed, was injured and sidelined. Vladimir Koslov, the Moscow Mauler, failed, injured and taken out, and Kane, the Big Red Machine, the monster known for his unstoppable fury, failed, was injured and put out of action. Mark Henry's path has lead him to Buffalo New York, and the Night of Champions to face Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship; and like his song says 'someone's about to get their a$$ kicked.'

Henry, whom just celebrated his 40th birthday has been with the WWE for an impressive 16 years, in that time he has only held two championships, the ECW Championship and the European Title. While his accolades in a WWE ring seem less than impressive his actions outside the ring are ones to take note of. 

In Power-lifting he was the all time world former raw squat world record holder, in strong man competitions, as his name states, he was the winner  of the 2002 Arnold Classic Strongest Man competition. He's been a member of the US Olympic weightlifting team in 1992 and 1996 and was a Silver medalist in the 1995 Pan American Games. Mark Henry's World Strongest Man moniker is not a gimmick, its a fact.

On past episodes of Smackdown he's folded frying pans in half with his bare hands, he's lifted a car off the ground using his back and probably the most impressive of all he picked up The Big Show, carried him and then slammed him to the mat. His strength in that ring is unmatched, so how will a 245lb man, Randy Orton do, or rather survive an attack by this Mark Henry? My opinion: he won't.

There are those that say Henry is just a time filler, meant to face Orton for the championship due to a thinned out roster and Mark Henry was pushed to the front but has no chance of defeating a guy of Orton's caliber. It's been said that guys like Henry, a super-heavyweight, don't become world champions, they are strictly mid card talent used to help build stories. But for 61 days the Great Kahli held the World Heavyweight Championship after winning a 20 man battle royal. Kahli being over 7ft tall and weighing over 400lbs is hardly the most agile or athletic WWE superstar and yet he held the title and main evented pay per views, he would later lose it later to Batista in a triple threat match.

Others have questioned Henry's age, skills,and character the fact that he's been with the company so long and has not held the championship, what chance would he have now? Is his character relevant enough? Kane became the World Heavyweight champion in July of 2010  after cashing in his Money in The Bank contract at the age of 43. He's been with the WWE just four years longer than Henry, starting in 92 and while slight adjustments have been made to his persona, mask/no mask, he has been Kane since 1997. Kane had a great run as champion for 154 days with a fantastic feud against now retired superstar Edge.

Night of Champions will be the biggest match of Mark Henry's career to date, a shot at the world title on a pay per view against a popular and skilled Champion like Orton will be a true test to his merit. The next pay per view that follows is only two weeks away, Hell in A Cell and is scheduled for October 2nd following that is Vengeance on October 23rd. The Vengeance poster portrays Henry with a subtitle of "Vengeance is mine". Will this be pertaining to losing the title at Hell in the Cell or from being robbed of it at both events? Regardless Henry is staying in the spotlight for the foreseeable future. 

This match at Night of Champions will be one to watch out for, will the youth, agility and crowd popularity be enough for the Viper Randy Orton to walk out of the match with a win. Or will the power, strength and what seems like nigh invulnerability give Henry his first World Heavyweight title reign. 

Check out more of my updates every day this week on Night Of Champions as it takes place here in my fantastic town of Buffalo NY, over at The BOOM Page