WWE News: Details on What Stopped Mark Henry's Push, His WWE Future in Doubt?

In 2011, we saw Mark Henry go from just another big man in a land full of big men to arguably the best heel in the entire WWE. 

He wreaked havoc on the SmackDown brand for months upon months en route to winning the first World Heavyweight Championship of his career, but then seemingly out of nowhere, his massive push came to a crashing halt. 

Henry dropped the World title to The Big Show at WWE TLC last December, and he has slowly but surely been working his way down the card ever since then. Now, we know why. 

From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via LordsofPain.net): 

"

WWE creative curtailing Mark Henry's standing in the company following a huge promotion relates to injuries and perception. Many internally have perceived Henry for numerous years as being injury prone and not tough enough to gut said injuries out.

Meanwhile, Henry is trying to break into acting as he feels his days in wrestling are coming to an end. He also realizes that his acting roles will probably limited to playing a bodyguard or bar bouncer. 

"

Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted. 

Although I never pictured myself saying this, I actually enjoyed the hell out of Henry’s heel run in 2011. His matches were always average at best, but Mark Henry the character was the WWE’s best heel for an extended period and maybe the heel of the year last year. I enjoyed watching him reach the peak of his career after being with the company for so long. 

But Henry—like many other superstars in 2011—was bitten by the injury bug when he suffered an ankle injury and seemed to make it worse by continuing to wrestle on it. I’m not sure why it’s being said that he didn’t “gut it out,” though, because he sure seemed to be trying to work through the pain. 

Oh well. Without Henry getting injured, it probably never would have opened the door for Daniel Bryan’s awesome heel run. 

While Bryan has been great as a heel, I’m not sure Henry’s got much of a future in acting, unless he’s just going to have to walk around looking angry. At least he’s willing to admit that he’s not going to be the next Denzel Washington, though.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions on Formspring.