The Curious Case of Mark Henry: Unstoppable Monster or Glorified Jobber?

Although John Cena and The Rock traded impressive feats of strength on this past week's Raw, it came at the expense of Mark Henry.

On the previous episode of WWE's flagship show, Henry was a wrecking crew against part of Team Teddy. But after the loss to Cena and the subsequent Rock Bottom, not many people will remember that segment.

Mark Henry has taken a huge roller-coaster ride in the past year. At WrestleMania XXVII, the World's Strongest Man was part of the dark match Battle Royal, won by the Great Khali.

After Mark was drafted to SmackDown, he turned heel and began an amazing summer, inducting superstars into the Hall of Pain left and right and not losing a match for months.

This all led to his capture of the World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions, which he would hold until the TLC pay-per-view in December. Since then, injuries have put Henry's huge push to a sudden and complete halt.

Last week, it seemed that we finally saw the return of the unstoppable monster, when he took apart members of Team Teddy, including Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. But this week, he was a big steak dinner for the Rock and Cena.

Which Mark Henry should we expect from now on?

Henry was so successful with his Hall of Pain gimmick that it seems foolish of the WWE to ever consider him turning face again. It is very difficult for men of that size to be great good guys—the Big Show is one of the few who are able to do it well, but he is still better as the menacing heel.

In the past year, Mark Henry started as a wrestler in mid-card purgatory for a decade and became a force to be reckoned with.

When his push started, I was hesitant to get behind the big man. But when I saw the work he did in the ring and on the microphone every week, my opinion changed in a big way, and I am sure many other opinions were changed as well.

The Hall of Pain gimmick was cut off too short, and if Henry had not sustained that injury, he would most likely be the World Heavyweight Champion headed into WrestleMania. He deserved that after all of his great work, and it is unfortunate that the timing ruined a great run.

Now, we are lucky to see glimpses of what was the powerhouse known as Mark Henry. And while he did get plenty of offense in last night, it turned into the usual Cena superhuman feat of strength, where we are all supposed to act like we have never seen anything like it before.

A year ago, we would have expected that to happen to the World's Strongest Man. Now, it is wrong for the WWE to make him the stereotypical glorified jobber.

Henry does not have much time left in his career, so while he is around, let him continue to induct wrestlers into the Hall of Pain. The WWE must re-establish the unstoppable monster in order to avoid a slip back to mid-card jobber.

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