Feuding with The Shield Is a Step Down for Mark Henry

Mark Henry has finally arrived at the WWE main event picture becoming relevant at an interesting time.

The 17-year veteran of the WWE cut a monumental promo faking his retirement and attacking WWE champion John Cena. It was the promo of his career, and he made himself relevant. The promo placed Henry’s match with Cena at Money in the Bank as the co-main event.

The World’s Strongest Man lost to Cena and is now matched up against The Shield. According to F4WOnline.com (via WrestlingInc.com), it seems he’ll team with The Usos in a six-man tag at SummerSlam. At this point in his career, feuding with The Shield is a step down for Mark Henry.

I mean no disrespect to The Shield, who took the WWE by storm since their debut at last November’s Survivor Series.

The United States champion Dean Ambrose and tag team champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns slipped a bit in terms of relevancy. Their last big step was retaining their titles at June’s Payback. Since then, they’ve been lost in the shuffle.

The Usos aren’t to blame either.

In fact, they’ll benefit the most from this potential matchup. The team of Jimmy and Jey Uso put on a great tag team show with Rollins and Reigns during Money in the Bank’s pre-show event. They also interfered when The Shield tried to help Ambrose win the world title shot ladder match the same night.

They’ll benefit the most from this much-needed exposure.

Despite being out of the limelight, The Shield will also benefit from this situation. It seems like a step down from facing the likes of Cena, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan.

However, they’re in the midcard because of the overflow of main event talent, which brings us to Mark Henry. This guy was at the right place at the right time, nearly taking the top heel spot in the company. Now, Henry’s back in the midcard role fighting others he shouldn’t?

That’s a disservice to Henry and for his career.

Henry did reveal in an interview with Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97 in New York that he signed a three-year deal to stay with the WWE. He’ll have plenty of time to return to the main event. However, the WWE creative team should’ve struck while the kettle was hot.

Forget about turning Henry face. The issue lies with where Mark Henry should be. He needs a bigger, high-profile match. Henry won’t regain that spot in quite some time if he does indeed team with The Usos against The Shield at SummerSlam.