Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry: Who Had the Better Fake WWE Retirement?

Pro wrestling rarely feels original anymore. We have seen the same stories told over and over with different people for decades, but there is one type of segment WWE rarely uses: the fake retirement.

One of the reasons this swerve is not used often is because WWE has had to allow so many people to deliver real retirement promos over the years. Imagine if someone had tried to pull this trick a few weeks after Edge had to retire for real. People would have called it classless and in poor taste.

Because it is so sparingly employed, we are genuinely surprised when it happens, which is something we rarely get to say about pro wrestling.

In fact, it has only happened twice in recent history. It happened when Mark Henry attacked John Cena and it happened again on Raw when Randy Orton got one over on AJ Styles.

Let's compare the two segments to see which Superstar had the more successful ruse.

Randy Orton

During a live event on Sunday, Orton appeared to suffer a knee injury. Several fans posted footage of him being helped by officials, and it appeared he would be out of commission for a while.

Instead of just ignoring the reports and having The Viper show up uninjured on Raw, WWE did the smart thing and played into the rumors by acknowledging the incident and having him arrive on crutches.

This will go down as one of the 39-year-old's best performances. He was convincing with his emotional speech about having to take time off and possibly being unable to continue performing for the WWE Universe. His voice cracked and it looked like he shed a few tears.

Everything seemed genuine, and with so many fan videos from the live event already in circulation, nobody had any reason to believe this was a work until AJ Styles showed up.

The Viper is a veteran who has done just as much in WWE as anybody else currently with the company. If he was really being forced to retire, WWE would not have used the moment to generate heat for someone else.

The Phenomenal One played his role to perfection and portrayed the kind of jerk you want to see someone put down. Orton did just that with a well-timed RKO. The moment he hit the move, everyone in the arena jumped out of their seat in excitement.

He stomped his leg to show his knee was fine and posed for his adoring fans to end the segment. 

Mark Henry

Henry came out during the June 17, 2013, episode of Raw while John Cena was still in the ring. Henry was wearing his legendary salmon jacket and appeared to be much more humble than usual.

The only red flag in this segment was Henry asking Cena to stick around for what he had to say. He called The Cenation Leader one of the greatest WWE champions of all time in what appeared to be a heartfelt compliment.

Henry began talking about what he had accomplished during his career but not in a way that came off as bragging. Again, he appeared humble.

As soon as he said he planned on retiring, the crowd began chanting "One more match." It was a sign of how much respect the WWE Universe had for The World's Strongest Man. The tears he shed were likely real as he reacted to their cheers, which made what happened next even better.

Henry talked about his wife and children and thanked them for supporting him along the way. He ticked every box when it came to giving a retirement speech, so when he scooped up Cena to deliver a World's Strongest Slam, the crowd exploded.

Cena was still something of a pariah with the WWE Universe at the time so Henry received a massive pop when he set his plan in motion.

It was one of the best moments of his career and is still talked about almost seven years later.

Who Did it Better?

Both Orton and Henry pulled off their respective faux retirement speeches by delivering believable performances and tugging at the crowd's heartstrings.

The only real difference was the circumstances leading to the segments. Orton's moment was a reaction to the injury scare from the live event while Henry had been off television for several weeks after suffering a loss to Sheamus at Extreme Rules in May.

The World's Strongest Man used social media to tease a potential retirement but the speech still caught a lot of people off guard. Orton's segment was announced by WWE ahead of time to drum up as much interest as possible.

Both men used social media to their advantage, they both shed fake tears to sell the moment and both fooled the WWE Universe.

We can't give Henry extra points for his taste in suit jackets so the only thing that puts his speech above Orton's by a small margin is how he chose to target his victim.

Once Styles' music hit and he made his way to the ring to mock Orton, it became clear The Viper was playing with him. Henry asking Cena to stick around seemed like an odd choice at first, but it wasn't enough to set off any alarm bells.

The World's Strongest Man elevated himself to a new level with his segment while Orton simply confirmed how sneaky he can be. It might be a small difference but it's the only one that sets these two segments apart in quality.

If we were adding points for style, that salmon jacket would have put Henry over the top anyway.

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Who do you think had the better fake retirement, Orton or Henry? Follow me on Twitter @BR_Doctor.