Mark Henry Announces His Retirement, GFW’s Network Release Date

Mark Henry has been employed by WWE for two decades now, making him one of the longest tenured wrestlers in the entire business. So it may seem surprising that Mark Henry has decided to end his wrestling career after so many years of working for WWE. Mark Henry appeared on the Sam Roberts Podcast to discuss his current status in the company. Henry has not been involved in any sort of major storyline in years, and he has appeared for the company on a much more limited basis as of late. During the show, Henry confirmed that he is now retired from in-ring competition at the age of 46, marking perhaps an anticlimactic end to his impressive and lengthy run as a wrestler.
Henry was signed to a ten year contract by WWE in 1996 after competing as a power-lifter in the Summer Olympics from that year. He has been with the company ever since. After becoming a pro wrestler, Henry managed to win the European and ECW titles in WWE, and he even had a decent run as World Heavyweight Champion in 2011. Mark Henry has allegedly contemplated leaving wrestling for several years, but Vince McMahon was always able to convince him to re-sign for a few more years. Henry’s final match in WWE was the 2017 Royal Rumble match wherein he entered at #6 and was eliminated by Braun Strowman. He has expressed interest in having one more official retirement match, but for now, he is working with WWE as a backstage producer and a talent scout.
Global Force Wrestling has been building the company back up over the course of a year now. After rebranding the former Impact Wrestling under the GFW initials, they have signed new talent, brought back live events, and have worked on landing TV deals in key areas of the world. The company is now working on an over-the-top streaming service. It will be called the Global Wrestling Network, and it is going to be available later this month. On the most recent edition of Impact, Josh Matthews and Jeremy Borash discussed the new service, and confirmed that it will be available for iOS and Android devices, as well as on GlobalWrestlingNetwork.com this September.