“I tore my knee up, and Dr. Andrews thought I was never going to wrestle again.”

That was Mark Henry—Olympian, powerlifting world-record holder, and WWE Hall of Famer—describing one of the many injuries he endured in professional wrestling.

“I tore my IT band, tore my patellar tendon, broke my kneecap in half, and tore my PCL. All at the same time.”

Henry survived injuries that would have ended most athletic careers instantly. Pain never defined his limits.

Fear did.

And that’s what makes this story extraordinary.

Because Mark Henry—the World’s Strongest Man—openly admitted that there were wrestlers he was afraid of.

Not afraid of losing a scripted match.
Not afraid of embarrassment.
Afraid of being seriously injured… or worse.

Henry once revealed that he had a list: ten men in professional wrestling who genuinely scared him. Men who made him walk on eggshells. Men whose presence triggered something primal—an understanding that strength alone wasn’t enough.

When a man who bent steel bars for a living admits fear, it’s worth listening.

What Fear Means to Mark Henry

Mark Henry is not a normal human being.

He competed in two Olympic Games for the United States.
He holds world records in powerlifting that still stand.
He lifted the legendary Thomas Inch dumbbell, a 172-pound solid iron weight with a 2.38-inch handle—something even elite strongmen cannot grip, let alone raise overhead.

Henry pulled tractor trailers with his legs.
He bent steel bars with his bare hands.

Fear, for him, was never about ego. It was about survival.

Because in wrestling—especially in earlier eras—some men could truly hurt you if something went wrong. Some didn’t care if it went wrong.

And Henry knew exactly who those men were.

10 – The Big Show

Paul Wight stood over seven feet tall and weighed between 400 and 500 pounds throughout his career.

Mark Henry was used to being the biggest man in the room.

Next to Big Show, he had to look up.

That alone unsettled him.

Working with Big Show terrified Henry not because Show was malicious—but because of physics. Lifting, slamming, or catching a man that size meant risking spinal compression, herniated discs, or paralysis if anything went wrong.

Every match was a calculation:
What if his grip slipped?
What if his knees buckled?
What if Show lost balance?

Henry admitted he lay awake the night before matches running scenarios in his head. The fear wasn’t psychological—it was biomechanical.

Only after dominating Big Show during his 2011 Hall of Pain run did Henry finally feel he’d conquered that fear.

But it never truly left.

9 – Danny Hodge

Most modern fans don’t know Danny Hodge.

Mark Henry does.

Hodge was a three-time NCAA champion, an Olympic boxer—and possibly the strongest human ever when it came to grip strength.

He crushed apples into pulp with one hand.
He snapped steel pliers by squeezing them.
Wrestlers believed he had “double tendons” in his hands.

Hodge was a legitimate hooker—a man who could cripple you with submission holds.

He weighed around 220 pounds.

Henry could bench-press him easily.

But if Hodge grabbed his wrist?

Henry knew there was nothing he could do.

That humiliation—the idea that technique could dominate raw strength—terrified him.

 8 – Scott Steiner

Scott Steiner was dangerous because he was unpredictable.

An NCAA wrestler with explosive power, Steiner worked stiff and reckless. Suplexes came fast and hard. Protection wasn’t guaranteed.

Henry openly admitted he avoided working with the Steiner Brothers entirely.

One bad throw.
One missed rotation.
One drop on the head.

Career over.

That wasn’t cowardice. It was intelligence.

7 – The Barbarian

Sione Vailahi—the Barbarian—was one of the few men who could match Mark Henry’s raw gym strength.

Henry called it Islander strength.

Tongans and Samoans, he said, possessed bone density and functional power that defied logic. The Barbarian lifted numbers comparable to Henry’s.

For a man whose entire identity was built on being the strongest, meeting a physical equal was deeply unsettling.

And worse—if you disrespected the Barbarian, you answered to Haku.

No one wanted that.

6 – Harley Race

Harley Race came from a time when wrestling champions had to fight for real.

Race was a technical hooker, a multi-time NWA World Champion—and he carried a loaded gun.

Multiple wrestlers confirmed it.

He had a legendary temper and zero tolerance for disrespect. Henry knew better than to test him.

Race represented an older, lawless era of wrestling—one where violence wasn’t theoretical.

And that scared him.

5 – Bad News Brown

Bad News Brown was an Olympic bronze medalist in judo—the only American heavyweight to ever accomplish that at the time.

Technique. Leverage. Joint destruction.

Henry learned early the story of Brown confronting a drunken Andre the Giant over a racist comment—challenging him to fight.

Andre backed down.

That told Henry everything he needed to know.

Bad News Brown didn’t posture.
He didn’t threaten.
He didn’t need to.

That quiet certainty made him dangerous.

4 – The Undertaker

Mark Henry didn’t fear The Undertaker physically.

He feared him institutionally.

Undertaker ran the locker room. Wrestlers Court. Careers could be stalled—or ended—through loss of respect alone.

Henry feared disappointing him.

Their WrestleMania 22 casket match represented a test of trust. Failing it would have been professional death.

That pressure forged Henry into a better performer.

But at the time, the fear was overwhelming.

3 – Ron Simmons

Ron Simmons was Henry’s mentor—and the only man Henry ever considered fighting premeditated.

That admission says everything.

Simmons enforced locker-room justice physically if necessary. Henry watched him legitimately straighten out Ahmed Johnson after an injury.

But the deeper fear wasn’t violence.

It was disappointment.

Simmons was a trailblazer. The first Black WCW World Champion. Henry wanted desperately to live up to that legacy.

Letting him down terrified him more than any injury.

2 – Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar shattered Henry’s sense of invulnerability.

In 2002, rookie Lesnar overhead belly-to-belly suplexed Henry—launching a 360-pound man effortlessly.

Henry said it made him feel small for the first time in his life.

Lesnar was explosive, antisocial, unpredictable, and legitimately trained in combat. If things escalated, Henry knew he was outmatched.

Lesnar didn’t respect hierarchy.

That made him dangerous.

1 – Haku

Haku—Tonga Fifita—was different.

Not tough.
Not strong.

Lethal.

Henry has said repeatedly: if he ever needed backup in a real fight, he would choose Haku over anyone.

Stories of Haku biting off a man’s nose.
Breaking police handcuffs.
Fighting multiple bouncers.

All corroborated.

Haku felt no pain. Feared no consequences.

And no one knew what might trigger him.

That uncertainty kept absolute order in locker rooms everywhere.

Even giants feared him.