The story behind the story: Mark Henry 'retires' from the WWE

TAMPA, Fla. - In a rare sit-down with FOX 13, WWE Hall-of-Famer Mark Henry revealed one of his most memorable performances in the ring.  

It was June 17, 2013. Henry stunned the WWE Universe during Monday Night Raw, announcing his intention to retire.

“The reason I’m out here...to formally retire from the active roster of the WWE,” he said at the time.

“The best entertainment is art imitating life, and I was imitating real life,” Henry told FOX 13’s Josh Cascio.

“I knew that I had just a small window at a high level left in me and I wanted to retire,” he said. “I knew that was my time to get people to think I was really going to retire. It worked. It was not over a matter of months, it was almost a year I was telling people I was done, because I really wanted to,” he said.

As he tells it, he had a conversation with the boss, Vince McMahon that helped bring the ultimate curveball to life.

“He was like, 'You can’t quit, you still got a lot left in the tank.' That’s where 'A lot left in the tank' came from,” Henry explained.

The crowd never saw it coming. Mark Henry stopped his retirement speech, slamming John Cena to the mat. It was a moment still talked about years later.

“I knew - once we started talking - that we would pull the wool over the wrestling world’s eyes. I couldn’t go to my grave and not have that opportunity and take it,” Henry said.

And that is the story, behind the story.