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| Not even Punjabi giants are a match for the World's Strongest Man Photo Credit: WWE.com |
As if Mark Henry couldn't get any more awesome, last night happened. For those who didn't watch, Great Khali came out for a match with the World's Strongest Champion, and he was posturing for the crowd in the jovial, genial way that he's wont to do. The problem was he paid no mind to the angry Henry, who was already in the ring. While Khali was gladhanding and waving, Henry took the opportunity to waylay him with the belt. After some stomping, the Punjabi Playboy was put down for good by a World's Strongest Slam.
On the surface, that might seem nondescript, because hey, Khali's a joke nowadays, right? Well, yeah, Khali is a joke, but he's still a big guy. Even in his crippled state, he's still formidable looking, and in wrestling, all one needs to do is look the part, and half the job's done already. Khali isn't going to shrink, so of course, taking him down is still going to be a nice visual. One can look high and mighty, but the other half of using that statuesque build as something that can be torn down for the benefit of an assailant, well, that assailant has to hold up his end of the bargain and make it look like he's really kicking some ass in there against someone that he might not seem able to do on first glance.
There are exactly two guys in WWE that pass that initial smell test for Henry. Big Show and Khali. Henry already obliterated Show, so it'd be natural that Khali would be as easy. That's the thing about watching good wrestling programming though. Getting caught up in the moment and forgetting that Henry had done this before to Show happens when what he did to Khali was so impressive-looking. That's par for the course with Henry though. When he hits someone with his belt, it's expected that he does so with the gusto he had last night. When he delivers the World's Strongest Slam, it doesn't matter whether it's to a 61 year-old announcer or a behemoth Punjabi, it looks equally as devastating.
Folks may disagree with me on this, but I really don't care. Mark Henry, since he came over to Smackdown, has been the best wrestler, overall package, in the world. Granted, some of that has come with the gossamer caress of good booking, which one candidate CM Punk has not had, and he's gotten a lot of time on both RAW and Smackdown to get his story over, something that the other frontrunner for that title Kevin Steen doesn't get at all. However, there's something to be said for making the most of what's given as a gift, and Henry is doing just that.
There's also something to be said for Henry taking out people who've been annoying lately. Last week, it was Lawler, whose commentary has grown stale. This week, it was Khali, who hasn't been entertaining since the remake of The Longest Yard. With any luck, Henry will killify Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell and then Triple H on RAW. Then, he'll truly be King Henrius Maximus, the Splitter of Wigs.
