WWE Hall of Famer "lied through his teeth" to get Daniel Bryan signed

Mark Henry has recently recalled how he “lied through his teeth” to improve Daniel Bryan’s chances of getting signed by WWE.

Although Henry never worked for the company in an official scouting role, he has been credited with recruiting several WWE Superstars in recent years. On one occasion, he reached out to a young Bryan Danielson (now known as Daniel Bryan) after watching him on an independent show in Canada.

Speaking on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Henry said he gave Bryan’s details to WWE executive John Laurinaitis. Due to WWE’s tendency to hire male superstars with large physiques, the 2018 Hall of Famer lied about Bryan’s height and weight.

“I got his information and I passed it on to Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis],” Henry said. “Johnny [said], ‘Erm, how big is he?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, he’s like six feet, six-one, about 200 pounds.’ I just lied through my teeth because I knew that they wanted bigger guys. He said, ‘Well, we’ll bring him in.’ Once I transferred that information, boom, they started doing all the scouting. I never touched him again. I never said nothing until he ended up in FCW [WWE’s former development system] and here we are, Hall of Fame guy.”

End of a #SmackDown era. #ThankYouBryan @WWEDanielBryan pic.twitter.com/gbwqGUxb3b

— WWE (@WWE) May 1, 2021

In addition to Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry played a part in WWE recruiting Apollo Crews, Bianca Belair, Braun Strowman, and Rich Swann. The new AEW signing also mentored Baron Corbin during the SmackDown star’s early days in WWE.

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Daniel Bryan worked with Mark Henry in WWE

Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan

According to wrestling stats database cagematch.net, Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry faced each other in six televised singles matches in WWE.

Bryan’s only one-on-one victory against Henry came when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on the November 25, 2011 episode of SmackDown.

Still my favorite WWE live moment was when @WWEDanielBryan cashed-in @TheMarkHenry on Smackdown #ThankYouBryan pic.twitter.com/GsGEFItJpX

— John Marianacci (@John_Marianacci) February 8, 2016

It looked as though Bryan had won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Henry. However, the title change was ruled out by General Manager Teddy Long because Henry had not been cleared to compete.

Please credit Oral Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.

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