Is Mark Henry ECW Champ because of the Hayes incident?

TMZ.com questions whether WWE Smackdown lead writer Michael Hayes's racist remarks to Mark Henry during WrestleMania 24 weekend caused the company to book Henry to win the ECW Title at Sunday's Night of Champions pay-per-view.

"There's buzz around wrestling blogs that the 400 lb. wrestler that calls himself 'The World's Strongest Man' would never have been in line for a title if the racial controversy didn't exist," reads the story. "The company has only had three other African-American world champions in its entire history." To read the full item, which includes a link to the original story that TMZ credited to Prowrestling.net, click here. http://www.tmz.com/2008/06/30/mark-henry-color-him-wwe-champ/#continuedcontents [Thanks to Dot Net reader Zachary Heath.]

http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/publish/WWE/article1001963.shtml

Not necessarily.

The mere fact that Mark Henry is still employed with the company 12 years later from when he started, and continues to receives pushes, despite repeated failures, clearly shows this company determined to make the dude star, no matter what.

Even if the Michael Hayes ordeal would have not had happened, I am willing to bet Henry would have still won the ECW title, regardless.

Besides...

a) I do not think it is stretch to say Kane's run with the ECW belt was just "thank-you" run, of the Mic Foley variety

b) whatever the case, not as if the ECW title even matters

If people want to blame anything, blame WWE's ragging obsession of having land full of giants.

I will start off by saying that Henry gets way to much flak. He is not as bad as everybody makes him out to be. I'd rather see Henry then Khali or Big Daddy V(And somebody will say I'd rather see neither...thats why you watch ROH) And he makes the chokeslam on him look devastating.

Did he get the strap because of Hayes? Maybe. But just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop......The world may never know.

If Henry got the title for Hayes saying the N word then Carlito should have been champ a long time ago for Vince saying "spic" to himsephy37

Yeah for telling him to "spic" his character up more .

No, that's looking into it too much.

No

It is likely because he has been with WWE of a while now and hasn't been a Champion very often and WWE thinks its time is he is champion.

Not a chance.

Mark Henry is the ECW Champion for 2 reasons. To put the title back on ECW, and because he wasnt be used at all so why not put the belt on him to build up someone else?

I will start off by saying that Henry gets way to much flak. He is not as bad as everybody makes him out to be. I'd rather see Henry then Khali or Big Daddy V(And somebody will say I'd rather see neither...thats why you watch ROH) And he makes the chokeslam on him look devastating.

Did he get the strap because of Hayes? Maybe. But just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop......The world may never know.

TheGm86

I will agree with this ... plus Henry's promos lately have been funny as hell.