Mark Henry quietly retired from professional wrestling and started working as a producer. At least, that's what people have come to learn with the announcement that he'll be heading into the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame and no official goodbye was given to Henry on WWE programming.

The Hall of Fame is not an honor WWE often gives to active talent, thus his nomination into this year's class is a clear indication that Henry is officially done with WWE as an in-ring performer, and if that's the case, he's had the kind of career definitely worthy of the nod.

A talent signed because of his Olympic pedigree and reputation as the "World's Strongest Man", Henry was given a huge 10-year contract by WWE thanks to his accomplishments in powerlifting and the 1996 Summer Olympics. While he appeared on television and displayed his strength, he was not quick to fit in with the locker room and not seen as one of the boys. Not a fan of the backstage ribbing and politics, Henry didn't fit in well. It was much like his on-screen character.

Meant to be a babyface who was just too strong to ignore, fans didn't take to Henry's character. It wasn't until he turned on the WWE Universe and joined the faction Nation of Domination did Henry really start to take his first steps toward being a major player in the WWE.

Related: Mark Henry Officially Announced For 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame

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It was then Henry's personality began to shine through. Turning on Farooq and working closely with The Rock, Henry quickly began to learn what it meant to be a "personality". It was this personality that allowed Henry to completely switch gears and go from a Nation member to the "Sexual Chocolate" persona many fans fell in love with. Some viewed this change as WWE punishing Henry for earning such big money and not necessarily living up to the hype that came with such a large contract, but Henry made the character his own, succeeding when many might have believed he should have failed.

Perhaps the most notorious of storylines was Henry's involvement with the late Mae Young who had an on-screen romantic relationship with Henry and became pregnant, eventually giving birth to a plastic hand. It will forever go down as one of the most ridiculous things WWE has ever done.

via mirror.co.uk
via mirror.co.uk

Related: Mark Henry Officially Retires From WWE

After that, Henry took a break from WWE. Entering the Arnold Strongman Classic with less than four months to train and compete against the world's best strongmen, Henry walked in, won the entire contest convincingly and set a world record in the process by lifting the Apollon's Axle three times overhead. He was once again the "World's Strongest Man" and came back to WWE competing on SmackDown in feats of strength segments. Eventually, by December 2005, Henry was in the World Title picture.

While he didn't win the title at that time, in 2011, Henry finally was able to overcome the obstacles and defeat Randy Orton at Night of Champions to win the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time in his 15 years with WWE. He held onto the title for a few months but eventually lost the belt, never to win it again.

By the time 2013 rolled around, Henry had been teasing his retirement on social media. Fans legitimately believed he was saying goodbye and a segment to bid him farewell was booked for Raw. Coming to the ring in a now-famous pink sports jacket, he relayed a tearful message only to double cross everyone, including John Cena and give Cena a World's Strongest Slam. It was considered some of Henry's best-ever work in WWE.

via wwe.com
via wwe.com

Related: Why Hasn't Mark Henry Been On WWE TV?

Henry would stay in WWE for another few years but never doing much more than acting as an enhancement talent for WWE. He would come and go, not regularly appearing on WWE programming and by the time the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 had rolled around, many fans didn't realize this would be Henry's last match for WWE.

While his goodbye was not exactly what he might have deserved, it doesn't diminish what Henry accomplished as a WWE performer. He started with no wrestling training, had to find a way to fit in with a WWE locker room that saw him as completely different, overcome the pressure of a huge contract, and change characters multiple times, which isn't always easy to do.

He was a one-time holder of the ECW, WWE European and World Heavyweight Championship titles and a three-time Slammy Award Winner. He may forever go down in history as the "World's Strongest Man" and, to many fans, he was a loveable teddy bear that just wanted to be entertaining.

WWE doesn't always nail these Hall of Fame induction choices, but in the case of Mark Henry, they got it absolutely right.