After working 1,376 of his 1,440 professional wrestling matches in WWE, according to Cagematch, Mark Henry has settled into semi-retirement as a member of AEW, where he initially began working as a commentator on Rampage, then started interviewing wrestlers heading into the main event of the show, before curring together pre-taped packages that may not even require the “The World's Strongest Man” to be in the same arena as the performers he's promoting.

Has Henry's run in AEW been a disappointment? Has he fallen out of favor with Tony Khan or others inside of the promotion? Well, as if you ask Powerhouse Hobbs, the former TNT Champion who just recently broke off his association with QT Marshall, Johnny TV, Harley Cameron, and Aaron Solo of QTV, Henry has been an instrumental part of the AEW ecosystem and has become almost a father figure to the 32-year-old from East Palo Alto, as he noted in an interview with McGuire on Wrestling.

“That's my wrestling dad. He gets on me when I need it. It doesn't even have to be about the good things, that doesn't matter, but things that need to be fixed. Things that are going to take me to the next level. Things that I need to do to transition better. ‘This works, look at that camera even longer, do your snarl here, turn that red light on when you need to but turn it off when you need to.' He treats me just like his children. It's a blessing to have him. I go to him for things outside of the ring,” Hobbs said via 411 Mania.

“(He's) someone who is willing to go the extra mile for you if you're willing to put in the work.”

While fans of professional wrestling often judge the impact of on-screen talent like Henry based on what they do on television or social media, or at least how frequently they appear on either, there are 163 hours a week where AEW isn't on television, but its employees continue to plan out programs, work through storylines and develop their characters for the weeks or even months ahead. If Henry has become an instrumental resource for the AEW roster, then his spot in the company is paying off even if he isn't calling shows or interviewing performers on Rampage before “it's time for the main event.”

Mark Henry and Bully Ray weigh in on the main event of WrestleMania 40.

Discussing the long-rumored main event match of WrestleMania 40, which is set to take place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2024 on Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry and Bully Ray debated how they would feel about putting Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns back in the ring together, with “The World's Strongest Man” believing the match is made for the “Showcase of the Immortals” in the biggest stage imaginable.

“It has to be, for the simple fact of how you felt the day after Wrestlemania. Everybody is hanging on that,” Henry said via 411 Mania. “It still stings. The wound is still open. It’s not closed. How you get to it is going to be difficult, but that’s a part of the story.”

Bully Ray commented on the match's prospects too, noting that The Bloodline could involve themselves in the match to fully put the bout over the top and draw “a boatload of money.”

“This is what you’re getting with The Bloodline: The perfect storm of characters meets storytelling,” Ray said. “The big money in pro wrestling, the longevity of drawing money is in storytelling and characters. Yes, you will get your quick hit one-nighters that’ll draw a boatload of money, but if you want to make lots of money for a long time, you do it the way Gorgeous George did it, and you do it the way all the old schoolers did it way before us. Because when it’s done right, you can’t beat it.”

Would it be cool to see Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns go at it again, presumably after the former has taken care of Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam in order to put himself in the position to become the number one contender for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship? Or will the “Tribal Chief” fall before he makes it to Philadelphia next spring, maybe even to his nephew Jey Uso in a “trial by combat” after the merciless beatdown of Jimmy Uso at the end of Tribal Court? Fans will have to keep tuning into WWE programming to find out and into Busted Open Radio to see what Bully Ray and Mark Henry think about it.