Mark Henry Reveals Origin Of His Sexual Chocholate Character In WWE

WWE has seen many gimmicks take off with the fans, and a lot of questions have been asked along the way about how they came up with those ideas. Mark Henry is a WWE Hall of Famer, and he is worthy of that title. Funnily enough, he rose to popularity thanks to his Sexual Chocholate character.

Mark Henry says the Sexual Chocolate character didn’t come from a writer’s meeting or a pitch from WWE creative. It was his idea, something he formed during a late-night car ride with D’Lo Brown after the Nation of Domination broke up.

As Mark Henry remembere as he spoke to Inside The Roles, both guys were trying to figure out what came next, because once that group ended, everyone involved had to prove they could survive on their own.

“I created Sexual Chocolate. Me and D’Lo [Brown Brown in the car]… D’Lo like, ‘Man, I don’t know what I’ma do, man.’ Cuz you know, when the Nation broke up, we were trying to find each other, we were trying to find ourselves. Like, ‘What are we going to do?’”

Mark Henry said that was the pressure of the Attitude Era. If you didn’t stand out, you disappeared. That’s when he remembered Coming to America and realized he didn’t want to force himself into a role that didn’t fit. He wanted something fans would instantly get, something that let him be funny while still being himself.

“I said, ‘You ever see that movie Coming to America?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘I want to be Randy Watson or Sexual Chocolate.’”

D’Lo Brown apparently thought the name alone would get shot down. WWE in that era pushed boundaries, but even then, it sounded like something they wouldn’t let make it on TV. Henry didn’t take that as a warning, he took it as a challenge. He said he was going to tell Vince McMahon directly.

“He was like, ‘First off, they’re not even gonna let you say Sexual Chocolate on TV.’ And I was like, ‘No, man. I’ma go tell Vince.’”

When Mark Henry approached Vince McMahon, the first response was basically “no,” because WWE had spent years building Henry’s identity as a powerhouse. Vince saw him as intimidation, not comedy.

Then Mark Henry says Vince McMahon made it clear he wanted him to look tough, mean, and dominant, not like a character who would be flirting and cracking jokes.

“Vince was like, ‘Mark, we spent a lot of money trying to make you the strongest guy in the world. You're not comedy. Me looking at you—I don’t see comedy. I see tough. I see mean. I want you to lean into that.’”

Mark Henry wasn’t pitching a joke that would fade after a week. He wanted to unlock a whole side of his personality that people hadn’t seen. He asked Vince for one chance to prove it could work in front of a crowd, and if it didn’t, he’d drop it forever. That was the deal.

“I was like, ‘Listen, I got a lot of jokes that need to be told.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ I said, ‘Let me show you what I’m talking about just one time. And then if it don’t work, I won’t never say nothing else about it.’”

Vince McMahon agreed, and Mark Henry debuted the vibe that same night against Shawn Stasiak. Henry bodyslammed him, then stopped mid-match to flirt with a woman in the crowd like he was in his own world.

That moment didn’t just get a laugh, it gave Vince a clear picture of what Henry meant: he could be huge, he could be strong, and he could still be funny without losing credibility.

“I bodyslammed him… I look and I see the girl in the front row. And I get out of the ring at the midnight and I go talk to this girl, leaning on the barricade like, ‘Hey, can I get your phone number?’”

Shawn Stasiak tried to interrupt, but then Mark Henry shoved him back in the ring, beat him, and then went right back to talking to the woman. It was the whole gimmick in one sequence: chaos, confidence, comedy, and zero fear about how it looked.

“He comes and starts tapping me on the shoulder… I throw him back in the ring and I beat him. Then I go back to the girl.”

Backstage, Vince McMahon’s reaction sealed it. Mark Henry says Vince was laughing hard enough to basically approve the gimmick on the spot. Once Vince laughed, it wasn’t just “a funny idea,” it was a character WWE could build around.

“Vince was about to piss his pants laughing. He was like, ‘Damn it. Good job, Sexual Chocolate.’”

From there, the Sexual Chocolate character evolved into one of the strangest, most remembered stories in that era. If anything, it would have created a meme every week if that culture was around back then.

WWE leaned into it hard. It wasn’t just Mark Henry flirting anymore, it turned into him being positioned as a guy who was irresistible to women, which led to segments with him surrounded by dates, being chased, and constantly getting pulled into storylines that were played for laughs.

The biggest part of that run, and the thing fans still bring up to this day, was the Mae Young storyline. Mae was already an established name from a different era of wrestling, and she became tied to Henry in a romance angle that ended with her “getting pregnant,” and eventually giving birth to a rubber hand.

Mark Henry says the wild part is that the core of it was simple. He wanted to show personality and be memorable. And it worked. He says even now, crowds still bring it up the second he’s in front of them, like it’s a label that never came off.

“It’s like little kid stuff. He allowed me to do something—and Vince is hard to go back on what he thinks. And he allowed me to do that, man. Still to this day, I can’t go nowhere without having a question asked or if I’m in front of a crowd and they’ll go ‘Sexual Chocolate!’ It’s a part of who I became for the rest of my life.”

We will have to see what happens next in Mark Henry’s career. He was with AEW for a while, but he left the company to focus on his son’s entrance into the pro wrestling world. Mark Henry has certainly done a lot in his career to help another generation out, including his son.

Mark Henry etched a large spot in the hearts of WWE fans all over the world with his outlandish gimmick. He is also seemingly happy about how things turned out, because he was able to prove that he had longevity in the business. Only time will tell if he inducts anyone else into the House of Pain down the line.

What’s your take on Mark Henry’s career in pro wrestling? Which gimmick was your favorite? Let us know what you think in the comments section!