Source: Donnie Burgess / AEW Dynamite, October 2019
INDIANAPOLIS — The Circle City has become a regular stop for All Elite Wrestling, which returns this week to the Indiana Farmer’s Coliseum.
“The show is incredible,” says Mark Henry, pro wrestling hall of famer and legendary strongman, representing AEW, “but I’m finding I’m more entertained every week by what I see with the crowds. It is a party atmosphere.”
All Elite Wrestling launched in 2019 and quickly became the second-biggest professional wrestling company in the world, behind Vince McMahon’s WWE.
AEW is backed by the Khan family, owners of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham Football Club of the Premier League. Tony Khan serves as General Manager, President and Head of Creative of AEW.
AEW first came to Indianapolis in 2019, and has returned to the Indiana Farmer’s Coliseum each year since, aside from 2020.
Mark Henry, a thirty-year veteran of pro wrestling, says Indiana is the perfect place for an exciting AEW show, “people are getting to the point now where they’re showing up to the arenas early and tailgating, which is something I’ve never really seen before. I’ve found that all the way from Jeffersonville, Indiana all the way up to Indianapolis, that the fan bases have always been hot.”
During the early 2000s, Henry worked for WWE and Ohio Valley Wrestling, a promotion owned at the time by wrestling veterans Danny Davis and Jim Cornette.
The promotion was both a wrestling company and school, and Henry helped train the next generation of wrestling stars like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista, and Randy Orton.
Henry spent plenty of time traveling the roads for OVW, which ran towns throughout southern Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky. He says he cherishes the time he spent in the Hoosier State, teaching young wrestlers, “not only my successes, but I also got to tell them about my failures. I’ll never forget traveling the roads in Indiana because of how valuable my time at Ohio Valley was.”
AEW Dynamite airs live on TBS Wednesday night at 8 o’clock eastern. AEW’s other primetime program, Rampage, will be taped and will air Friday night at 10 o’clock eastern on TNT.
“The World’s Strongest Man” says if you’ve never been to an AEW show, bring the family and be ready to be apart of a lively crowd at the Indiana Farmer’s Coliseum.
“People will go out of their way to be apart of pro wrestling in Indiana, and I’ve been in the snow in Indianapolis, and there was a thousand people waiting outside who couldn’t get in. They were just waiting for us to walk out,” says Henry.
You can listen to the full interview with AEW’s Mark Henry below:
