Former Olympic weight lifting star Mark Henry has lifted his first heavyweight title in the WWE. The man billed as the world's strongest man won the company's ECW World Title at the Night Of The Champions pay-per-view this past Sunday. With his win coming one week after controversial WWE writer Michael Hayes returned to work after being suspended for racial slurs (a 60 day suspension), many are asking was this win a way of redeeming Hayes and appeasing some of the roster who were effected by the incidents that caused Hayes suspension in the first place.
It's hard to say in an environment where decisions are pre-planned and storylines altered sometimes hastily due to injury etc, just what thought went into this decision to put the title around the waist of Henry. Some will see it as a way of pleasing people who see Hayes as some form of racist, using the win as a means of elevating a black star to the lofty heights of champion.
Others will see it simply as a good business move, Mark Henry was the only current ECW star in the three-way match he took part in (the recent WWE draft moved the current champ from ECW), so the odds of him winning the title were very good anyway.
There have been a number of black champions in the past, but not many have made it to world champion, Ron Simmons and The Rock being the two most notable for WCW and WWE respectively.
Henry should try to capitalise on his new status, as his on-air and in-ring work to date have been non-noteworthy, this could be his big break and chance to prove his worth, no matter how he achieved it.
