Mark Henry made an incredible claim about one WWE star being better than the likes of John Cena and Brock Lesnar during their time in WWE developmental program, Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Years before Brock Lesnar and John Cena’s legendary WWE feud, the two men were cutting their teeth in OVW.
The developmental programme has become the stuff of legend, with the likes of Randy Orton, Batista, and CM Punk also coming through the company’s hallowed halls before making their WWE debut.
In 2023, Mark Henry said a forgotten WWE star was better than each and every one of them down in OVW.
Mark Henry said Eugene was the best OVW performer ahead of WWE debut
Mark Henry was interviewed by his former Ohio Valley Wrestling trainer Rip Rogers in 2023, and he discussed who he thought was best out of their legendary roster.
The WWE developmental programme had a hand in training the likes of Cena, Orton, Batista, and Lesnar, but Mark Henry believes a surprise star was head and shoulders above them.
“If I was going to have pick one guy [from OVW], and you had Orton, Batista, Lesnar, Shelton [Benjamin], Punk, I would still put Nick Dinsmore ahead of everybody,” said Henry.
Dinsmore went on to wrestle in WWE as Eugene, a popular comedy character during the Ruthless Aggression era, but he never won a singles championship.
The star had three periods with WWE, in 2004 to 2007, in 2009, and 2013 to 2014, but he was released from his contract every single time.
Nevertheless, Henry believed his performances in OVW were better than anybody else on the esteemed roster.
“Nick was teaching everybody, and he was he was bumping for everybody,” explained the World’s Strongest Man.
“He was great and I hate that he didn’t make it at the level that other people made it,” continued the WWE Hall of Famer. “There was nobody better than him.”
Eugene’s solo championship in WWE was the Tag Team Championships along with William Regal in 2004.
Randy Orton speaks about seeing John Cena in OVW
Orton and Cena led the class of OVW 2002, going on to win 31 WWE World Championships between them.
Orton revealed the moment he realised Cena was ‘special’ in an interview with ESPN. “Cena stood up and just cut a promo,” revealed The Viper. “It was storytelling 101.”
The star continued: “We were on the edge of our seat like, ‘Oh, this guy is really f—— special.’ That was the first time I realized, ‘Oh man, I’m going to know this guy for the rest of my life.'”
Cena and Orton would go on to have one of the most famous on-screen rivalries in WWE history, which culminated this year at Backlash.