Former WWE Star Reveals How Vince McMahon Created His Character In Their First Meeting

In an interview with WSI – Wrestling Shoot Interviews, former WWE Tag Team Champion Mark Canterbury, better known by his ring name Henry Godwinn, has shed light on how Vince McMahon crafted his iconic pig farmer gimmick during their first meeting.

Canterbury recounted his initial meeting with Vince McMahon at WWE Headquarters in 1994, where the conversation took an unexpected turn.

Vince was asking me and what I’d done and where I lived and I told him in the country, then I said we had a farm, we raised cows, chickens and hogs. And Vince said ‘Hmm, what do you do with the hogs?’ So I said we raise pigs, we castrate them, we slop them. And when I said slop them, the lightbulb went off [in Vince’s head].

Impressed by Canterbury’s farming background, Vince McMahon wasted no time in creating the perfect gimmick for him.

By the time I left [the meeting] I had my name, and within a week they had a rough sketch of what they wanted me to wear. My name was Henry Orphius Godwinn which Vince had given me the name of one of his [family members], because he wanted H.O.G.

Canterbury expressed his enthusiasm for the Godwinn gimmick, as it aligned closely with his own upbringing.

I liked the Henry O Godwinn pitch, the whole thing and I felt comfortable with it because hell, that’s what I’ve been doing, my grandparents, both sets, had farms so I was always around that as a child so it was like second nature to me.

To introduce the character to the WWE audience, Vince McMahon’s son, Shane McMahon, accompanied Canterbury to a farm in Tennessee to film the character’s vignettes.

Shane McMahon had flown down and did all my videos, my vignettes at a little farm in Tennessee. We went, this guy had 20 hogs running around so we pulled in and I said ‘Hey can we should a video here for WWF, and explained the situation…I think they paid him $300 to do it all day at his place, he was tickled to death, he’s sat back on the porch smoking a pot just watching all the action so it was pretty cool.

Vince McMahon Forced WWE Star Into Racist Promo

Former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal has opened up about an infamous moment where Vince McMahon made him cut an overtly racist promo towards Nakamura referencing the star’s ethnicity and how he was dead against cutting the promo but Vince wanted it to happen.

H/t to ITRwrestling.com