"Under the Ring" interview with Ken Anderson, aka Mr. Kennedy

Phil Strum
Under the Ring, poughkeepsiejournal.com

Ken Anderson was a world champion waiting to happen. It certainly seemed that way. Then, somewhere along the line, things changed and he ended up on the outside looking in at World Wrestling Entertainment.

After being one of the fastest-rising wrestlers in WWE, Anderson, known as Mr. Kennedy, suffered a series of injuries and then had some controversy with media interviews, suspension and injuries happening in his matches, making him the talk of the industry — for better or for worse.

WWE released Anderson in May 2009. He is working the independent scene these days and is looking at doing a few movies. He will also be on the upcoming Hulkamania tour in Australia. We talked about a variety of topics in our sit-down at Collector's Realm in Poughkeepsie on Saturday. Later that night, he faced Al Snow at Northeast Wrestling's "Saugerties Slam."

Thanks to Ken Anderson for agreeing to do the interview. He wanted to let the fans know that they can follow him on Twitter here. You can see him on Facebook here. If you'd like to book Ken for a wrestling show or a signing, you can contact Bill at Innovative Artists at Bill.Asst@iany.com

Thanks to the staff at Collector's Realm, including owner Joe Sinforoso, for the access and their hospitality. Thanks, as always, to Michael O'Brien of Northeast Wrestling. Also thanks to Joe DeSario for snapping the great photo above.

Phil Strum: What are you up to now?

Ken Anderson: Actually doing some independent shots here and there. Autograph sessions. I just signed a one-year deal with an agency in New York called Innovative Artists, who is, from now on, going to handle all my wrestling bookings. They're also actively pursuing movie roles, television roles, commercials, voiceover work. You name it, they do it all. I'm currently reading like five different scripts. Auditioning for different roles. I truly feel that within the next year, I'll be able to land some roles. I think the more they get me, it's just the numbers game. Eventually, something will stick.

PS: The more you get yourself out there?

KA: Yup. That's what I'm going to try to do is kind of transition to doing that full-time, hopefully.

PS: What's it been like being back on the indie scene? Have you done a lot of shows yet?

KA: I've done a handful here and there and it's been fun. It really has. I'll tell you, I was in a place mentally where I hated wrestling. I hated it for a couple of months. I didn't know if I wanted to do this stuff anymore. Getting back out, doing independent shows, reminded me that I still have a love for the business and I still enjoy being out there. Whether it's a crowd...it's always amazing working in front of 80,000 people or 20,000 people or 5,000 people, but doing little shows where there's a couple of hundred people, it's more intimate. I can spend more time with the fans. It's fun too.

PS: I know the Northeast Wrestling shows typically draw pretty well. I went to one last year that drew 1,800, which is great for an indie show.

KA: I wrestled in a promotion over in Europe (Nu-Wrestling Evolution), who, if you ask me, I think they're the biggest independent group in the entire world. They're the ones that brought in Ultimate Warrior.

PS: Oh, right.

KA: Drew 15,000 people in an arena.

PS: For a match with Orlando Jordan.

KA: They still draw. I did four shows in France and two shows in Malta and we drew 2,500 to 3,500 people per night. And we ran big arenas.

PS: What can you say about what led you to depart WWE?

KA: There's was a bunch of different things. Some I had a hand in and you know, some things I didn't. Politics definitely played a role in that. I'm not bitter about it. I'm not sad about it or anything like that. It's something that happened and I'm happy to be gone. After I got the initial shock and the punch in the stomach, it was like an elephant just stepped off my chest. I was pretty unhappy there for about three years. I thought that I could be used a different way and I wasn't. That's OK. That was their business decision. They decided not to go that way. That's fine. That's on them. Now, I'm going to try to stick it (to them, expletive) basically and prove them wrong. Hopefully, someday they'll look back and say '(expletive), we could have had that guy.'

PS: Would you ever go back there again?

KA: Currently, no. Things would have to drastically change and I don't think that's going to happen. My answer to that is no.

PS: When you first got called up to WWE, I can't even explain it. It was like a ball of fire out of nowhere. Where did this guy come from? Did you expect to have that much success that quickly?

KA: I guess, in my head, for many years on the indies, I was kind of like — I don't want to say in obscurity — but like, certain people would come up and go, "man, you've got something special." I always thought I did. I thought I had the brass to make it. To make it back. To make it happen. For some reason, not everybody saw that. I don't know what the deal was there. When I got to WWE and it was just like Vince (McMahon), overnight, he saw me and he was like 'this guy — finally we've got somebody who can actually work. Finally. Where has this guy been?' He actually said to me, he pulled me in the office one time and said, "Where have you been?" And I was like, actually, I've been pounding your frickin' door down for like the last six-and-a-half years.

In a way, it was a little surprising because it usually doesn't work out that way. Usually, slow build. I can't say that I didn't feel that I didn't deserve it. I did feel like I did. I remember always thinking that before I got to WWE, I would be thinking, 'someday, I'm going to be walking down the hall and I'm going to get called into Vince's office.' I thought, 'man, I'm going to be so nervous when that happens.' I'll tell you what. The second I debuted against on Funaki on Velocity...

PS: As Mr. Anderson too, right?

KA: As Mr. Anderson. Then, I had another match on Velocity the next week. Then the following week, I got to TV and they said, 'Hey Vince wants to have a meeting with you.' So they called me into a room. As I'm walking down the hall, I'm walking: Vince, Stephanie (McMahon-Levesque, head of creative writing and talent), Kevin Dunn (Executive Vice President, Television Production), Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis, Executive VP of Talent Relations), and me following them into this office. I had the biggest smile on my face and I was like, 'I belong here.' I paid my dues and I felt at that point that I had gotten to the point where I felt, yeah you know what, I'm ready for this. I belong here.

PS: When you were in OVW, I guess Paul Heyman was running the show then. How much of an influence was he on your career?

KA: Big. I can't tell you how much that guy helped me out. He was one guy that...When I was trying to come up, I would show up at Raws and SmackDowns and I'd always be in the ring. Nowadays, when local guys get there and get to the building, they like just hang out in catering. Just sit around and chill and kind of mark out, if you will. We would get to the building. I traveled a lot with Daivari. We would get booked on the same shows. You get to the building, you put your gear on. You go to sit at the ring. You don't go eat catering. If you've got time, eventually, you do it. You go sit by the ring. You get in there. If the ring's clear for a couple of minutes, 'hey, would you mind if we get in there?'

It's embarrassing sometimes because you don't know what the hell you're doing and you're wrestling in front of these guys who you watch on TV every week and who you look up to. It's something you have to do. You just have to overcome those fears. So, I would wrestle all the time. Literally. I was there. I did dark matches and tryouts for about five years for WWE. Then finally, there happened to be a meeting that day and I was in the ring, working out with a bunch of guys. There was like 10 guys. I grabbed them and I was like, 'let's do like a tag match.' Guys were just tagging in and out and stuff. There was about 10 guys, mixing in and out. Paul Heyman and JR (Jim Ross) came and sat at ringside. They were talking about something, just chit-chatting. I got done working out and he said, 'come here for a second.' I went over there. And he said, 'who trained you?' I told him and everything. We talked for a little while. 'I think you've got something.' It was the first time. Like I told you, I had been there for five years and I would always....Like Funaki would say, "Great match, man." But if I asked somebody who really mattered in terms of getting me a job like Johnny Ace. 'Oh, I didn't see it. Sorry.' The right people never saw it. It was always people that couldn't affect my employment or anything like that.

Anyways, he happened to take a liking to me that day and I think he helped in getting me hired. It was him, Arn Anderson, Tommy Dreamer for sure. A bunch of people all kind of converged and came together and got me hired. When I went down to OVW, I kind of got lost in the shuffle down there. They really didn't know what to do with me. I didn't really know what to do with me either. Jim Cornette got fired.

PS: This was during the transition period.

KA: The transition. The first day, Paul pulled me into a room and I thought, he's going to yell at me or something. Paul would always come down there and he would help us with our interviews. Every two weeks, he would help us with our interviews. He came in. I would always come in and interview and he would go, 'thank you." I'd would say, "any feedback or anything like that?' He'd go, "Nope. Loved it." And I was like OK, this guy (expletive) hates me. Alright, sounds good. He pulled me into a room and he said, "straight out, you're the next guy out of here. I'm going to do so much stuff with you over the course of the next couple of weeks that they're going to see you and they're going to want to pull you out. They're going to have to pull you out.' I thought, you know, I don't believe anything I hear. He, that night, on a one-hour program... I had about 30 minutes of TV time. Five weeks later, I was debuting on Velocity against Funaki.

PS: Did he give you the name also?

KA: He did, sort of. Yeah. He suggested it. Vince wanted to change my name and I couldn't think of anything. I wanted to keep the Ks because I was Kamikaze Ken on the indies. I had my logo. I kind of wanted to carry that over as something that I brought with me from the independent days because I never wanted to forget where I came from. So, he suggested Kennedy. That's how I became it.

PS: To wrap up, what does the future hold for you. Do you see yourself getting back in the national wrestling scene?

KA: I don't know, man. We'll see what happens. Right now, I'm having fun. Fortunately, I was fortunate to be able to make some money while I was there and I didn't really buy anything. I don't have five cars and all that crap that I'm making payments on. I'm OK. You know what I mean? Pretty comfortable. My life is pretty stress-free. I still get to wrestle. I'm doing things that I like to do and I enjoy doing them. I hope that some day, I'd like to be able to go back. There's still things that I want to to do in the wrestling business that I haven't been able to do yet. Like I said, things would have to drastically change. Unfortunately, right now, I just can't even watch wrestling myself. Rarely. I have to force myself to try to watch it. To me, it's just not compelling television right now. I would like to make it compelling. I think I can help, but I can't do it by myself.

PS: You need some things that are fresh and new...

KA: Fresh, new and you need people that will back you. If you have the corporate machine behind you, you can do anything. So, until then, I'm just going to keep working on movies, TV, stuff like that.