Mr. Kennedy On When Things Clicked For Him In WWE

Ken Anderson, better known to WWE fans as Mr. Kennedy, had a relatively short but noteworthy run in the company. It peaked with a roller coaster ride of a 2007, where he won Money in the Bank, dropped the briefcase to Edge after being given an inaccurately long injury prognosis, and, upon his return, was penciled in for the role of Mr. McMahon's secret son, which he lost due to a Wellness Policy violation. Injuries and allegations of recklessness would eventually derail his run completely, but before? He was poised for superstardom. Recently, he appeared on "Grown Ass Women," where he explained how everything started to "click" for him in WWE to get the ball rolling.

"It was right before I got called up to the active roster," Anderson recalled. "I remember [then-WWE producer] Steve Keirn came down to OVW one time, and he was like 'You look good, but you just look like a guy next door. You gotta do something that stands out.' Steve always said 'You should walk into a place, and people look at you and go 'I don't know who that guy is, but he's somebody.' I went home and I bleached my hair and my goatee, and [OVW booker Jim] Cornette was so mad at me. He put me with the Blond Bombers, and gave me a promo on OVW TV that night and I swung for the fences, and I just went crazy. I came back through the curtain, and he was like 'Where the f**k has THAT guy been?'"

Shortly thereafter, Cornette was fired by WWE, with Paul Heyman installed in his place. "The way Paul dealt with me and talked to me, I just started getting it," Anderson added. By the time he made his TV debut, he "felt like 'I belong here.'" Anderson currently runs a wrestling school, The Academy, in St. Paul Minnesota, with AEW's Top Flight being his most successful graduates to date.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Grown Ass Women" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.