Before TNA, Ken Anderson was in WWE under the ring name of Ken Kennedy. He debuted on Smackdown in mid-late 2005 and got pushed strongly until 2007.
I was 14 when he debuted and immediately was impressed by him doing his own introduction and repeating his name several seconds afterwards. I thought that was some cool shit.
Mr. Kennedy became one of my favourite midcarders at the time. I really liked his feud with The Undertaker and his friendship/alliance with MVP. The two had great chemistry together. I remember people online comparing MVP to The Rock and Kennedy to Steve Austin... which was a but of an exaggeration. But I do remember Austin thinking highly of Kennedy and people wondering if Austin could wrestle a match again and put Kennedy over to pass the torch. This sounds crazy nowadays considering how Kennedy'd career turned out.
Anyway, I can't say much about him in the ring department. Even my teenage self at the time could tell Mr. Kennedy wasn't that great in the ring. I couldn't tell he was unsafe, but I could tell he ouod use some improvement. His matches weren't that great or memorable. Plus, I never felt his finishers much. He first used a jumping fireman's carry of some sort off the top rope and later switched to a Swanton bomb. I don't think those were good finishers for him, honestly.
Kennedy won the MITB ladder match at WM23 and was drafted to Raw shortly after. He was also originally meant to be Vince's illegitimate son. Clearly WWE had high hopes in him and it was only a matter of time until he won the big one. I really thought Kennedy was going to be a multiple time world champion and have a HOF worthy career.
...but that's not how it turned out. Looking back, I guess you could say it just wasn't meant to be. But at the time he really looked like a future top guy with a legendary career in the making. Why else would he go over The Undertaker about 3 times so early in his career and be handpicked as member of the McMahon family kayfabe wise slightly less than two years after his debut?
Kennedy had charisma. Admittedly, announcing his own entrance got old fast, but it was still cool and original. The guy pulled of the cocky loudmouth prick pretty well.
I own a Mr. Kennedy action figure to this day. One of the few midcarders whose action figure I own. I was clearly a fan of the guy back in the day.
I can't help but notice no one seems to care about Kennedy/Anderson anymore and I never see anyone talk about his WWE stint anymore. Which is kinda funny considering the IWC was all over him back in 2006-2007. Teenagers and young adult males in particular found his character very appealing.
Nowadays do I still care about him? Not really. I didn't follow his TNA career. No idea how he did there. I've moved on. The ship has long sailed.
What about you? What did you think of Ken Kennedy?
I was 14 when he debuted and immediately was impressed by him doing his own introduction and repeating his name several seconds afterwards. I thought that was some cool shit.
Mr. Kennedy became one of my favourite midcarders at the time. I really liked his feud with The Undertaker and his friendship/alliance with MVP. The two had great chemistry together. I remember people online comparing MVP to The Rock and Kennedy to Steve Austin... which was a but of an exaggeration. But I do remember Austin thinking highly of Kennedy and people wondering if Austin could wrestle a match again and put Kennedy over to pass the torch. This sounds crazy nowadays considering how Kennedy'd career turned out.
Anyway, I can't say much about him in the ring department. Even my teenage self at the time could tell Mr. Kennedy wasn't that great in the ring. I couldn't tell he was unsafe, but I could tell he ouod use some improvement. His matches weren't that great or memorable. Plus, I never felt his finishers much. He first used a jumping fireman's carry of some sort off the top rope and later switched to a Swanton bomb. I don't think those were good finishers for him, honestly.
Kennedy won the MITB ladder match at WM23 and was drafted to Raw shortly after. He was also originally meant to be Vince's illegitimate son. Clearly WWE had high hopes in him and it was only a matter of time until he won the big one. I really thought Kennedy was going to be a multiple time world champion and have a HOF worthy career.
...but that's not how it turned out. Looking back, I guess you could say it just wasn't meant to be. But at the time he really looked like a future top guy with a legendary career in the making. Why else would he go over The Undertaker about 3 times so early in his career and be handpicked as member of the McMahon family kayfabe wise slightly less than two years after his debut?
Kennedy had charisma. Admittedly, announcing his own entrance got old fast, but it was still cool and original. The guy pulled of the cocky loudmouth prick pretty well.
I own a Mr. Kennedy action figure to this day. One of the few midcarders whose action figure I own. I was clearly a fan of the guy back in the day.
I can't help but notice no one seems to care about Kennedy/Anderson anymore and I never see anyone talk about his WWE stint anymore. Which is kinda funny considering the IWC was all over him back in 2006-2007. Teenagers and young adult males in particular found his character very appealing.
Nowadays do I still care about him? Not really. I didn't follow his TNA career. No idea how he did there. I've moved on. The ship has long sailed.
What about you? What did you think of Ken Kennedy?
