What The Hell Happened To Mr. Kennedy?

These are dire times, as you know, and if you’re a subscriber to any mainstream sports website, be it ESPN + or The Athletic, you’d know those writers are hurting for content. That’s not the case with us pro wrasslin’ folk, but I wanted to take the time to follow the lead of some of the great writers over at The Athletic and write a few words about one of my favorite wrestlers growing up, Mr. Kennedy.

I’m as amazed to write that as anyone, considering how disinterested I became in the Ken Anderson character in TNA. But that range of years between the ages of nine and 14 years old are a very impressionable time for young boys, particularly when they’re wrestling fans like I was (and am). I started watching at age 11 and did not really have any kind of grasp on the inner workings behind the scenes until the relative time of my 14th birthday. So right off the bat, my favorites were pretty much “chalk” for top WWE babyfaces at the time. John Cena, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio are all names that come to mind.

Guerrero’s heel turn aside, the first heel I really took an interest in was Mr. Kennedy, when he debuted in late-summer 2005. The reasoning? If I had to guess, it was because I found his entrance antics amusing. The way he’d take the microphone away from Tony Chimel and later summon the microphone from the heavens made for an extremely entertaining bit, and for 14-year-old me, it never got old. I can recall one time Kennedy going through his usual schtick, announcing his hometown and weight when he said something to the effect of, “Weighing in tonight at 247 pounds! Yep. Gained a pound! The Simon System actually works!” It was one of the funniest things I’d heard up to that point as far as improvised chatter goes on SmackDown, and I never forgot it (though have never been able to find a clip of this specific entrance on YouTube. If you can find it, hit me up).

I came to find out years later, maybe more than a decade later, that it was no accident that someone like Kennedy would appeal to a fan looking for a new star to gravitate towards. Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose heyday I had just missed, was a big proponent of Kennedy’s at the time, serving as an advisor and powerful influence on Kennedy’s style during his WWE run. It definitely shows. The way Kennedy sold damage, walked and threw punches were all very Austin-like, and he’s arguably the biggest star wrestling has ever seen and maybe even the Michael Jordan of pro wrestling, though I will not go down that road today. Knowing what I know now, however, it’s not as surprising that I gravitated toward a future star like Kennedy, because he DID have it.

I remember him wrestling Guerrero, my favorite wrestler and pick for the G.O.A.T., in Eddie’s final match, whacking him with a steel chair after getting cheated into a disqualification and shouting at Charles Robinson, “DISQUALIFY THAT!” I remember him winning the United States Championship, largely because it went down in my hometown of Reading, PA, and I was in attendance. I even bought his T-shirt! The design was one of the cooler ones at the time, too, blue and white stars on a black shirt with Kennedy and his signature microphone on the front, with “Nice Guys Finish Last” on the back. Before you ask, yes, I did wear that around school, and serves as a great reminder for what a low-key tool I could be back in those days.

I remember the chair shot he took from The Undertaker at Survivor Series 2006, which ironically also happened close to me in Philadelphia, though I was not in attendance this time. I’m not one to get too squeamish when it comes to those old-school unprotected headshots, and it doesn’t do WWE any good to hide them from matches on the Network (we get it, they happened and there is nothing to hide). That said, that one shook me given the way the chair rang in The Deadman’s hands like a steel baseball bat in late autumn, but I was relieved to hear years later that Undertaker actually enjoyed working with Mr. Kennedy and it wasn’t some strange form of retribution like I had thought. I remember when he won Money in the Bank and became the first wrestler to not cash in the briefcase due to a misdiagnosed injury and remember when Randy Orton got him fired during that ridiculous tag match where all the wrestlers wore basketball jerseys. To this day, the stigma about Kennedy being “unsafe” is a bunch of hogwash. That said, some of the bloom was off the rose for me by the time of his firing, but I knew he’d go to TNA and have a chance to turn his career around, so not all was lost.

I remember when he debuted in TNA under his real name, Mr. Anderson, and to be fair, he had wrestled as Ken Anderson right until he debuted on SmackDown. But it just never had the same ring to me as “Mr. Kennedy” did. I remember him wrestling Bully Ray at Bound for Glory 2011 (another event I was in attendance for) and him overshooting Ray just a tad on his finishing Senton Bomb. It looked a lot worse live than it did on camera, but Anderson’s angle combined with Bully Ray jumping the gun on his sell caused Kennedy to just harmlessly roll off of Bully Ray and the table, leading to a quick recovery Mic Check for the win. I credit Anderson for the quick thinking. But I cannot lie: the Mr. Kennedy I grew to love, by that point, felt like a totally different wrestler and I didn’t really think twice about him becoming one of the top guys in TNA. Looking back on it, he had some solid matches and some of the best of his career from a workrate standpoint (see his series of matches with Kurt Angle). But his “asshole” persona was so over the top, it felt cartoonish at times and I didn’t connect with it in the same way I did back in the day. He needed a filter, but then again, two TNA Championship runs can’t be wrong. Or can they?

Is this proof that pro wrestling can never match the way you build it up in your mind as a young kid? Maybe. But I can remember how happy I was to see him pop up on NWA Powerrr recently as Colt Cabana’s tag team partner with his classic over-the-top announcer character in tow. Then when I heard the Grillin’ JR episode detailing his WWE run, it really took me back to those formative years when I actually saw Mr. Kennedy as the future of WWE.

How did this guy not make it?

If I had a time machine, I’d traverse back to 2005 and speak it into existence, because I’m still amazed it didn’t happen. That’s not to say things haven’t worked out for the guy. Today, he runs his own pro wrestling school out of Minneapolis: The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling. But the persona Kennedy crafted in WWE will be relevant long after we’re gone: a sharp-tongued character with a sense of humor and a level of arrogance that often gets him into trouble (Hi, Undertaker), but also someone unapologetic about who he is, take it or leave it, with a slight twist. And as I write that, it only speaks to how perfect “Turn Up the Trouble” was for him as a theme song! It sounds so simple, but that same character can work in any age of pro wrestling, be it the Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression Era, PG Era, Frank Gotch Era, Space Age Era or the Coronavirus Era.

As far as I’m concerned, we have Mr. Kennedy to thank for modernizing the blueprint.