It’s always interesting to know more about WWE’s creative process, and those plans that never came to fruition are always going to pique our attention. It turns out that WWE had big plans for Ken Kennedy at one point in time, and that would have seen a massive moment at the showcase of the immortals.
Since his WWE debut, Mr. Kennedy was touted as the company’s future. He had a great look, delivered excellent promos, and was a good worker. At one point, he was hailed as SmackDown’s fastest-rising star. Kennedy even won the Money in the Bank briefcase and was one step closer to becoming champion. However, he lost the briefcase to Edge and his world title push was eventually derailed.
Mr. Kennedy recently did an exclusive interview with WrestlingNews.co where he talked about winning the Money in the Bank briefcase and how his push got derailed.
“The only specifics I ever got were after I won the Money in the Bank briefcase, they told me, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have you hold on to that for a year. I came out, I believe the next night, and I announced that I was going to cash it in at WrestleMania the next year. That was the plan going forward, and then Undertaker got injured.
They called me in the office and said, ‘Hey, There’s been a change. We got to get this title off Taker’, so they laid out this scenario for me. This was on a Tuesday night after SmackDown because SmackDown was taped on Tuesday nights. Taker had torn his biceps. Next Tuesday, Taker is going to have a cage match. He’s barely going to get the win. Somebody is going to come out and beat him even more. He was barely going to survive that one. Then they were going to hit my music and I was going to cash in the briefcase and become world champion.”
Following that, Mr. Kennedy suffered a torn tricep injury during a house show that required him to get an MRI. That wasn’t the best news for his push.
“I remember I went to the bar that night with Michael Cole and Mark Carrano. They were the only two that knew about it. They were like, ‘Good job kid. You deserve it.’ Saturday, we had a show in Poughkeepsie. I took a bump in the ring. We had a double shot. We had an afternoon show and then we took a couple hours off and then we wrestled an evening show.
The first show, I took a clothesline, simple move, I’ve done it a million times. I felt something pop in my triceps. I rolled out to the outside and immediately it started swelling up. I went to the hospital that night. I got an MRI.”
Stephanie McMahon then informed him that he had torn his triceps off the bone, but they still needed to get the title off Undertaker. So, WWE decided to have Edge beat Mr. Kennedy for the briefcase so that he could cash it in on Undertaker.
“Stephanie called me in my room the next day. I was in my hotel room and she was like, ‘You tore your triceps off the bone. We still need to get that title off Taker, so Vince’s jet is going to come pick you up right now. You’re going to come to Penn State. Edge is going to challenge you for the briefcase. You’re going to drop it to Edge and then Edge is going to do what you were supposed to do tomorrow night.”
However, when Kennedy visited his doctor, he was informed that he didn’t tear his triceps off the bone like he was told. Instead, he had suffered a “large hematoma” which would keep him out of action for a month and a half.
“The best part about that story is, so I do all that. I couldn’t move my arm. I thought my arm was screwed. I did all that. I dropped the briefcase. I went down to Alabama the next day to James Andrews. I was sitting on his table. He was feeling my arm and he said, ‘That’s not a tear. I don’t feel a tear in there at all. I’m trying to look for your MRIs, but I can’t find it, so we have to have you do another MRI’, which sucks because I’m absolutely claustrophobic.
I just hate sitting in those tubes. I did that. He called me a little later and he said, ‘There’s no tear. It’s just a large hematoma’, which is basically just a bunch of blood vessels popped inside my arm and it bled internally. He goes, ‘You’ll be out for a month or a month and a half.’”
After dropping the briefcase to Edge, Mr. Kennedy’s star power fizzled out until he was eventually released from the company. Stay tuned to Ringside News as we bring you similar stories.
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