Ken Anderson Spoke To Randy Orton Regarding WWE Release
Ken Anderson has revealed that he did speak to Randy Orton about the incident that led to Mr. Kennedy’s WWE’s release.
In the mid to late 2000s in WWE, one of the biggest rising stars in the company was a guy named Ken Kennedy aka Mr. Kennedy, who wrestled using his real name of Ken Anderson in other places. Anderson signed with WWE in 2005, but he was out of the company by 2009.
The biggest win Anderson had in WWE was when he won the third WWE Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania 23 in 2007. The previous two winners (Edge and Rob Van Dam) both became first-time WWE World Champions after their cash-ins, so the assumption was that Kennedy would be as well.
When he was Mr. Money in the Bank, Ken Anderson suffered a triceps injury. While WWE thought it was a very serious injury, Anderson ended up missing a short period of time. It didn’t matter because WWE had Edge beat Anderson for the Money in the Bank briefcase and Edge cashed in on The Undertaker on Smackdown to become the World Heavyweight Champion. Anderson revealed many years later that he was supposed to be in that spot.
Ken Anderson’s WWE run ended in May 2009 after a tag team match on Raw featuring some of the biggest stars in the company. During the match, Anderson gave Randy Orton a belly-to-back suplex. Orton was furious about it in the ring since he had shoulder issues. There were complaints about Anderson to management and he was fired that same week.
Ken Anderson has spoken to Randy Orton since his WWE release
It seems like Ken Anderson has been talking about his WWE release constantly for the past 14 years because he has been asked about it a lot over the years. Due to his heat with top guys like John Cena and Randy Orton in WWE, he never returned to the company despite being a big star as Mr. Kennedy.
In an interview with the A2theK Wrestling show, Ken Anderson spoke about how he has talked to Randy Orton since his WWE release while also admitting that he deserved to be fired for how he acted in those days.
“I did talk to him, but let me say this. Nobody got me fired. I got me fired. Because I was very bitter and very upset for a few years and that resentment was directed at the wrong place and it should have been directed back at me because had I been doing all the right things, I would have never been in a position where one person’s word could have any effect on my career.”
“I was in a position at that time where I had done enough things, and Vince (McMahon) had heard my name in a negative light enough that he just finally said, like, ‘I’m tired of hearing about it. We’re just gonna cut our losses.’ I would’ve fired me.”
“We have talked and I think both of us are in very different places in our lives right now. I don’t call him but I did run into him when I went backstage at a Monday Night Raw like two years ago, three years ago now, in Minneapolis. [We] had like a very long, pretty cool discussion with him.”
Following his WWE run, Ken Anderson realized his potential as a World Champion in TNA where he spent six years from 2010 to 2016. Anderson went on to become a TNA World Champion two times.