Mr. Kennedy Explains Heat With Randy Orton & John Cena
While Mr. Kennedy’s alleged heat with Randy Orton was quite well-known, his heat with Cena wasn’t, until now.
Mr. Kennedy, a.k.a. Mr. Anderson was one of several wrestlers to be pushed during the mid-to-late 2000s in WWE. He beat everyone on SmackDown until he lost to The Undertaker (with whom he had a lengthy feud), he won MITB, and he flirted with the main-event scene quite a lot. His name wasn’t coincidental or chosen at random, either; his last name was taken from Vince McMahon’s middle name.
But his time in WWE ended abruptly in 2009, four days after his in-ring return. Back when WWE was doing the weekly guest host gimmick, there was one edition that saw everyone in the main-event wrestle in basketball attire. At one point, Mr. Kennedy tagged in and hit a back suplex on Orton. It didn’t go well.
Orton landed on his bad shoulder and from there the rumors began to swirl. Orton was angry and demanded that Kennedy be fired for being an unsafe worker. That was the extent of the heat between Orton and Mr. Kennedy. And yet, it’s said that time heals all wounds; apparently, they healed the wounds between Kennedy and Orton, but not Kennedy and Cena.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip podcast, Mr. Kennedy revealed that he patched things up with Orton but not with Cena.
“Yes, there was issues between us, but I will own the responsibility behind those things. I’ve never spoken to John since leaving but I’ve spoken with Randy, and we had a really good conversation and everything seemed to be just fine. He’s a different person now, I’m a different person now.”
So what was the issue between Mr. Kennedy and Cena? Kennedy was accused of encouraging fans to boo Cena when the two of them competed against each other in 2007. Jim Ross also confirmed this on his Grilling JR Podcast and described the reason why the heat got so bad.
“To encourage the audience by your rhetoric to boo the appointed #1 babyface in the company is not wise. So he was just being a heel, being his excuse, is a weak ass excuse. That’s my take on that deal. You don’t do anything to chip away at the image or the standing of a John Cena in this case, or anyone else in that top babyface role. You just don’t do it. It’s counterproductive. It’s not being cute, it’s not being funny, it’s not just being a heel.”
h/t Sportskeeda and 411Mania for the transcriptions.