During a recent interview with Steve Fall for NBC Sports Boston’s “The Ten Count” podcast, former WWE Superstar Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy) discussed how his injury in 2007 affected the original plans for his Money in the Bank cash-in and ultimately losing the MITB briefcase to Edge.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Anderson on initially thinking he had a torn triceps in 2007: “It is what it is. You know like, I can’t change things that happened in the past. Yeah, it was kind of crazy, like hearing the whole story of how it played out, I felt something pop in my triceps. My arm swelled up, my arm turned black and blue. Hornswoggle drove me to the hospital that night. I went to the emergency room, they did an MRI, which I hate because I’m like claustrophobic and those things suck. So I did the MRI, and then I’m waiting in my hotel room. Stephanie called me and said, ‘Ken, you tore your triceps off the bone.’ Now, they had already told me two or three days earlier that I was gonna be winning the title from Taker. They told me that because Taker was hurt too. He needed to have bicep surgery. ‘So we need this title off of Taker. What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna have him in this cage match, he’s gonna barely squeak out alive, and somebody else is gonna come out, beat him up some more, and then you’re gonna cash in your Money in the Bank briefcase, and you’re gonna be the new champion. So I went home, and I slept on it a couple of days. Then the next time I took a bump, boom, I feel something pop in my triceps. Anyway, go to the emergency room, get that MRI, Steph calls my phone and she says, ‘You tore your triceps off the bone. You’re gonna be out for eight or nine months. Unfortunately, we still need to get that title off of Taker.”
On losing his Money in the Bank briefcase and finding out he was misdiagnosed: “So they sent Vince’s jet to come pick me up. I flew into Penn State, where Edge challenged me for my briefcase, and I remember I couldn’t do anything. My arm was completely immobilized, so I really couldn’t do much. So, he came out and jumped me before the match, rolled me in the ring, rang the bell, ding ding ding, Spear, 1-2-3. I give it to him and then the next day, I flew down to Birmingham, Alabama, and I’m sitting on Dr. Andrews’ table, and he’s just feeling my triceps and he was like, ‘That’s not a tear.’ I was like, ‘Excuse me?’ He goes, ‘No, I don’t think that’s a tear. Let’s check it out again. I can’t find your MRI, so we’re gonna have to have you take another MRI, thankfully.’ But then yeah, they did another MRI, and for sure, it was just some blood vessels that had popped in my arm, so I was out five or six weeks.”
Ken Anderson on how losing the briefcase played out on TV: “It totally [did], and looking back on it, I see that same thing. Even at the time, I was like, ‘This makes me look stupid. I have a year to cash this thing in, even if I was gone for nine months. Like, I could take the time off, get well, and then come back.’ I remember thinking there’s gotta be a different way that you can get the title off of Taker. Like, what if you didn’t have the Money in the Bank? You’d figure something out. But I didn’t want to argue. I didn’t want to be one of those guys that argued and complained about creative, so I just felt like, ‘This is what they’ve got. This is what they’ve come up with, so I did my job, and yeah. Hindsight, I probably should have fought a little harder for it.”
Ken Anderson on how you have to go along with what the boss says: “What would always irritate me reading the dirt sheets and stuff like that because a lot of the times the things that people are complaining about, we agree with. As you said, you’re an employee of the company, and Vince says, ‘Hey, I want you to go out juggling chainsaws, riding a unicycle and wearing a tutu pink tutu,’ like, you have a decision to make.”
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