Ken Anderson recalls his first day in WWE (Exclusive)

The former TNA World Champion shared an interesting story on his first night in WWE
The former TNA World Champion shared an interesting story on his first night in WWE

Between 2005 and 2009, Ken Anderson FKA Mr. Kennedy was one of the most exciting WWE Superstars in the company. Part of what really caught the attention of the WWE Universe, of course, was his incredible charisma with a pompous character who loved to talk about himself. It was certainly more than enough to get fans cheering for Batista or The Undertaker to tear him in half.

His voice, which is tailor-made for announcing, was perfect for introducing himself in such a smug way that fans had no choice but to boo him out of a building. However, another part of Ken Anderson's presentation that impressed viewers was his in-ring ability. Anderson has a pretty impressive moveset and has had several finishers over the years. The Mic Check and The Kenton Bomb wound up being his go-to maneuvers.

Still, Ken Anderson's original finish was what caught the eyes of the fanbase.

Ken Anderson recalls his first night with WWE

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During a Q&A session with Chris Featherstone for Sportskeeda, Ken Anderson was asked about using his original finisher, The Green Bay Plunge. When asked what led to him using it early on, Anderson said:

"That was something that I came up with with Austin Aries. Austin Aries and I had wrestled each other on an independent show. I was using the Swanton at the time as a finisher, and somebody else on the show was using the Swanton. I had been thinking about doing this. It's just the Finlay Roll, right? And I always did it standing in the ring and I thought that I could do that safely off the second rope."

Ken Anderson went on to talk about his official debut with WWE. He appeared on Velocity, SmackDown's version of Sunday Night Heat, to take on Funaki.

Anderson said that, at the time, it was scheduled to be a dark match that he'd be losing to Funaki. However, a few minutes before showtime, things changed:

"Two or three minutes before we were ready to go out, Dave Lagana comes around the corner and goes, 'There has been a change. We need to come up with a finisher for you right now because you're going over. This is gonna be a televised match and welcome aboard.' So I went from not being with the company to 'you're debuting right now.' It was kind of crazy."

Ken Anderson went onto say that Funaki was a treasure in the business, and if he'd hurt Funaki that night, then he would've been done with the company that same night.

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Edited by Nishant Jayaram
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