Former WWE Superstar Mr Kennedy has claimed he was close to becoming World Champion before an injury derailed his momentum.
The self-proclaimed ‘A**hole’ was riding high in WWE during 2007, having just captured the Money in the Bank briefcase and was thus guaranteed a World Championship opportunity anytime within the following year.
Unfortunately, Mr Kennedy would drop the briefcase to Edge on an episode of Monday Night Raw. It was speculated that he would cash-in on a weakened Undertaker, who’d legitimately torn his bicep and needed to take time off.
WWE was going to redirect course and have Mr Kennedy be the top champion on SmackDown, however, he injured his tricep beforehand, causing WWE to derail any plans of him potentially cashing-in.
During his appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the former WWE Superstar discussed in detail how the creative plans for him changed once he injured his tricep:
“He laid out the scenario basically and he’s like, ‘You’re going to cash in your briefcase, we’re going to have a new champion.’ And I remember him telling me that they were high on Batista at the time; that was their guy. They felt like Batista needed to chase for a while, and they said, ‘When we feel the time is right, we’re going to put it on Batista, but we don’t know how long that could be. I could be like a month, or five months, or six months, or whatever.’ I remember I just said, ‘Look, I appreciate you guys saying that, but this is business and I’ll do what’s necessary.”
Mr Kennedy was ready to cash-in and become champion. However, the superstar felt his tricep pop while working a house show match the next night. He revealed that it was Hornswoggle who drove him to the emergency room and received the call from Stephanie McMahon about plans needing to be changed:
“‘We’re going to take you to Penn State. Edge is going to challenge you for the briefcase, and then he’s going to go on and do what you’re supposed to do tomorrow night.’ ‘Okay,’” Anderson recalls responding. “And I remember thinking at the time, ‘I’ve got a year to cash this thing in. Isn’t there some other way you can get it off him?’ But I didn’t say it. I sort of regret not saying it now.”
The ex-WWE star would lose the briefcase to Edge, who baited him into putting it on the line. While many thought Mr Kenneyd would be gone for a significant amount of time, the injury turned out to be minor.
“I gave up the briefcase. The next day, I flew to Dr. Andrews’ table, and he’s feeling my triceps, and he’s like, ‘That’s not a tear.’”
Mr Kennedy never get the chance to become WWE World Champion, being released in 2009 and transitioned over to IMPACT Wrestling.