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View Full Version : Mr. Kennedy hypes WrestleMania, More



Black Widow
11-08-2008, 06:16 PM
WWE WrestleMania is the Super Bowl of pro wrestling/sports entertainment, and it's probably every wrestler's goal to be part of the annual spectacular.

Just ask WWE star Mr. Kennedy.

''Everybody always says it's the Super Bowl of wrestling, and it really is,'' Mr. Kennedy said in a recent phone interview. ``It's an event that keeps evolving year after year after year. We keep uping the ante and improving on the year before. I'm sure that this year's WrestleMania, being that is the 25th anniversary, is going to do just that.''

Currently on injured reserve, Mr. Kennedy, 32, took time from his rehab to promote the on-sale release date for the silver anniversary of WWE's WrestleMania. Tickets, which went on sale Saturday, Nov. 8, are available at TicketMaster outlets and TicketMaster online and by phone.

WWE's WrestleMania 25 is Sunday, April 5 at Reliant Stadium in Houston in the great state of Texas -- home to some of wrestling's biggest names.

''As always, you can expect appearances from celebrities, from wrestlers past,'' Mr. Kennedy said. ``Stone Cold Steve Austin will be at this year's WrestleMania. That's already a given.''

Mr. Kennedy can't wait to return.

''As far as Mr. Kennedy's involvement in WrestleMania, right now, obviously, it's up in the air as is usually the case involving pay-per-views,'' he said. ``I'm hoping at this year's WrestleMania, 25th anniversary, everybody will at least have a small part in it.''

As for big parts, Mr. Kennedy won a Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23.

''I won the Money in The Bank at the biggest event of my career at WrestleMania in Detroit at Ford Field in front of 81,000 people and millions and millions of people around the world,'' he recalled. ``So I'm hoping this year I will have an impact at WrestleMania.

'It's something I think that everybody who gets into this business wants to achieve one day, wants to be in a WrestleMania, and I've had the fortunate opportunity to be in two. By no means am I ready to say, `Been there, done that, did it, bought the T-shirt.' I want to keep going. I want to keep building and get better and better.''

Before he can get better, he has to get better. In August, Mr. Kennedy dislocated his shoulder during a house show match against Shelton Benjamin. After a month of unsuccessful rehab, he opted for surgery.

``Dr. [James] Andrews did my surgery and said it was going to be a long, slow road to recovery, about six months. Right now my projected return date is February 28, but I could end up coming back early, or it could take a little bit longer than that, but I'm hoping for an early return.

``I feel pretty good. I've been rehabbing on my own, and I've been working out everyday in the gym. Obviously, I'm chomping at the bit. I hate being off for this long. It's nice to have a little bit of a break, but to be off this much is a bummer.''

When Mr. Kennedy returns, he will join the SmackDown roster, a familiar brand. Mr. Kennedy made his debut on SmackDown, and after obtaining success, he moved to the competitive Raw brand, before the latest draft returned him to SmackDown.

''SmackDown, I always felt was my home,'' he said. ``I started out on SmackDown. I had developed some good relationships with guys in the SmackDown locker room. I think we had a really good, family. We were kind of a fraternity, and we looked out for each other. We helped each other succeed. We wanted everybody on the card to have a great match.

``Raw's a little more competitive, and there's a lot more depth on Raw as far as a lot of the top stars are over there, and it is the flagship show for WWE. For an up-n-comer, it was a little bit different experience, and I was glad that I had that experience. I'm also very, very glad to be back over on SmackDown, working with Michael Hayes who is the lead writer for SmackDown and head of creative.

``I'm really looking forward to my return. Unfortunately, I had another bump in the road. It seems like every time Mr. Kennedy gets his wheels underneath him, the carpet gets swept out. That's just the breaks in this business. What we do isn't ballet.

``The human body is bound to get injured every once-in-a-while, and unfortunately, I've had a couple of setbacks, but I definitely don't let that cast a gloomy cloud over me. I try to always make something positive out of it.

``Being that we're on the road so much, we don't get a lot of opportunities to spend time with our families. I feel mentally I'm back in shape and ready to tackle the task of being a WWE superstar and living life on the road.''

• Mr. Kennedy, along with Mickie James and Josh Matthews, represented WWE at the 2008 Republican National Convention. They were part of WWE's SmackDown Your Vote, persuading fans to register for the 2008 Presidential election.

``When we were doing SmackDown Your Vote stuff, it was done with the intention of being completely non-partisan and just getting people to get out and vote. This was obviously a very important Presidential election, and there were a lot of issues that were covered, a lot of big issues that are going on in this country right now.

``I, personally, wasn't too thrilled about the outcome of this election. However, being a good American and a good citizen, I'll definitely support the President in whatever he does and what he tries to do.

``I was a little disappointed in the way the media kind of portrayed McCain and Sarah Palin and really treated Barack Obama as a media darling and celebrity. I don't think they gave both sides a fair opportunity to present their case.''

• Born in Minneapolis and billed from Green Bay, Mr. Kennedy (Kenneth Anderson) is the pride of Two Rivers, Wis. He knows something about cheeseheads and former Packers' star quarterback Brett Favre.

''I'm mad, sad on both sides,'' he said. ``For one, how could the Green Bay Packers even insinuate a guy of that calibre would ride the pines behind a quarterback who hasn't been tried and tested in the league -- a guy who almost took his team to the Super Bowl a year before, a three-time MVP. He's got just about every record in the books for a passer. I was really upset that the Packers would even insinuate that he would ride the pines.

``On the other side, I was kind of disappointed that Bret jumped the gun a little bit. Brett expected a little too much.

'The story that I got was Brett called [Packers' general manager] Ted Thompson while he was on vacation and left a message on his cell phone, and Ted just basically called him back and said, 'Hey, I'll talk to you when I get back into the country,' and Brett kind of took that as, 'Well, they're not asking for me and begging for me to comeback. So that must mean they don't want me,' which is when he then went public and asked for his release and went on [Fox TV talk show host] Greta Van Susteren.

``I think by that time the damage was done, and there was egg on both faces. It just made things harder, made any kind of negotiations harder still.

``I'm bummed out. For selfish reasons, I really hoped Brett Favre would be a different cat, and that there would be some loyalty to the Green Bay Packers. In professional sports today, there's just not a lot of loyalty. Guys just come and go.

``I really hoped he would end out his career in Green Bay. but I'm still a fan of Brett Favre, and I'm still a fan of the Packers.''

• Move over Jesse; from WWE to politics

Mr Kennedy said, ``One of the guys in our locker room -- who seems to know a lot about politics, seems to know a lot about finance -- has definitely made a lot of money for himself. He's one of those guys who calls it down the middle, calls it like he sees it, and I think he has a pretty keen eye for right and wrong, and that's JBL.

'Every time an issue comes up, and I hear JBL's take on it. It kind of cracks you in the forehead, `Duh.' He's usually right on with what he says, at least in my opinion. He doesn't necessarily say things to be politically correct which is something I appreciate. I think Americans are tired of the politics of politics. So I think JBL would be a fantastic candidate.''

• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 video game, featuring WWE's top stars like Mr. Kennedy, goes on sale throughout North America on Sunday, Nov. 9. The game can be played on Xbox 360 (1-4 players), PlayStation 3 (1-4 players), PlayStation 2 (1-6 players), PlayStation Portable (1-4 players), Wii (1-4 players), Nintendo DS (1-2 players) and Wireless (1 player).

''The designers and programmers just keep getting better and better, keep improving year after year,'' Mr. Kennedy said. ``The controls are a little bit easier to manage. It's kind of a complicated system in that there are so many buttons and so many button combinations that you have to use to do moves, but they keep trying to dumb it down year after year, make it easier, more accessible for everybody to play. A 5-year-old can pick it up and play.

``This year is no different. I actually got the opportunity to play a little bit. They added a couple of new matches, the Inferno match. It was a pretty fun match to play. The graphics keep getting better. Mr. Kennedy's entrance/intro keeps getting better. I'm looking forward to it.''

• WWE Films and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the WWE Films' direct-to-DVD movie Behind Enemy Lines III, starring Mr. Kennedy, on Jan. 6.

The list of DVD extras has been released, and it includes commentary with stars Tim Matheson, Joe Manganiello and Mr. Kennedy along with six featurettes which are The Big Guns: Military Action On Film, Colombia Norte: On Location In Puerto Rico, The Rocket's Red Glare: Explosions Explained, The Art Of The Fall: Stunt Secrets, ComedyIn Colombia: Bloopers & Other Relief and Stars With Stripes: Casting Joe and Mr. Kennedy.

``I would like to hope other movies are in my future. I think that when people see Behind Enemy Lines III, they will see a different side to Mr. Kennedy and see that I have a lot more to offer than just beating people up in the ring on Monday nights or Friday nights or whatever the case may be.

``I had a tremendous experience working with a lot of guys who have a lot of experience in that industry -- guys like Tim Matheson, Steven Bauer, Keith David. Those are guys who kind of helped me along in my virgin voyage into the movie industry. It was a great experience. I think the movie is going to do pretty well, and I think people are going to be presently surprised.

``I know [WWE Chairman] Vince McMahon saw an early copy of the movie, the rough cut, and I know that he was very pleased with it. I know a lot of people have been pleased with it.''

McMahon opted to bypass movie theaters and take the film straight to DVD.

''Vince, himself, said, `OK, why am I spending $20 million on movies when I can get this kind of a movie for $5 million,'' Mr. Kennedy said. ``I know a lot of our previous movies didn't do so well in the box office but really cleaned up when they came out in DVD. So we're taking out that extra step and going right to DVD, and I think it's going to be a success.''

• Mr. Kennedy's signature intro, staying fresh

'It's kind of my trademark thing. The Rock always came out and said his tag line, `Finally, The Rock has come back to (insert name of city here).' It's just something the crowd comes to appreciate and love.

'Even though you may hear week after week after week and some people might say, `That's getting boring. That's getting old.' The reaction from the live crowd is always great, when they actually get to see the person, something the people can really connect to.

``The Undertaker did the deadman gimmick for so many years, and then he just finally felt that things were kind of stale, and things needed to change a bit. So then he switched over to the American Badass Undertaker, and then when he felt that had run its course, he went back to the old stuff.

``Same thing with Steve Austin. He was one of the biggest superstars in the history of our business. At some point, he decided to turn into a bad guy, and that worked for so long, and then they flipped him back.

``That's a thing with our business. You have to constantly be accepting to change and wanting to evolve your character and come up with new and exciting things for the crowd to latch onto. I'm sure there will be many opportunities down the road for Mr. Kennedy to change up what he's doing a little bit.''

• Mr. Kennedy's clown tattoo

``The clown has a lot of personal meaning to me. I was always a class clown, always entertaining people whether it be in the middle of class, after class, at pep rallies, at the senior/faculty basketball game getting on the mic and mimicking the school's vice principal or just doing little plays and making movies with my buddies with a home video camera.

``So the clown tattoo was something I looked for a long time. I remember I would rifle through magazine after magazine, looking for that right tattoo, the right picture I wanted to put on my arm.

``I finally found it. I actually went to a tattoo shop. I was just in there talking to him about a design, and I happen to look up on the wall, and I saw that this guy had won an award. I honestly can't tell you how this guy won that award. He must have paid off somebody or photo-shopped it himself.

'I went in there, and I remember asking the guy, `I want that tattoo, and I want it right here. How much is it going to be?' He said, 'Ehh, that's going to be uh 75 bucks.' I'm 19-years-old. I thought, `Man, this is great. The tattoo is going to be 75 bucks. I'm going to get that picture which is something that I've been looking for forever. That's the perfect picture.'

``Well, I sat down in the chair, and he began the tattoo. Trying to be the tough guy that I wasn't and my girlfriend wanted to come, I didn't look down the whole time, and I was just kind of talking to him and talking to my girlfriend.

'He gets toward the end of doing the tattoo, and he said, `All right man, how's it look?' I looked down, and the tattoo looked absolutely nothing like the picture that I pointed out to him on the wall.

'I remember thinking to myself, `I have to like this because I'm going to have it on my for the rest of my life.' I remember just kind of smiling, 'Man, that's awesome. I love it.' Two days later, I was like, `What did I do?'

``Luckily, nowadays they can remove tattoos. The thing is I really still want that clown tattoo from the picture I saw. Hopefully, I'm going to get this one removed because it's too dark for them to go over it. I've actually gone into a lot of different tattoo studios, and they said they have to make the tattoo absolutely huge, and I really don't want that.

``So I'm going to get it removed and then get it replaced with what I originally intended.''

• WWE WrestleMania 25 will be the second WrestleMania in Texas, the first being WrestleMania X-Seven, at the Reliant Astrodome, also in Houston, in 2001.

Tickets for WrestleMania 25 are on sale at TicketMaster outlets and TicketMaster online and by phone.


MiamiHerald.com

JohnCenaFan28
11-08-2008, 06:23 PM
Thanks for this.