10 Questions For Ken Anderson

8. The Academy

AS: When did you first get your idea for wanting to start a school?

KA: You know, I got it probably four or five years ago. I was at TNA, and I had gone on and done some independent shows and I was kind of surprised by how bad a lot of the guys were. There was always one or two guys on the card that really stood out, and they were head and shoulders above everybody else. I would say to myself, 'that's not their fault. They didn't know any better when they signed up for wrestling school. They didn't know that their trainer didn't really know what they were doing.'

So here are these people who are spending all this money to go to wrestling school, and they're not actually getting an education. It's like thinking that you're going to Harvard, and you're going to somebody's basement and the guy isn't educated himself. He's got a third grade education. That's the way I looked at it. I just wanted to have a place where everybody could come learn, and it would be a fun, positive environment.

We do different things, we think outside the box as far as training goes. Shawn and I have had pretty good careers. I've been doing nothing but wrestling for the past ten or eleven years. I was in the WWE for more than a cup of coffee I was in TNA for plenty more than a cup of coffee. Nora (Molly Holly) was too. So what I'm saying, is that we obviously know what they are not looking for. It's harder to say what they're looking for, because they don't really know either, they just want to be entertained and I guess that's the point: trying to figure out how each person can pull something out of there that is unique and entertaining to the masses