10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Brian Kendrick

6. The Reason He Left WWE In The First Place

Kendrick's first WWE run ended on January 13th, 2004. He hadn't done a whole lot in his first year with the company, besides appearing regularly on Velocity with tag team partner Paul London and being destroyed by Brock Lesnar on Smackdown. The reason for Kendrick's departure at the time was that he wanted to return to Zero 1 in Japan. The real reason, as disclosed in his and Paul London's Highspots Shoot Interview, is that he was getting tired of being 'mentored' by Chris Benoit and Bob 'Hardcore' Holly. Sensing that the young London and Kendrick weren't taking their jobs seriously, the veterans decided to take them under their wings and make sure they fulfilled their potential. That meant getting up at 5am, working out for two hours, eating a huge lumberjack meal, working out some more, eating a steak, working out again and so on. After a few months of this, Kendrick was at the end of his tether. During his recounting of this tale in the shoot interview he says that Holly and Benoit were 'f***ing nuts'. But he does also credit them for helping him out and says that he now appreciates what they did for them. London and Kendrick both speak very highly of Holly and call him a great guy while claiming that they knew from their first meeting with him that Benoit was 'crazy'.