10 Wrestlers EVERYBODY Was Wrong About

The self-announcing Mr. Kennedy is perhaps the most cogent paradigm of 'future WWE champion who never fulfilled his potential'. And for the most part, the failure was of his own idiotic making.

Kennedy - originally under the probably unintentionally Matrix-inspired denomination Mr. Anderson - was pushed harder than a jammed door following his OVW graduation in 2005. The Wisconsinite bested Hardcore Holly on his debut, and was immediately programmed with Eddie Guerrero, only to see the feud brought to a sudden end by Eddie's tragic passing. Within the next year, Kennedy grasped the US Championship, was featured in a series of World Heavyweight title matches against The Undertaker, and most notably, captured the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 23.

This is where everything began to take on the form of a pear. A misdiagnosis of a torn triceps forced Kennedy to relinquish the briefcase to Edge, only for him to later learn the injury had been a relatively minor hematoma. Shorn of top billing thanks to medical incompetence, Kennedy was offered solace as the proposed answer to the biological riddle of Mr. McMahon's illegitimate son.

And then the Signature Pharmacy scandal happened. Just weeks after acting as WWE's anti-steroid PR in the wake of the Chris Benoit tragedy, Kennedy was caught up in a lie as one of 12 superstars implicated in ordering enhancing substances online. He was immediately suspended, and Hornswoggle was revealed as the McMahon sprog.

The game was up for good when Kennedy clumsily dropped Randy Orton on his recently injured collarbone during a match in May 2019. Tagging with John Cena, Orton hit Kennedy with a backstage RKO outta nowhere: he was fired by the company for his alleged incompetence. Despite a lengthy run in Impact, he's never been close to a WWE return since.