10 WWE Wrestlers Released In The Middle Of A Push

8. Mr. Kennedy

Aleister Black Tales
WWE.com

Few wrestlers have been as agonisingly close to being a WWE main eventer, only to fall short, as Mr. Kennedy.

The first major blow to Kennedy came shortly after winning the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 23. At that time, it was a shoe-in that the charismatic Ken would follow in the footsteps of previous MITB winners Edge and Rob Van Dam in successfully cashing in and becoming World Champion.

Sadly, WWE would take the briefcase off Kennedy after it emerged he'd be out for at least six months with a triceps injury. The kicker here, though, was that said injury wasn't as bad as initially thought and the grappler missed barely a month of action.

Shortly after that spell on the sidelines, Mr. Kennedy was to be revealed as the illegitimate son of Vince McMahon in a move that would've positioned Ken as one of the company's biggest stars and put him in a heated rivalry with Triple H - only that was dropped after Kennedy was suspended for 30 days after being implicated in the steroid scandal of that time.

Where Mr. Kennedy's WWE release came about, that happened 20 months later in May 2009. The reason why it was such a shock at the time was due to Ken having been Raw's #1 pick in the Supplemental Draft just weeks prior.

By all accounts, Randy Orton and John Cena had both complained about Mr. Kennedy's in-ring work, which played a major part in his release.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.