10 WWE Wrestlers Released In The Middle Of A Push

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.