Every 'Next Big Thing' In Wrestling History: Where Are They Now?
3. Mr. Kennedy
While Mr. Kennedy didn’t quite get the insta-rocket - despite an early unbeaten streak, he navigated the United States title picture initially and was fed to the Undertaker in a main event trial in late 2006 - when he was going to get pushed, he was going to get f*cking pushed.
He was, infamously, set to be revealed as the illegitimate son of Mr. McMahon. This could only have been huge for him, obviously. This was when McMahon was still effective as a TV character, and not a surgically mutilated, indecipherable husk. The idea, presumably, was for McMahon to favour him all the way to the title.
Mr. Kennedy (and Mr. Money In The Bank) was struck down with injury when he had the world nestled in the palm of his hand alongside his custom microphone. Or that’s what WWE thought; the injury was misdiagnosed.
He was a sentient catchphrase, in retrospect. You couldn’t hope to name a great Mr. Kennedy singles match, but this didn’t matter at the time. The idea of WWE embracing the super-indy hybrid style was still hopelessly naive when Kennedy broke through.
Fired almost immediately following a second, longer layoff, when he dropped Randy Orton very close to his head, ‘Mr. Anderson’ resurfaced in TNA. He didn’t do much really.
He’s still…around, working unfashionable US indies sporadically.