After years of having his story told by others, often through the lens of controversial headlines, Ken Anderson is taking control of his own narrative with his new podcast, Mic Check. In a recent interview on The Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val, the former Mr. Kennedy discussed his motivation for finally launching his own show, his frustrations with clickbait wrestling media, and what fans can expect from the new project.
Anderson explained that he has been approached about doing a podcast many times over the years, but the timing was never right until now. “I’ve always wanted to do it. I just wanted to make sure that I did it right, and I found what I feel like are the right people,” he said. “The timing is right. I’m ready to talk about certain things that I wasn’t… there’s no sour grapes or anything like that. It’s just… the missteps that I did took along the way, I wanna you know, we’re gonna talk about everything.” (Click below to watch the full interview)
Taking on Clickbait
A major motivation for creating his own platform was his past experiences with having his words twisted into negative, clickbait headlines. He shared a specific, frustrating example from his time working for Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) in Scotland just after he had parted ways with TNA.
“They told me, like, ‘you can say whatever you want’… And they were like, ‘they hate TNA here. They hate TNA.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, here we go. We’re gonna have some fun,'” he recounted. “I was like, ‘Well, you know, I don’t work for them anymore. So yeah, F TNA.’ And I said that. And then they were like… I’m a heel, so I had to turn it around. I was like, ‘Well, but I don’t really care what you think. So F you too.'”
The nuance of the promo was completely lost in the subsequent headlines. “Well, somebody just went in, like sharp, spliced out that little part, and ‘Ken Anderson says F TNA,’ and then that became this huge, huge thing,” he said.
“Talking Shop With My Friends”
Anderson explained that his podcast will be a stark contrast to the “gotcha” style of interviews he dislikes. The goal is to have organic, fun conversations with his peers, rather than interrogations. The Undertaker was his first guest, a choice that set the tone for the entire series.
“I told the guys ahead of time. I was like, ‘I want this to be just talking shop with my friends.’ Like, we’re not gonna, it’s not gonna be an interview. It’s gonna be just, we’re just BS-ing,” he stated. “Some of the worst interviews that I’ve ever done… somebody will go on Wikipedia, and they’ll get a list of… who was my favorite wrestler, how I got in the business. And then they go and they proceed to, like, ask you to, like, check off and confirm what they already know. Instead of like this, we’re just having a little chat.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
