Ken Anderson, formerly known as Mr. Kennedy in WWE, has officially confirmed one of wrestling’s most famous “what ifs,” revealing that he was originally slated to be revealed as Vince McMahon’s illegitimate son. On the debut episode of his Mic Check podcast, Anderson detailed how the massive storyline was first presented to him by the McMahon family.
The angle, which dominated WWE programming in 2007, involved a months-long search for a secret child of the WWE Chairman. While the storyline ultimately concluded with Hornswoggle being revealed as the son, Anderson was the original choice before a suspension and injury derailed his involvement.
“Yes, I was,” Anderson confirmed when asked if the rumors were true. “It was presented to me. I remember Stephanie first said, ‘Hey, Vince needs to talk to you about something. I think you’ll really like it.’ And then, you know, I talked to Vince, and he pitched this whole, ‘It’s going to be a long storyline. I’m looking for my illegitimate son or child, as it were… we’re going to do an investigation, and then we’re going to find it.’”
McMahon told Anderson that the direction of the storyline was open-ended. “He said, ‘I don’t know where it goes from there. We’ll see. It could be, you know, it could last a couple months. It could last a year. Who knows?’ And it ended up going over a year, right? With Hornswoggle.” When asked what he thought of Hornswoggle as his replacement, Anderson laughed, “He was the only… he was the answer, right? Like, if it wasn’t going to be me, it had to be Hornswoggle.”
Anderson has recently returned to the public eye with the launch of his new podcast, Mic Check with Mr. Anderson. He continues to train up-and-coming wrestlers at his school, The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling, in Minnesota.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Mic Check with Ken Anderson with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
