Against The Grain 3.15.09: The Curious Case of Mr. Kennedy

“The Curious Case of Mr. Kennedy”

When I first saw Mr. Kennedy’s Smackdown debut about 4 years ago, which involved the man coming down to the ring with the cockiest swagger ever (funny!), doing his own ring introduction via microphone (awesome!), and absolutely DESTROYING his opponent with a very impressive finishing move called the “Green Bay Plunge” (sick!), I honestly believed that the man was straight off the bat on his way to superstardom. He automatically seemed like he had all of the tools to be an awesome main-event heel: off-the-charts charisma, good in-ring ability, and pretty impressive (for a rookie) mic skills. I just hoped that Kennedy would get the push that he’d deserved and be eventually headlining in World Title bouts. In the last few years after his debut, my hope for the man particularly came true, but now sadly looks like a faded and somewhat forgotten reality. Let’s take a look back at why this is.

After Kennedy’s debut against Funaki, the man started off an undefeated streak with never being pinned or submitting. Despite suffering an initial injury months into this (which we’ll see later here as a recurring theme), Kennedy still remained on people’s radars with frequent non-match TV appearances and promos, and got back in the ring in no time like he was never really gone. In 2006, he went from simply squashing random jobbers to slowly starting to mix it up with some main-eventers. The first real major name that he tangled was with the former Heavyweight Champion Batista. They first fought at the Great American Bash PPV and then had a mini series of matches right afterwards. Kennedy then briefly joined up with Vince and Shane McMahon in their high-level feud against DX (HHH/Shawn Michaels). With these two short brushes with the upper-card, the man next went on to win the United States Championship, his first (and surprisingly still only) title win in the company. This is when the snowball of success really starting rolling for Kennedy.

After his title win, Kennedy started a lengthy feud with one of the best “starmakers” in the company, The Undertaker. The two feuded back and forth against each other for three months, resulting in a couple of cheap wins for Kennedy (via DQ/interference). Even though Taker defeated the man in their final bout in the series at the Armageddon PPV, Kennedy ended up looking like a million bucks in the end due to him holding his own with the ring legend. The next natural step after this program was a shot at the World Title, which Kennedy received against Batista at the 2007 Royal Rumble. Even with predictably losing this bout, the man went on to another World Title feud with ECW Champion Bobby Lashley and then onto his debut at the biggest PPV of them all in Wrestlemania. There at the event in my hometown of Detroit, I witnessed the man winning the heavily coveted the Money In The Bank ladder match…the same match whose two past winners (Edge, RVD) had cashed in their suitcases and won World Titles. So with his almost guarantee future title win, Kennedy had declared that instead of waiting to cash in his shot at a random place and time that he was going to do so at next year’s Wrestlemania. This selection shocked everyone because of the anticipation of knowing that the “on-fire” Kennedy was a lock for a main-event at the “Super Bowl” of wrestling. Seems like things were going picture-perfect until the man was put on the sidelines with an serious injury and lost his Money In The Bank shot to the former Heavyweight Champ (who then cashed it in the same week to win the World Title).

Despite making a speedy recovery, Kennedy seemed to never fully recover to his “next World Champ” state. He feuded with Umaga over the Intercontinental Title…and lost those bouts. He had an (in my opinion) underrated awesome feud with Shawn Michaels…and nothing significant (i.e. Title shots) came out of that. And the man even had a nice mini-feud with Ric Flair (on Flair’s “retirement tour”)…but never received an extra bump. Shortly after last year’s Wrestlemania, Kennedy disappeared for a few months to film the ‘epic’ (quote sarcasm) Behind Enemy Lines III…catch it in DVD stores NOW. Kennedy made a few appearances here and there on TV last year while filming and then finally appeared to make a nice comeback as a face instead of his infamous heel persona on Smackdown until….injury hit the poor man AGAIN and put him on the sidelines.

Oh, what a curious case Mr. Kennedy has been. Going from his awesome promising debut to his rise to his near main-event status cemented with his big win at Wrestlemania to now just becoming a not-so popular name nowadays with his sporadic appearances and lack of in-ring wrestling. I am a big fan of Kennedy’s and personally hope that he does return to his once-great status of being one of the top heels (or faces…if he must) in the company, but I just couldn’t deny the fact that the man has kind of fallen from grace in terms of major pushes. So with that, here’s to hearing more of the significant voice on the microphone that gets crowds to chant along…”Mmmmmmmmmmiiiiiiissssssstttttttteeeeeeer Keeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnneeeeddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…..Keeeeeeennnnnneeeeedddy!!!”

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Smackdown Debut

Nice Promo on Undertaker

Sadly the last significantly good match we’ve seen from Kennedy….Vs. Shawn Michaels

Next Time On….Against The Grain
It’s that special time again, kids! Our World Series. Our Kentucky Derby. Our grand ol’ Super Bowl. It’s Wrestlemania, y’all. I will take a break from my usual “Against The Grain” format and join the other 411 writers in talking about the biggest wrestling event of the year. My topic of choice will be the covering of my own fond (and surprisingly weird) memories of experiencing the big event annually from the last 10 years in what I call “Living Through The Last Decade of Wrestlemania”. Hope you all enjoy!