Kenny King Explains Why There Aren’t More Social Protests or Demonstrations in Wrestling, Discusses Wrestlers Reacting to Him Appearing on The Bachelorette

– Yahoo! Sports recently interviewed ROH television champion Kenny King, including appearing TV’s The Bachelorette. Below are some highlights.

Kenny King on why there aren’t more social protests or demonstrations in wrestling: “That’s a good question. The platforms are a little different I think. Kenny King is a character. Kenny Layne is a person. [Colin] Kaepernick or Martellus Bennett or Marshawn Lynch … who they are and what they represent, as far as even endorsements and advertising dollars, that’s coming from a different place where Kenny King the professional wrestler is coming from. I think it’s just a little different the way it would come across because I couldn’t do it during a wrestling show without it being misconstrued as a gimmick or an angle. I think that if you pay attention to the social media of a lot of black wrestlers and wrestlers of color, they are very outspoken as far as these issues in one way or the other. There’s not too many I know that are silent on equality and social issues. I don’t think Monday Night Raw or Death Before Dishonor is the place to discuss real-life issues when we are blurring the lines anyways.”

His thoughts on where he puts Bobby Heenan in history: “Bobby Heenan is the greatest manager of all time. My childhood wrestling memories are filled with memories of Bobby Heenan, Mr. Fuji and Slick. And then to a lesser extent, Paul E. Dangerously and Jimmy Hart. Bobby ‘The Brain’ is always going to be the guy synonymous with managers and great wrestling personalities.”

Kenny King on wrestlers’ reactions to him appearing on The Bachelorette: “I found that most of my friends in the business were watching for the first time because their wives were like, ‘If Kenny’s watching, you have to watch!’ Most of my friends in the business were ‘Oh, it looks like I’m watching now, appreciate you.’ That was a lot of my friends in general. Overall the reception was overwhelming positive. The guys had a lot of positive things to say about it. Just myself, I think the biggest complements I was getting from my friends and the guys wrestling was that was you [on the show]. You didn’t pretend to be anybody else. That was a big complement for me.”