The Orlando Sentinel has an interview with MIA WWE star Mr. Kennedy today. Here are some highlights from the conversation:
Frustration of his May 2007 injury: “Well, I don’t think anything would have been different had he not misdiagnosed me because I was going to be out for two months regardless. And that’s about how long I was out for was two months. At the time, Undertaker was hurt and they really needed to go in a different direction. They needed to get the title off of him. Edge was the guy they chose to go with in lieu of me. I don’t blame that doctor for misdiagnosing…I don’t think it affected anything. It didn’t change the outcome. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances that I did get injured at that particular time. I never felt like I’ve really gotten back on track. There’s a couple of other things – the suspension and then the other injury now. It’s just been one thing after another. Hopefully, I’ve had my share of bad luck and hopefully things will start picking back up. I’ve always remained optimistic throughout all the stuff. I went through a heck of a lot worse times when I was doing the independents. I always feel that if you keep your chin up and you persevere and you work hard, good things will come…eventually.”
His upcoming return from his recent shoulder injury and surgery: “The rehab is going pretty good. It’s slow going – there’s not a whole lot I can do right now. I’m going to see Dr. Andrews and he’s going to give me an update and tell me how he wants me to start progressing my rehabilitation. He initially had told the office that I would be looking at a February 28 return date if everything goes well. I’m going to cross my fingers and say a couple prayers, take my vitamins and drink my milk and hopefully I’ll be back by then, maybe a little sooner.”
Advice from Steve Austin: “The nice thing about Steve is that…I’ve had a couple opportunities to sit down and watch my match with him. He would show up at a TV and they always have a tape of the match of the previous week so we would sit down and watch the match. It was pretty neat because he picks apart minor details that mean so much that the normal viewer can’t quite put their finger on but would mean so much more if that little piece of the puzzle was there. That’s kind of the stuff that he helps me with – picking apart my matches and finding those little, minor details that make the match that much better.”
Difficulty of a wrestler getting this spot back after an injury: “Yeah, it’s one of those situations where because we run such a fast-paced environment and it’s always go go go and there’s always a million things going on and there’s only so many people in the company to take care of all of those things. A lot of times when you go home, you don’t hear a lot from the guys. It’s not because they don’t care about you any more. It’s not that. It’s just that everybody is very, very busy and when you’re out of sight, you tend to be out of mind sometimes. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, absence makes the heart grow yonder and you hope that it’s the former of the two. As for this time, I’ve pretty much stayed away. I had an opportunity to go to the show in Green Bay and I just thought ‘I’m going to stay away from this one’. Let them forget about me for a little while. Sometimes that’s always good.”
If he watches wrestling during his time away: “I do try to watch it as much as I can. I’ve been pretty busy with other things – being a husband to my wife and things that I have a hard time doing when I’m on the road. But I do have this neat little invention called DVR that tapes all my wrestling and I tape all the shows. It’s one of those things where you’re a wrestling fan – and I do still consider myself to be a wrestling fan first and foremost – and I just happen to be such a big fan that I wanted to be part of the business. I don’t foresee myself ever…even when I’m out of the business, I’ll still probably be watching wrestling and still have a passion for it.”
You can read the interview in its entirety at the following link.
See photos of Kennedy’s new look! (>>)