Former WWE United States Champion Mr. Kennedy (a.k.a. Mr. Anderson) had a promising career with the company, as he won the Money In The Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 23 and looked to cash the briefcase in the next year at WrestleMania 24. Per Kennedy, he was set to cash-in on The Undertaker and take the World Heavyweight Championship off “The Deadman,” however, an unfortunate injury put a halt to those plans and Kennedy was forced to drop the briefcase to Edge.
“The Rated-R Superstar” would then cash-in and take the World Title, before going on to headline WrestleMania 24 against Taker for the strap:
“We decided that I was going to cash it in next year at WrestleMania,” said Anderson. “I announced that I think the next night on RAW. Or maybe it was SmackDown that, ‘Hey I’m already setting a date, I’m going to cash in at WrestleMania next year.'”
“Taker got injured and he had the world title at the time. They were trying to figure out a way to get it off him,” Anderson recalled. “You know, they called me in the office and said, ‘Hey I know we were going to have you cash it in at WrestleMania next year but we need to get the title off of Taker so we’re going to have you come out next week at SmackDown and you’re going challenge him after he has the cage match with Mark Henry and blah, blah, blah, you’re going to win the title.'”
“Three or four days later I was in a wrestling match with Batista and a bunch of other guys, like an eight-man tag, and Batista — it wasn’t Batista’s fault or anything — he gave me a clothesline and I felt something pop in my tricep,” Anderson recalled. “And I ended up, my arm swelled up so bad I couldn’t even bend my elbow.”
“I ended up going to see a doctor, take an MRI in Erie, Pennsylvania, the next day Stephanie called me and said, ‘Ken you tore your triceps off the bone, you’re going to have to have surgery and you’re going to be out for seven to eight months. But unfortunately we still have to get that title off of Taker so we’re going to fly to Penn State, Edge is going to challenge you for the briefcase and he’s going to go on to do what you were going to do.'”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
