Former WWE Star Ken Anderson Talks PED Suspension, Being Replaced By Hornswoggle

Ken Anderson, aka Mr. Kennedy, has discussed his WWE suspension for violating the Wellness Policy, which ultimately led to him no longer being considered to play Vince McMahon's son in the storyline.

Kennedy and several WWE wrestlers were suspended for 30 days in 2007 after they were caught using performance-enhancing drugs. During his recent conversation on "Insight," he said that the grueling WWE schedule made it tough for him and others to maintain their physique, which is why they used PEDs.

"When they instituted the wellness policy, you got all these people who are, you know, there was a lot of us that had been using PEDs for a long time, and you just suddenly go cold turkey. So there were people, you can see it if you watch video from then, people shrinking, shriveling up. We were still running that hard schedule, though, too, like four or five days a week or doing overseas tours and stuff. It's tough on your body, and it's also tough when ... especially with testosterone, you go from this synthetic testosterone to your body has shut down making testosterone on its own," he said.  

Kennedy stated that he didn't even fail a wellness policy drug test and was suspended only because it became public news.

"We would ask like, 'What can we do?' And they go, 'As long as you go and get a prescription, a doctor's prescription, you're good.' And then, you know, there's these wellness clinics around the country, you can go. And so, that's what I did. That's what a bunch of us did," he recalled."I didn't even fail a test. It was just because my name was attached to this thing."

In 2007, there was a storyline that was to reveal that Vince McMahon had an illegitimate son in WWE, with Mr. Kennedy being earmarked for that role. He remembered the conversation he had with McMahon, where the former WWE Chairman detailed what was going to happen.

"And then he laid it out for me. He said, 'It's going to be revealed that I have an illegitimate child and we're going to try to — we're going to, over a series of weeks, months, we're going to try to figure out who it is and we're going to narrow down. It's going to be you. We don't know where we're going with it after that, but that's what we've got so far.'"

But, following his suspension, WWE had to quickly change track and revealed in Green Bay that McMahon's illegitimate son was Hornswoggle. "And then the next week, [in] Green Bay, they switched it to Hornswoggle, which I'm happy for him," he said.

While he lost the role of playing McMahon's son, Kennedy was also fined $10,000 by WWE and suspended for 30 days. He feels that the switch to Hornswoggle — after weeks of teasing that he would be revealed as McMahon's son — was a swerve typical of the pro wrestling business, especially for a promotion like WWE that runs year-round.