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TNAsylum.com
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Mr. Ken Anderson spoke with The Miami Herald about a variety of topics. Below are the highlights.
On his match with Jeff Hardy at Sacrifice:
“Every encounter that I have with Jeff is significant. I’m dealing with a guy who, in my opinion, is a living legend and probably one of the youngest living legends ever in our business. He is somebody I completely looked up to, when I was coming up through the ranks of the independent scene, and I still do. Ultimately, we’re all still fans of the wrestling business. We’re the biggest fans out there, and I’m a fan of Jeff Hardy. We’re very competitive. We like each other, so that’s always a challenge to wrestle each other, when you’re getting along with each other, but I always enjoy getting in the ring with Jeff.”
On his knowledge and maturity in the ring:
“All of us are trying to work smarter, safer. My concussions have been complete accidents. I don’t think I’ve lived the crazy lifestyle as far as my in-ring style goes. I’ve kind of always tried to keep it safe and simple but be as effective as possible. Early in my career, I sent a tape into WWE, and Kevin Kelly responded. [On the tape] I had done a dive from the top rope to the floor, and the guy completely missed me, and I ended up hurting myself a little bit. Kevin asked me, ‘Do you want some advice?’ I said, ‘Of course I do,’ and he said, ‘If you want to continue a career, if you want to have a lengthy career, stop doing crap like that.’ Point taken right away.”
On the concussion he suffered from Jeff Hardy's chair shot in 2010:
“The scariest was probably that one that I got. The hit itself wasn’t terrible. I was pissed about it at the moment, but I understood it was an accident. This isn’t tiddlywinks. It’s wrestling. So you’re going to get hurt. If you’re a guy who complains about getting hurt in this business, then you’re in the wrong business, but, however, the scary part for me was that after I took a week and a half, two weeks off, and when I got back in the ring, I couldn’t remember anything, and that was really scary. That’s when I realized the scope and the extent of the concussion.”
On his hiatus from TNA at the end of 2011:
“I took some time off, dealing with some family stuff. I was in the gym everyday, sometimes twice a day, just trying to get in the best shape that I possibly could. A lot of people don’t realize just how grueling this job can be. They see us on TV one night a week, maybe sometimes twice a week, and they think that’s pretty much the extent of it. But we have a lot of travel, and we’re on the road sometimes five to seven days a week, which kind of takes its toll on you mentally and physically. So it was just good to step back from everything for a while and really focus on getting as healthy as I possibly could.”
On the birth of his @$$---- persona:
“When I got to TNA, I had a little bit more freedom creatively on the microphone. They would give me a promo with some bullet points, and if I didn’t necessarily feel what was on the paper, I was pretty free to change it up. I went out there one night, and I hit that line. Interestingly enough [former TNA creative] Vince Russo then wrote for me the next week the line about Jeff Hardy has his fans who he calls the Creatures of the Night. Well, I’ve got my own fans, and I call them Anderson’s @$$-----, and right at that moment the entire crowd started chanting, ‘We are @$$-----.’ It was a vision, an idea that I had in my head for seven years, and it hit, and it stuck, and it worked. So I was very happy.”
*** Mr. Anderson donated his brain to the Sports Legacy Institute, co-founded in 2007 by former WWE superstar Christopher Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu in reaction to new medical research indicating brain trauma in sports is a public health crisis.
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