Mr. Kennedy was one of my favorite guys in this business when he was actually around. I was very excited to see what he was going to do as a face upon his return... I feel bad now, but I made jokes as soon as he hit the ring last Monday night for his return. "Let the injury countdown begin..."
Like i said, I feel bad about it now, but it's very much true. I don't know what was up with this guy...did he have the glass bone disease or what?
Kennedy is one of those guys that is actually good enough to make the "really fast huge push" thing work. Take CM Punk...in my opinion, he's not that great, but WWE has forced him on us with two MITB wins and several pushes into the main events...I hated him, but the weird thing is that ratings went up during his reign... But Kennedy is actually very good. And they always give him the most random main event feuds:
--Let's randomly put him on the Smackdown Survivor Series team...but first, let him face Eddie Guerrero in his last match before dying...big push there. Sure, it wasn't intentional, but it happened.
--What should we do with him now...? Let him attack DX with the McMahons...huge push.
--Intermission...US title reign...
--WWE allows him to make the claim that he's better than the entire Smackdown brand and wants to go to Raw. Bold claim. What do they do? Undertaker feud. Then a match with Chris Benoit.
--Well, he did the Undertaker thing...now he's "beaten the best"...what now? Team him up with MVP to face the Brothers of Destruction...? Sure, let's do that. And then later, we'll have him and Undertaker have a decent feud to get his name even MORE out there...
--BUT WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO!?! Money in the Bank win...
*This is where the mistake came in my opinion. Why give the hottest guy with the biggest pushes the MITB, but then have him lose it to Edge. If that match hadn't taken place, he wouldn't have been injured (maybe) and he probably could have gone on to do bigger things...But they gave it to Edge...
--Alright, the MITB didn't work out...major injury and steroid thing put him back a little bit, so WWE gave him a month or so in the mid card against Carlito, Jeff Hardy, etc. Funny...even in the mid card as punishment, he still got to work with the tag champs and beat Jeff Hardy.
--Ok guys, he's been punished in the mid card for about two months... should we do what we do with William Regal, Jeff Hardy...no...let's give him an awesome feud with Shawn Michaels.
When did Kennedy even put in his time in the lower card...not that he had to...he was good. Undertaker, Kane, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Jeff Hardy, Edge...this guy worked with the best of the best and the most popular... was he one of them? Not exactly. He wasn't a phenom or a legend and he didn't sell millions of dollars... he was just good...in the ring and on the mic.
Unfortunately for him, he couldn't stay healthy. Had he been able to stay healthy for his entire career up till this point, and didn't do that steroid thing...imagine the possibilities.
I can almost say with certainty that he would have been a World Champion by now...
Now on to his future...when he gets healthy again, will he continue in the business... he better in my opinion. TNA would eat this guy up in a heartbeat. He probably wouldn't be injured with a lighter load of work... I think he could be an instant top card draw, but strangely enough, for the first time in history, WWE probably pushed this guy more than TNA would.
Kennedy vs. Kurt Angle.
Kennedy vs. Sting
Kennedy vs. AJ Styles
I want to see that.
In conclusion...rest in peace Kennedy's WWE career. I hope we see you in some way in the future. If now, it was a waste of what could have been a fantastic career.