Mr. Kennedy Recalls Being Told He Would Become WWE World Champion
The WWE has had many "what-if?" scenarios throughout the history of the company, including situations such as "what-if Bret Hart agreed to drop the title to Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997" or "what-if The Undertaker beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30?"
Along with those company-changing decisions are a number of career-defining decisions WWE came close to making, perhaps none greater than Mr. Kennedy's in 2007. After winning the Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 23, Kennedy was poised to become a top guy in the company, with a match against The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship in his near future.
Unfortunately for Kennedy, he suffered an injury that would change the minds of WWE's decision-makers about giving him the belt. Kennedy never did win the championship. The former United States Champion spoke about the situation during an interview with "NBC Sports Boston," revealing who told him about the change of plans.
"I can't change things that happened in the past; it was kind of crazy," Kennedy said. "They had already told me two or three days earlier that I was going to be winning the title from [Undertaker]. Taker was hurt too, he needed to have biceps surgery, so [they said] 'we need this title off Taker. What we're going to do is we're going to have him in this cage match, he's going to barely sneak out alive and then somebody else is going to come out and beat him up some more and then you're going to come out and cash in your Money in the Bank briefcase and you're going to be the new champion.'
Mr. Kennedy's dream of becoming World Champion gets shattered
"I went home, slept on it a couple of days, and then the next time I took a bump, boom, I feel something pop in my triceps. I go to the emergency room and get that MRI, [Stephanie McMahon] calls my phone and says, 'You tore your triceps off the bone, you're going to be out for eight or nine months. Unfortunately, we still need to get that title off Taker.' They sent Vince's jet to come to pick me up. I flew into Penn State where Edge challenged me for my briefcase and I remember I couldn't do anything, my arm was completely immobilized."
To make matters even worse, Kennedy revealed that the next day he flew to Birmingham, Ala.to meet with Dr. James Andrews about his triceps, and it turned out it wasn't torn. Kennedy stated that he took another MRI that day, and it revealed that he had just popped a blood vessel in his arm and would've had to be out five or six weeks, and not the eight or nine months that he was originally scheduled to miss. He likely could've held the briefcase during that time and won the world title once he returned.
SO Kennedy missed out on his big break as a world champion and was released by WWE a few years later, never getting anotjer chance to recreate his star-making moment.