Former WWE Superstars Reveal Gimmicks They Turned Down To Vince McMahon
Former WWE superstars Shawn Daivari and Ken Anderson were guests on last Wednesday's episode of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast. During the appearance, both discussed turning down ideas pitched to them from the company.
First, WrestlingINC.com owner Raj Giri asked Daivari about Stephanie McMahon having an idea to call him George Bush.
"No, it was Vince's idea," Daivari responded. "Stephanie's the one who pitched it to me and I said it was a f?-ing horrible idea."
Daivari claimed after he said that she gave him a look and agreed with him that it was pretty bad.
"It's kind of like one of things where the machine is moving so fast it's like you just throw sh-t at the wall," said Daivari. "You don't have time to look at what sticks."
Anderson, who debuted with WWE in 2005, told a story about his meeting with company officials about changing his name from Anderson to Kennedy.
"That actually reminds me of when I had my meeting with Vince and Stephanie and Kevin Dunn and Johnny Ace. To figure out what my new name was going to be and how we were going to move forward," said Anderson. "You know, I started out as Mr. Anderson in the WWE and then like three weeks later Vince talked me into changing my name. So we're all sitting around, discussing this and he goes, 'Do you have any catchphrases?' And I said yeah, 'Nice guys finish last and thank God I'm an asshole.'"
Doing his best Vince McMahon impression, Anderson changed his voice and recalled his response, "I like it but you can't say it because we're PG."
Channeling his inner John Laurinaitis, Anderson changed his voice and remembered him interjecting his opinion, "And Johnny Ace goes, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute. Uh well let's say your name was like Adam Hole. Nice guys finish last, thank God I'm an A-Hole.'"
"And Vince looked over me and he goes, 'What do you think?' And I said you know, it's interesting, but I feel like that's sort of a flash in the pan type gimmick that's only going to stick around for a few months at most. It'll be really gimmicky and I want to be around for a really long time.
"And he goes, 'Yeah. It's a f?-ing terrible idea.'"
You can listen to Wednesday's episode of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast embedded in the video above. Please be advised this was a wild R-rated version of the podcast and that some of the language used is NSFW. Archived episodes are available by clicking here.
The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling opened last December and is operated by Ken Anderson and Shawn Daivari. Those interested can obtain more details by clicking here.