Ken Anderson On Paul Heyman Writing For Him During His TNA Run
Former WWE and TNA star Ken Anderson was recently a guest on X-Pac12360 to discuss his wrestling school, "The Academy School of Professional Wrestling" in Minneapolis, and Billy Gunn's seminar at the facility on Monday, February 19th. You can watch the episode in the video above or download the podcast version on iTunes, they sent us these highlights:
His relationship with Paul Heyman in OVW:
"First, when I was doing tryouts, I remember one day we were in the ring working just all the indie guys and the only two people sitting in the front row were Paul Heyman and Jim Ross. Guys were getting in [the ring] doing chain wrestling which was fine, but they just weren't showing character. I got in there and I started putting heat on somebody, talking smack.
"Fast forward, Jim Cornette got released from the company and they said Paul Heyman was coming in and he's gonna run OVW and he's gonna run all the TV and everything. I remember he came in and said, 'I need to talk to you.' [He] pulled me into a room and said, 'You're the next guy up... I have been a fan of yours,I've had my eye on you.' At that point I been there for 6 months and he said, 'We're gonna do so much stuff with you on TV here that they're gonna have to take you onto the main roster.' Five weeks later Tommy Dreamer called me and said, 'Hey they want to take a look at you on Smackdown. In that case Paul was correct, and I just continued to be friends with Paul."
Collaborating with Heyman during his TNA run:
"After I got released [from WWE] and went to TNA, a lot of people don't know this, but they would a lot of times hand me a script and I would call Paul and say, 'Hey here's what they gave me, I am not digging it, what can we do?' Almost every week and he would say, 'Give me a couple minutes and I'll write something up for you.' A couple minutes later he would have an email to my inbox. We just kinda collaborated, it was really cool. He's a great guy."
Running his wrestling school
"To me it's not work, it is fun. I enjoy it especially when the students are really into it and it's a really good atmosphere and everyone is having fun. It's not work and I put a lot of time in it. We wanted to have a place that... we sorta designed it on a way lighter budget obviously, we looked at what the performance center is doing and how do we take that to an independent level."
His students reaction to Molly Holly, who is a trainer at his academy, making her Rumble entrance:
"What a huge reaction from the people in the room, when they saw one of their coaches [Molly] come out as one of the entrances of the first ever women's Royal Rumble. Which I must say, in my humble opinion, that was the match of the night, those women crushed it."