Former WWE Star Kenn Doane Recalls Vince McMahon Threatening To Fire Him And Ric Flair

Kenn Doane is best known for his time in the Spirit Squad and then having a singles run after as Kenny Dykstra. He got to wrestle some of the all-time legends in WWE including Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter.

Doane discussed taking on these legends when he joined Pancakes and Powerslams.

"It was different working with Sarge on that manner as I had worked with him when I was 14 on the independents. He's the one who kinda got me all of the TV spots at the time, so again working with him, Piper and Flair, we did a whole European loop with Piper and Flair for 3-5 months and it was just learning. It was also cool working with Dusty and that was fun taking the elbow," recalled Doane.

"It means more now because these guys aren't around anymore. No one can ever do that spot again or take that elbow or work with Piper. Sarge and Flair, maybe. But realistically it's not gonna be the same."

Doane then talked about bodyslamming Piper to which his Spirit Squad teammates were saying "No. No. No." When Doane returned backstage he found out that he wasn't supposed to slam Piper due to him having his hip replaced.

At 20 years old, Dykstra had the opportunity to work a storyline with Flair where the youngster was victorious in three straight matches. He talked his experience working with The Nature Boy and how they prepared for their matches.

"That was cool working with Flair. What was interesting working with him was that I would never see him all day," revealed Doane. "Steamboat was our agent and he would come up to me, 'Have you seen Ric?' and I hadn't. Then 10 minutes before our segment, he would come up and be like, 'Sunset flip, finish. Or, when I move for the figure four roll through, finish.' That's it. He would tell you the finish and then walk away and start stretching.

"I didn't wanna go up and say, 'Hey, I'm thinking of this.' It was just, okay, that's the way it is. We're gonna figure it out when out there and that's what we did every single time I worked with him."

Doane also revealed that he was supposed to win the Intercontinental Title from Jeff Hardy and then feud with Flair over that, but Triple H tearing his quad forced a change of plans. Flair was then aligned with Shawn Michaels to cover for Triple H being out and that scrapped Doane's plans to win the IC Title.

During a PPV match with Flair, the two of them nearly got fired for disobeying Vince McMahon's orders of what not to do in the match. Doane recalled what McMahon told them.

"That same match, right before we went out, Vince took his headset off, and he said, 'if you throw [Flair] off the top rope, you're both fired. So, don't do it.' I was like, okay, but that's kinda his spot," said Doane. "Like, everybody throws him off the top rope. And Flair was like, 'don't worry, we'll figure it out, out there.'

"So then, during that match, he's like, 'come get me, I'm going to the top [rope].' I was like, 'don't do it!' So, he went up, and I went to get him, and I was like, 'what are you doing?!' And he just gave me a thumb, he was like, 'come back!' And when I came back, he just jumped off and gave me a potato. He hit a single ax handle."

When asked why Vince did not want that spot, Doane stated, "I think because every match he does it, so Vince was just like, don't do it tonight. But we teased it, so, I don't know. Maybe he was getting ready to fire us until we didn't do it."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Pancakes and Powerslams with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.