Ken Anderson On How Close He Came To Winning The WWE World Heavyweight Championship And More

Ken Anderson was recently a guest on the Pancakes and Powerslams podcast where he talked about the passing of Balls Mahoney, original plans for his MITB cash in and more. You can listen to the full episode here and read some highlights below.

Hanging out with Balls Mahoney:

I was around him a lot when he was in the WWE when they married ECW with WWE. We spent a lot of time on the road because ECW and SmackDown would travel together. The overseas and in-state tours together. He was great backstage. Always a nice guy. I had some strange interactions with him. I remember one time I was walking up to an arena, I think we were in Germany, and he was sitting out kind of sunning himself. He had these headphones on, big headphones, and as I walked by, he pulled the headphones off, shook my hand and said, ‘How’re you doing, brother?’ He was always the sweetest guy, very friendly. And I said, ‘I’m good. What cha listening to?’ And he goes, ‘Type O Negative.’ I’m like, ‘Oh. Those are the guys who think they’re vampires, right?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah. I’m a vampire too.’ I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?’ And he showed me his arm where he had cut himself the night before where he and his girlfriend were taking turns sucking each other’s blood.

WWE’s original plans for him to win the World Heavyweight Championship:

The intention was for me to wait the entire year. Then Undertaker got hurt, he’d torn his biceps, I believe. So Vince and Stephanie called me in the office after SmackDown and said, we were planning on Taker run with this title for a long time, but he’s hurt. We need to get the title off of him. We think the best way to do that is for you to come out next week, and cash in the Money in the Bank. So, we talked about it, talked about a couple of scenarios, then I left. The very next time that I wrestled, I believe it was Poughkeepsie [New York], during the first match, Batista shot me in the corner, gave me a clothesline, and just grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the corner for a short clothesline. For some reason, I just bumped kind of weird, kind of sideways, and when my triceps hit the mat, it just felt like something exploded. By the time I got to the locker room, I couldn’t bend my elbow. My arm was already starting to discolor. I drove with Hornswoggle that night to Erie, Pennsylvania to get an MRI. After the MRI they tell me to go to your hotel and just wait, we’ll call you and let you know what is happening.

So Stephanie calls me while I’m at the hotel and says, ‘You tore your tricep off the bone, and you’re gonna have to get surgery and you’re gonna be out for seven or eight months. But the problem is, we still need to get that title off of Taker because he’s injured. What we’re thinking is we’re gonna send Vince’s jet to come pick you up in Erie, fly you to Penn State, Edge is gonna challenge you for the Money in the Bank, and then he is going to do what you were supposed to do. Edge challenged me on Raw, but I couldn’t do anything. It was as though I had a splint from my shoulder to my wrist. And Vince said, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, just have him jump me, beat me all the way to the ring, roll me in, ring the bell, hit me with the spear and 1-2-3. Vince said, ‘Ok. That’s what we’re gonna do.’ Then the next day, I flew to Birmingham, Alabama, and sat on Dr. James Andrews’ table. He says, ‘They’re telling me you tore your triceps, huh?’ So he feels around and goes, ‘That’s not a tear. You didn’t tear it.’ And I go, ‘Excuse me?’ He goes, ‘There’s no tear. You can tell where there’s a divot in the muscle, but not a tear.’ I did another MRI, and it was just a really bad bruise and my arm swelled up. He said if you take three maybe four weeks off, you’ll be right back in the ring. And that’s what happened.”