A former WWE star has recalled the time Vince McMahon accused him of being “too funny” in a promo.
Mr Kennedy joined WWE in 2005 and soon found himself on the main roster thanks to his skills on the microphone. In a new interview with Soundsphere, the star has explained how he went too far with that same skill for Vince McMahon.
Kennedy explained that in his first few weeks on SmackDown, whenever he asked McMahon what he wanted him to do in his promos, he would be told to “get over, be entertaining.” The star took the advice to heart and aimed to be more entertaining every week.
“I really, really pushed that envelope. I was having this little feud with Tony Chimel, the announcer. Actually, that was my first feud in WWE if you really boil it down. We got to… there’s a scene in Full Metal Jacket where Private Pile gets caught with a jelly donut in his footlocker, and then the drill sergeant makes him eat the jelly donut and everybody else has to do push-ups. One day, I’m in catering, and I happen to look over and see a box of jelly donuts.”
Kennedy went on to explain that he and Chimel re-enacted the scene on TV, with him finding a donut in Chimel’s jacket. However, it didn’t get the reaction from McMahon that he expected.
“I came back through the curtain and Vince was like, ‘Too funny, goddammit.’ From that point forward, it was like, ‘You’re too entertaining now.’
“Vince flat-out told me I was too funny, I came back through the curtain after that jelly donut bit with Chimel and he just goes, ‘Too funny, goddammit.’ Later he said to me, ‘Funny does not equal money.’ That’s when I realised there was a ceiling on how far they wanted me to push that side of my personality. I said, ‘What about The Rock?’ And he was like, ‘Well, I hear you, but…’”
Vince McMahon Told Mr. Kennedy The Problem With The Rock Being Funny
Kennedy says McMahon’s logic was that using comedy too much would lead to it being expected, and he would have to reach that same level of humor every week for the rest of his career.
The problem with Rock cutting funny promos was that once he did it, did the Billy Gunn ‘God promo,’ which is my favourite wrestling promo of all time, he then had to follow that up every week. So, he’s constantly chasing the dragon essentially. [Vince McMahon] goes, ‘You have to be prepared to follow it up with that type of content every single week if you’re going to be funny.'”
Recently, The Great Khali revealed how Vince McMahon punished him by turning him into a comedy wrestler after finding out he planned to leave WWE. On this occasion, Khali believes the idea was to “kill his character” before he departed.
