WWE News: Former Superstar Says Vince McMahon Told Him To Stop Being Entertaining

In a recent interview with Sportskeeda, former WWE superstar Ken Anderson — who competed as Mr. Kennedy in the promotion — revealed the advice Vince McMahon gave him early on in his career. According to Anderson, the chairman told him not to be funny and entertaining if he wanted to become a major star in the company.

Anderson recalled how McMahon said “funny doesn’t draw money” and discouraged him from being so over-the-top and entertaining with his promos. However, Anderson didn’t agree with McMahon’s point of view and brought up how The Rock became a megastar because of his humor.

However, McMahon then noted that even The Rock suffered as a result of his comedic persona. This is because it created a new set of expectations the performer had to live up to every single night afterward. In the end, Anderson came around to the boss’ advice and agrees with it nowadays.

“[Fans] always expect you to do that and now you have to deliver that, you have to have that delivery every single night. It’s just really hard to do when you are running 52 weeks a year. So, I think that was an interesting piece of advice. There were times I think where funny is appropriate, but overall, the comedy characters, unfortunately, always seem to be secondary characters.”

During the interview, Anderson revealed that “The Great One’s” promo on Billy Gunn following the 1999 King of the Ring is one of his all-time favorites. According to McMahon, however, that was the moment that required the legendary superstar to make that the focus of his microphone work.

As The Inquisitr recently reported, Big E has also been advised to drop his comedic persona. The Friday Night SmackDown superstar is tipped for a main event push, but some of his peers think he’ll only reach the top when he stops being goofy.

McMahon appeared to be a big fan of Anderson’s at one point. The performer looked set for big things in WWE at certain spells in his career there. He competed for the sports entertainment promotion from 2005 until 2009 and won the United States Championship and Money in the Bank ladder match. An injury ultimately cost him the latter opportunity in the end.

One of his most famous storylines saw him teased as McMahon’s illegitimate son, only for it to later turn out that Hornswaggle — an Irish leprechaun character — was the chairman’s actual family member. However, Anderson’s involvement in such a high-profile angle suggested the boss was high on him.

Anderson competes for the National Wrestling Alliance these days, having previously wrestled for Impact Wrestling since leaving McMahon’s promotion.