Former WWE Superstar Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy) has been accused of corrupt business practices by students at his wrestling school.
On Sunday, a Reddit user, claiming to be a student enrolled in Anderson’s “The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling,” stated that the school has been closed for “quite some time,” and hasn’t resumed activities unlike other gyms in the area. The post further claimed that students enrolled in the school for nearly two years have yet to receive “any semblance of training.” Furthermore, the website for the Academy was deactivated a while ago.
The post led to another Reddit user commenting on his experiences with Anderson’s school. The user claimed that he signed up for a 30-minute free consultation, only to show up to an empty warehouse at the time of the scheduled appointment. The Reddit thread can be found here.
According to Bodyslam.net, while some students are still hopeful that the school will eventually reopen, one particular student has given up hope. The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, pointed out how the reopening of the school has been postponed several times in the last 18 months since they paid for the program. He also corroborated claims by users in the Reddit post that Anderson’s school has yet to issue refunds.
The student revealed the reasons he’s been given – for not receiving training – range from the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant to the lack of a building to train in. This specific student came to a conclusion about six months ago that the situation seemed “super sketchy based on the lack of communication.” They also noted their communication with Anderson himself is very minimal, citing brief conversations via text messages.
The student issued the following statement via BodySlam:
In no way am I making any claims on Ken’s personal character as I’ve had minimal contact with the man, but I believe his business practices and professionalism speaks for themselves. I’m personally not out to ruin anyone’s career but simply trying to hold others accountable for their actions as well as preventing others from making the same mistakes I did.
The money I’m out may not seem like a lot to some but it was my entire savings as well as my dreams, and at the end of the day, that’s all I really want back. My dream is crushed but hopefully I can get my money back.
Mr. Kennedy’s wrestling school was once considered a credible school that trained talents such as Dante & Darius Martin of AEW, and had trainers such as Molly Holly, Shawn Daivari and Arik Cannon.
Anderson has yet to respond to the allegations. He was last seen in a match at the NWA Powerrr tapings in December 2019. He was scheduled to compete at the NWA Hard Times pay-per-view in January 2020, but was pulled from match versus Tim Storm due to an injury.
