Ken Anderson Says ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin Told Him To Get Out Of WWE And Go To TNA

Ken Anderson recalls “Stone Cold” Steve Austin asking him to leave WWE.

The wrestler was released from WWE in 2009, after John Cena and Randy Orton, according to him, worked together to get him fired. Around this time, Steve Austin suggested that Anderson leave the company and work somewhere else.

Speaking on Tagging in with Chris Harris, Anderson recalled a conversation he had with Steve Austin towards the end of his WWE run.

“Yeah, it was a call. I remember he called me. I remember that day that he called me. He was like, ‘Kid, get the hell out of there.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘This guy hates your guts, this guy hates your guts, and this guy hates your guts.’ It was three of the top guys in the company. … He’s like, ‘Get the hell out. You got some stink on you. Get away from it. Go to Japan, go to TNA. Then you can always come back.’ I remember hanging up that call and I almost fucking broke down. Because I was like, ‘What have I done?’ Now looking back, I know what I’ve done. I know what I could have done differently. But in that moment, I was just so caught up in like, ‘Why do they fucking hate me? Why do these guys dislike me? What have I done to them?’ So yeah, it was really hard.” 

Anderson says he didn’t take Austin’s advice because it was hard for him to move away from the kind of lifestyle he had as a WWE wrestler.

“Then I didn’t take his advice. I didn’t. Because it’s hard to go from making that kind of pay… you’re traveling the world, living that lifestyle, the appearances and stuff that I got to do. I got to do a movie and it’s really hard to walk away from all that. So I waited too long until they fired me to then go to TNA.” 

Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson compared the SmackDown and Raw rosters. Fans can read his comments here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.