Kevin Kelly on Working for Vince McMahon, the Attitude Era and Life After WWE

Fred: You were in that place for quite some time, and you’ve said you’d turn down your headset to avoid Vince’s tongue-lashings. How did you deal with all that stress? I imagine it’s a fun job calling these great angles, but at the same time, you have a billionaire who, to his credit, is so demanding.

Kevin Kelly: It wasn’t so much that Vince was demanding, because once the show was over, you’d go backstage, he’d shake your hand and say thank you, and everything was fine. In the heat of the moment, he’d get very upset, so you really had to filter how he talked to you and how you viewed it. What really got to you was the swirl of minions underneath Vince and how they tried to take over and control your life. But that was 2003, and it took me a couple of years to really put all that in the past and let go of any negative feelings. Some guys never get over it. They stay bitter and harp on it forever, not just in WWE but anywhere in life. I’ve worked hard to get beyond that, turn the page and move on to the next chapter, because I’m excited about the future.

Fred: When you left WWE, was it amicable? Did they say they wanted to move in a different direction, or did you say you needed a break?

Kevin Kelly: They said it to me, and it was a numbers game. At the time, I was a producer for “Confidential.” After WrestleMania 17, The Rock left to do movies, they turned Stone Cold Steve Austin heel and business dropped, and then 9/11 happened and business dropped even further. By the time 2003 rolled around, they were cutting heads department by department. The same day I got let go, people got let go from accounting and different departments throughout the company, so there were no hard feelings. A lot of us just sat there shell-shocked, but it happens. It’s reality for millions of Americans all across the country. So what do you do? The first phone call I made was to Jeff Jarrett at TNA, but they were just coming up and didn’t have a lot of money. So I thought, “Well, that’s pretty much it for the wrestling community. What else can I do?” Wrestling is sales, and sales is wrestling, so I looked at getting into sales. It took a year and relocating my family to Pennsylvania. If you’re a factory worker and you lose your job, you have to retrain yourself. When I got out of college, I was in radio for six months, and then I worked in wrestling. That was all I really had.

Fred: Was it a tough transition, since you were used to talking to people?

Kevin Kelly: That’s a really good question. It was difficult in my own mind to separate myself from Kevin Kelly the WWE announcer. Over the last few years, you have to work part-time jobs to make ends meet. With Christmas coming up and the kids, I worked at a Sunoco station down the road from my house, because I needed extra money. Long ago, I let go of that mythical belief that Kevin Kelly was any type of celebrity or star, but at first it was, “I can’t do that. What if fans see me? It’ll be awkward.” But you’ve got to feed your family, and that’s what a lot of people struggle with. When I watched “The Wrestler,” I understood what Mickey Rourke’s character was going through, even though I was on a much smaller scale than Randy “The Ram” Robinson. When he’s slicing meat at the deli counter, that’s a job I’ve done as well. You do what you have to do. We have to put aside the negative thoughts and focus on positive energy and how we can make ourselves better. For me, when I got the opportunity to work with Ring of Honor, I refocused my energy and got in the best shape I’ve been in, because it’s an image business. When Jim Cornette called me, the first question out of his mouth wasn’t, “How much are you weighing? Do you look TV-ready?” It was, “Do you want to work with Ring of Honor? I know you have something to offer.” But I knew I needed to do that myself, because it’s a TV business.

Fred: Well, you look like you haven’t aged a bit.

Kevin Kelly: Thank you very much. I get up every day, go to the gym and try to eat healthy, and I feel better. I’ve learned a lot along the way about how to prepare a broadcast, and what I can bring to Ring of Honor is all my years of experience, not just in WWE but with ECWA, with independent groups like ISPW and all the time I’ve spent cultivating these matches, understanding what they’re supposed to sound like and being able to prepare.

Fred: Why do you feel everything just seemed to click in the Attitude Era? From guys like Stone Cold to even the Mean Street Posse, everybody seemed to be able to get over with the right storyline.

Kevin Kelly: You can’t ever say, “If we do this, it will definitely work.” A combination of a lot of things had to happen: turning the page from the end of the New Generation era and the Hogan era, and getting away from the cartoony stuff. I think people always wanted WWE to be successful, because they’d grown up with Hulk Hogan as their champion and liked the product. It still had tremendous television presence, so it was easier to get new guys over. But look at Austin when he first came in as The Ringmaster. He wasn’t really getting over. Things just had to change, and around 1997, Vince McMahon said, “Enough is enough. What are we going to do to change things?” WCW was crushing them in the ratings, and Raw had done a terrible number. Vince Russo put up his hand and said, “I’ve got some ideas,” so Vince started listening to him, and that’s where the Attitude Era and crash television were born. It’s a genre I think has been done to death, and it’s time to turn another page. I think we can get back to comfort food. Wrestling fans like wrestling for what it is. We don’t have to try to fool them into thinking it’s something else. People go to a diner anywhere in the country, and it’s the same menu, because it’s comfort food. It’s the same thing when they turn the dial and see wrestling. They want to see good versus evil, and because we haven’t given it to them in so long, what’s old is new again.

Fred: You started right as the Attitude Era began.

Kevin Kelly: I started June 24, 1996, the day after Stone Cold Steve Austin said, “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass” at King of the Ring. I wasn’t employed at any time other than the Attitude Era, so I take credit for all of it. Fred, wouldn’t you agree?

Fred: Of course. One of your most famous angles was “Pillman’s got a gun.” How much of that was scripted, and how much was ad-libbed?

Kevin Kelly: There was not one page of script handed around. It was all about the real emotion and the real situation. Here was a guy, Brian Pillman, who had major surgery on his foot and ankle after his former best friend turned on him, and then the threats were issued. What would you do if your family was being threatened and you were helpless to stop the attacker? You’d reach for a gun. I think a lot of people in this country, with Second Amendment rights, could identify with that. That was the basic premise. My role was to interview Brian and Melanie and then report from the scene, because we’d gotten reports that Stone Cold Steve Austin had been seen in the area. It was great theater all the way through, and it was a crazy night, the fastest two hours of my life. It was all live. There wasn’t one part that was pre-taped.

Fred: There was tons of controversy afterward. Did you think it would be that controversial?

Kevin Kelly: I had no idea. It’s like Jerry Lawler getting run over by a car on live television, with people in Memphis calling the police. People watch this and have a unique reaction to the product. It was cool to be part of something history-making, and years later, people are still talking about it. It’s still fresh in everybody’s mind.