In an interview with Journey Of A Frontman, TNA Wrestling superstar Mr. Anderson discussed his time in WWE working as an enhancement talent prior to debuting, joining TNA Wrestling, the locker room leaders in the company, Ethan Carter III, Jeff Hardy, Sting and more.

Highlights of the interview are below:

On being a backstage extra/enhancement talent in the WWE prior to debuting for the company: “Well, I got into the business in ’99 and I started sending tapes by 2000, I sent them to all the companies at the time, it was WWF, WCW, ECW and of course, all the independents in my area and basically, anytime they would come within a 500 mile radius of Green Bay, I would call and ask if I could go there and be an extra if they needed somebody to get their butt whooped that night, I’d be that guy, just so I could make some connections and learn from the best in the business and I did several of those, so did CM Punk, Daivari, Austin Aries and ODB, we were all kind of a travelling crew and we would try and get booked on as many of those things as possible. There’s probably 10-12 matches online of me wrestling as Ken Anderson on one of their secondary shows like Sunday Night Heat, Jakked or Metal and then I would also go on and try out for TNA Wrestling. Everytime that I would go, I would try to just learn as much as I possibly could, we’d be like sponges, we’d eat something as soon as we got there and get our ring gear on and get in and wrestle around. A lot of times, we would get embarrassed and a lot of times, we would screw up or we’d do things wrong or get yelled at and we’d get ridiculed, but at the end of the day, there was always somebody there that would come up and say, hey, here’s what you could’ve done in that situation to make it better and I did that for 6 years and then finally, I had done that enough and made enough connections and I had improved enough that I got noticed.”

On the locker room leaders in TNA Wrestling: “I’d say Samoa Joe, Bully Ray and AJ Styles when he was there, the interesting thing about Impact Wrestling is that there are no egos that I can think of. My friends and I talk about this all the time, there are very few instances of ego, everybody gets along and we’re all friends. At the end of the day, you’re all there to do a job and it’s a job that we all happen to love, so it doesn’t really seem like work, there aren’t any instances that I can think of where a locker room leader is needed, we all stick up for each other, we all pull for each other, we all try to help each other along as much as possible, we watch each other’s matches, we give each other advice, we’ll rib a guy and give him a hard time, but everybody screws up a little bit.”

On Ethan Carter III: “That guy has quickly become one of my favorite people to watch on television, you can spend 15 years on the indies, but you don’t start getting a real education until you start working with people that are better than you. When you’ve got Bully Ray, Kurt Angle, Sting, Al Snow and all these guys, you’ve got all these people that are watching you and tailoring you, they’re telling you, hey, here’s what you could do differently. He has really, really improved. He was good when he got to TNA, but he’s really, really improved week after week after week. He’s funny as hell and entertaining, I hope that I get to square off with him someday.”

On Jeff Hardy’s heel run in the company: “I like the fact that TNA is willing to take chances and I like the fact that they’re willing to take risks and that was something that Jeff had wanted to do for a long time and was told no, you can’t do it. That was something that he wanted to do, he wanted to try it and just something like this Willow character, that’s something that he always felt very strongly about and hey, at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work, we just write something else and the machine keeps rolling, so do I think it was the greatest thing that ever happened? No, but it turned out that working Jeff Hardy as a babyface when he was supposed to be a heel didn’t necessarily work that way, you’re fighting an uphill battle basically, is what I’m trying to say, it’s tough when you’re in front of a crowd that’s as conditioned as much as they are and they love Jeff Hardy as much as they do, no matter what he does. He would have to do something really, really awful in order for people to start disliking him, he’s just such an endearing character, such a unique character, he’s so charismatic and there’s not a whole lot to dislike about the guy, he’s a great guy.”

On his decision to dress up as the early 90’s version of Sting: “That was actually my idea, I said in passing one day, what about me dressing up as old Sting, I mean, I had the blonde hair and Sting actually loved it. Those outfits that I wore were actually Sting’s old gear and he painted my face, which was a really cool moment. Looking back on that, I would have to slide him into that group of most significant opponents that I’ve had.”