By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA wrestler Mr. Anderson (Ken Anderson) says he initially wanted to sign with TNA right after his WWE career was over in 2009, but he decided to hold off and make sure he was entering a good relationship with TNA after ending a bad relationship with WWE.

"I had wanted to hopefully sign with TNA immediately after my WWE career ended, but I had to make sure that I wasn't stepping into the wrong situation," Anderson said on ESPN Milwaukee on Monday night. "I just got out of a relationship that wasn't necessarily good for probably both sides for quite some time and I wanted to make sure I didn't make the same mistakes again and setting myself up for failure."

Anderson confirmed he signed a one-year deal with TNA. He said Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan convinced him to join TNA when they were working together on Hogan's Australia tour in November.

"The time was right after that tour of Australia with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. They approached me and said, 'Would you be interested in coming there (TNA)?' and I said, 'Absolutely.' We went back and forth for a while and it was kind of a fun negotiation process. It was actually kind of nice," Anderson said. "When I first started with WWE, there was no negotiating at all. It was, 'Take it or leave it, pal.' It was kind of nice to be able to say, 'This is stuff I'm willing to negotiate on.' They came through and I couldn't have been happier with the debut and I was happy to work with Abyss."

Anderson addressed "mixed reviews" of his TNA debut match against Abyss at the Genesis PPV. He focused on not working with Abyss for six or seven years, saying they can "iron out the kinks and put on a better performance" next time they're in the ring. Anderson did not address one of the main criticisms that his in-ring style has not advanced since working in WWE and he continues to wrestle at a mid-card level.

Also in the interview, Kennedy said he enjoys TNA's schedule of taping a PPV and several weeks of TV back-to-back because it allows his body to heal. He actually used the "injury-prone" label for himself to give one possible reason why he was regularly on the sidelines in WWE trying to keep up with the rigorous schedule.

"I like the fact that I was able to go in and tape a whole month's worth of TV in four days. I'm not kidding you. Then you have the rest of the month to rest your body," Anderson said. "That's one thing about being on the road 52 weeks per year (in WWE), and maybe one of the reasons I was injury-prone because I was working five days per week."

Anderson then gave his evaluation of TNA's product and defended the changes being made under Bischoff and Hogan. He appears to be a good fit in TNA with Vince Russo writing the product based on the following quote.

"Changes are being made to make the product more entertaining as a whole. I think that wrestling is missing entertainment and trying to masquerade like it's UFC. Wrestling right now is afraid of UFC, but they're totally different animals, I think," Anderson said. "People like wrestling because of the tongue-in-cheek humor, sometimes. A guy like Kurt Angle comes along and that's special because he's different than everyone else. Everyone being an MMA fighter in WWE or TNA doesn't work."

Link: Listen to the entire interview on the Pro Wrestling Report Show on ESPN Milwaukee.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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