Impact Wrestling star Kenny King recently appeared as a guest on The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, King talked about trying out for the second season of WWE Tough Enough in 2002:
“I can remember watching the first season and being like, oh, man, I can do that. Then it was like, well, kid, put your money where your mouth is. That’s how I ended up trying out for Tough Enough So we film the show December until maybe February. The show starts up in April and I’m supposed to come back and play spring ball, but I think I won Tough Enough, so I was like, ‘Yeah, about that. I’m not coming back to play football anymore.’ The football coaches were not very happy with me.”
Other projects he was involved in before becoming a wrestler:
“All your favorite Nickelodeon shows I probably was on. I was on Welcome Freshmen. I was on a bunch of commercials for Snick, The Big Orange Couch. I was a Nickelodeon kid. I did the pilot for Legends of the Hidden Temple. I did motion capture for The Guts Super Nintendo video game. Wayne Brady and I went to the same high school. Wayne Brady and I had the same acting coach.”
Being a Chippendales dancer:
“There was a guy that I know from Orlando that was living with me. It was me and a buddy of mine. We were renting a house. He was the singer for the European Chippendales tour and he wrote three songs on the No Strings Attached NSYNC album. He’s an Orlando guy. He just happened to be moved out to Vegas. So he was like, ‘Hey, man, would you think about traveling to go to a Chippendales?’ I was like, ‘No, I’m cool. Thanks.’ He’s like ‘You might want to do this. This is a pretty cool gig’. I was like, ‘No, I’m cool.’ I think it was his birthday. He was like, ‘Yo, It’s my birthday. We’re going to go to the Chippendales so you can see what the show is like.’ I’m like, ‘Bro. I don’t want to do this. What makes you think I want to go and watch a bunch of dudes in banana hammocks oiling each other up. I’m chill. I’m cool.’ He said, ‘It’s my birthday, bro. Like, You don’t have a choice.’ Alright, fine, right, whatever. I go on a protest.”
“Then I go to the show and then I see six or 700 women in the audience and then I see what it is. It’s different. It’s not like a strip club or like Magic Mike. It’s actually a choreographed show where there’s set changes in wardrobe and stuff. I’m looking at choreography. I’m like, alright, that’s like wrestling spots. That’s all right. Then I’m looking at these 700 women going crazy in the crowd. I’m like, I’m curious. There’s no tips. You get paid per show. Afterward, women can come up and take pictures. That’s the only tipping situation.”
“So I do it. “I went to Europe for two months. My very first show at Chippendales, we drew like 8000 women. At that point, I didn’t draw in a wrestling show that had more than 500 people. I’m like, what is going on? There’s these big stadium shows. That’s how that happened. That happened right before I met my daughter’s mom. I did some tours, the Chippendales, and then I moved to Florida and then I quit Chippendales.”
“I moved back to Vegas. There’s only the European tour and the Vegas show. The Vegas show, there are like 10 guys. I end up running into one of the guys. He’s like, ‘Hey man, are you back?’ I was like, ‘No, that ship has sailed. I’m cool.’ An hour later, I got a phone call from the producer, so I did the Vegas show. I did the Vegas show from 2010 to 2015 and was on three number one selling calendars in the world.”
You can listen to the complete show below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
