Summary

Kevin Fertig said WWE's rehab program saved his life after years of bitterness toward the company following the end of his run there.

Fertig, who appeared on WWE television as Mordecai and later Kevin Thorn, said he spent roughly 15 years angry, depressed, and resentful after his 2009 release, which happened at his request. Speaking to So Cal Val on *The Velvet Ropes*, he said that changed when he finally made a call to WWE in 2025 and entered the company's rehab program.

He also said that process forced him to confront his own role in carrying that resentment for so long, and that he is now in a far better place than he had been before.

Quote from Kevin Fertig

"I spent probably 15 years pissed off, hated WWE, depressed and all this stuff. I made a phone call to them, and I went in the rehab program, and they saved my life. Everything with that is, as much as I hate them, as much resentment as I had for them, they saved my life, and I wouldn’t be here today. You have all this resentment, and all these would have, should have, could haves, and at the end of the day, a lot of it was me. And I’ve come to figure that out, and I’m a lot better off from that."

Fertig later went on to say:

"They gave me the tools graciously, because I didn’t deserve them. As big of a d*ck as I was for the last 15 years of resenting them, I didn’t deserve it, and they sent me, got me cleaned up and got me back better than I ever have been."

What Kevin Fertig's comments change about his WWE story

Kevin Fertig's comments put the focus on something much bigger than the short shelf life of Mordecai or Kevin Thorn, they frame WWE as the company he believes helped save his life years after his release.

The other notable shift is personal. By saying he no longer carries that resentment toward wrestling, Fertig is publicly closing the most bitter part of his post-WWE history, even if he did not indicate any plans beyond that in this interview.

Sources

As reported by Fightful.