Kane: The Monster Who Kept Evolving
One of the recurring themes I talk about on here quite a bit is how wrestling can go in whatever direction you want. That can involve storylines and matches being done in any way a booker or wrestler chooses. It can make for some interesting situations, but it also applies to the characters themselves.
This week, we’re going to look at a particular star, who has taken one of the most unique paths to success in wrestling history, or at least in the WWE.
Kane Made His WWE Debut In 1997
Back in the summer of 1997, the Undertaker’s backstory and character history changed entirely, as Paul Bearer began talking about Undertaker’s brother Kane. The story became that Undertaker had burned down his parents’ home, murdering them in the process, and hideously burning Kane. While Undertaker thought that Kane was killed in the fire, the reality was that Kane was not only still alive but coming for the Undertaker. The fact that he was trained as a wrestler was just one of those weird details.
At Badd Blood: In Your House, the Undertaker was set to face Shawn Michaels in the first Hell In A Cell match. Later in the match, the lights went out and organ music played, signaling the debut of Kane. With Vince McMahon’s classic “THAT’S GOTTA BE KANE!” line, Undertaker’s brother debuted, laid Undertaker out, and gave Michaels the win, setting off a relationship between Kane and the Undertaker that would go on for literally the next two decades.
Over the years, Kane would go on to be a major star, winning all kinds of titles (including two World Titles (no ECW doesn’t count) and a ridiculous twelve Tag Team Titles with seven different partners) and becoming one of the most successful stars in company history. That’s more than almost anyone else can say (total titles in WWE: Kane 17, Undertaker 15), but what interests me the most about Kane is how you can see the fascinating path his career took over the years.
The Many Faces Of Kane
Now, I’ll spare you a lot of time and effort and avoid a big look back at every turn and twist Kane took (heck even his backstory with Undertaker is hard enough to understand, and it’s even written down in the novel Journey Into Darkness (which is both as amazing and terrible as you would expect), but there are some highlights. While Kane started as Undertaker’s brother, he would go on to a bunch of different things. You might remember some of them.
Over the years, Kane has been the Undertaker’s monster brother, a man in search of friends (and he found several), a more generic monster, a pretty standard wrestler, a man who thinks he’s physically scarred but he’s really just weird looking, a corporate stooge, and then a monster who wears a mask again despite us knowing what he looked like. This took place over the course of about twenty years, with some of the characters being a bit more successful than others. At the same time though, there was one constant and that’s where we’re going to look today.
Glenn Jacobs Had Many Failed WWE Gimmicks Before 'Kane'
Before we get into this, let’s take a look back into the mid 1990s. Long before Kane, there were some less than optimal characters known as Isaac Yankem DDS and Fake Diesel (which followed Unabomb, Doomsday and the Christmas Creature elsewhere). Needless to say, those things didn’t exactly work because, well, how were they supposed to work? The catch though was that the company knew that they had a talented big man and the question was where to go with him.
That’s what made the Kane character so perfect: it was being used by a seasoned veteran in a story that was basically tailor made for him. He was big, strong, had worked with Undertaker before and didn’t have to do much other than brawl and look menacing. That’s about as easy as it gets and it happened to be done by someone who was very talented in the first place.
Kane's WWE Career Had Some Lows, But He Always Bounced Back
Over the years, the Kane character would evolve into various other forms, losing some of his edge but showing a lot more humanity, mainly because you can only be the original version of Kane for so long (see also the Undertaker again). That’s what made the other versions work so well: in addition to the look, size and power still being there, fans knew what Kane was capable of being because he had been such a monster in years past. It wasn’t crazy to imagine him turning the jets on again and turning back into someone who could do some serious damage.
That was the key to the whole Corporate Kane deal, as he might have been more of a big enforcement goon at that point, but you knew what would happen if things ever got serious. The old version of Kane could come back at any time and that was quite the threat. While he might not exactly be a big threat to win the World Title again after a certain point (he was never going to beat Daniel Bryan in 2014 for instance), he was a great choice as the midcard monster. If someone could beat him, they were almost getting a merit badge, which was a good step forward.
It made Kane something of an “in case of emergency” wrestler, as he might have been older and slower, but he was someone the fans knew and who could be brought in for the right spot. That could be on his own or in another Brothers Of Destruction reunion, as anyone can get the idea of two 7’ monsters who happen to be brothers (them trying to murder the other for years was a detail). As someone might have said over the years, you can’t teach that and it was a rather valuable situation to have.
The thing to remember about Kane is that while he might not have been the best big man going (including the best in his family), he was a great character who somehow made sense after all of the twists and turns over the years. Kane was someone with a dark past that he could tap into at times and WWE realized what they had with him. They would use that status and ability several times over the years and it made for some good moments over the years.
The Secret To Kane's Longevity In WWE
What interests me about Kane, and the lesson you can learn from him, is that you have to mix it up on occasion. Yes the original Kane as the horror movie monster was great, but that simply wasn’t going to hold up for twenty years. Over his career, Kane would mix it up a lot, with stuff like his unmasked periods, his rather successful tag runs (his stuff with Rob Van Dam, the Hurricane and of course Bryan stand out quite a bit) and the Corporate stuff feel like different people. By mixing it up, it allowed him to stay a bit more fresh. How many wrestlers could benefit from that lesson?
I know Kane might not have been the most popular star for a lot of his career (especially at the end), but he was more than talented and worthy of the spot that he had for so long. Kane showed a versatility that a lot of other wrestlers didn’t have and it can be incredibly interesting to look back at some of the changes he went through over the years. For someone who started off as what felt like a one note character, Kane turned it into a career that few others have approached, which deserves a lot more credit than he receives.
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