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Kane: Commodity or Waste"
August 14, 2004 by Glenna Mercado

For my first wrestling article in OWW.com, I will be talking about Kane's career being compared to a wild goose chase.I don't hate Kane but I've just have been observing since he took off his mask, he'd gone from bad to worse. I'm not talking about him being heel. Because, being a heel or a face doesn't justify a wrestler's career if it's going nowhere nor going up to the wrestling's career ladder.

We know him as Glen Jacobs who had gimmicks like The Fake Diesel, Dr. Isaac Yankem DDS, and now Kane. Let's go to Kane, yes he was a commodity back when he still has his mask. Kane character was unstoppable or in other words he can kick ass. Unfortunately, as time goes by Kane is wearing out slowly because they rush his career. From winning the title from Steve Austin back in that First Blood Match with the help of The Undertaker then loosing it 24-hours later. The more he looses one part of his costume the more value of his commodity decreases as well. C'mon didn't you notice the whenever he loose something in his costume one the more he becomes a joke like promos of falling for Chyna and got dumped by Tori. He is going on circles yes, he won tag team belts, and won the intercontinental belt. Isn't it noticeable as the years pass, Kane's career is either going backwards or going on circles.

To review Kane's ability, wrestling wise he's not really an expert while gimmick wise it's quite average but too common, common in a sense of the "big man" mentality in wrestling. Too common to be put into something interesting that made him a waste. In my opinion, that's making his career going on circles because the creative has no idea where to put him. It's very obvious that the creative doesn't know anymore what to do with Kane. First they took off his mask and turn him into a whiny looser in the ring, now he put him into a stupid love triangle with Matt Hardy and Lita where in the point made him a desperate love sick puppy.

From what I've presented Kane was commodity at start then turned into a piece of waste in the sports entertainment business. In my view, if you don't know how to use a wrestler properly why not fire him or just let him be himself. From the looks of it Kane is another victim of the creative team being a misused commodity. Kane can dominate but the creative made him a joke. Only time will tell what will happen to Kane.

by Glenna Mercado..

David Steele wrote:
With regards to the article on Kane and his recent downfall, I agree. Ever since his mask came off, we have seen an unpopular character (even amongst Kane fans) who has no real hopes of acheiving anything in the WWE. When he first appeared in 1997 or thereabouts, we were presented with a Monster so powerful and so complex, that nothing and nobody could stand in his way. His character had an interesting storyline, and fit in with the Undertaker's character at the time. He could not talk, and was apparently horribly scarred from a fire in his childhood. People were interested. This new monster could demolish anyone in his path, and his scary clothing and eerie entrance music/pyrotechnic effects helped this image. As soon as the clothes started coming off, the love interests appearing and his new ability to talk came along, his character was doomed. Kane shouldn't be interested in titles - he's a simple man withonly one goal: destroy all who stand in his way. His character should never have been scripted into any title storylines, or team up with anyone, woith maybe the exception of the Undertaker when the situation was called for. Teaming up with X-Pac, RVD and even Rikishi was just stupid, Kane should always be a loner. Unfortunately, the WWE doesn't seem to realise how to go about this, and Glen Jacobs is less respected now, even less than when he was Isaac Yankem! Perhaps we can attribute his new bald look to Glen Jacobs losing his hair, but even he could have worn a wig or something!

(PS - What was the deal with his face being normal again and being able to talk" Wasn't he supposed to have been horribly scarred abnd mutilated for life")

Willis Smith wrote:
Look it up in the dictionary. Kane: noun, an average worker, below average with a microphone in his hand. Has ridiculous feuds and gets lost in storylines over and over. Look for him in non-title matches, possibly someday a main-eventer on Sunday Night Heat. See Big Van Vader, circa late Nineties.

Al Powers wrote:
To sum it all up....made some great points about his career either going backwards or in circles.

First of all, shedding his mask and saying he was never burned, kills all storylines of the past. Remember, Undertaker set the house on fire, admittedly, and killed their parents. Kane, at one point was so infuriated with Undertaker, that he dug up their parents, brought the caskets to the stage and chokeslammed Undertaker through the caskets, desecrating their parents bodies. But, since he was never burned...........oh well.

Kane in the mask or even out of it, was always finding a woman who loved 'his size'. So he can get involved in some pillow talk if it came to it. But it was all humor, done in the sense that he may be a monster, but he has human emotion and cravings. Understandable, as they didn't want to make him out to be too much of a monster.

But his career always hits an apex with coming close to the World Championship, such as last summer, and coming up short. Triple H always seems to be in the picture. Then he is then side tracked with a meaningless feud. Last year it was Shane McMahon who side tracked him for tombstoning his mother. After than feud, Kane has been nothing but a glorified jobber. He may beat the hell out of you, but you can still beat him. His character has no focus. He runs around chasing his tail and when he thinks he's caught it, nothing. People are used to seeing him and he has a presence when in the ring, but he is used to 'rub' for someone else.

Right now, this pregnancy angle will do nothing for his career. It's just something to keep him on television. Someone needs to take control of his character and plot out something to get him going again. But sometimes I think, he's at the point of no return. There can't be anything done for him that hasn't been done already. They've stripped him of his mask and he's vulnerable to attack from anyone. Back in the day, no one wanted to go near him, now, he's just one of the boys.

Adam Verney wrote:
I completely agree kane used to keep me glued to the screen heel or face but lately i have found myself switching channels during his segments. His matches are occasionaly watchable, I would reccomend This storyline: Matt hardy goes crazy and sets kane badly on fire then within a couple of weeks kane comes back with a new mask and beats matt hardy and goes on a rampage for a title.

Eric Brown wrote:
I do believe in Kane the most flammable monster today because of him he is the best wrestler there is and I do know him in the year of 1997 when he first started to be a wrestler. I just like his entrance video clip the most that he still burn nice and hot like 100 % best performance well done knowing Kane like this. Just if you take the fire you can believe the flame itself. That's why Kane is the best person alive.

XtremeFalls43 wrote:
If Kane stops these bad feuds with people like Edge, Shane O Mac, and Undertaker he will be fine. I mean I think send him into a feud with HBK and have better chance of him getting over as a big monster again.

Superman's Pal wrote:
Discussion of Glen Jacobs' pre-Kane gimmicks doesn't really factor into discussions of the Kane character, except to say that WWE had a fairly agile big man on their hands, and they recycled him through various gimmicks until they could find one that stuck, because they wanted to keep him around.

First, let us never forget that the sole purpose of the Kane character was to act as a supporting character in the life story of the Undertaker. His long-lost, thought-dead brother, coming back for revenge. A big man to feud with big 'Taker, an equal in the supernatural arts, and teamed with Taker's former mentor Paul Bearer. And they punctuated the feud with big FX, big fireworks and some big gimmick matches, such as the Inferno Match.

But how long can any feud really last" Kane vs Taker went as long as it could, then both men had to move in new directions. And when two brothers have finished feuding, there's really only one other thing they can do ... team up. And so we moved to the next chapter with the Brothers of Destruction, a dominant tag team that assassinated the midcard ranks with extreme prejudice. This was a good place for Kane, but not so much for Taker, who had already been to the main event and back. For Undertaker, this tag team was only ever a temporary assignment. Eventually, it too had to end, and WWE just had to hope they had built Kane up enough to stand on his own.

So Kane feuded with the rest of the supernatural characters such as Mankind, the Brood, etc. By this time, Mark Calloway had decided to step away from the classic Undertaker gimmick and turn into the American Badass. No longer supernatural, there was no longer anything for Kane to tie into. To the credit of WWE, they continued to support the character by having him run rampant over the roster. But after a while, the insane stunts, lighting people on fire or burying them alive, cannot be topped. Add to this a progressive loss of kayfabe. That's what really helped kill the character. No one can reasonably believe that a man burned over 80% of his body would come back for revenge against the man who killed his parents, inside the boundaries of a wrestling match. In the late 90s, WWE realized that the only real approach it could take to the ludicrous gimmicks was to poke fun at them.

And so we first got the sympathetic monster. Kane, a man who was only ever "bad" because of all the hurt he had endured at the hands of normal people for being a "freak." We get a scrappy young sidekick, X-Pac, along to help the sympathetic monster find his voice. We get a love interest in Tori. And when that storyline runs its course, we get the betrayal, X-Pac and Tori turn on Kane. When a monster has feuded with his brother, and then teamed with him, then destroyed everyone else, the only thing left is to turn face.

The Undertaker gimmick now an ancient relic, references to the two as brothers grew thin, references to Kane's scarring grew more and more thin. Glen Jacobs was probably very tired of wrestling in a full body suit and mask, so pieces of the costume began to disappear as the Kane character became more streamlined. Now sort of a "cool" freak for the new millennium, Kane became the master of the mismatched tag team, cutting comedy promos, etc. I admit that the original conception of Kane had been totally lost by this point, but it was not by intention. It was an effect of changing the character to survive with the times. The original Kane would have been extremely stale 5 years later. This new version may not have been the same horrific monster, but at least he had updated his gimmick every year or two to offer something fresh. But now, the comedy version of Kane had also grown stale. We came to a point where we realized that a 6'10", 300 lb. man could hardly hold onto a tag strap for any length of time. Being a comedian wasn't doing him any good, and being matched up with RVD one month and Hurricane the next wasn't doing anything for the tag division either.

So now there is only one step left for Kane ... after many years of suspense, he finally unmasks. I know the audience reaction was mixed, but I feel it was the right choice. First of all, it got people's attention. Once it got attention, it warranted some higher booking. Suddenly, Kane was the target of HHH and Stone Cold each week, for one reason or the other. The direction they took the storyline was also a good move. Kane isn't really scarred -- he's just insane. He snaps when anyone points out that he's not actually burned. And while some people feel that this was the final nail in the coffin of the character, it actually returned him much more to the original conception of the character: a giant psychopatch who could snap at any minute and destroy anyone put in front of him. Only this time around, he wasn't saddled with all the kayfabe elements that no longer play quite as well in the 21st century. He doesn't need to throw lightning bolts if he can set people on fire, or commit vehicular manslaughter. This was not WWE's attempt to destroy the character. This was WWE reinventing the original concept in the only way it could work some 6 years after its debut.

I'll admit that currently, Kane is in limbo again. The insane stunts once again ran their course. An abbreviated feud with Undertaker at Wrestlemania XX was another comeback angle of sorts, but then what" WWE was smart to try and push him into the main event briefly. If not now, then when" Too bad it just didn't quite make the grade. Glen Jacobs' skill has diminished a bit. The big man who once impressed by going to the top rope and hitting dropkicks still does that stuff, but not quite as much, or with the same agility. And he's still in some ways saddled with the same problem as before -- being a supporting character in the story of a man he no longer interacts with.

WWE has bent over backwards trying to find new ways to keep the Kane character relevent through various developments in his character. But by now it seems obvious that he'll probably never get to the main event. He can't really blow us away on match quality, and his character will always be a bit lost without the Undertaker to play off of. So where does he go from here" He either gets attached at the hip to 'Taker again, until one or both retire, or Glen Jacobs finally drops the gimmick for the full reveal of his real self, which may or may not be more of a letdown to the fans than the unmasking of Kane. The third option is to continue the current path, which can only continue to work with a progression of insane stunts & gimmick storylines. Or job him out to the next supernatural entity ... maybe Mordecai can jump over to Raw and take down the big red sinner.

Philip Justice wrote:
Many of you are dissing Kane, and understandably so. I personnaly think that Kane character should be tossed, or recieve a major overhall. I think something that might work is to give him a major push. I think an ongoing Kane/Batista feud would not only help Kane get over, it would also help him get out of this runt.

Also, this love triangle thing is getting to be as bad as the Mark Henry-Mae Young farsce. I wonder if Lita will also give birth to a hand"

EVILYAMIHIEI wrote:
hey i think they could use kane alot better if they drop the whole gimmk and give him something better i bet he would do alot better as someone new and like a few people said stop with all the bs they are doing with kane and use him right make him the old kane the kane that ripped the hell in the cell door off and use that kane or even start some crazy matchs up and have kane in them let kane show what he can really do i think what someone said about having kane and mordic go at now that sounds cool or even have him go to other wrestling comps and beat them or something like noone can keep him under control

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