The History Of Kane

Glenn Thomas Jacobs was born on April 26 1967 in Madrid-Spain, making him 36 years of age at the moment. The WWE list him as 7 feet tall, but most sources have him at 6'9". He is currently around the 280-300 pound mark. Jacobs was raised in St.Louis, Missouri & went to college at Northeast Missouri State. He currently resides in Tennessee with his wife & 2 daughters, where he also owns a gym.At the age of 25, Glenn Jacobs made his debut in a wrestling ring in the USWA. His first gimmick was a cheap looking & hideously masked character by the name of 'The Christmas Creature'. This was to be the first of many terrible gimmicks that Jacobs had to endure, but even in his rookie year many scouts could see the potential in this huge man. He steadily climbed his way up the rankings, but then lost a Mask vs Title match against the USWA champion, Jerry Lawler. After unmasking, he took on the persona of 'Doomsday'. He continued wrestling under this name in both the USWA & the WWC promotion based in Puerto Rico. He was moderately successful & improving, but Jacobs believed he needed a change to get to the next level.
The change came in January 1995 when Jacobs secured a position in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) promotion. He was renamed UnaBomb & won the SMW Tag Team Titles with Al Snow only 3 months later on April-7, when the duo beat The Rock 'N' Roll Express. Snow & Jacobs held the titles for 3 months before falling to the team of Tracy Smothers & Tony Anthony on July-6. It was at this stage that Jacobs' career was about to take a turn for the better. You see, the WWF had their eyes on Jacobs, and it was about at this time, when the WWF had a real affection for huge wrestlers. The first step was to send Paul Bearer & The Undertaker down to their affiliate SMW to get involved in a mini-feud with UnaBomb. On August-4, UnaBomb (Jacobs) wrestled The Undertaker at a SMW event called 'The SuperBowl Of Wrestling'. The Undertaker obviously came out on top of this match, but that match was the last piece of information that the WWF needed before signing Jacobs to a contract. Eight days later, UnaBomb & Snow got their rematch against Smothers & Anthony, but this time it would be in a 'Loser Of The Fall Leaves SMW' match. Needless to say, Jacobs was pinned by Smothers in that match & Jacobs was on his way out of SMW, but on his way into the WWF.
So, what would be the gimmick that Glen Jacobs would be given for his WWF debut? You see, not only did the WWF love big men in the mid-nineties, but they also loved gimmicks. So in July of 1995, Glen Jacobs made his debut on WWF Monday Night Raw in a series of vignettes portraying Jerry Lawler's deranged dentist, Dr Isaac Yankem DDS. Needless to say, this was a shocker of a gimmick that Jacobs was handed. It was never going to work & was only going to be short-term. However, the opportunity to compete in the WWF & get the proverbial foot in the door was an opportunity too good to miss out on. The fact that wrestling as a dentist was such a bad gimmick may actually have been an attraction. Think of it this way; foot in the door with a short-term gimmick, then become himself & enjoy super-stardom.On August-27 1995 at SummerSlam, Isaac Yankem made his in-ring debut against Bret Hart. It was a slow boring match that ended up in a disqualification win to The Hitman. Unfortunately, probably the worst thing about the match was the lack of crowd response. I think what the WWE wanted was for the viewers to simultaneously laugh & be afraid of the character. But apart from a few teenagers with bad teeth, the only reaction the gimmick received was that of indifference with a few laughs here and there. The subsequent months saw Yankem involved in meaningless lower-card feuds with the likes of Spark Plugg Bob Holly & Ahmed Johnson. In fact, the only time Yankem made any sort of impact as a WWF wrestler was in multi-wrestler pay-per-view events such as Survivor Series & The Royal Rumble. Unfortunately, even these were minimal & not enough to suggest singles success.
For the 6 months between March & September of 1996, Jacobs basically sat around doing nothing while the WWF paid him. I'm sure they had numerous gimmicks to re-package him with, but if they didn't see the light of day, they must have been truly awful. Finally, the call-up came in September & if you think that The Christmas Creature & Isaac Yankem were bad gimmicks, then this one was the icing on the cake. You see, it was late 1996 when WCW was starting to get on top of the WWF in terms of who the better promotion was, for the very first time. WCW achieved this through their New World Order gimmick, which included two wrestlers in Scott Hall & Kevin Nash, who had just crossed over from their WWF persona's of Razor Ramon & Diesel. So, in retaliation, the WWF ran a storyline where Jim Ross basically went crazy & tried to sabotage the promotion by bringing in 2 former wrestlers. You guessed it; Razor Ramon & Diesel. But not the real ones, fake ones. Jacobs was unfortunately saddled with the 'Fake Diesel' gimmick due to a similar stature, style & look to Kevin Nash.A lot, and I mean, a lot of tv time was wasted on the fake duo at a time when the WWF needed nothing but quality to compete with the barnstorming WCW. Following a forgettable match at Survivor Series '96, the team was given a title shot against Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart at In Your House: It's Time, on December-15. At one point it appeared as if the WWF was so much behind this terrible gimmick, that they might actually give the titles to the fake duo. But luckily, it didn't eventuate and Owen & Davey Boy retained their titles. Surprise, surprise!!! The WWF finally came to their senses early in 1997 & decided that enough tv time had been taken up by the fake Razor & Diesel. I was going to say that the WWF quickly came to their senses, but taking 3 months to realize that this gimmick was a waste of time is actually bordering on incompetence for such a large company facing it's biggest challenge at the time.The WWF at this stage basically said that Jacobs & Rick Bogner (the man that portrayed the fake Razor Ramon) could now do anything. So they wrestled for a few months with the gimmick in Mexico's AAA. This resulted in more lack of enthusiasm from crowds, so Jacobs took Bogner with him back to the USWA for another try. Same result fortunately. I say fortunately because it must have finally got through that the fake Diesel gimmick was never, and I mean, never going to work. Jacobs resurrected his Doomsday gimmick & due to it going over fairly well with the USWA crowds, it resulted in a Heavyweight title shot. Doomsday finally won the USWA Heavyweight Title on July-13, 1997. He only held the title for approximately 2 months. Why? Because the WWF came ringing Jacobs' doorbell with yet another idea.During his USWA title reign, the WWF began to air a storyline where Paul Bearer was warning The Undertaker that a family member from his past was about to catch up with him. The mind-games had started, but a debut date for the brother that The Undertaker had supposedly burnt to near-death was unknown. The Undertaker was in a transition stage of his career at this time. He was still a main-event wrestler, having won the WWF World Heavyweight Title for the second time in March at WrestleMania 13. But it was evident that after feuds with Mankind, Psycho Sid & finally Shawn Michaels, that his character was going to become very stale very quickly. On October 5 1997, The Undertaker was involved in the first ever Hell In A Cell match against Shawn Michaels at the Badd Blood pay-per-view. The match itself was a genuine Match-Of-The-Year candidate which successfully mixed the styles of the 2 wrestlers in a bloodied cage atmosphere. After 20+ minutes of grueling action, The Undertaker was ready to finish The Heartbreak Kid off with a Tombstone Piledriver. Suddenly, a strange organ sound came over the loud-speakers & Paul Bearer wobbled his way down the aisle toward the cell. With him was a red & black-clad, leather-masked monster. It was The Undertaker's brother Kane & he was intent on lifelong retribution. He proceeded to literally tear the cage door off its hinges, disposed of the referee & then summoned fire from the ringposts. As The Undertaker looked at Kane with a look that portrayed many emotions, Kane picked Undertaker up & planted him on the canvas with his version of the Tombstone. A blood-soaked Shawn Michaels made the cover & Kane wandered off from wherever he came from.At this stage it was becoming widely known that it was Glen Jacobs under the mask playing the role of Kane. Most fans who knew, thought it was just going to be another gimmick that would bomb. But it was such a tremendously handled debut, that if Jacobs was talented enough & had become experienced enough, he would make it successful. For the next month or so, Kane & Bearer made regular appearances on WWF television trying to talk The Undertaker into a match. When The Undertaker continued to refuse on the grounds that he wouldn't fight a family member, Kane went on a mission to destroy every WWF superstar until only his (screen) brother was left. Along the way, he incurred the wrath ofMankind (Mick Foley) & it was against him that he made his wrestling debut as Kane at Survivor Series '97. The demolition of Mankind at this event was just what the monster character needed & it appeared as if Glen Jacobs had finally found his niche in the big time. For the next month or so, Kane continued to demolish opponents in an attempt to force The Undertaker into a one-on-one match. He finally succeeded at the 1998 Royal Rumble, when he interfered in the world title match between his brother & Shawn Michaels. It was a Casket match that The Undertaker was expected to win, but when Kane choke-slammed the challenger & set the casket alight, it was the final straw.The long-anticipated meeting was set down for March-29 at WrestleMania 14 in Boston. It was a very good match considering the size & styles of the 2 wrestlers, which ended in a win to the face. But it was the way in which Kane was defeated which actually gave The Big Red Machine, as he was now dubbed, the impetus for further success. You see, Kane kicked out of 2 Undertaker Tombstones. No-one kicked out of a tombstone from The Undertaker back then. It needed a 3rd piledriver to get the three count. To add to Kane's persona, he quickly recovered after the match & gave his brother a tombstone of his own, on a chair. The next month at the Unforgiven pay-per-view, the 2 locked horns again in an Inferno match, where the winner had to set his opponent on fire. Undertaker prevailed again as Kane's arm was set ablaze. After a forgettable feud with Vader, Kane's stock was about to rise markedly. On the June-1 edition of Raw, with assistance from Mankind, Kane defeated The Undertaker in a Number 1 contenders match for Steve Austin's world title. Less than a year after his debut as Kane, Glenn Jacobs had a shot at the most prestigious title in wrestling at King Of The Ring '98. It was definitely a far cry from Isaac Yankem & The Fake Diesel.When it was announced that the KOTR title match was going to be a First Blood match, an unpredictable air of expectancy fell over the title match. Surely, Austin's successful title reign was going to continue against a character that was still being tweaked, but how could Kane lose the match with such a stipulation? In fact, before the match, with the aid of an electronic voicebox, Kane stated that he would set himself on fire if he lost the match. As history tells us, Kane won his first & only world title thus far that night (June 28), with a little accidental help from none other than his brother, The Undertaker. Wow!!! Talk about going from boiled lollies to chocolates in less than a year. Unfortunately for Kane, the rematch was set down for the very next night on Raw, and this time, the result was reversed & Kane was world champion for only 24 hours.Kane stuck around the main event scene though & won his first WWF tag-team title with Mankind on July-14. They subsequently relinquished the titles to Austin & The Undertaker at the Fully Loaded ppv, but regained them in a Fatal Four Way match on August-10. At this stage, The Undertaker was set to challenge Austin for the world title at SummerSlam & an alliance between Kane & his brother was insinuated. Nothing really eventuated at SummerSlam except for Kane turning on Mankind & costing them the tag titles to The New Age Outlaws. At the September Breakdown ppv, Kane & his brother simultaneously pinned Austin in the main event resulting in a held-up title. The brothers then had their own title match at the following months Judgment Day ppv, but guest referee Austin somehow declared himself the winner.It was not long after this that the WWF started what I call the humanization period of Kane's career (which arguably is still happening today), that was leading to an obvious face turn. Throughout the remainder of 1998 & most of 1999, Kane was affiliated with one or more of the following; Chyna, X-Pac, Tori, Vince McMahon & The Corporation. The two women & Vince were mainly to try & convey a human side of the character to the viewers, while X-Pac strangely made a very good tag-team partner. They won the tag titles twice, defeating Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett on March-30 1999 & The Acolytes on August-9 of the same year. For the remainder of 1999 & practically all of 2000 though, it seemed as if the Kane character had possibly run out of batteries. Battling injuries & feuding with the likes of X-Pac & The Big Show was doing nothing for his career & the world title seemed so far away yet again. His skills in the ring looked to have slightly diminished during this period as well.However, in early 2001, Kane appeared to grow an extra leg in the ring. The now fully-fledged face Kane was starting to look agile for a big man yet again. The WWF wisely noticed this & started to give him a little push. A hardcore title win at WrestleMania was followed by a fifth tag title win (this time with The Undertaker) in mid-April. But tag-team wrestling would hold the new & improved Kane down, so at the Judgment Day ppv in May, Kane defeated Triple H in a chain match to win his first ever Intercontinental title. Two more tag-team title reigns (1 WWF & 1 WCW) in August with The Undertaker seemed to suggest that not only was Kane headed back up the rankings, but he would remain in the main event scene for a while to come.In early 2002, the WWF made a make-or-break decision regarding Kane's character. They opened up or humanized his character even more. We started to see a funny & charismatic Kane that played to the audience. It was a fresh idea that would see the end of the monster persona to a certain extent, but possibly provide a chance to send Kane back to genuine main-event status. The persona caught on with the crowd & Kane started to do more backstage segments & interviews. Practically all of these had touches of comedy included & when the crowd continued to eat it all up, Kane seemingly signed the deal when he took part in a segment with The Rock & Hulk Hogan, where he hilariously hulked up & summoned the power from his fans, now called The Kane-anites. All the while, his in-ring work continued to improve, as was evident in a couple of excellent matches with Kurt Angle. It seemed as if it was just a matter of time until Kane got out of the shadow of The Undertaker & made another run at the world title. But alas, it was not meant to be, as a bicep injury struck at the wrong time, forcing Kane to miss many months of action.Fast forward to late-July when vignettes started to air to proclaim that the return of Kane was near. Subsequent weeks without the return fueled the anticipation of the fans. Unfortunately, the return on an episode of Raw was a little anti-climactic. We saw a slimmed-down Glenn Jacobs continuing the role of Kane in a new mask. The WWE correctly returned Kane as a face, with the continuation of the humanizing process leading to more comedy & a clearer voice. There was no doubt that Kane was in line for a big push. Within 2 months of his return, Kane received an InterContinental Title shot against Chris Jericho. In Houston-Texas on September 30, 2002, Kane defeated Jericho for his 2nd InterContinental Title reign.At this stage, the WWE was stupidly deciding to scrap some of their titles. The Hardcore & European Titles had already been merged, and in October of 2002, the WWE took it one step too far. They announced that at No Mercy in Little Rock-Arkansas, the unstoppable Kane would face World HeavyWeight Champion Triple H, in a title unification bout. The InterContinental Title would cease to exist after this match. As bad as this idea to scrap the IC Title was, it was nothing compared to what the WWE were about to do. It actually pains me to even write this, because it is undoubtedly one of the worst angles in professional wrestling history.The WWE had to put some heat into this important feud between Triple H & Kane as quickly as practically possible. But what they did was inexcusable. Not only to the fans, but to Jacobs himself. The angle will forever be known as the'Necrophilia' angle, and basically consisted of Triple H digging up an episode of Kane's past. The episode was allegedly a drunken Kane killing his girlfriend (Katie Vick) while driving under the influence of alcohol many years ago. Furthermore, the WWE had Triple H turn the angle into a ridiculous comedy. This included the infamous edition of Raw where Triple H humped a mannequin in a coffin. The angle was ridiculous, demeaning & insulting. To top things off, Kane predictably lost the title unification bout at No Mercy, which was rather interestingly placed during the middle of the card, and not as the main event.The angle copped a lot of flack from basically anyone who had anything to do with professional wrestling. Most importantly, both the fans & the wrestlers themselves voiced their displeasure. The creative team (aka Vince McMahon) predictably dropped the angle immediately & acted as if it didn't happen. Kane was seemingly headed back to the midcard. But due to the lack of depth on the Raw roster at the time, Kane got another title shot in the 6 manElimination Chamber match at Survivor Series. Unfortunately, he did not come out of this match looking strong, and by the time the next ppv rolled around (Armageddon), Kane was jobbing to the rookie Batista. It seemed as if Kane's career had been genuinely ruined by the necrophilia angle. It should be noted that in a subsequent angle with Batista on Raw, Kane had his mask removed & quickly scampered to the back with his hands covering his face. As you can see, the seeds of an angle involving Kane's mask were planted way back in January.Come January of this year, in what I thought was a good move, the WWE paired Kane with another wrestler they didn't know what to do with, Rob Van Dam, and made a regular tag-team out of them. At first, it seemed like the team was only together for comedic purposes, but they clicked in the ring better than what people expected. But first, The Royal Rumble was upon us, and it's an event where Kane annually leaves his mark. He entered the match as one of the last 10 entrants, and was therefore always a possibility to win the battle royal. Come the final 5 participants, Kane was still there with RVD, Batista, The Undertaker & Brock Lesnar. In an entertaining touch, Kane eliminated his new tag-team partner by tricking him into an ill-advised double-team move. Unfortunately, Kane fell victim to a similar trick, as after eliminating Batista, Kane & Taker appeared to set their sights on Lesnar as a team. That is, until The Undertaker threw Kane over the top rope for his elimination.Despite a top 3 finish at the rumble, it was pretty much straight back to teaming with RVD, for Kane. Like I said previously, their team was coming along well (possibly stalling the unmasking angle), and they genuinely earnt a shot atLance Storm & William Regal's tag titles at No Way Out. In a really good match, the heels retained after Kane's mask was rearranged so that he couldn't see clearly (more seeds being planted for what we saw this past Monday). Come WrestleMania, Kane & RVD were still motoring along & it appeared as if it was just a matter of time before they were the world tag-team champions. Then for some inexplicable reason, the WWE took their title match against Storm & Chief Morley (substituting for an injured Regal) off the WrestleMania 19 card. The match took place on Heat & the heels retained once more, with help from The Dudley Boyz.But this was fortunately a small spanner in the works, as the next night on Raw from Seattle-Washington, Kane & RVDfinally won the titles by defeating both Storm & Morley and The Dudleyz in an exciting 13 minute, 3 team elimination tag match. While the duo was not what everyone called the prototypical tag-team, they consistently got the job done in the ring over the next couple of months. While the depth of teams in the division was ordinary & the storylines mediocre, Kane & RVD got the most out of their teaming. They continued to defeat Storm & Morley in decent Raw matches, and then at Backlash, they retained against The Dudley Boyz in what I thought was clearly the match of the night. Throughout the rest of April & May, the team continued to put on above-average performances against the likes of Christian & Chris Jericho, as well as Triple H & Ric Flair. At Judgment Day, the 2 lasted a combined total of about 2 minutes in the battle royal for the returning InterContinental Title. In the lead up to that battle royal, there were a few subtle hints that the team could be breaking up soon. Things weren't going all that smoothly in the ring, and when Stone Cold Steve Austin publicly berated Kane for his lackluster performances over the last few months, you just knew something was going to happen. When the new team of La Resistance came along & received a title shot at Bad Blood, the titles were all but gone. And so they were in what was probably Kane & RVD's worst match together. Fortunately, a rematch took place on Raw the next night & the match was a lot better. Kane & RVD had decided before-hand that if they were to be unsuccessful, then the team were finished. And so the teaming came to an end as Kane (remembering Austin's words from a few weeks back) went absolutely ballistic knocking out the Frenchmen with a chair for the DQ loss. This fire impressed both Triple H & Austin, which resulted in a 'title vs mask' match between Kane & Triple H on this past edition of Raw from Madison Square Garden. As we all would know by now, Triple H would once more emerge victorious (with heaps of help from Flair & Orton), and Kane would not become the world champion for the second time. Following the match, Kane did unmask. An un-scarred face with smeared face-paint was complemented by the strangest of strange haircuts. I would best explain it as a cross between 'The Missing Link' (from the late 80's) & 'Mankind' (who initially had patches of shaved hair all over his head).To say that the new look for Kane is going to be a turning point in his career, is a huge under-statement. He has been a face for quite some time now, yet this new look would tend to suggest that he will turn heel soon. Or will he? Only the WWE knows, well, I hope they do. I really hope that they have thought this one through extremely carefully & for the long-term. Because if they have not & all their ideas regarding Kane are for the short-term, then they have basically lost a potential main-eventer. Not only that, a very loyal one. This is one where we are just going to have to trust the WWE. Whatever occurs in the future of Glen Jacobs, I wish him the best of luck. He has been a loyal servant to the WWE, despite not always being treated properly. Furthermore, he has proven that adversity can be overcome in the world of professional wrestling.Wow, that was one hell of a long column!!! If you have gone through every word of it, I apologize for taking up so much of your time. But I sincerely hope that it was worth it & I have enlightened you all about what Glenn Jacobs has been through over his 11 year professional wrestling career. Whether you love him or hate him, you must admit that his history is a fascinating one. To say that I spent a lot of time writing this column is an under-statement. It would therefore be much appreciated if you sent me an e-mail to let me know what you thought of the column & your feelings on Kane himself. I will even include some feedback that I receive, in next week's column. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com Also, if you are a relatively new reader to my column, I have done one other 'history' column in the past. You can access that (and all my other previous columns) by clicking "Columns" & then "The Wrestling Menu" from the LOP front page. The other history column was on Al Snow & was edition #25.Next Wednesday in The Wrestling Menu, I will give my opinion on the NWA/TNA anniversary show. I know it won't be very timely, but if I included it in this column, it would have been way too long. I will also review a new release DVD & post some feedback concerning Kane. Look out for the column same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is Davey Boy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.