Dean Ambrose should clearly win this. A lot of you are engaging in revisionist history saying Kane has been some sort of dominant main eventer his entire career. He was a dominant main eventer for exactly ONE YEAR and that was his debut year in his gimmick. He has been on a downward for 20 YEARS and has never had as good a year as that one, while Dean Ambrose has only improved his standing with every following year.
Let's rundown Kane's entire career:
1995- He spent 1995 as Isaac Yankem, DDS, a total goober, who lost to everyone and their mother. Every version of Dean Ambrose can definitely beat him.
1996- He kept a jobbing streak as Yankem, disappeared, came back as Fake Diesel, where he beat a couple of jobbers, lost to Undertaker and then disappeared again. Both gimmicks were total failures and Dean Ambrose will definitely beat them.
1998- This was Kane's original year and best run to date. Kane made his debut at the tail-end of 1997 and beat Mankind in his one and only match that year. But in 1998, he had a big main event run and traded wins with Austin, Mankind, Rock, and Undertaker all on the top of the card. The only guy who beat him and never got beat was Ken Shamrock, but he was also pretty protected at the time. Kane had a great year where he could tear through Ambrose like Brock at WM32, but he's never been booked like this again.
1999- This was our first rendition of "midcard Kane" and it was only a year after he had debuted. He lost to guys like X-Pac, Billy Gunn, Hardcore Holly, Billy Gunn and Viscera, but they were treated as significant because it was Kane's first foray into midcardville. He had one main event in a six-pack-challenge at Unforgiven, but mostly stayed down the card. Dean can take this Kane for sure.
2000- Kane rebounded, but was pretty much the current Dean Ambrose. Kane racked up tons of losses in 2000, but they were almost entirely against other main eventers like Rock, Triple H, Undertaker, Rikishi and Steve Blackman. Okay, the last two were exceptions. He lost to Rikishi, but he was getting pushed. Steve Blackman was a Hardcore match, and obviously different rules. Either way, it was a dominant run, and he can't complain much. Dean Ambrose and 2000 Kane one can go either way.
2001- During the Invasion, Kane got the privilege of putting over an influx of incoming talent. Whether it was RVD, Booker T, Rhyno or William Regal, Kane had their back by lying on his. He also got to lose to Edge, Christian, Test and Albert in 1-on-1's, and only racked up wins when tagging with Undertaker and Big Show. And even then, they also lost to Dudleys, Booker T & Test, and other teams. This was surely the start of the downfall of Kane, only 3 years into his WWE debut.
2002- 50/50 booking with Kurt Angle, X-Pac and Test, then missed most of the year due to injury, and came back for one main event with Triple H (which he lost) and then lost to a rookie Batista a few times to end the year. He didn't do much, and while he was booked strongly while feuding with Angle, he lost most of those matches and ended the year losing to a rookie who wouldn't get a main event run until 3 years later. From here on out, it's doubtful we will find a Kane who can actually beat Dean Ambrose in a straight 1-on-1 with no shenanigans.
2003- Lots of comments saying that Kane went toe to toe with Goldberg, so he obviously can beat Ambrose, but that is so misguided. Yes, Kane had a main event run in 2003 which included multi-man matches with Goldberg, but he lost every single big match that year. In fact, I'm gonna give you the list of all the people he beat 1-on-1 in 2003: Lance Storm, Matt Morgan, Rosey, Hurricane, RVD, Jericho, Val Venis, Rico, Rhyno, Brian Lawler, Stevie Richards, Maven. That's it. All jobbers save for RVD and Jericho who were midcard mainstays. Kane also lost to Jericho and RVD in 50/50 booking,
but the list of people Kane also lost to also include Edge, Chris Benoit, Rene Dupree, Eric Bischoff, Bubba Ray, Spike Dudley, Matt Hardy, Tajiri and Eugene. All midcarders, some even lowcarders. I think we can all agree that if a you lose to Matt Hardy, you lose to Dean Ambrose.
2004- This is the beginning of OBSTACLE KANE, where he's stayed at for most of the rest of his career. He's the big guy people beat on their way to someone better. Whether it was Edge, Orton, Jericho, Benoit, Matt Hardy or even Snitsky, he lost to all of them while they were getting ready for the main events. He had at least got one main event this year against Benoit, but lost decisively. You could say Dean is similar, but Kane has made a career of losing in match-ups exactly like this one. A big tournament match where he puts over the new guy on his way to the top. And of course, the Matt Hardy rule still applies.
2005- Lost to Batista on his way to Triple H and lost to Edge on his way to Batista. Do you see the pattern? He took a hiatus and came back to tease a main event push, but just ended up tagging with Big Show and feuding with the likes of Cade and Murdoch, and Val Venis and Viscera for the rest of the year. Tag Team Kane isn't in Dean's league either, and he clearly showed that in later years.
2006- More of "Obstacle Kane". He was basically the pre-Cena. Whether it was Triple H, The Big Show, Edge or Randy Orton, if you were facing Cena, you got to beat Kane first. Kane also lost to Mr. Kennedy on his way to Undertaker. He got to beat guys like MVP and Carlito, but you can't really compare them to Dean Ambrose. Clearly, if Kane can play the obstacle against everybody as they move up, he can lose a tournament match to a guy with an actual upside like Dean Ambrose.
2007- Kane did a lot more 50/50 booking this year, but he was still the big red obstacle. Losing to Khali on his way to Cena. Losing to Henry on his way to Taker. Lost to Finlay on a regular basis in a pointless feud. Can't really say Finlay was on his way to anything either. He got to rack up lots of wins against jobbers and undercarders this year, but Dean has never been one of them. Dean can beat him handily.
2008- Started the year off with a win over Chavo as ECW Champ, but then got drafted to a huge stacked Raw roster and got lost in the shuffle. He lost to everybody on Raw, including Punk, Mark Henry, Jericho, and most notably, Rey Mysterio, in what was probably one of the worst Raw feuds of all time. He also lost to career midcarders like Kofi and Morrison. In fact, I looked it up, and his only TWO 1-on-1 wins since getting drafted were over Evan Bourne and Matt Striker. That's just sad. We're talking 6 years before Corporate Kane and Dean is already the clear favorite.
2009- He had meaningless 50/50 booking with Rey and Khali in rehashes of two terrible feuds of the past few years. When not doing that, he was playing his classic role of the obstacle, losing to Punk on his way to Jeff, and losing to Batista on his way to Taker. The Punk losses are telling, because CM Punk in 2009 had a very similar character and position on the card to Dean Ambrose. Ambrose can clearly beat him.
2010- His last real push in the main event scene, where he beat Undertaker twice via interference and then lost to Edge a couple of times. But before that, he was just the obstacle again, losing to HBK on his way to Undertaker, and losing to CM Punk on his way to Big Show. Of course, Kane did get wins against low midcarders and undercarders, but no one in the upper midcard/main event role like Dean. Dean could've easily been the Edge to slap Kane silly a bunch of times in 2010.
2011- He was gone for most of the year, but for the little he was around, it was another case of being the "obstacle". Lost to Edge on his way to Del Rio. Lost to Mark Henry on his way to Orton. Tagged with Big Show for the bulk of the year and beat guys like The Corre, but never really faced a big threat of their own.
2012- He donned the mask again and teased a big monster run, but it didn't really happen. He loses his first feud against Cena on his way to The Rock. He loses to Bryan on his way to Punk. He loses to Big Show on his way to Sheamus. He got wins over the Slaters, Ryders, Sandows and Barretts of the roster, but he never delivered on the big fights. He was the same ol' upper midcard enhancement talent, but this time, with a leather mask. Dean Ambrose could clearly beat him in 2012, and he actually did, right in his WWE debut.
2013- Tag teamed with Bryan and put over The Shield in every single match they had, at a time when Dean Ambrose was the defacto face of The Shield. After splitting up, he puts over Bray Wyatt in his debut and then comes back as the Corporate Jobber. Even right before getting corporatized, he was being used as an enhancement talent. Dean Ambrose can definitely beat this Kane.
2014- As Corporate Kane, he was enhancement talent the entire year and even lost clean to a career midcarder like Ryback. He only won a handful of matches that year, against the likes of Jack Swagger and Adam Rose. Dean Ambrose could totally crush him, which he actually did once on main event.
2015- Corporate Kane was not just enhancement talent, but a straight up jobber. He had a huge losing streak and lost almost every match. He had one teeny push against Seth Rollins later in the year, but he was just an obstacle on Seth's way to facing Roman. Some voters will say that Kane's victory over Ambrose on Raw while he was a jobber is conclusive of his dominance, but Dean was feuding with Seth and had to fight off his interference during the match, before Kane got the victory. Unless you're expecting Seth to also interfere in this bout, Dean can beat 2015 Kane with his eyes closed.
2016- He's done nothing of note this year, except get thrown out of a battle royal by a rookie in his debut. Dean Ambrose can easily beat THIS Kane as well.
I get that there's a lot of nostalgia for 1998 super monster Kane and even his upper echelon run in 2000, but Kane has made a career of putting over guys like Dean Ambrose and that's exactly what he should be doing here.
VOTE DEAN AMBROSE.
