Corporate Kane: Satan in a Sunday Suit?

[Mustang Sally]

I'm still trying to figure out what WWE intended in having Kane surrender his mask to Stephanie McMahon and becoming a stooge of the Authority, carrying out their corporate wishes while instituting a few of his own along the way.

Was this a failed idea......or a strategic career path move for Glenn Jacobs?

At age 47, I figured he was winding down his in-ring career and possibly headed for retirement, but the company wanted to keep him in some capacity since he's proved to be such a valuable commodity that has changed direction in character numerous times over the years and been effective in all of them.

Still, the idea of the Big Red Monster wearing a suit and delivering edicts issued by his bosses seemed so far-fetched and contrary to everything he had done before that I expected him to burst into violence at any second. For that reason, it seemed incongruous for him to do it all with words rather than deeds; in fact, it was quite a while before he started choke-slamming people who didn't follow his directives. He seemed frustrated by not being able to handle this as he always had; I'm asking if this was part of the designed program......or was it the result of a plan that simply wasn't working?

It's a long way from calmly issuing orders in a suit and tie to suddenly becoming the "Devil's Favorite Demon" again, no?

Did the company intend to keep him as Corporate Kane...... or did they say somewhere along the line: "Hell, this isn't working. Let Glenn go back to what made him successful before."

Any thoughts?

 

[Max Headroom]

I think it was a little bit of both a failed idea, and a strategic move for his career. I thought having him do this was a good way to get him a bit of heat for removing the mask & going to serve the Authority, and in the end I figured it would have slowly pushed him away from wrestling into more of a backstage role. Plus, wasn't he supposed to be filming a movie sometime around then? I could be wrong there but I think that was the case, thus having him be in that backstage role would give him more time to concentrate on the movie.

However, in the end, it seemed to have been a failed idea. He ended up not transitioning into a backstage guy, and eventually started wrestling again. He looked immensely silly wrestling in dress pants & whatnot, thus further making it a bit of a failure. Then, once Daniel won the WWEWHC, he needed an opponent. All of the Evolution members were starting to feud with The Sheild, and Cena/the Wyatts were doing their own thing, so it was kind of like "oh shit, who can we have go after Bryan?". They then realized that Kane wrestling in dress pants & being a stooge was just kind of wasting time, paired it with the fact that he & Bryan have a lot of history (that they barely even mention, which is rather annoying), and slapped the mask back on him. Then we all know what followed.

In the end, though, this whole "stooge of the Authority" thing is still happening. It seems pretty clear that he is doing their bidding still, considering he was destroying Bryan for Stephanie, and that he came out to beat on Brad Maddox a while back. But now he looks partially legitimate in doing so, almost as if the mask has some demonic powers that makes Kane more evil & powerful when he wears it. They could have easily done this story without giving him back the mask, but that would just look silly. Also, the mask is kind of like an excuse that Stephanie uses in order to try and make it seem like she cannot control him anymore, as she is trying to make it look like she is innocent in all this, which she is not.

 

[L@RISANO]

I'm still trying to figure out what WWE intended in having Kane surrender his mask to Stephanie McMahon and becoming a stooge of the Authority, carrying out their corporate wishes while instituting a few of his own along the way.

Was this a failed idea......or a strategic career path move for Glenn Jacobs?

At age 47, I figured he was winding down his in-ring career and possibly headed for retirement, but the company wanted to keep him in some capacity since he's proved to be such a valuable commodity that has changed direction in character numerous times over the years and been effective in all of them.

Still, the idea of the Big Red Monster wearing a suit and delivering edicts issued by his bosses seemed so far-fetched and contrary to everything he had done before that I expected him to burst into violence at any second. For that reason, it seemed incongruous for him to do it all with words rather than deeds; in fact, it was quite a while before he started choke-slamming people who didn't follow his directives. He seemed frustrated by not being able to handle this as he always had; I'm asking if this was part of the designed program......or was it the result of a plan that simply wasn't working?

It's a long way from calmly issuing orders in a suit and tie to suddenly becoming the "Devil's Favorite Demon" again, no?

Did the company intend to keep him as Corporate Kane...... or did they say somewhere along the line: "Hell, this isn't working. Let Glenn go back to what made him successful before."

Any thoughts?

One aspect of the Corporate Kane stuff that irked me, was seeing how he was made to look like a little child by the Authority quite a few times. How he was made entirely into a Stooge for HHH and his wife for the majority of his time in a suit.

It is honestly baffling how it was all handled and why it went on so long even when it was clear that it sucked due to how Creative handled it.

Creating a DOO should have meant both Vicki and Maddox being fired immediately...and have that DOO in Fighting GM role, in much the same way how HHH ended up fighting Daniel Bryan, I do believe that CM Punk was headed to WM to face Corporate Kane in a huge Blanket Authority Storyline that would have covered probably 4/5 matches on the WM30 card.

That said; It would've been sooooo much better if Kane just remained as the aimless Veteran Monster placed in MidCard programmes like Henry and Big Show.....whilst Bad News Barrett with his fresh new gimmick would have been made DOO and aligned himself with the Authority......then think forward and imagine after Mania(Punk did walk out) with the Shield vs Evolution Storyline...and instead of Bryan's first fight being against Demon Kane, it was against DOO, Bad News Barrett....would have worked much better,lMO, given Barrett is quite good and comfortable with a mic in hand.

 

[chicagokmc]

I loved the concept of Corporate Kane, I don't think it was executed very well. The problem with Corporate Kane was that he was too similar to Team Hell No Kane. Even though you put him in a suit his mannerisms and the way he acted, logical, intelligent was just too similar to the Kane that was almost a comedy act with Bryant. That Kane would never be effective as a threat to Daniel Bryan. Making him dig deep and become monster Kane once more just makes the storyline more credible, even though none of us really thought that any version of Kane would be champion at this point in his career.


That said, I think they could have gotten more out of him as Corporate Kane. I think he was good when he was being a heelish goon. Once he went back to being in the ring as a wrestling goon, we knew he was going to be on the receiving end of the beat downs. Not to mention the look, which others have already mentioned. And finally it started strong but once he started being on the receiving end of Stephanie's wrath, the effectiveness was gone.