Is Kane unsalvageable?

[CyberPunk]

First off, I am a huge Kane mark, so let me get that out of the way. I have always liked Kane and I think that he is one of the most underrated characters in WWE. Glenn Jacobs deserves props for what he has done with a character which otherwise has a very limited shelf life.

On the other hand, I also think that Kane could never break out of Undertaker's shadow. Where Undertaker's character was always very protected, Kane's character has been sabotaged so many times that if it wasn't for Glenn, the character would've died long time ago.

Anyhow, 18 years is a long time for a sustained run and Kane has always been there. At this stage, he is still a full timer doing every PPV, TV and live event. His character, however, is completely stale and it's very difficult to care for it. Every now and then he'll be put in main event scene with everyone knowing that he has absolutely no chance of winning (part due to how Kane has been booked over the years). The latest incarnation as Corporate Kane, while interesting in concept, was horribly booked and made Kane look super stupid and annoyed the hell out of many. This further damaged Kane's credibility, or whatever was left of it.

My question is, do you think Kane can be salvaged? Or is it too late and Glenn should just retire? I think he can still be useful, but in some other role. At his age, Kane has slowed down and though he can still put up a decent enough match with the right opponent, he should be nowhere close to the main event scene. Kane can still be interesting, glimpses of which I saw during his feud with Seth Rollins. All he needs is to stick to being a monster, destroy whatever comes in his way, the only way 'Kane' can work. May be get into another tag team?

My other question is, at this point in his career, should he hold any title (not world title but IC or US title)? Would it help or Kane is way past holding any title at all (and I am talking singles title)?

PS. Do you think Kane (or Glenn Jacobs) is underutilized or not given proper pushes at various points in his career?

Discuss.

 

[Azane]

I think Kane is used somewhat well right now, he always looks beat up and weak in every match... but the other guy looks great, and the next week, nobody cares that Kane lost again. I don't think there's a reason to retire, just because he's a huge veteran jobber. He's still getting a lot of TV time, his gimmick is only as stale as The Undertaker.

Should he hold a title? Nope, he doesn't need to, he's still big, tall, powerful and the Demon Kane gimmick is still usable as intimidation factor. His time to shine is well past, but he can still help produce future stars. This topic reminds me a lot of Mark Henry or Big Show retirement topics, where I will make the same argument, the large veteran wrestlers jobbing lend credibility to stars, even if it's just midcard up and comers, and maybe not to hardcore fans, but we have to remember that most pandering is for the casual fans, as hardcore fans don't care at all about W/L.

 

[TheBadGuy92]

Oh you're about to set EliminatorKane off. -_-

But yes and no. I think he is too far gone to be salvaged as anything considerable as a threat or a main event talent. hes good in his role for putting the younger stars over. Maybe a future IC or US transitional champion is all he has left too offer.

I would like to see him maybe paired up in a tag team to put over younger talent for comedy purposes in the future E.G. xpac, RVD. etc.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Kane is an oddity in pro wrestling given that he's someone who's been in WWE for the better part of 20 years and has remained pretty relevant despite a dramatic shift in the tastes of a good number of fans.

No matter what, Kane will never be viewed as being the equal to the Undertaker; he's always going to be in Taker's shadow to a good degree and he's always going to be primarily associated with Taker due to his initial program with Taker that began in late 1997. Given that Taker almost always got the best of Kane in feuds, with the exception coming during Kane's run as WHC, he'll just never be on par with Taker's legacy. However, Kane himself has been a reliable staple in the upper mid-card picture for a long time and I think he's never really gotten as much credit as he deserves. Considering that he's legitimately about 6'9" and over 300 lbs., he's not been the sort of lumbering, stagnant, one dimensional muscle man that we'd normally see for someone of his stature. For the most part, I've also enjoyed his matches and feel he's underrated among big men for his abilities in the ring. Considering that a lot of fans seem to have something of a bias against big, muscular guys nowadays, it's refreshing to see that, for the most part, Kane hasn't been victimized by said fans with the "boring" treatment.

During Kane's feud with Taker during his WHC reign, Kane also showed just how good he could be as a character; he delivered some fantastic, passionate promos and showed that he had more in him than just this demonic monster. We saw more of that when he was paired with Daniel Bryan in an unlikely team that was over to a degree well beyond anything we were expecting. Corporate Kane has been met with mixed reviews, so it's probably good that he's now come more full circle.

 

[Checkmate]

No.

I would have been someone to write this post in 2010, but then Kane won the Money in the Bank and the World Title. Granted, that wasn't the best of Kane by any stretch, he headlined Smackdown during a weak time and had a comparably unmemorable feud with Taker, but he still was relevant to the product at that time. That was after years of doing next to nothing. And he faded quickly afterward, yet again, as Kane seems to do.

I could have thought to write this topic again in 2012, two years later. Kane hadn't done much in those two years. Sure, he put his mask back on, but then did very little with it. And then came Team Hell No, which was great, really, really fun stuff. Sure, half of that was Daniel Bryan really coming into his own and captivating crowds with YES! and NO! chants, but like the odd couple that they were, it takes two to tango, and Kane was one of the two.

And, yes, since then, Kane faded away as the Director of Operations, popping up here and there and even being written off for the summer, but he came back and had a fun storyline with Rollins for a month, and now he'll be a player in this Wyatt/Taker feud. Is he the main player in any of these storylines? No, but that doesn't make him useless to any degree.

Kane is a utility player. He doesn't put butts in the seats, but he does good work with the people who do. He gives them something to do on the off months between huge storylines, and every once in a blue, he really does something cool, or funny, or has a match better than anyone was expecting. And I'm fine with that.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

No. Guys like Kane can always be put into a tag team when his singles run goes really dry. He could tag up with The Big Show or any other wrestler who is not being utilized right now. Hell, Curtis Axle and Kane could be the next Heck No team. Kane's tag team chops is near the top of the charts. He's a multiple time tag team champion and has been part of some very dominant teams. His team doesn't even need to be a champion either...just entertain with rough matches and make the tag division a little more dangerous.

 

[rmp0012002]

I think he's past his expiration date. I liked Kane in his original incarnation but he's bounced around from the demonic side to the suit and tie side and now kind of back that he's just taking up a spot. He's been there a long time and if he's good backstage he should move into an agent role.

 

[whoopin' ass]

In today's wwe, absolutely. All they need to do is give some half-assed answer and they could make him WWE Champ tomorrow and the crowd would buy it because they don't question things. With long term fans, nope. Much like Big Show, Kane has been misused too much to be taken as a real threat anymore. I mean, he has gone from a guy in a mask who couldn't speak to someone in a suit cutting promos constantly. Characters need to evolve but his evolution took away the mystery and have made him just a big guy who wrestles. To me, his career has been dead for close to a decade now. This whole Corporate Kane thing is just so out of character, it is embarrassing.

 

[stingray11214]

Why do you want to salvage someone who is on record as looking to wind up his career? Unless you are going to make someone else play "Kane", there is no purpose or reason to rehab Kane. Jacobs and his wife recently opened a brokerage in Nashville, and sold their home in order to be closer to that business. So, if you are WWE, are you going to give a push to someone about to hang them up?

 

[S.J. Maximus]

If your question is "Will Kane ever be a top/main event level talent ever again?" then the answer is no. However, if you're wondering if Kane will ever be entertaining again, I'd say absolutely. He's obviously lost plenty of steam over the years, and to be 100% I don't think he ever fully recovered from his initial unmasking. There were plenty of brilliant storylines that put him in the spotlight over the years since then (his entire angle with Lita was A+ in my opinion) but even during his WHC run in 2010 it was hard for me to take him seriously.

That being said, I always get a special joy watching Kane perform, especially with the mask on. Despite the fact that the joy is probably 98% due to nostalgia, I think Kane can still put on decent matches with the right opponent and his mic work/character development is damn good. Unlike Big Show, there is still something about Kane that seems organic, and as a result he still gets very good pops from the live crowd.

In terms of a return to the dominant monster, I don't think anyone (including Glenn Jacobs himself) wants or is expecting that to happen. He has had a stellar Hall of Fame career and I think at this point he's perfectly fine putting over talent and participating in fun angles. As a fan, there's really not much more I can ask of him.

 

[ShinChan]

I think he can still go on for atleast till Wrestlemania 33..... He can be a major player for putting over young nXt talents......
Finn Balor vs Kane in a casket match would be awesome for putting over Balor....
In short; He should be there until Wrestlemania 33 and should be used properly thus validating his credibilty and then leading to WWE Hall Of Fame........

 

[Garak]

I think he's past his expiration date. I liked Kane in his original incarnation but he's bounced around from the demonic side to the suit and tie side and now kind of back that he's just taking up a spot.

The thing is, though, that's exactly what they need right now - someone to take up a spot. Cena isn't around. Lesnar is sort of around. Orton is out. Rollins is out. So, there is a veteran who is "just taking up a spot."

 

[stingray11214]

The thing is, though, that's exactly what they need right now - someone to take up a spot. Cena isn't around. Lesnar is sort of around. Orton is out. Rollins is out. So, there is a veteran who is "just taking up a spot."

If that is the case, call up Samoa Joe. Call up James Storm. Call up Rhyno. You have plenty of veteran hands in NXT that can fill a roster spot in a pinch.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Kane can still be interesting, glimpses of which I saw during his feud with Seth Rollins.

That very feud was perfect in illustrating the pros and cons of how Kane has been used over the years. It was very interesting when he was standing on stage with Triple H & Stephanie, J & J Security and Big Show......all in support of Seth Rollins. Kane was seen shaking his head and showing inward disdain for Seth, even while he was forced to show outward support. It seemed Kane was slowly turning face and it would show itself at a pivotal moment.......only to have the program altered and turn Kane into a renegade against the Authority who wound up being put in his place. Had it not been for the flexibility of Glenn Jacobs, the whole thing would have been a bigger mess than it was.

As it is, on this forum people have been writing Kane's professional epitaph for years, only to have him alter his character and become relevant again. Just when you think the character might finally be done, something like last night occurs.

There are Kane with Undertaker, looking like the bad-asses of old. Kane was dressed exactly as he was in the old days......and one wonders if, after Undertaker does whatever he's going to do in the coming month and returns to Death Valley, Kane isn't going to break out once again and be the unstoppable monster of old.

Is Kane salvageable? Hell, whether as a main event player or enhancement talent, the road to the world title still runs through him. They've always got to get by him first.....and it's a process that still works.

 

[Garak]

If that is the case, call up Samoa Joe. Call up James Storm. Call up Rhyno. You have plenty of veteran hands in NXT that can fill a roster spot in a pinch.

With all due respect to those talents, that still isn't a bona fide reason. Just having them substitute when they already might have something going on may not be helpful. Beyond that, Kane has the seniority and loyalty and is always a good hand. I also suspect they want name recognition to more casual fans. Those three names mean nothing to far too may people, notably casual fans, young fans, or fans who have never seen TNA.

 

[laodaron]

Kane is someone who has had a 20+ year career in the WWE. Crying about Kane is asinine.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Kane has received terrible booking throughout his career (Katie Vick, his feuds with Matt Hardy and Snitsky, etc). When he was Corporate Kane (a great idea on paper), he was just annoying. My grandma wanted to strangle him because he interfered in matches basically every single Raw.

At this point in his career, he is definitely not a main eventer, but he can still be in the mid-card putting over younger wrestlers until he decides to retire.

 

[Softcore Holly]

Depends on where you want Kane to be at this point in his career. If you want him as a world champ, then no since the character himself isn't all that intersting, they jobbed both versions of him out so often he stopped being scary ages ago and the last few times they tried making him look scary it just felt like terrible horror movies. His last run as corporate Kane I actually really liked since it felt very natural and Jacobs made it look easy. He wasn't a demon that no one found scary anymore, he wasn't a guy trying to hold the non-scary demon in, he simply a guy that wanted revenge while putting up a very obvious yet entertaining act to hide it. Really we haven't seen Jacobs act this well since his Team Hell No days where he was a ton of fun to watch. He's at his best when he can actually act a role that speaks instead of being a mostly mute big man trying to be scary, and looking back at the last 18 years it's pretty sad that no one really caught on to that or if they did never really ran with it as much as they could.

Nowadays he's obviously in the much latter stages of his career but he's still healthy and can still go in the ring so no I don't see a need for him to retire. He doesn't need any titles since those should be going to younger guys that the titles can elevate but he would make a decent contender for someone to beat since that would make the champ look good. Really he's doing what most veterans should be doing in his stage of his career, putting over younger guys since his past accomplishments helps make them look good and as long as that's mainly what he's used for he's fine.

 

[Nada]

Well, if Kane is not a scary demented monster, then what exactly is he?

The character he has attempted to portray is the Two-Face, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type. But with WWE's terrible writing it comes across as neither funny nor scary. So what exactly is the hook?

According to Cornette, who was one of the 4 writers back then, Kane was pitched as a Michael Myers type character, later on the magic (fire) would be added, because WWE likes special effects and works well with Taker's lightning theme.

Think of Michael Myers, the relentless menace, and then think of goofy Kane drinking coffee and being the office stooge. To say its unsalvageable is putting it mildly

 

[Noshowers]

Nah, Kane should never hold the main belt or any of the IC / US belts again. He is not a credible challenger anymore he is just a roadblock...and believe me most champs and stories can use a big roadblock.

#1 contender stubs his toe? Send out Demon Kane.

HHH going to miss a Raw? Have Kane put Rollins in some BS match and take a pedigree instead of the big boss.

Don't want a high profile match just yet and want to save it for Summerslam / Wrestlemania? Kane can show up and give you a few matchs with the ole Fire and Brimstone.

Kane basically has been roadblocks for most everyone over the years from Undertaker to Austin to Dan Bryan to Rollins and more folks then I have time to mention here.

I could see him on a Tag Team that potentialyl could win a belt and would be fine with that in the right circumstances (Team Heck no was tons of fun), but ever since the WWE gave him that run a few years back to show their gratitude for his years of service he should now be comfortable (and by all accounts is) to be nowhere near winning the belt again.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Pffft.

Kane is an amazing character. He can play the demon, funny masked man and a stooge and you give him a little seriousness, a little pyro and mystique and he is back.

When him and Taker strolled down last Raw and the camera angle shot them from below to actually showcase their immense size and presence, that was it.


Kane is an amazing persona, unbelievably recyclable and put to good use.