Kane didn't suck. Moments like these will be the way that I remember his persona:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHFBBefMY2Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q13yCK4FQPc
What went wrong, the way I saw it, was that people (including myself, for a while) got what they wanted. Fans were growing increasingly anxious to have his mask removed, and once it was, it was (after a little while) the last stage of humanizing and softening Kane.
I took a long while off from watching wrestling at all, since I'd been so used to the Attitude era that the product after, gradually became more of a burden to watch, so I can't say that I know everything that's been going on with the Kane gimmick. I did watch a bit of wrestling, off and on though, after the mask had been removed, but the fact that I can only remember significant moments that happened when the mask was still on, tells you what I thought of what I did get to see.
The guy's basically a victim of bad timing and poor decisions (his own, included). Although, I can't help but hope that the WWE creative team will pick up the ball and do something that makes sense with him, what I've seen from them over the last few months (since watching wrestling again) gives me no reason to believe that that's realistically going to happen.
I was watching youtube and found a clip where Kane and Big Show double chokeslammed Rey Mysterio, then the Undertaker came out and fought both of them off (before being hit w/ an RKO ofcourse). If you're interested in watching the clip, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2jL_AXwO2s
I found it a little funny how the Undertaker is now back in a saga with the Big Show, while Kane is in a new one with Mysterio. More importantly, however, it reminded me of an idea of possibly allowing Kane to return to the machine that he once was.
If he's going to make a return to his former self, Kane is going to have to be taken out for a while. And if anyone is going to have to take Kane out, the Undertaker, given his character and relationship with Kane, would make the most sense to me. As far as WWE characters go, these two guys are "forever" bonded, so it's not like it'd just be one of those beaten-to-death storylines that have no reason to be.
Looking at the pay-per-view schedule, the Undertaker would have to return to Raw, get into a storyline with, and take Kane out of competition by Judgment Day (May 17, 2009) and keep him off of television until his hair has grown to workable length. During that time off, it would also be up to Kane to get back into ME shape.
The Undertaker has already beaten up on Kane after he (Kane) beat up on little old Rey Mysterio, so I don't think it'd be a challenge getting him involved there. Allow Kane to truly torture and demolish Rey for a couple of weeks, then have Batista come to Rey's aid here and there until he can find a new matchup (and/or if Rey tells Batista that he simply doesn't want his help and that he can take care of himself).
Once Cena and/or Orton returns, I'm sure Batista can find a way to involve himself in one of their storylines.
Kane then begins interrupting random matches (usually with smaller guys) and simply decimating them, becoming confusingly inexplicable. At which point they bring in the only guy who "truly knows Kane", the Undertaker. Undertaker spends just one episode trying to talk to Kane , but even with that, Kane just continues pouncing on the little guys of Raw, disregarding his brother near-completely. At which point, Undertaker becomes extremely frustrated and interrupts one of Kane's interruptions and leaves him laid out in the middle of the ring. As Undertaker leaves the ring and heads towards the entranceway, Kane sits up and looks in his direction as we go off the air, starting a new feud between the two brothers. Week after week, the Undertaker continues to beat Kane, leading up to the Judgment Day pay-per-view where the two will face eachother in a Buried Alive match. The Undertaker wins that one, and we don't see Kane until he returns as the Big Red Machine.
As a sidenote, I'm thinking Batista could possibly shimmy his way into the Orton/Priceless storyline. By this time, Priceless could possibly "turn" on Orton after he's taught them everything he knew, resulting in him finding help through Batista as they re-unite as the younger half of Evolution. Then, Batista and Orton can have a series of matches against Priceless where they eventually (symbolically) pass on the torch that had been passed on to them by Flair and Triple H. Then, we figure that Orton is better as a heel-leaning hybrid, so Orton reveals that it was a part of his plan all along, turns on Batista, and returns as the young leader of Priceless.
Just my thoughts.