WWE Hall of Famer Kane (Glenn Jacobs) recently joined PWMania.com for an exclusive in-depth interview. You can read the entire interview by clicking here. The following highlights were sent to us:
Working with The Undertaker:
“It was amazing. Undertaker was my favorite superstar before I got into the WWE. He debuted right around the time I broke into the wrestling business. He’s always been my favorite. He was a big guy like me, and the character was amazing. He was the first big guy to combine size and athleticism that he did. There were a lot of big guys who couldn’t do the stuff he could do. Ultimately, not only was it of course a tremendous character and concept, but it was the fact that you had this guy who was 6’10, 300lbs, could walk across the top rope, and he’ll tell you himself he would move very methodically and did a lot of things a human being his size wouldn’t be able too. I have a great deal of respect for him as a performer before I even really got into the business. Then, when I was around him for a few years, all the stuff about him being the locker room leader is all true. He was the guy you didn’t want to disappoint, I remember one night I felt terrible because he was hurt and still went out and did a half an hour match. He was in pain and did the best that he could. He didn’t have to, he’s The Undertaker, he’s been there for 20 years and if he wanted to phone it in, nobody would say anything. Then I went out there and I worked hard, but I was like man, here he is. That was the moment when I decided I would never phone it in either. If he could go out there and wrestle at a high-level hurt, then we all could. Frankly, he is an idol. To be able to work with him, that closely and develop a close relationship with him, is just something dreams are made out of.”
Being unmasked for the first time:
“I was pumped about it. It was a change. I felt that Kane had gotten rather stale. The mask while it was a great asset because it provided a mystique and mystery that nobody else had, and also because we use our face a lot to show people emotion which is what WWE is all about and getting the audience to feel what you feel, I couldn’t do that they way I wanted to because of the mask and felt I was pretty limited. I was excited to do it. It was a different character. Kane went from being this physical monster that didn’t talk and the most emotion you got from him was a head tilt, which was very ambiguous and it meant that something bad was about to happen to somebody, to Kane now being a psychological monster. He went from being a Michael Myers to a Hannibal Lecter. To me, that’s more terrifying. Now you have a big, huge guy who is all messed up on the inside although he looked normal on the outside. The scars were on the inside and his psyche. To me, that’s much more terrifying than a masked dude running around. I was excited about it. I didn’t know it would do what it did and that it would be a completely different character. It was almost like debuting and starting all over again, except at a much higher level because you had all this history behind you.”
His WWE future and potential WWE retirement match:
“I’ll always leave that door open. In WWE we never say never. I don’t know what will happen. I do some stuff here and there in the WWE. That’s a part of me and it’s something I enjoy and want to do for the rest of my life. If it’s something in the ring, I don’t know. Maybe you have to ask Kane that question.”
