Kane said Shane McMahon hit him so hard with a kendo stick during their house show matches in 2003 that a stranger at a gym asked him if he was in pain after seeing the welts covering his body, and that he eventually snapped and ripped the kendo stick out of Shane’s hands during a match.
Speaking at a panel interview on the Going Ringside podcast at River City Wrestling Con, Kane was asked about his feud with Shane McMahon in the fall of 2003. Kane said Shane approached every match, regardless of the venue or the size of the audience, with the same intensity he brought to pay-per-view events.
“Shane was very serious about the wrestling industry,” Kane said. “The rest of us are concerned about our career longevity. We go out and we try to put on a good match. At the same time, we don’t want to jump off the top of a building every night. We’re going to save that for WrestleMania. Shane would do that every night.”
Kane said the hardcore matches with Shane during the house show loop left him visibly battered.
“I was at a gym, and I’m wearing a tank top working out,” Kane said. “This guy walks up, and he’s like, ‘Man, I don’t know what happened to you, but it looks like you’re in a lot of pain.'”
Kane said the welts were a direct result of Shane’s enthusiasm with the kendo stick during their nightly matches. He said the matches were taking place in smaller venues, not in front of pay-per-view audiences, which made the intensity feel disproportionate.
“We’d have these hardcore matches, and I mean, he would just, it was like, dude, this is not like pay-per-view with five million people watching,” Kane said. “Quit hitting me with that kendo stick. I was in, like, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.”
Kane Snapped and Took the Kendo Stick
Kane said the nightly kendo stick shots eventually pushed him to his limit. During one match, when Shane went to swing the kendo stick, Kane caught it mid-swing and ripped it out of Shane’s hands.
“One night I just had it, and he goes to swing the kendo stick, and I caught it, and I jerked it away from him,” Kane said. “And he goes, ‘Oh no.’ I was like, ‘Oh yes.'”
The moment drew a reaction from the audience at the panel.
Kane Accidentally Knocked Shane Out
Kane also revealed that he accidentally kicked Shane in the head during one of their matches and knocked him unconscious. Kane said he did not realize Shane was knocked out and continued the match, hitting him with a chokeslam.
“I actually accidentally kicked Shane in the head and knocked him out one night and chokeslammed him anyway, because I didn’t realize he was knocked out,” Kane said. “He deserved that. That was his fault. He went the wrong way.”
Kane clarified that Shane moved in the wrong direction during a spot, which caused Kane’s kick to connect with his head.
Respect for Shane’s Passion
Despite the physical toll of their matches, Kane said he respects Shane’s passion for the business and that the two had a lot of fun working together. He singled out their ambulance match in Dallas as one of his favorite matches of his career.
“Shane is incredibly passionate about just putting on a tremendous show,” Kane said. “We actually had a lot of fun. That ambulance match, I guess in Dallas, was one of my favorite matches.”
Shane McMahon is widely regarded as one of the most daring non-full-time performers in WWE history. He was known for taking extreme risks in his matches, including jumping off the top of the Hell in a Cell structure and the TitanTron set. His feud with Kane in 2003 included a Last Man Standing match at Unforgiven that is still referenced by fans as one of the more physical matches of that era.
Kane served as one of WWE’s most prominent performers for nearly three decades. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and currently serves as the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
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