Kane revealed that his iconic character was originally created as a one-match replacement for Big Van Vader after Vader was arrested in Kuwait for roughing up a talk show host who asked if wrestling was fake, and WWE did not know how long Vader would be detained in the country.
Speaking at a panel interview on the Going Ringside podcast at River City Wrestling Con, Kane explained that Vader had been in a rivalry with The Undertaker when the incident occurred during an overseas tour. A talk show host in Kuwait asked Vader the standard question about whether wrestling was fake, and Vader responded physically.
“The talk show host said something to Vader, the old ‘is wrestling fake,'” Kane said. “So Leon kind of roughed him up a little, not terrible, but kind of grabbed him. Which led to his arrest in Kuwait, not the place you want to be. Middle Eastern country, probably not the most progressive criminal justice system.”
Kane said WWE did not know how long Vader would be held or what the resolution would be. Vader was detained for approximately a week, but at the time, the situation was uncertain enough that the company needed to act immediately.
“Leon is literally out of the picture, and we don’t know for how long,” Kane said. “Like, we’re gonna have to send in the airborne troops to get him out, or what’s gonna happen there. And they needed an opponent for Undertaker.”
A One-Match Idea Becomes a Career
WWE came up with the concept of Kane as The Undertaker’s long-lost brother who had been burned in a fire. Kane said the company put him under a mask specifically because he had already appeared on television as two previous characters, Isaac Yankem, DDS and the fake Diesel, and they did not want the audience to recognize him.
“They come up with this idea of Kane, who was the Undertaker’s long-lost brother,” Kane said. “Put me under a mask, because obviously I’d had those two characters that we should not talk about.”
What changed the trajectory of Kane’s career was that Vince McMahon saw more potential in the concept than a single match. McMahon decided to invest in the character as a long-term storyline rather than a one-off program with The Undertaker.
“What ended up happening is Vince liked the idea so much that he’s like, ‘Why are we wasting this on one match? This is much more of a storyline than that,'” Kane said. “And that’s kind of where the whole thing took, for me especially, a very good turn. They decided to really invest in the Kane character. In the end, it became a standalone character, even though the Undertaker obviously was a very important part of that. It wasn’t just as an opponent for Undertaker. It became more than that.”
The Phone Call That Changed Everything
Kane said he was working for Jerry Lawler in the USWA at the time and received word that WWE wanted to put him under a mask for a new program with The Undertaker. He recalled the moment vividly, noting that it happened in the era before cell phones were common.
“Someone told me, ‘Hey, you need to call the office,'” Kane said. “So I’m literally stopping at a gas station, calling from a pay phone somewhere between Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee. And got told, ‘Hey, we have a really good opportunity for you.’ It turned out to be the break of a lifetime, obviously.”
Kane noted that his first match against The Undertaker had actually taken place before he signed with WWE, when he was working for Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling. That match was held at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, the same building that Kane can now see from his office at the Knox County government building, where he serves as mayor.
“Our first match ever was before I got into WWE,” Kane said. “It’s funny because now my office at the Knoxville city-county building overlooks the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, which is where our first match was when I was still working for Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling.”
Learning Undertaker’s Moves
Kane said the physical adjustment to wearing the mask was not the hardest part of the transition. The mask sat off his face and had eye holes and a slit, so breathing was not an issue. The full body suit that covered everything except his left arm was more uncomfortable, but the real challenge was learning to wrestle like The Undertaker.
“Kane was emulating Undertaker’s moves. That was on purpose, because basically he was like the dark version of the Undertaker,” Kane said. “That was kind of difficult, because those weren’t my moves. Like, learn some of the things that Mark did, especially the Tombstone. I’d never done a Tombstone before.”
Kane said the broader challenge was adopting The Undertaker’s pacing and rhythm in the ring, which was methodical and then suddenly explosive. Incorporating those elements into his own work was a significant learning curve.
“That methodical, and then all of a sudden explosive, like the things that Mark did, trying to incorporate some of those things into my repertoire, it was a little more difficult and more of a learning curve,” Kane said.
Kane went on to have a career spanning nearly three decades in WWE and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He currently serves as the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
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