Kane

In October 1997, Jacobs was repackaged as Kane, the younger half-brother of The Undertaker and son of Paul Bearer. Jacobs re-debuted in the WWF at Bad Blood: In Your House on October 5, costing The Undertaker the victory in the first ever Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels. Kane and The Undertaker feuded with one another over the following year, during which time their history vis-à-vis one another was expounded upon.
Jacobs won his first match as Kane against Mankind at Survivor Series. In the weeks prior on Raw, Kane had randomly attacked other wrestlers including Ahmed Johnson, Road Warrior Hawk, and Mankind's alter ego Dude Love. The Undertaker initially refused to face him, saying he would not fight his own "flesh and blood." After a brief partnership, Kane betrayed his brother when he cost him the WWF Championship; he made a run-in in The Undertaker's WWF Championship title match with Shawn Michaels at the Royal Rumble. After the match, Kane locked The Undertaker in a casket and set it on fire, though it was later revealed that Undertaker managed to escape the casket without being seen before Kane set it on fire. This provoked The Undertaker into returning to face Kane at WrestleMania XIV on March 29. They continued to feud until Unforgiven on April 26, when The Undertaker defeated Kane in an Inferno match. In this match, Paul Bearer tried to help Kane by attacking The Undertaker; however, at one point of the match Kane was returning backstage. Vader then forced Kane back towards the ring and, The Undertaker attacked them both by jumping over the ring ropes surrounded by fire.
On May 19, Bearer was revealed to be an employee at the funeral home in Death Valley owned by The Undertaker's parents. When Kane and The Undertaker were children, The Undertaker "accidentally" burned down the funeral home, killing their parents and hideously scarring Kane both physically and mentally. The Undertaker thought Kane had been dead for years after the fire. During an episode of Raw taped in Long Island, Kane and Bearer ostensibly exhumed the parents' bodies and brought them to the arena. Bearer, who survived the fire, hid Kane in a mental asylum as he grew up and went on to form an alliance with The Undertaker. After suffering mistreatment at the hands of The Undertaker, Bearer opted to bring Kane into the WWF in order to gain vengeance upon The Undertaker. The Kane character is portrayed as being psychologically unstable: depressed, schizophrenic, extremely violent, and quick to anger. Like his half-brother, Kane is supposedly able to summon fire and bolts of lightning at will, which is displayed as pyrotechnics during shows.
After defeating The Undertaker to win a WWF Championship title shot, Kane won the WWF Championship at the King of the Ring, defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin in a First Blood match however, he lost the title next day on the episode of RAW. If Kane had lost, the match stipulations required that he would have set himself on fire. He went on to form a tag team with Mankind, with whom he won the WWF Tag Team Championship. After losing the titles and turning on Mankind, Kane formed a short lived tag team with his brother. The brothers fought one another for the vacant WWF Championship at Judgment Day: In Your House, with the match ending in a no-contest. During the match, the Undertaker betrayed Kane for Paul Bearer, thus making Kane a tweener and turning Undertaker heel. Kane went on to take part in the "Deadly Games" tournament for the WWF Championship at the Survivor Series but was eliminated by The Undertaker in the quarter-finals.
At Rock Bottom: In Your House, Kane interfered in the Buried Alive match between Austin and the Undertaker by giving the Undertaker a Tombstone Piledriver. As a result of this, The Corporation had Kane committed to an insane asylum. However, in 1999, Kane joined The Corporation to stay out of the insane asylum. He eventually turned face after he was betrayed by The Corporation and thrown out of the alliance. Shortly afterward, Kane formed a tag team with X-Pac. While teaming with X-Pac, Kane evolved from being mute to aided speech through an electrolarynx to speaking unaided. He also became associated with D-Generation X, the faction of which X-Pac was a member. His first unaided words were the DX slogan "suck it". The duo won the WWF Tag Team title. The tag team broke apart when X-Pac rejoined D-Generation X. After that Kane acquired a girlfriend, Tori. Late in their feud in early 2000, Tori betrayed Kane and joined D-Generation X, and the former partners engaged in a lengthy feud that finally ended at WrestleMania 2000, in which Kane teamed with Rikishi to face X-Pac and Road Dogg. Kane and Rikishi came out victorious after Kane pinned X-Pac following a tombstone piledriver.
Shortly after WrestleMania, Kane suffered a hand injury that kept him out of action for a month. When he returned, it was to help The Undertaker and The Rock fight off the McMahon-Helmsley Faction. His involvement in this feud culminated in a main event match at King of the Ring against Vince and Shane McMahon, and then champion Triple H. The Undertaker and Kane's rivalry resurfaced during the match, but they patched their relationship up soon after. Kane later turned heel once again by assaulting The Undertaker, leading to a match between the two at SummerSlam. The match ended when The Undertaker removed Kane's mask, causing him to flee the ring, covering his face. Kane stayed in contention for the WWF Championship for the remainder of the year and ended 2000 in a feud with Chris Jericho; he ultimately lost a Last Man Standing match to him at Armageddon.
Kane reformed his alliance with The Undertaker (becoming a face again) immediately before the Royal Rumble, in which he eliminated a record number of 11 wrestlers and was the runner-up, after being eliminated by Steve Austin. In early 2001, Kane competed for the Hardcore Championship, defeating Raven for the title at WrestleMania X-Seven in a match that also featured Big Show. At the same time, Kane began teaming with The Undertaker as the "Brothers of Destruction". In the course of the year, they feuded with Edge and Christian, Rikishi and Haku, and The Two-Man Power Trip. While feuding with The Two-Man Power Trip, Austin and Triple H broke Kane's left arm (Kayfabe). At Judgment Day, Kane defeated Triple H to win the Intercontinental Championship. He would become the third Grand Slam Champion, and the first person to win the Grand Slam championship by winning the WWF, Intercontinental, Tag Team, and Hardcore championships. He later lost the title to Albert on an episode of SmackDown! following interference from Diamond Dallas Page.
During The Invasion, Kane and The Undertaker feuded with Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon after Page began stalking The Undertaker's wife Sara. The feud culminated at SummerSlam, when Kane and The Undertaker defeated Page and Kanyon in a steel cage match, resulting in them holding both the WWF World Tag Team Championship and the WCW World Tag Team Championship. Kane and The Undertaker went on to defeat KroniK at Unforgiven, and both participated in the ten man Winner Takes All match at Survivor Series as members of "Team WWF".
In 2002, Kane began feuding with Kurt Angle, who he lost to at WrestleMania X8. On March 25, the WWF was divided into two brands, Raw and SmackDown!, with Kane being drafted to Raw. Kane went on to feud with the New World Order until tearing his biceps. Kane returned to the renamed WWE as part of the Raw roster in the summer of 2002.
He won the World Tag Team Championship with The Hurricane on the September 23 edition of Raw from Lance Storm and Christian. On October 7, Kane successfully singlehandedly defended the World Tag Team Championship in a four team Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match as The Hurricane had been attacked earlier that evening and was thus unable to compete. They would hold on to the titles until the October 14 edition of Raw, where they lost them to Christian and Chris Jericho. On September 30, Kane won the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Jericho despite interference from Triple H and Ric Flair. Kane began feuding with Triple H, leading to a match at No Mercy on October 20 in which both Kane's Intercontinental Championship and Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship were at stake. Triple H went on to defeat Kane at No Mercy, unifying the two titles.Kane formed a tag team with Rob Van Dam, with the duo eventually winning the World Tag Team Championship. After they lost their World Tag Team Championship to La Résistance at Bad Blood, Triple H offered Kane a spot in his stable Evolution. Raw Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin offered Kane the opportunity to face Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship if he rejected Triple H's offer; however, Co-General Manager Eric Bischoff insisted that Kane unmask should he lose the match. Kane accepted Austin's offer and went to challenge Triple H the following week in Madison Square Garden. Triple H won the match following interference from his stablemates, and on the June 23, 2003 Raw, Kane removed his mask. He then immediately turned heel by chokeslamming Van Dam, who he went on to defeat at SummerSlam. In an interview with Jim Ross at Conseco Fieldhouse, it became apparent that Kane's facial scars were actually mental scars. At the end of this interview, Kane, believing that he was being mocked, attacked Ross and set him on fire. Unmasking rendered Kane emotionally unstable, on one occasion driving him to Tombstone Linda McMahon on the Raw stage. This action sparked a feud between Kane and Linda's son Shane, with Kane defeating Shane in a Last Man Standing match at Unforgiven and an ambulance match at Survivor Series. During the latter event, Kane interfered in a Buried Alive match between Vince McMahon and The Undertaker, helping McMahon bury The Undertaker and win the match. A month later at Armageddon, Kane competed in a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship against Triple H and defending champion Bill Goldberg which Triple H won.
In January 2004, Kane took part in the Royal Rumble match. He was eliminated after hearing the bell toll from the Undertaker's entrance music, distracting and distressing Kane and enabling Booker T to eliminate him from the ring. Over the following weeks, Kane repeatedly insisted that The Undertaker was "dead", only to be met with various paranormal incidents such as a rainstorm localized over the ramp on which he stood. The Undertaker finally returned at WrestleMania XX with Paul Bearer at his side, defeating Kane.
Following his defeat at WrestleMania XX, Kane fell in love with Lita, but was spurned. This led to him kidnapping Lita in May and asking her an unknown question, which she replied to in the affirmative later that month. On the same night, Kane won a twenty man battle royal to receive a World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Chris Benoit at Bad Blood. Lita later announced that she was (kayfabe) pregnant, with Matt Hardy her then-boyfriend both on-screen and off assuming that he was the child's father. On the June 21 episode of Raw, Kane claimed that he was the father. The following week, Kane explained that he had impregnated Lita in order to continue his legacy and justified a vicious attack on Shawn Michaels several weeks earlier by claiming that Michaels had stood in the way of him winning the World Heavyweight Championship. In order to appease Kane, General Manager Eric Bischoff gave Kane a rematch with Benoit, instructing Benoit that he could only win by submission, whereas Kane could win the title by any means. Despite dominating much of the match, Kane again lost to Benoit. Following the match, Lita came to the ring and low-blowed Kane, who initially went to chokeslam her in revenge but stopped when he realized that she was trying to force him to cause her to miscarry their child.
Kane and Matt Hardy faced one another in a "'Till Death Do Us Part" match at SummerSlam, with Lita obliged to wed the victor. Kane defeated Hardy, and "married" Lita on the August 23 episode of Raw. Although he was attacked by Hardy during the ceremony, he gained the upper hand and ultimately chokeslammed Hardy off the stage (in reality, Hardy needed time off because of a knee injury and later a staph infection). On the September 13 episode of Raw, Kane accidentally fell on Lita during a match with the debuting Gene Snitsky, who hit him on the back with a steel chair, ostensibly causing Lita to miscarry.
Kane turned into a face as a result, and began seeking revenge against Snitsky for causing the death of his child. He lost to Snitsky in a steel chain match at Taboo Tuesday, and he was sidelined for several months after Snitsky crushed his larynx with a chair following the match. This attack was a repeat performance of the storyline where Kane "injured" Michaels in the same exact manner. The "injury" gave Kane time to complete his starring role in the film, See No Evil. Kane returned in January 2005, defeating Snitsky at New Year's Revolution. After WrestleMania 21, Kane and Lita reconciled with one another and began antagonizing Lita's rival Trish Stratus. This led to a match between Kane and Stratus' hired bodyguard Viscera at Backlash that was won by Kane.
Lita later turned on Kane, turning Kane face again, and sided with Edge, leading to a feud between the two. Kane was able to defeat Edge at Vengeance, despite interference from Snitsky. The feud ended when Edge defeated Kane in a Stretcher match on the July 25 episode of Raw. Lita's heel turn resulted from her real life affair with Edge and her dumping Matt Hardy, and Hardy's subsequent release for making the affair public. Hardy was later rehired and Kane was dropped from the angle, with Hardy and Edge having a feud. Hardy and Edge secretly were working together during this feud.
Kane returned to WWE television on October 17, 2005, winning an eighteen-man battle royal. As a result of his victory, he, along with Big Show and Shawn Michaels, was featured in an Internet poll to decide who would receive a shot at the WWE Championship at Taboo Tuesday. In the weeks before Taboo Tuesday, Kane and Big Show teamed together on several occasions. The poll was won by Michaels, and Kane and Big Show teamed together to face Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, defeating them for the World Tag Team Championship. The duo successfully retained their titles throughout the remainder of 2005, during which time they engaged in an inter-promotional feud with members of the SmackDown! brand. He and Big Show feuded with Carlito and Chris Masters throughout early 2006, culminating in a successful title defense at WrestleMania 22 on April 2. On the following evening, Kane and the Big Show lost the World Tag Team Championship to Spirit Squad members Kenny and Mikey. One week later, Kane and Big Show faced Spirit Squad members Johnny and Nicky in a title rematch, but were disqualified after Kane "snapped", ostensibly due to "voices in his head". In subsequent weeks, Kane began attacking anyone who mentioned the date May 19. During the match between Kane and Big Show at Backlash, Kane's voice began echoing throughout the arena saying May 19, "They're all going to know", and "You can't hide from it", leaving Kane visibly shaken. Big Show then struck Kane with a chair, resulting in a no contest.
On May 19, Kane appeared on SmackDown! as John "Bradshaw" Layfield's hand-picked opponent for Rey Mysterio. After both the aforementioned voices and mask video began playing, Kane chokeslammed both Layfield and Mysterio before leaving the ring. On the following episode of Raw, he claimed that May 19 was the date on which his mother and adopted family were killed in a fire. The voices continued on to the May 29 episode of Raw, when Kane was confronted by the source of the voice (Drew Hankinson), an imposter Kane; wearing Kane's old mask and ring attire, he chokeslammed Kane during his match against Shelton Benjamin for the Intercontinental Championship. Kane and the look-alike continued to fight one another in subsequent weeks, leading to a match between the two being scheduled for Vengeance, in which the real Kane lost to the impostor. On the June 26 episode of Raw, Kane threw the impostor out of the arena and removed his mask, saying "I believe that this is mine." Kane was absent from WWE television for several weeks thereafter as he toured Europe to promote See No Evil. Upon his return, he faced his former partner Big Show for the ECW Championship in a losing effort. When he returned to Raw, he engaged in a feud with Umaga that concluded on October 9 in a "Loser Leaves Raw" match.
On October 13, Kane moved to the SmackDown! roster for the first time since the 2002 brand extension. On November 3, Kane reunited with The Undertaker as the Brothers of Destruction to defeat Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy. Kane continued a feud with MVP competing in several gimmick matches. The end result of the feud was an Inferno match at Armageddon; Kane won by setting MVP's back on fire which resulted in first degree burns. Kane continued to have matches throughout the year with MVP.
On the SmackDown! before the Royal Rumble, Kane was involved in a six-man elimination over-the-top-rope battle royal. This also included King Booker, MVP, The Miz, Chris Benoit, and Finlay. This match would go to a no contest as The Undertaker interrupted after Kane had been eliminated and punished the remaining opponents. At the Royal Rumble, Kane eliminated King Booker. Booker then came back in the ring and eliminated Kane, even though he had already been eliminated. A couple weeks later on SmackDown!, while receiving the key to the city in his hometown of Houston, Booker was attacked by Kane starting a feud between the two. At No Way Out, Kane successfully defeated King Booker. On February 23, Kane lost to King Booker in a Falls-Count Anywhere Money in the Bank Qualifying match after interference from The Great Khali, sparking a feud between the two.
On February 26, Kane interrupted Chris Masters' Master Lock Challenge to The Great Khali when Masters was unable to apply the Master Lock. Kane delivered a chokeslam and a chair shot to Masters then clotheslined The Great Khali over the top rope. Prior to WrestleMania 23, Kane started to walk around with a hook, similar to the hook he used as Jacob Goodnight in See No Evil. At the event, Kane was defeated by Khali. During the match, in homage to Hulk Hogan slamming André the Giant twenty years earlier at WrestleMania III, Kane picked up Khali for the first time and body-slammed him to the mat. After WrestleMania, he began to feud with William Regal and Dave Taylor. The Boogeyman then joined the feud, teaming up with Kane. On the May 4 edition of SmackDown!, Kane competed in a number one contenders match for the United States Championship against MVP which he lost due to interference by Regal and Taylor. On the May 25 edition of SmackDown!, Kane competed in a Fatal Four Way Number One Contenders match for the World Heavyweight Championship which was won by Batista. Kane then entered a short feud with Mark Henry. Kane was defeated by Henry in a Lumberjack match at One Night Stand due to interference from lumberjacks Kenny Dykstra and Chavo Guerrero and would take a short hiatus thereafter.
On the July 6 edition of SmackDown!, general manager Theodore Long announced that Kane would face Edge for his World Heavyweight Championship at the The Great American Bash. After Edge was injured and the title was vacated, Batista faced Kane in a number one contenders match. During the match, the new World Champion The Great Khali interfered by attacking Batista; the match was ruled a no contest and both men were ruled the number one contender. The scheduled match for the World Heavyweight Championship at the Great American Bash became a Triple Threat match between Batista, Kane, and The Great Khali due to Edge's injury. In the beginning of the match, Kane and Batista teamed up to send Khali though an announcer's table. Kane chokeslamed Khali, but ended up losing the match when Khali retained. Kane later teamed up with Batista on the August 18 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event to defeat Khali and Finlay Kane entered a storyline with Finlay, which led to a match at SummerSlam, which Kane won after chokeslamming Finlay. On the following episode of SmackDown!, Finlay and Kane competed against each other in a tournament to name the challenger for Khali's World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven. After interference from Hornswoggle, Finlay managed to defeat Kane and advance in the tournament. Finlay and Kane met again during the following week's edition of SmackDown! in a rematch of the previous month's Saturday Night's Main Event. Once again teaming with Batista, Kane defeated Finlay and The Great Khali when Kane pinned Finlay with a chokeslam.
He then made an appearance on the October 16 edition of ECW as the hand chosen partner of ECW Champion CM Punk, helping him defeat John Morrison, The Miz, and Big Daddy V in a 3-on-2 handicap match. In retaliation, Big Daddy V attacked Kane on the October 19 SmackDown, igniting a feud between the two. The two continued to battle in following weeks. Kane was voted to face the United States Champion MVP at Cyber Sunday, which Kane won by countout and thus did not win the title. After this, he continued to feud with Big Daddy V, with the two ending up on opposite teams at Survivor Series with Kane's team winning. Big Daddy V eventually began to team with Mark Henry, while Kane teamed with CM Punk. The feud concluded at Armageddon, where Kane and Punk lost Big Daddy V and Henry after Big Daddy V pinned CM Punk.
In a Battle Royal before WrestleMania, Kane won by lastly eliminating former rival Mark Henry which meant he would face ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero later in the night. At WrestleMania XXIV, Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero in a WrestleMania record-setting eight seconds to win the ECW Championship. Shortly after winning the championship, Kane left SmackDown! and officially joined the ECW roster. At Backlash, Kane successfully defended the ECW Championship against Chavo Guerrero. He then continued teaming with CM Punk to earn a WWE Tag Team Championship match at Judgment Day, which the duo did not win.
On June 23, 2008, Kane was drafted from the ECW brand to the Raw brand, as a part of the 2008 WWE Draft, in the process making the ECW Championship exclusive to Raw. By taking the title to Raw, Kane became the first man to hold a specific title on all three brands; He won the ECW Championship as a member of the SmackDown roster, and shortly after winning it he became an official member of ECW, and then took the title with him when he was drafted to Raw. Kane lost the ECW Championship to Mark Henry at Night of Champions in a Triple Threat match that also involved The Big Show, thus moving the title back to ECW.
Kane was not granted a World Heavyweight Championship match at The Great American Bash, and thus retaliated by attacking both the champion CM Punk and the challenger Batista during the event. Kane turned heel for a short time to feud Rey Mysterio until Survivor Series 2008. He became a tweener, targeting both heels and babyfaces. On the March 2 edition of Raw, Kane pinned Mike Knox in a triple threat match, also involving Rey Mysterio, to earn a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV, a match that would be won by CM Punk.
At the 2009 WWE Draft, Kane defeated SmackDown's The Brian Kendrick to earn a draft pick for Raw, and later in the night Kane himself would be drafted back to SmackDown. After this Kane again and continued his feud with CM Punk, who was also drafted to SmackDown, and defeated Punk at Backlash thus ending the feud. After a period of absence to tour India and also heal injuries, he returned at The Bash to aid Dolph Ziggler in his match with The Great Khali by hitting Khali with a steel chair allowing Ziggler to win, starting a feud with Khali, whom he defeated at SummerSlam. He has continued his feud with Khali and beat Khali in a Singapore Cane match at WWE Breaking Point. He soon turned babyface and began a winning streak, by defeating Mike Knox two times, and Eric Escobar.  
Category:WWE