Behind The Scenes of Kane's Shocking WWE Debut in 1997

Today’s Pardon My Take features one of the biggest guests (physically) to ever appear on the show. WWE Superstar Kane and Glenn Jacobs, Mayor of Knox County, TN, hopped on the mic with Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter to talk his wrestling career, burning the Undertaker, working with Vince McMahon, and the choke slam. A part that I found quite interesting was Kane opening up about the time leading up to his WWE debut (which is linked below):

Mr. Cat: Your story line, for my money, is the best story line in WWE history. The fact that they teased it for so long, Paul Bearer saying “I’m going to reveal The Undertaker’s darkest secret,” and it’s you, his half-brother. The build up to that, because they put you on ice for a while, right? What does that look like, when you’re watching RAW, or you’re watching a PPV knowing that this story line, you’re eventually going to be revealed, but you have to sit there and wait?

Kane: Yeah, it was very nerve-wrecking. I agree with you, it was the best story line WWE has ever done, not because of what I did, but because they did such a great job telling the story. For months before Kane ever debuts, you have Paul Bearer talking about it, all this back story, all this stuff is building up, and there are a couple of characters I won’t mention that weren’t overly successful. So, there was some pressure, man. A lot of it, even my debut, was really “don’t mess this up.”

Mr. Cat: When you ripped the door off?

Kane: I wasn’t worried about that, it was more of the Tombstone, to make sure that looked good and everything. But it was pretty nerve-wrecking because of how much emphasis was put on Undertaker as a huge star, and I was thrown right into the mix with him of course. It was a little nerve-wrecking.

Mr. Cat: And it worked so perfectly, too, because you guys were such similar sizes. You see it and you’re like oh my god, they actually are brothers. My 12-year-old brain was like, “They actually are brothers.” He thought he died in a fire, but he’s not, he’s back.

Kane: Yeah, the story was magnificent.

Mr. Commenter: It was also pretty helpful that you guys got to share the same moves, too. You knew the moves that were already going to work and be fan-favorites.

Kane: Of course, that was part of it, too. In some ways Kane was either mocking or paying tribute to The Undertaker by doing the same stuff he did, and we designed all that on purpose.

I only caught the back part of Kane’s wrestling career (most of it when he was unmasked), so it was cool to see the X’s and O’s of how his story line got started. When that giant scorch of fire lit up in all for corners of the ring out of nowhere, it simultaneously scared the shit out of me while also got me hyped up to see The Big Red Machine enter the ring.