Kane’s mask helped make him one of WWE’s most recognizable monsters, but the man wearing it was ready for something else. Glenn Jacobs says he felt that version of the character had run its course—and taking the mask off changed far more than his appearance.
Speaking during a Big Texas Comicon panel moderated by Emily May, Kane was asked how character changes helped extend his wrestling career. He explained that even a successful act can hit a wall when a performer keeps repeating it.
“If you’re going to be around WWE wrestling for any period of time, you have to learn to reinvent yourself and you can’t be just one-dimensional. Uh, I think that’s where a lot of uh, characters and performers end up failing is just they keep on doing the same stuff over and over again. It’s cool, you know, but you just can’t continue to do that.”
Kane pointed to several major names who evolved during their careers. He included The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and the Hardys as examples of wrestlers who found different ways to keep their characters going.
“So, if you look at everyone from Undertaker to Shawn Michaels, Triple H, you know, everybody, um, Matt and Jeff, everybody goes through these different characters.”
That need for change applied to Kane, too. Reflecting on the mystique of his masked persona, he admitted that he wanted to stretch beyond what he had already been doing.
“I did, you know, the first the first came character with the mystique and the mask and everything and I felt that had kind of run its course. It was cool, but you know, at the end of the day you also get stale as a performer and I just want to do something different. So we took the mask off.”
The unmasking happened after Kane lost to Triple H on the June 23, 2003 episode of RAW at Madison Square Garden. The match’s stipulation forced him to reveal his face, giving WWE a major turning point for the character. Kane explained that the resulting transformation was bigger than he had expected. The monster’s menace took on a different form, while everything fans already knew about him remained part of the story.
“I didn’t realize that would be like that turned into a completely different character, you know, and it went from being like a physical monster to a psychological monster, but then you still had the legacy of the other stuff. Then you put the mask back on. Then you put the mask off again, you know, and it’s just always about giving the audience something new and something fresh.”
That original character had an enormous legacy to live up to. The Undertaker previously explained that the first Hell in a Cell match was built around Kane’s debut, with the supposedly impenetrable structure setting up the moment Kane ripped off its door. Still, Kane wanted room to prove he could do more. He explained that reinvention also keeps the wrestler invested, eventually pointing to Team Hell No as another chance to escape the limits of his original role.
“At the same time what that does for you as a performer is it keeps you fresh, you know, cuz it’s awesome, obviously, to go out in the rain anytime, but it’s there’s a certain point you want to kind of prove to everybody and prove to yourself that you can do different things, you know, and you don’t want to be typecast into for me just the silent brooding character, you know, like the Team Hell No stuff was such a breath of fresh air and I think it proved to everybody that yeah, he’s he’s not just you know, this guy that doesn’t talk and goes out and beats people up. He can be funny, too.”
Kane even handed Daniel Bryan the credit for much of that comedy. For him, the partnership was another example of why changing direction matters.
“Although Daniel Bryan is actually the funny one. I was just laughing at what he did. But nevertheless, you know, it’s the key to long-term success.”
The mask made Kane instantly recognizable, but he wasn’t willing to let it dictate his entire career. Taking it off gave the monster another life—and eventually helped give the performer room to make fans laugh as well as recoil.
How did Kane’s unmasking change the character for you, and which version was his best? Share your thoughts in the comments.
