Kane Explains Why WWE’s Corporate Kane Character Didn’t Work As Planned

Glenn Jacobs has portrayed many versions of Kane during his decades-long WWE career, but one particular era of the Big Red Machine didn’t turn out the way it was originally intended.

During a recent Going Ringside panel discussion, Jacobs opened up about the “Corporate Kane” character and revealed that while the concept had strong potential, the execution ultimately missed the mark.

When asked whether there was a version of Kane he wasn’t particularly excited about, Jacobs pointed to the Corporate Kane era from the Authority storyline. He explained that the idea itself had promise, but the direction quickly changed once it was implemented on television.

“Oh, um, yeah. You know, so the Corporate Kane character was another one. It was a really good idea, but the execution wasn’t that great.”

Jacobs said the biggest issue was that the original concept was much different from what fans ultimately saw on WWE programming. The plan was for the clean-cut corporate executive version of Kane to exist separately from the monstrous masked character fans knew.

“And again, the reason was because everything moves so fast and sometimes we just forget the idea. The idea of Corporate Kane was Corporate Kane as Corporate Kane — I don’t even know why we called it Corporate Kane. I didn’t even like that.”

According to Jacobs, the suit-wearing authority figure was never supposed to wrestle at all. Instead, he was meant to serve as a spokesperson or corporate representative. The idea was that whenever the Authority needed someone to carry out their orders physically, the monster version of Kane would reappear by putting the mask back on.

“Corporate Kane was never supposed to wrestle. He was just the mouthpiece. And then when the Authority needed an enforcer, that’s when Kane put on the mask.”

Jacobs said the concept was designed to function almost like two separate personalities, similar to how some legendary wrestling characters have been portrayed over the years. He even compared the intended dynamic to the way The Great Muta and Keiji Muto were treated as distinct characters in wrestling.

“But they were never supposed to touch the guy in the suit. That whole thing got completely lost. It was almost like The Great Muta where you have two characters. Kane in the suit would never talk about the other Kane wearing the mask."

Jacobs also revealed that the idea originally came from Triple H, whom he praised for having an excellent wrestling mind when it comes to character development and storytelling. Instead of the split personality concept playing out the way it was intended, Jacobs joked that the character eventually drifted into something far simpler.

“That was actually Triple H’s idea, who has an unbelievable wrestling mind. But we talked about doing that and that was his thought. Like I said, it just kind of got lost in the mix unfortunately.”

“And then I just ended up getting beat up by everybody.”

While Corporate Kane remains a memorable part of the character’s history, Jacobs made it clear that the version fans saw on television wasn’t the original vision behind the storyline.

What do you think about Kane revealing the original plan for the Corporate Kane character? Do you think the split personality idea would have worked better if WWE had stuck with the original concept? Let us know your thoughts and share your feedback in the comments.

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