WWE Smackdown vs Raw (PS2) Hidden Wrestlers (8/9): Masked Kane gameplay

Gameplay of the hidden character/wrestler Masked Kane in Yuke’s/THQ’s WWE Smackdown vs Raw.

It’s funny how, to some wrestlers, a mask is a career death sentence. With Kane on the other hand, the simple truth is that I don’t think he would have ever gotten over without it. Kane (real name Glenn Jacobs) had a decent amount of wrestling experience prior to being Kane, but seemed to always have terrible gimmicks dumped on him. These include the more well known travesties such as Dr Isaac Jankem and Fake Diesel, but also include weirder ones like the Christmas Creature, Doomsday and the Unabomb. Mind you, when you think about it, Santa might be the single most kayfabe act in existence, so the Christmas gimmick does make some sense.

Booking is probably about 70% of wrestling when it comes down to it, with the rest being in-ring skills, gimmicks and charisma. Take, for instance, the fact that Kane faced the Undertaker while in his Unabomb gimmick in Smoky Mountain wrestling (   • Undertaker vs Unabomb (Kane) Smoky Mt Wres...  .) What would later be a cataclysmic event in WWF history was barely a blip on the radar here, a bit like how Hogan and Andre actually feuded in the AWA long before Wrestlemania 3. Without the story and the build-up, wrestling just doesn’t work. And, indeed, it’s why Kane is great. The funny thing is, Kane did wear a mask in previous roles, but these were never hugely over. It was the way in which he was booked, the sheer build-up to him becoming Kane, that made it so damn good. Setting the foundation for a story, slowing developing it, and then giving it a payoff, and going from there. Jacobs always looked pretty goofy in his other roles, but as Kane there was something really foreboding and a bit otherworldly about him. It also worked because Taker just never seemed to have any decent rivalries before Kane, and finally having someone he could properly feud with just made the whole thing that much better, to the point that it’s a bit difficult to think of Kane without thinking of Taker, and vice versa.

Of course, as it to be expected, WWE would later pretty much ruin the mystique of Kane, but I guess that’s not too surprising. From his unmasking, to his bizarre thing with Lita, to them giving him a shitty new mask and teaming him with Daniel Bryan for some reason, they never really managed to recapture what made him great and only seemed to dilute his worth as a result. Sure, Brothers of Destructions as an angle had some moments, but the unmasking of Kane was just a bit of a sharkjumping moment for wrestling (one of many, obviously). Kane was, after all, supposed to be horribly disfigured, so when he removed the mask and looked like goofy ol’ Isaac Yankem, the mystique just died a bit. In storyline, the idea is that he was just psychologically unwell and believed he was disfigured when he actually wasn’t, implying he had some form of BIID I think. Mental health angles and wrestling? Chalk and cheese if I’ve ever heard of it.

Nowadays, Kane is the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, and has been since 2018. Oddly enough, he’s still contracted to WWE (I can only imagine the conflict-of-interest statement he had to fill out for that one), and has done a few sporadic appearances since. He even has his own Youtube channel where he occasionally uploads videos. I said before that I think Kane only ever could get over with a mask, because the simple truth is that he’s just a bit too eloquent to be charismatic in wrestling, if that makes any sense. The way Hogan, Warrior, Savage or Flair gave promos is both mocked and loved to this day; so unique and bizarre and wonderful because it really is an extension of their actual personalities, as any good wrestling gimmick should be. Kane’s real self, on the other hand, can feel a little deflating compared to other wrestlers, who often are pretty similar to how they portray themselves, although maybe in a slightly more scaled back version. Of course, part of that is that in kayfabe you really have to live the gimmick, which is the major difference I suppose. Jacobs always felt like he was playing a character more than a lot of others, and while there’s nothing wrong with having wrestlers who are more proper actor-wrestlers (when done right, anyhow), the amount of dedication it takes to be a wholly different person as opposed to an exaggerated version of yourself is going to wear thin eventually, I think, hence the contrast between Glenn Jacobs the wrestler to Glenn Jacobs the politician is pretty staggering by comparison. Most wrestlers essentially are themselves when comes down to it, whereas Kane by contrast was always playing a character in some way.

Next up, hey, it’s Taker.