Kane has revealed that his legendary WWE character almost looked very different before a conversation with Vince McMahon changed everything.
Speaking on WWE Photo Shoot for WWE Vault, the WWE Hall of Famer recalled seeing the original concept art for Kane and initially envisioning a much different presentation.
“When I first saw it I was like, man, you know, I thought something kind of like Jason Voorhees or something like that. This was opposite of that. I remember I called Vince and we talked about it. Vince is very good about taking input, and he realizes that things that we do are collaborative.”
McMahon then explained the psychological approach behind Kane’s appearance, something that immediately resonated with the future Hall of Famer.
“What he explained to me was that, yeah, we could do that with Kane, or we could go deeper into his psyche. We would discover that this over-the-top cool look is compensating for what he feels. He’s scarred in the fire and disfigured and all those sort of things, so he compensates for it by essentially donning a superhero outfit. It was brilliant. In the end, it worked.”
Kane also reflected on his memorable WWE debut at Bad Blood 1997, crediting the months-long storyline involving Paul Bearer and The Undertaker for making the moment so impactful.
“Some people say it’s the best debut in the history of WWE. I tend to agree with them—not because of anything that I did, but because the table had been set. Paul Bearer had been talking about Kane for months. You have a character that the people already know, but they hadn’t seen him up until this point. So, of course, when I debuted at Bad Blood, everybody knew who it was.”
He also revealed that one of his signature taunts was specifically designed to contrast his storyline brother, The Undertaker. “The pyro cue that I use where I raise my arms and throw them back down, that was his idea because it was the opposite of what Undertaker would do. He would raise his hands and bring the arena lights up. I was the opposite of him, so I’d throw my hands down.”
