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Profile: Kane
After brief runs as Jerry Lawler's psychotic dentist Isaac Yankem and Jim Ross' substitute Diesel, Glen Jacobs returned to the World Wrestling Federation in October '97 under the mask of his new full-time character, Kane.
Preceded by threats to unveil The Undertaker's vengeful brother thought to have been killed in a childhood fire, Paul Bearer finally unleashed Kane at In Your House: Badd Blood, sending him to the ring during Taker's Hell in a Cell match against Shawn Michaels. Ripping the cell door off its hinges, Kane confronted his on-screen brother and put him down with a Tombstone piledriver, costing him the match. The Undertaker would go on to defeat Kane at WrestleMania XIV, and again at Unforgiven the following month in the first ever inferno match.
In May, it was revealed that Kane and The Undertaker were only half-brothers, as Paul Bearer was Kane's father. According to the story, Kane survived the fire started by The Undertaker, and was hidden away by Bearer, plotting his revenge. Like his half-brother, the Kane character has some degree of supernatural powers, able to summon fire at will, and occasionally vanish without trace.
Kane defeated Steve Austin for the WWF Title in a First Blood match at King of the Ring that June, but lost the championship back to Austin the following night on Raw. Over the course of the year, Kane and The Undertaker would tease an alliance in their joint feud with Austin.
In 1999, Kane joined Vince McMahon's Corporation but was betrayed and thrown out of the heel faction by Chyna, turning him babyface for the first time. He began teaming with X-Pac, with whom he won the WWF (WWE World) Tag Team Titles, and began learning to speak using an electrolarynx - his first words on television were X-Pac's old D-Generation X catchphrase, "suck it." He also began dating Tori, but ultimately both Tori and X-Pac would turn on Kane to join a heel reformation of DX.
2001 saw Kane and The Undertaker join forces as babyfaces, representing the WWF against the WCW/ECW Alliance, enjoying overlapping reigns as WWF and WCW World Tag Team Champions. In October 2002, he would again win the WWE World Tag Team Titles with The Hurricane, and successfully defended the gold single-handedly in a four-way TLC match on Raw.
During the same period, he began a feud with World Heavyweight Champion Triple H. The Raw brand's top heel tried to humiliate Kane with an accusation of necrophilia with Kane's childhood friend Katie Vick, which Kane denied. The hugely unpopular angle led to a unification match at No Mercy, pitting Kane's second Intercontinental Championship against Triple H's World Heavyweight Title. Triple H was victorious, and went on to defeat Kane again in June 2003, forcing him to finally unmask as per the stipulation.
After removing his mask, along with the attached hairpiece, Kane reverted to a psychotic heel, paranoid about his psychical appearance despite a lack of visible scarring. He savagely attacked former tag team partner Rob Van Dam, and set Jim Ross (actually a stunt double) on fire during a prerecorded interview.
The unhinged Kane interfered in The Undertaker's Buried Alive match against Vince McMahon at Survivor Series 2003, burying his half-brother and proclaiming him finally dead. However, special effects would begin to haunt Kane during subsequent shows, and messages would eventually emerge from The Undertaker, setting up a match between the two at WrestleMania XX. At the pay-per-view, Taker repeated his 1998 victory.
Kane went on to form an obsession with Lita, taking out his aggression on her boyfriend Matt Hardy and coaxing her into spending a night with him to protect Matt from further harm. It would emerge that Lita got pregnant with Kane's child, and was forced to marry Kane when he defeated Hardy in a "Till Death Do Us Part" match. When Matt tried to interrupt the wedding, Kane chokeslammed him off the stage, putting him out of action. Gradually, Kane and Lita would become a loving couple, happy together until Gene Snitsky attacked Kane and knocked him on top of his wife, causing a miscarriage that led to a feud between both men.
When Matt Hardy made public on the Internet that his real-life girlfriend Lita had been having an affair with Edge, storylines were changed to have Lita dump Kane for her fellow outcast. After being fired for his public comments, Hardy would eventually return and break kayfabe by acknowledging Kane and Lita's marriage as nothing but an angle.
His character's credibility left reeling by Hardy's shoot, Kane moved onto a long WWE World Tag Team Title reign with The Big Show, when the two were given a shot at champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch after failing to win the public vote for a WWE Title shot at Taboo Tuesday. The physically dominating team would eventually lose the gold to The Spirit Squad the night after WrestleMania 22 when overcome by outside interference.
To promote the launch of his new movie, See No Evil, Kane became haunted by the date May 19th, in which viewers apparently heard voices in his head tormenting him. All references to the date triggered a violent outburst by Kane, until finally the source of the torment was revealed - an imposter dressed in his old ring attire, complete with long hair and mask. The lookalike attacked the real Kane, beating him down with ease on multiple occasions, and defeating him in a match at Vengeance. The next night on Raw however, the angle was abruptly terminated when Kane threw the imposter out of the arena and retrieved the mask, which nonetheless was never seen again.
After losing to Umaga in October, Kane was forced to leave the Raw brand, and resurfaced on SmackDown where he teamed with The Undertaker in a feud against Mr Kennedy and Montel Vontavious Porter. Kane's involvement in the feud culminated at Armageddon, where he defeated MVP in his personal specialty - an inferno match.
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