Man or monster? Now that Kane has taken off his trademark mask, we probe behind the brute's facade—and the results aren't pretty

Wrestling Digest, Dec, 2003 by Steve Anderson

THERE ARE FEW ABSOLUTES IN wrestling, if any. But one tried and true rule that a fan can always count on is that a masked man will never remain masked.

In a previous era, it was driven by the story line. The mystique of the mask could propel a wrestler to main-event feuds. The hood was more important than a championship belt and was often put up for grabs in matches. It added intrigue and excitement.

When Kane debuted for WWE, he was said to be the physically and emotionally scarred brother of the Undertaker. The mask hid his visage. However, many felt that Kane was a one-hit wonder who was only meant to feud with the Undertaker. And even if he stayed beyond that feud, his stalking, non-speaking character seemed extremely limited.

Prior to becoming Kane, Glen Jacobs portrayed a knight, a dentist, and even a departed WWE champion. Kane, though, became the gimmick that would make Jacobs a superstar and eventual WWE champion.

Jacobs made his WWE debut on October 19, 1993, under the mask of the Black Knight at a television taping. In the midst of the Jerry Lawler-Bret Hart feud, Jacobs was enlisted to team with Lawler at Survivor Series. Shawn Michaels was a last-minute replacement for Lawler at the late-November pay-per-view, but regardless, Jacobs had realized a goal of appearing on his first WWE pay-per-view.

Jacobs returned to WWE, alongside Lawler yet again in the summer of 1995. The mask of the Black Knight was gone, replaced by the damaged teeth of Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS. Again, Jacobs was a charge of Lawler in his ongoing feud with Hart. Jacobs wrestled Hart in a semi-main event at that year's Summerslam, losing on Lawler's interference, and was soon gone from the promotion.

Less than one year later, Jacobs was back again. This time, the gimmick would be very familiar to WWE fans. He essentially was cast into the role of Diesel, playing Dick Sargent to Kevin Nash's Dick York. In an angle that featured a bitter and heel-like Jim Ross, Jacobs was made up to look like the former WWE champion. Alongside a faux Razor Ramon, the refashioned duo tried their best to gain heat and even received a shot at the WWE world tag-team championship against Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith on December 15, 1996.

The experiment of "Diesel: The Sequel," however, did not live up to the billing of the original. Jacobs left WWE and went to the USWA and won their championship on July 13, 1997.

Meanwhile in WWE, Paul Bearer was in the midst of his feud with the Undertaker, claiming that his former charge was a murderer. For weeks, Bearer lobbed accusation after accusation about the "Phenom" killing his own family. Finally, Bearer fessed up and said that while the 'Taker killed his father and mother, his brother sill lived. A brother named Kane.

In true dramatic--if not soap-operatic--fashion, Jacobs made his debut as the masked Kane, interfering in his brother's Hell in a Cell match at the In Your House pay-per-view in St. Louis against Shawn Michaels and costing the Undertaker the match. On that October night in 1997, a torrid, main event-style feud was born as was a long-term run in the same gimmick, albeit with a bit of tweaking here and there.

While Kane was on the losing end of his feud with the Undertaker, he proved his abilities in the ring and his capability for generating heat with the fans.

Meanwhile, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin became WWE champion at Wrestlemania XVI and was feuding with his boss, Vince McMahon. A wrestler once thought of as a one-trick pony with limited potential beyond his inaugural feud, Kane ended Austin's first title reign on June 28, 1998, in Pittsburgh. While the reign would last only one day-Kane lost the title to Austin the next night in Cleveland-it was a solid indication that Kane was around to stay.

Over the next few years, Kane's character would begin to change. Not only was he turning babyface, he was becoming more human. He spoke more and became more animated and flashy, courtesy of his tag-team championship partner, X-Pac.

From there, he became downright funny and relied less on his "voicebox" prop and more on his own voice. The outfits changed and the mask showed more of his supposedly scarred face. The misunderstood Kane suddenly became both relatable to fans and marketable to WWE.

Kane made a triumphant return on August 26, 2002, following a lengthy recovery firm injury. It was a subject of significant WWE hype. His look was different and he was immediately thrust into the main event against WWE "Raw" champion Triple H. Their feud added an additional element when he upended Chris Jericho for the WWE intercontinental championship on September 30, 2002, a belt he would lose a month later to Triple H in a unification match.

While WWE had periodically teased an unmasking of Kane, the federation never followed through. On June 23, 2003, WWE finally put its marketing money where its mouth was and put Kane in a match against Triple H, title for the mask. Would it be the start of another Kane title run or would we see the burns and scars the mask had been hiding all these years?