411’s WWE Untold: That’s Gotta Be Kane! Report

411’s WWE Untold: That’s Gotta Be Kane! Report

-Just a quick note before getting to the newest episode in this series. My SF 49ers are 3-0 and defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers today. I am born and raised in Western PA and all my family and friends are Steeler fans, so this is especially sweet. Now with that out of the way, we continue on with the newest episode of the WWE Untold Series. Last time was all about Team Hell No and this time we focus on just Kane. Specifically, this episode deals with his debut in Oct of 1997 at In Your House: Badd Blood. And here we go!

-Run Time: 35:11 (though much longer with all the buffering issues I had tonight)

-Things start with a quick video of the Hell in a Cell being built and then Vince screaming “That’s gotta be Kane.” Our talking heads this time around are Kane, Shawn Michaels, Bruce Prichard, and The Undertaker (who in the introduction says “Back then if Shawn Michaels was on fire, I probably wouldn’t have pissed on him to put him out” and then laughs).

-Kane starts from the beginning as he grew up in a small town outside St Louis, Missouri. He was a very good football player and had NFL dreams, but injuries crushed those. His dream was always to be a professional athlete and he was able to achieve it through the WWE and the Kane character. He talks about the feeling of being able to emotionally touch a crowd being the greatest gift anyone could have. He always thought being a pro athlete was just a dream and it would never come true for him.

-We get some sweet pre-production footage of a sit down interview Shawn had with JR in 1997. The interview is Shawn talking about being a rebel basically and that the world is full of people like him. Taker joins us by phone and that is where he laughs about the relationship with Shawn back then and drops the “if he was on fire, I wouldn’t have pissed on him” line. He says there relationship is so much better today, but even back then he always wanted to be in a match with Shawn Michaels because when it came bell time it was going to be special.

-Taker continues to put over Shawn and says that he was way ahead of his time. He will take the things Shawn was doing in 1997 and you can plug that into what people are doing today and he wouldn’t miss a beat. He talks about the way Shawn could tell a story and how his psychology made him special. While Taker is talking we get highlights of their Ground Zero match that happened a month before the Cell Match.

-Taker talks about his run when he first came in as he was this scary monster that terrified everyone. He remembers making his entrance for the first time and seeing kids crying.

-Shawn talks about the time before their feud in 1997 started. Ideas of a feud were pitched, but Vince was adamant that the two wouldn’t be in a match together. Bruce Prichard pops up to add his comments and then back to Shawn who talks about how they were two guys left that never worked against each other, so they decided to throw the idea out there again. They were given the okay to have 1 PPV match and that was the previously mentioned one at Ground Zero. That match was fantastic and they decided to continue the feud.

-The story was that Shawn with DX involved had enough to handle Taker, but not on his own. So that meant they needed a way to keep DX out and thus Hell in a Cell is born. The fans were begging to see Shawn to get destroyed by a pissed off Taker inside the Cell.

-We flashback to 1995 where Jerry Lawler promises to bring his personal dentist to the WWE. Sweet! They aren’t just going to jettison Glen’s past. He talks about his run as Isaac and fake Diesel and bluntly states that the gimmicks stunk and he thought his career was going to be a short one. Taker mentions that Glen was a really nice guy that happened to look scary, but was genuinely a nice human being. Now that’s great, but in this business you have to be able to stand up for yourself and have a little bit of asshole in you. By the time Kane came along, Taker believes that Glenn knew that was likely his last chance.

-Prichard talks about the creative process and they throw out wild ideas. He got on a roll throwing out wild ideas and suggested that The Undertaker had an unknown brother named Kane. Years later the brother had grown up with a resentment of his older brother. Kane says originally they wanted to name the name Inferno for the character, but Prichard liked the name Kane. Prichard actually has a son named Kane and they even touch on that The Undertaker character was also originally named Kane.

-Kane says his idea was that Kane would be like Michael Myers and thought he would be wearing overalls. When he saw the initial drawings he thought the character looked too much like a superhero. Vince told him that Kane was scarred and is overcompensating and he wanted everything about Kane to be cool. Kane says when the story started with Paul Bearer it blew him away because they were building the story and it was going to happen for him. Taker loved the story and was happy for Kane to finally get the opportunity.

-The story turned to Taker/Shawn though and Kane was kind of pushed to the back burner. Shawn talks about his interviews back then and how he kind of would just do whatever he wanted. He talks about joking around backstage with gauze stuffed down his pants and someone said he didn’t have the balls to do it on TV. So Shawn did it and that’s the famous interview where he kept jumping up to shove his crotch in JR’s face before ending that if he was going out, he was taking everyone with him and going out in a blaze of glory. Taker interrupts on the Tron and hypes the match. Shawn thinks they are off camera and says that if Taker was tough he would come out and face him now. Obviously Taker doesn’t come out and Shawn gets heat for trying to bury Taker. Prichard was heated and didn’t say a word to Shawn about it. Instead Vince called Shawn and fined him $10000. While Vince fined him, he also liked Shawn’s attitude.

-Taker talks about Shawn’s knack for adding an extra spark to things. There were a lot of things that Shawn did that he didn’t agree with, but when the bell rang he knew everything was going to be paid off. Shawn says it was an eventful time just getting to Hell in a Cell.

-Shawn mentioned to people the now infamous Last Battle of Atlanta cage match (shown in highlight form here, which is still crazy) and he wanted a cage like that. He didn’t want just a standard cage match and Vince told him they would play with the idea. They of course went all out with the idea and delivered a massive roofed cage that surrounded part of the ringside area. To be fair WCW had their cage that covered part of the ringside area as well.

-Kane says the Hell in a Cell concept was actually built for Kane with the idea being that nobody could even think of trying to get inside of the structure.

-Taker calls the whole deal ominous, but it was also cool to know that they were trusted to be in that spot. Shawn was blown away when he saw it and his first thought was that he needed to get on top of it. Everyone told him he can’t as it would defeat the purpose of it. Shawn didn’t care as he was going to get on top of the Cell as he knew there was only one first of something.

-Kane talks about the show being in St Louis which is his hometown. He visited his parents who live 90 minutes outside of St Louis. A friend offered to give him a ride to the arena. His friend pulled up in a beat down car that catches fire during the drive to the arena. The power cuts out and they are just rolling down the road. His friend calls a friend who is on the way to the show and they still make it to the arena on time, but Kane was having visions of missing the show or at least being late.

-Match time as Kane puts over that the match was so big that it could have been the main event of WrestleMania. Shawn says his job was easy as all he had to do was get beat up and it’s fun to find ways to take an ass kicking. Shawn was just insane in this match as it was like a horror movie straight out of the 80s with Taker methodically stalking him. Taker laughs about the ass kicking that Shawn took and how the Cell gave him something extra to use to abuse Shawn.

-We get to the point where Shawn attacks the camera man and Taker calls Shawn one of the best ever to come up with ways to build a match. The camera man spot gave them a brilliant want to get out of the Cell without making it look cheap or take away from what was going to happen later with Kane. Shawn talks about his ability to bleed a lot as the footage turns to black and white anytime Shawn’s face is shown.

-They head to the top of the Cell and Taker talks about the amazing camera spot where the camera shoots up at them on the roof and Shawn’s blood drips down onto the lens causing the cameraman to say “aw, shit.” Shawn knew he had to go through a table and when he got in place he just wanted to make sure he could make it to the table. He jokes that it may come as a shock to people, but he isn’t a thinker. Most of what does is instinctual, so he doesn’t practice or try things.

-Taker kills Shawn with a chair shot as payback for SummerSlam and then the lights hit and “that’s gotta be Kane.” Kane says he was nervous at the curtain as this was his big break and also he was interrupting a Shawn/Taker match. Shawn talks about how big Taker was, but Kane was gigantic. Prichard says that Glenn is a strong man and that was a heavy door that he made look weightless.

-Shawn talks about all the amazing things they did in the match and they needed something special to top it off. He says that Kane’s presence is what carried that ending. Prichard talks about the great reaction from Taker when he stares at Kane. That reaction is what made it special for him.

-Taker talks about all the back story and how he had to sell all of it without saying a word. He admits to not being a trained actor, but his thought process was to live the story in his head. People had never seen Taker in a human sense and this was a glimpse at something deeper.

-Kane drops him with the Tombstone (a rough looking one that thankfully got better) and Shawn drags himself out of a pool of his blood to get the win. He remembers hearing the gasp in the building and he knew they hit it out of the park. Taker says it is one of the greatest feeling as they knew they had done something special. He says there aren’t a lot of people that could do what they did that night. Kane admits he is biased, but it is the greatest debut in history.

-Prichard says Shawn from the 90s to today are two different people. He calls Shawn the best and nobody can take that away from him. Shawn looks back on all those things and he wouldn’t change any of them. Kane says that everything he accomplished in his career is thanks to that night at Badd Blood and thanks Taker for taking a chance on him. Taker puts over Glenn as a legend, but puts over the human being more than anything.

-Kane tells a story about running into a woman at a concert in Knoxville and she showed him a picture of him with her son. Kane starts to break down, which is crazy to see, as it was a picture in Children’s Hospital and it was the last picture she got of her son. She wanted to thank him and Kane says that is what is most important about his career. He doesn’t know why he was given the status he has, but he doesn’t take it for granted and he values it very much. I wasn’t expecting a story like that to end this show, but it was fantastic.

-This series continues to deliver and this was probably the best episode of the bunch. It’s certainly my favorite one and it is great to get Taker out of character for these to offer his comments. Everyone involved was fantastic and they had just enough people talking as getting too many would have taken away from the three main principles involved. Kane’s debut was the main point, but just getting an entire piece of that first Cell match was tremendous. Huge thumbs up here and spend the 35 minutes (or longer if you get the buffering issues I had) to watch it.

-As always, thanks for reading.