Kane Discusses His First World Title Win at King of the Ring 1998 and Losing the Title the Next Night to Stone Cold Steve Austin

– As previously reported, WWE Superstar Kane recently appeared on Jim Ross’ podcast, The Ross Report. Below are some additional highlights from the show (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Kane on his first WWE world title win at King of the Ring 1998: “Actually, winning my first world championship in the First Blood match at King Of The Ring, of course, that was overshadowed by the Hell In A Cell match between Taker and Mick [Foley], but that was my first world championship and it was against Austin. And the thing is, when people ask me the highlight of my [pro wrestling] career, despite the fact that it was so early, that was it because Austin was well on his trajectory to be one of the three biggest stars of all time. To me it’s Austin, [Hulk] Hogan, and The Rock. And he was taking off and I was right there. The thing about Austin was you didn’t have to do anything because Steve was so over. He was so popular it didn’t matter. Everyone was just waiting for The Stunner, and then for Steve to jump up on the ring post and turnbuckle, and drink some beer. And that was it. It made it so easy that it was just tremendous.”

Kane on dropping the title the next night: “I lost [the title] the next night in Cleveland and I will never forget the atmosphere at what was then the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. You want to talk about electric, the excitement was tangible. I’d never been in front of a crowd like that. So as exciting as it was to win the world championship, it was even more exciting to lose it the next day because you realize you’re in the middle or a part of something so special and so amazing, which is what that was. And that segment, up until that time, was the highest rated segment on RAW ever and from there, the show just went straight up, and, of course, Austin went straight up too.”

Kane’s thoughts on Stone Cold Steve Austin: “[Austin] was the guy who could say whatever he wanted and get away with it, do whatever he wanted and get away with it. Most of us have mouths that write checks that our body can’t cash. Well, he cashed all his checks and I think that was the thing that appealed to everyone. The dude talked trash and backed it up and backed it up against everybody! And then, in the end, he was just a guy. He was a common dude. In a way, he was almost like the Dusty Rhodes of his time. He’s quite a bit different, but nevertheless, he was a common guy and backed up everything he said. And, yeah, told his boss to shove it, which is, in the end, what a lot of folks would like to do.” Kane continued, “frankly, I mean, you can credit ‘The Attitude Era’ to whoever, but if there hadn’t been a ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, it never would have been like that. He was the most integral part of that whole era.”