Kane Says WWE Wouldn’t Have Survived Without The Undertaker

In an interview with Radio Times, Kane spoke about the Undertaker’s legacy and said the WWE wouldn’t have survived without him. Here are highlights:

On the Undertaker helping WWE survive: “When I came to WWE in 1995, things were terrible, frankly. He was the the guy who was leading the charge into the Attitude Era and [Steve] Austin came along, The Rock came along, Undertaker was still in the mix. We see Austin and The Rock as highs, but the reason the company survived to reach those highs was because of a guy like The Undertaker and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for that.”

On if the Undertaker is the greatest of all time: “That is a hard question because at different times, WWE has changed, and I hate that question, no offence! It’s hard because you have different generations. I think The Undertaker character is the greatest character in WWE history. When you talk about the biggest superstars he’s in the top five, but as far as the actual character goes, by far, it’s him. He was influential on my career from the very start. He was my role model in the ring. I was a huge fan of the character, and also Mark Calaway as a performer and an athlete, he can do stuff a person that size had never done before. We often forget that because the character is so cool, we forget that part of the Undertaker, this guy who is 6ft 8, 6ft 9, 300lbs and could move like a cat and do all this amazingly athletic stuff. People that big just shouldn’t be able to do that. That to me is really what made the Undertaker special. A lot of people could have done the character maybe, not as well as he did, but no-one except him could have brought the athleticism to the character that he did.”

On Undertaker as his mentor: “When I first came to WWE in 1995 I was struggling and he was the guy that took me to the side and said ‘if you want to stay here you better get into gear’ and that really helped me. I think we had a friendly rivalry over the years, he has a tremendous worth ethic and I believe I did too and that pushed both of us further.”