YMMV / Kane

• Accidental Innuendo: Announcers often refer to Kane as a 'one-eyed monster'.
  • Hilariously lampshaded by Edge during a feud (see Aborted Arc.)
• Badass Decay: Some will point to the Katie Vick angle as an example of this - and it certainly counts - but most will point to a single moment: when Kane lost his mask. Many fans feel he's never recovered from this. Ironically, the unmasking was initially Kane taking a few levels in badass; after several years of being comedy fodder, the unmasking led to Kane becoming genuinely terrifying again (doing things such as setting Jim Ross on fire and electrocuting Shane McMahon's testicles). It was only after the novelty wore off and the storyline with Lita and Matt Hardy that Kane lost his relevance and became a glorified jobber-to-the-stars.
• Base-Breaking Character: The "Corporate Kane" gimmick is one of the most infamously divisive decisions made with Kane, a wrestler who's already been on the receiving end on a plethora of controversial decisions. Many fans passionately despise the gimmick for abandoning the "demonic monster" identity that made Kane so appealing to begin with, cementing his downfall from a terrifying beast to just a dude in a suit with nothing to be afraid of. Despite this, he also has a share of fans who respect the creative risk to make him a different kind of "monster", with many highlighting how it allowed Glenn Jacobs an opportunity to flex his largely-downplayed performance abilities, with a common argument that his dedication to the unusual gimmick made it work.
• Character Rerailment: From Katie Vick to his post-unmasked era throughout most of the 2000s, many felt Kane had undergone a lot of Badass Decay and his character had suffered tremendously. In 2010, all of that changed when Kane won the World Heavyweight Championship, defeated Undertaker cleanly at Night of Champions, won their overall feud, and finally had a lengthy world title reign for a few months, bringing back some of the old, menacing Kane that people loved.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: "Slow Chemical" by Finger Eleven, Kane's entrance theme for years after he'd gotten unmasked (and for a while prior to the unmasking).
  • His first theme went well with how his character debuted, and his second theme sounded a bit like his first theme without the guitar riff. Both are awesome.
  • His latest theme since remasking is an awesome mix of the two which actually fits his persona.
• Designated Hero: Kane often turns face by default only because the person he's feuding with just happens to be an even bigger heel. Certainly the most prominent (and questionable) example is his feud with Edge over Lita, in which his characterization would be summarized as "Vengeful, jilted rapist." And he was the hero...if real life didn't write the plot, WWE even coming up with this would've backfired unless the intention was to double-turn Edge and Kane rather than make Lita heel. Lita turned into something of a Designated Villain for walking out on her abusive rapist husband.
• Designated Villain: Turned heel on the Undertaker right before SummerSlam 2000, since UT's original intended opponent, The Big Show, had been shipped off to WWE's then-developmental league Ohio Valley Wrestling in hopes that he could lose some weight. While the turn was a surprise as far as Kane's character direction at the time, if you need someone to go heel on UT at a moment's notice...
• Fan Nickname: "Libertarian Glenn" for his Fall 2013 comeback as the sharp dressed Director of Operations of The Authority. In the same vein as Real Estate Steve.
• First Installment Wins: Kane as Taker's insane, evil younger brother who supposedly died when the family funeral home burned down when they were kids but somehow survived and came back for revenge, with other acts of mayhem and destruction along the way? Great. Kane after a bazillion nonsensical Retcons, jobs to Shane McMahon, losing the mask, talking like a normal person, and other WrestleCrap? Not so much.
• Fridge Brilliance/Visual Pun: He does look an awful lot like Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, particularly Charles Foster Kane in his later, "Rosebud" years. His political blog, "The Adventures of Citizen X", takes it even further; if you take the X as a variable, it becomes "The Adventures of Citizen Kane".
  • Then there was this line from the Hurricane (w/Mighty Molly) before his match with Kane on the October 11, 2001 SmackDown!.
  THE HURRICANE: "Citizen Kane! I think you're making a mistake with your life. Think about it: you've got a cool costume, you got a cool mask, you're seven feet tall, and you don't fight crime - WASSUPWITDAT? I think you would be a great addition to the Hurrileague, and together with the Hurricane and Mighty Molly...we would be the superest super team that ever lived? Whaddaya say - Hurritwin powers - activate!"
  • Also, it's an inversion of the Biblical story, where Cain kiled his brother Abel.
  • When you consider the caliber of people The Authority has to deal with in their own circle - an increasingly unbalanced and paranoid Randy Orton, two general managers in Brad Maddox and Vickie Guerrero who aren't quite Starscreams, but have exhibited the tendency to make power grabs when the opportunity presents itself, and the dangerous Shield, who include possibly one of the most Ax-Crazy guys on the roster in Dean Ambrose, are liable to go rogue at any moment, and could potentially be a huge thorn in The Authority's side if the two ever end up at odds^note This may have happened at the 3/17/14 RAW... time will tell, Kane essentially being the McMahons' second-in-command as opposed to another monstrous goon suddenly makes a lot of sense.
  • And about Kane's natural animosity with the Shield as it relates to their time together in the Authority... when you think about the fact that it was the Shield's constant harassment of Team Hell No that really started to bring out the ferocity in Daniel Bryan that helped propel him to the main event, it stands to reason that deep down, Kane would have thought that the Shield were (at least indirectly) to blame for the entire Daniel Bryan situation. Add that to the fact that a large portion of the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|s the group was handing out had Kane as a primary victim, and it really shouldn't be much surprise that Kane doesn't like them.
  • Why does Kane hate Pete Rose so much? Pete Rose was part of the Cincinnati Reds at a time when the baseball team was referred to as "The Big Red Machine". The Big Red Machine is a Red Baron of Kane.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In re the Hurricane item above: On the September 23, 2002 Raw, Kane and the Hurricane teamed up to defeat the Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) for the WWE World Tag Team Titles.
  • His assault on Linda McMahon. Glenn Jacobs would later become the Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, while Linda McMahon became Administrator of the Small Business Administration, meaning that at one point WWE offered a Mayor's assault on a U.S. Cabinet Member.
• Jerkass Woobie: Strictly kayfabe speaking, as monstrous as Kane can be, many can't help but feel sorry for him due to his backstory and the numerous times that he has been betrayed by friends (i.e. X-Pac) or others whom he thought he could trust.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In this 1998 promo Kane sets a (presumably kayfabe) TV camera man on fire while demonstrating his powers.
  • Say what you will about his new "corporate" appearance, but as shown in this interview, Kane can be just as terrifying in a suit and tie as he is in a mask.
• The Scrappy: Good lord, his 2015 team-up with The Big Show is even more hated by fans than John Cena (keep in mind Big Show's been a Scrappy for years now, but the fans just recently turned on Kane.)
• Shout-Out: Kane's costume seems to run the gamut of American popular culture, evoking various "dark" or Gothic" things. The red-and-black mask he wore (and never took off) between 1997 and 2003 looked eerily familiar to the bondage mask that was the unofficial logo of metal band Quiet Riot during the 1980s, while the iron mask he wore during his entrances during his 2011-2012 heel run had a vibe of either Darth Vader or Jason Voorhees, depending on which color you imagined it to be. Meanwhile, the black tights with red stitches across them that have been part of his costume for the majority of his career look remarkably similar to those donned by Michelle Pfeiffer for her role as Catwoman in Batman Returns; others might be reminded of Edward Scissorhands, or Brandon Lee in The Crow (1994).
• Special Effects Failure: This has happened to Kane a number of times over the years; sometimes it's been a part of an angle, sometimes it's been a legit malfunction. His unmasking is probably the most notable one, as the supposed 'burns' on his face ended up looking like smeared makeup (which it was). It had to be distorted in later promos to make it look scarier.
  • This malfunction, in which Kane's pyro doesn't go off, doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny. This one is even funnier because they eventually DID go off.
  • This inevitably happens in the Inferno matches. When someone finally gets lit aflame, it never looks convincing. May be a big reason why WWE never really uses the match type. On the other hand, the matches themselves tend to be pretty cool, if only for the fact that it's hard to beat the visual effect of two men beating the shit out of each other while surrounded by a ring of fire.
  • The electrolarynx, if it was even a real electrolarynx to begin with. Sometimes it sounded convincing, but other times, like here for instance, you can clearly hear Glenn Jacobs' real voice through it. Glenn himself stated that it was too difficult to speak with it convincingly and is glad they got rid of it.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • How people felt about Kane after his unmasking.
  • He was suffering from severe Badass Decay even prior to his unmasking. One needs only refer to any incidents that could be classified as Crowning Moments of either Funny or Heartwarming that occurred while he was masked. For example: the 'Kane-o-roonie'. The friendship with X-Pac. The relationship with Tori. (Both turned on him and lived to tell about it.) Tag teaming with the Hurricane and saying "Freaks are cool!" Many feel when he started talking (i.e. acting more and more human), he lost his threat level.
  • 2013 Corporate Kane. Although, despite the initial reaction, he's played the gimmick extremely well, showing his versatility and recalling the evil onscreen authority figures of old.
  • Most fans consider Kane's third theme "Slow Chemical" (by Finger Eleven of all people) to be Kane's best entrance theme and one of the best entrance songs in the entire business. So when it was changed to "Man on Fire" in 2008, this pissed off a lot of fans big time. His next theme, "Veil of Fire", mixes the guitar riff from his his previous three songs into "Man on Fire", but it's still not enough for the fans.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Kane's entrance and corner pyro.
  • Also worth mentioning is the time in early 1998 when Paul Bearer had Kane show off his 'powers' by shooting lightning at the stage and setting a camera man on fire with his pyrokinesis.
• X-Pac Heat: "The Demon" Kane of 2014 is a complete and absolute heat vacuum. Literally every time that his pyro goes off, the crowd knows that something terrible is going to happen. One cause of this seems to be the opinion that it's a blatant retread of his "Embrace The Hate" feud with John Cena from a few years prior, only with Cena and Zack Ryder's roles combined into Daniel Bryan this time. The fact that, after Bryan's temporary departure due to injury, Kane has been very little besides the Authority's lackey (such as actively helping Seth Rollins win his Money in the Bank briefcase and nearly throwing the match for himself to do the same for Randy Orton with the title) and a punching back for John Cena and Roman Reigns has done little to give the audience any reason to care about him.
  • Furthermore, when Kane isn't the paper monster, he's the wet blanket thrown over anything hot. Daniel Bryan's rallying a comeback against Randy Orton inside the Elimination Chamber? Nope, Kane's there ready to screw Bryan out of the gold. Dean Ambrose is ready to do just about anything to Seth Rollins (be it win Money in the Bank over him, win a lumberjack match against him, win a Falls Count Anywhere match against him, get within, saaay, ten feet of him)? Kane's there to throat thrust the fight out of Ambrose and the enthusiasm out of the crowd. It's not the guy's fault, but he's the absolute biggest buzzkill of WWE 2014 (a fact that's compacted when the only two guys capable of completely neutralizing Kane to the point of negligibility are John Cena and Roman Reigns, both widely considered Creator's Pets)

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