Friday 22 August 2008

The Ten Greatest WWF Wrestlers Of My Time

4
Kane (with the mask)


I make the point because Kane has recently taken off his mask, which was as much a part of his character as anything, and has revealed himself to be a bald guy with a weird face who is no longer threatening in any way, shape or form.

It’s a shame, because the Kane I knew was amazing. A giant of a man, Kane wore a black and red mask over his face, which played an important part of his persona. The idea was that another wrestler – The Undertaker – had burnt his own house down as a child, killing his whole family. After a while though, Kane showed up, claiming to be The Undertaker’s brother and bearing a grudge. Kane’s face was completely scarred by the fire, but he had survived the fire and now wanted to destroy The Undertaker as revenge. Who says wrestling is over the top and unbelievable? So anyway, eventually the two reconciled and formed a tag team – perhaps the most powerful tag team you can ever have seen. Together, the two had a tremendous spark and charisma to them, which they carried around individually but really showed off as a team. Kane is around seven foot tall, and is the sort of man who prefers to walk slowly when he should we walking. He has repeatedly been shown as one of the toughest wrestlers around, taking chairs to the back that would knock out other wrestlers, and repeatedly getting up instantly after being given a “finishing move” by his opponent. Kane is, make no mistake, a tough son-of-a-woman.

Not that he’s a slow bruiser with no style, because he is (was) one of the most iconic wrestlers in the business. His moves included modifications of two moves the Undertaker made famous – the Chokeslam and the Tombstone Piledriver – but also many other moves. He’s willing to get up on the turnbuckle surprisingly often, and is even known to use a submission from time to time. His strength, though, was what set him apart. He was perpetually the dark horse in any sort of big match, like the Royal Rumble, because it takes so much to knock him down. Kane was imposing, a character who worked as a figure of mystery and as a figure of power. You could never count him out, and I loved that about him. He made matches more intriguing just by being there. He still does this now, but taking off the mask really hurt the mystery aspect, and although he has proven to be a great speaker on the mike, the WWF don’t seem to have a clue what to do with him anymore.


4 comments:

  1. I'm very 50/50 about Kane - he has got a great awe about him, can act and looks the part in a very old school kinda way but his in ring work is horrible. The house show I went to during his brawl with the Big Show (please, please don't say HE'S going to be on the list!) was dire - I don't think they connected with one punch! The WWE at the minute seem to be at a loss with him though - they keep hurling up the same kind of storylines time after time with him and it's just boring. He should have kept the belt for more than one day, dammit! If you liked the storyline with Taker, go and look up Abyss from TNA - it's more or less exactly the same thing with him!

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  2. i really like kane hes the only big wrestler that will go on the top rope (undertaker used to but dusnt anymore) and has eliminated the most people in a royal rumble (11 i think)

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  3. Although it is admirable that Kane-with-a-mask is made distinct from his impotent maskless incarnation, it is noted that this list lacks Chyna.

    It is therefore invalid.

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  4. Chyna scares the living daylights out of me, ever since the infamous day someone sent me an innocent-looking link which turned out to lead to her sex tape.

    Euuuugggghhhhh.

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