Kane spoke with the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling on a recent podcast. He reflected back on a long career, and the relationships that he has forged--inside and outside of the ring.
Teaming with Undertaker for the last time at Survivor Series 2015:
“That Survivor Series was simply amazing. It was the 25th anniversary of The Undertaker and it was a huge deal and just to be involved with it in any capacity was really an honor for me. It’s always great because I remember when we had the 1000th episode of RAW in St. Louis and I was in the ring and I forget what the exact scenario was but basically I was surrounded by the bad guys and then the gong hits and it was just awesome. The crowd was chanting “this is awesome” and I get goose bumps because that is what WWE is all about. I don’t know if our audience and the WWE Universe realizes this but we feed off of them as much as they do off of us. When they are into a moment like that it is amazing. It is the epitome of why I got into the wrestling business and why I got into the entertainment business. I can lose myself and for that moment that is all that matters and that is what happens with Undertaker.”
How the Undertaker vs Kane storylines has become like "Greek Mythology":
“Through the years we’ve been together through so much. Very unique the both of us. Bray Wyatt is sort of the new character who has the super-natural component and the cool-creepiness but the fact that we were able to come in and be such fierce rivals but yet everything turned and to be able to join forces and ally with ourselves and split and come back again, if you look (and I’m a big fan) of old NWA you would have these relationships and feuds just go on for years and years and it was the same type of deal. I’ve said this many times and I really believe this is true. I believe that the Kane / Undertaker story if you look at epic storytelling like Greek mythology, that is what it is. It is the best piece of epic story telling that the WWE has ever done. There is a huge story arc with all of these back stories and all of these extremely powerful characters and by that I mean the personalities and to be able to make that work and work as well as it always has is just amazing. Hats off to Vince McMahon for being able to do that with the creative teams and his vision as well as Taker and as well as my good friend the late Paul Bearer. It was a lot of moving parts and he was always able to make them work smoothly and the finished product was beautiful.”
His friendship with Daniel Bryan and how it felt to get a mention in his retirement speech:
“Daniel Bryan is a friend of mine. It’s sort of funny that the relationship that you saw between Team Hell No on screen it sometimes goes the same way off screen as well (laughing). He is a great human being and good friend of mine and frankly the Team Hell No stuff helped me. What it did for me was basically show people that I could be a well-rounded performer because through the years I had always been the silent guy and the mean guy and the extremely serious guy. If you would have told people in 2000 or 1998 that Kane is going to provide the comedic element to the show, well they would have looked at you like you were completely nuts and off your rocker. But because of Daniel Bryan I was able to do that. When he retired I think it was Rolling Stone that said he was “WWE’s Everyman” and that is what he is. He can relate to everybody and not only because of he’s not a big guy but he has so much passion and he is also a very humble human being and he is just the average dude. I think that shows through and he is sincere and he is genuine and people relate to that. Of course you add on that he is a tremendous talent and there is your superstar.”
His Main Event run with Seth Rollins and the end of Corporate Kane:
“It was a lot of fun and Seth Rollins is just phenomenal. He’s a tremendous performer and that felt like a full circle thing as well because The Shield early on it was Daniel Bryan and I that were their first opponents and we had a history there. To see Seth being able to leave the Shield and also Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns who are tremendous as well and have done great things and will do great things. Nevertheless, Seth went out on his own and was just able to pretty much immediately prove to the world that he’s like a young Shawn Michaels. That was a lot of fun and especially at that point the Corporate Kane character had run its course and people really wanted to see the mask come back and what was pretty cool to me was the fact that I was able to keep up with Seth in the ring which is no small feat for anyone much less a guy who is a bit of a veteran at this point in his career (laughing) so I was proud of that. Anytime you are in that position and the company is relying on you to come through with great performances and you are able to deliver on those it is very rewarding.”
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