Happy May 19th Day! What a wonderful day in wrestling history, as it is the day that drives Kane insane.
Some context: In the run up to WWE releasing an original movie See No Evil in 2006, they had Kane be tormented by voices talking about May 19th. The date was said to be the date his mom and family were killed in a fire. Kane was tormented by voices that would play during matches, causing him to snap. If you want a really great overview of the whole May 19th saga, Den of Geek did a great one last year at this time.
To celebrate another May 19th, let’s take a look at some of Kane’s wildest moments. A lot of these involve fires, but what else did you expect? Check out five of Kane’s wildest moments below:
Setting Undertaker on Fire – Royal Rumble 1998
Kane debuted in 1997 and for the first six months really existed just to torment his half-brother The Undertaker. At the 1998 Royal Rumble, big brother Undertaker had a casket match against Shawn Michaels for the WWF Heavyweight Championship. DX and Los Boricuas were beating down The Undertaker, and Kane made the save to help out his bro. He saved him from those other guys, only to beat Undertaker up himself and lock him in the casket. The cherry on top? Lighting the casket holding his sibling on fire. Undertaker was revealed to have escaped, but still that’s pretty extreme by Kane.
The Unmasking – Raw, June 23, 2003
In 2003, Kane had been around the block a few times. He had become more human, learning how to talk and to pump up the Kanenites. Kane had tagged with X-Pac and Hurricane, but in 2003 found himself in a team with Rob Van Dam. After losing the tag titles, Kane was offered a shot at Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship. The catch – if he lost, he had to remove his mask. Kane lost due to Evolution shenanigans, and had to remove the mask. Turns out the mask was the only thing holding back the absolute craziness. He removed it to show a man with Krusty the Clown hair and soot on his face. If that isn’t enough to justify going a little nuts, I don’t know what is.
Lighting Jim Ross on Fire – Raw, July 14, 2003
I told you a lot of these were going to involve Kane setting people on fire. A few weeks after unmasking, Kane was interviewed by Jim Ross. Good ol’ JR was trying to get through to Kane about how it hurts to be made fun of and that he needs help. It almost seemed like Ross was getting through to Kane, but Kane was convinced everyone was making fun of him. Stone Cold even tried to reason with him, but Kane decided the most reasonable course of action was to light Jim Ross on fire. That is a totally proportional response to being made fun of.
Electrocuting Shane McMahon’s Balls – Raw, September 1, 2003
2003 was really a banner year for Kane’s antics. One of his other targets was Linda McMahon, and his attacking her brought her son Shane in as another Kane adversary. Shane and Kane were set for a Last Man Standing match at Unforgiven, so how do you build to such an intense match? Well, if you’re Kane, you make like Trevor in GTA V and start to torture Shane McMahon. Rob Van Dam ended up making the save, sparing the McMahon family jewels from further damage. Good for Kane from taking a detour from fire to try some new things.
Fighting Imposter Kane – Vengeance 2006
Now we have returned back to the May 19th saga. On the May 29th Raw, Imposter Kane was revealed to be the source of the voices tormenting Kane. This led to a match between Imposter Kane (which was Good Brother Luke Gallows in Kane’s old mask and gear) versus Kane at Vengeance 2006. Weirdly enough, Imposter Kane got the win on pay-per-view. He wouldn’t last long, as Kane tossed him out of a Raw in June to end his tenure. Fighting a doppelganger of yourself on pay-per-view? That counts as a wild moment.
Let us know your favorite strange Kane moments on Twitter at @FPC_Wrestling.
