This is something that we have discussed on my forum, so I wanted to see what you guys think of how Kane is treated these days. I was asked if I liked him better with his mask on or off, and here is my very simple answer. I like both "versions" of Kane.
When he had his mask on he had a certain bit of mysteriousness to him, and everyone always wondered what was under the mask. For many years, we were left to wonder if he would ever be de-masked so that we could see what he looked like. They basically did everything with masked Kane because he went from being a monster with his "father" to being a part of the life of his "brother" to having relationships with women that betrayed him, to being a part of a team, to being a comdey act when he imitated the other wrestlers. They did it all when he had the mask on.

When he was de-masked, they came up with a great reason why he didn't have any scars. They were emotional and not physical scars. Besides the fact that we had seen Kane with his mask off before and his hair did NOT come off those times was left out, and they must think that people don't have memories that work all the time because this was the one downfall in his de-masking. I like Kane as he is now. I like to see his facial expressions. He's a good face but a better heel. All in all I guess I liked him better with the mask on, but really, they couldn't have done any more with the mask on. That chapter had to be laid to rest. And so began the new Kane. Same person, different storyline, for the most part.

I think that Kane deserves so much more. From being 6'9 and 36 years old to being loyal and shaving off his hair, the guy has been shat on for many years now. I'm glad he was a tag/IC and world champion (for a whopping 24 hours), but he deserves it more NOW than he did back in 1997 when he debuted.

What do you think?

Most of 1999 he spent on the Tag Team division, and in 2000, he was on and off the roster doing whatever, until a (much needed) heel turn sparked him again, which saw him give one of the best Royal Rumble performances in 2001, lasting over 56:00, and eliminating a record 11 people from the match before losing to Austin as the final 2. From there, he was stuck into the Hardcore Division (before it was complete garbage again), then stuck as job boy for the Two Man Power Trip. In another shocking act, Triple H actually jobbed the Intercontinental Title to Kane at Judgment Day 2001.

Let's skip the rest, because it's mainly foundering around in 2001-2002. He returned on August 26th, 2002 at MSG to attack the Un-Americans, and was probably the most over faces on the roster. He won the Tag Titles with the Hurricane of all people, and won the Intercontinental Title from Chris Jericho. Then... Triple H came knocking. NECROPHILLIA... for those who don't know, that is perfdorm sexual acts with a dead person/corpse... yeah. The angle made me want to quit watching wrestling forever, thats how horrible it was.

From there, Kane was job boy to the newly returned (and heatless) Dave Batista, was stuck in the midcard with Rob Van Dam and had to do fucking HEAT duty at Wrestlemania XIX because of stupid Miller Lite Cat Fight shit. After 4 months of this, he finally unmasked, and did the unthinkable: He actually assaulted LINDA McMAHON, someone who was basically off limits to EVERYONE but a McMahon. From there, he squashed Rob Van Dam like a bug. RAW was sparking good numbers with Kane's segments, until Shane McMahon came and started a senseless feud.

In what should've been 5 second squashes, Kane actually had to sell for 10-15 minute matches to Shane McMahon, losing heat in the process, and kissing the World Title scene good buy. Finally, when he GETS a title match with Goldberg, Gonzo the Helmsley shows up for no reason and wins the title because he can.

From there, hello Deadman Undertaker, come back and squash the poor bastard. Wrestlemania XX was a lose-lose situation for Kane, so he then turns his attentions to... LITA!?! Wow, he surely dropped down from the card. Does anyone really need to know the rest of the Lita sotry, besides jobbing to MATT HARDY ON PPV, the same guy who lost clean to ZACH GOWEN.

Long story short, he's been made Gene Snitsky's bitch, and is still being booked like complete horse shit.

I'll make it short and sweet:

Kane should've won the World Title in the fall of 2003 instead of getting made into Shane McMahon's bitch. As I remember Kane was actively pulling viewers in after his demasking and they should've kept that momentum going.

It seems everytime he gets something going they always cut him off at the knees. Jobbing to X-Pac and Shane McMahon and the whole Katie Vick thing. I don't think I can even remember the last time someone on WWF tv mentioned that he was a former WWF Champion.

Jim Ross mentioned it during his big push in the Fall of 2002, where he held the Tag Title and IC Title at the same time. After that... no idea.

That's what I like about Mike Teney. He always runs down a guy's list of titles even from other federations.

Well, in my mind the thing that killed Kane was........

Shane MacMahon

Kane was fine at this point, and really was doing well in his new unmasked character. This was also a time where Kane's segments were among the highest rated parts of RAW. Then he was totally bitched out in the Shane feud that he never quite recovered and ever attempt to elevate him after that point failed.

Shane didn't kill Kane. Taker didn't kill Kane. Snitsky didn't kill Kane. The man has turned 247567236 times, left and came back due to injury 237462356 times, and he REMAINS one of the most over guys on the roster, and ALWAYS has a big storyline, whether you claim it to be "good" or not. I'm not a huge Kane fan, but I'm not worried about him. He could job to the Brooklyn Brawler one week, but all he has to do to become totally monsterous again is come out the next week and destroy the entire mid-card with a chair or light an annoucner on fire. Whether or not you like those tactics, they seem to have worked for a good 7 or 8 years.

Killed Kane's chance at a World Title in 2003 should be more accurate about the Shane McMahon statement. Kane was seriously popping ratings whenever he was on, and it was usually the over-run, which were in the 5.0's sometimes, while the shows normal average was teatering around 4.0. Even his segments during the show did pretty good numbers.

All that went to hell (no pun intended) when Shane McMahon came around. I did mark out though when Kane absolutely no sold everything Shane did to him. Who can forget the classic "Shane's nuts roasting on an open car battery."