On a recent edition of his “Something To Wrestle” podcast, WWE executive Bruce Prichard discussed the origins of Glenn Jacobs’ Kane character, Paul Bearer’s impact, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On why they created the character: “You know, we needed an adversary for The Undertaker. It was a good story, and [I was] not really sure where we were going to pan out. Other gimmicks with Glenn Jacobs had failed. And this was an opportunity where we didn’t have to rely on his facials at that point. And could we cover him up, and the story was strong enough that we felt as long as he was able to deliver just even half-a**ed in the ring at that point, it would have been hit. That look, you’re going to give it a shot. You’re going to go for it. And I think that most of us were thinking, ‘This could be a one-off.’”
On its originally being a one-off idea: “No, I was looking for an Undertaker-specific story. Everything about the story was tied to The Undertaker.”
On using the story to make Undertaker more relatable: “Well look man, Frankenstein had a bride. Dracula had people who were part of his circle. Why can’t The Undertaker have a brother? It does, it makes him human, allows him to have human feelings, and allows the audience to go, ‘Okay, maybe he feels just like I do, so I can feel like he does.’ You know, maybe someone was separated from their brother, whether it was a bad divorce or whatever. And for years, kids that were adopted, and one got adopted by one family, the other got adopted by another family, they were split for a lifetime.
“So those were real things. And there’s people that imagine that, that have siblings. They go, ‘Oh my God, you haven’t talked to your brother or sister in 10 years, Maybe I should make that call, because you never know.’ And there’s always a Paul Bauer involved, stirring the pot. Telling each one what they want to hear or don’t want to hear for that matter.”
