Hey to all of you wrestling fans out there. Seeing as how the WWE will present No Mercy tonight (I am typing this on Saturday night/Sunday morning) and seeing as how Kane and The Undertaker are in the two main events, I figured I’d do a column comparing the Brothers of Destruction, as I’ve been thinking on this one for a while. At the end, I’ll also give you a look at where they are today and my thoughts. Before I begin, once again thanks to everyone who sent in feedback after the *SPECIAL EDITION* column last week on Stone Cold. I appreciate it! I’ll also try to keep my columns shorter as many of you noted I use a lot of words and sometimes it gets really long. Hey, it was a Special Edition last week and the issue did deserve some time. I won’t keep it as long this week or in other columns, I promise. OK, I am babbling again. Let’s get right to Kane vs. Undertaker. 🙂
Character/Persona
Kane and The Undertaker are probably two of the people in the wrestling business whose characters have pretty much determined what they say, how they act, or what they do. Not that it’s different for any other wrestler out there, it’s just that these two had SPECIFIC and EXACT instructions of what to do or how to act, since their characters were slightly different. I truly believe that Undertaker has the advantage here. After all, Undertaker has been around for a longer time, and his famous Phenom character is definitely one of the things that boosted WWF’s popularity, and unlike today’s WWE attempts, it actually worked! ‘Taker did a lot of things with his old character and certainly brought it to a whole new level. He tried to be innovating as well, since you could see him trying to change things for the better here and there. The American Bad Ass character which Undertaker has been portraying for the past several years is also very interesting as it not only was somewhat of a complete change, but it was very-well picked and Undertaker managed to play it off very well! Not to take any heat off Kane on this one — After all, Kane’s character can make him or break him. His role of the “brother” is what has pulled him through as until recently he was “Undertaker’s brother.” That says a lot there. However, I am glad to say that with the roster split separating the two, Kane has finally managed to be on his own and to be his own self, whether it’s for the good or for the bad. Bottom line, this “category” would have to go to the Undertaker.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 1
Kane – 0
Physical Power
I am sorry, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Kane wins this one. Not only is Glenn Jacobs more powerful than Mark Halloway, he’s also done some enormous spots by using his power very well. The one example that just happened to pop in my head was Kane bodyslamming the Big Show over the top rope in this year’s Royal Rumble match! Now, that was amazing! Also, if you’ve been watching Kane for a while, in his short feud with Albert (when Albert was in X-Factor), Kane displayed a lot of his power and ability to use it on the heavy Albert. With his hardcore nature of a “monster” and his strong body (even though he’s lost some weight recently), Kane is definitely the more powerful brother. Again, not trying to take anything from The Undertaker here, I just feel Kane is definitely the winner in this category.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 1
Kane – 1
Agility
Now that’s a toughie. Kane is famous for his flying elbow and his love for high spots, even though he doesn’t do any due to his size. Again dating back to his feud with Albert, Kane attempted a hurricarana on the big man and though it looked weird and odd, it worked! Now, as much as that is true, The Undertaker was probably the original high-flyer. Let’s face it, for his time, ‘Taker did a lot of high-flying and considering his size that’s a very hard thing to do! I would love to go with both on this one, but dating back to the old years, I would definitely have to say that Undertaker has the advantage.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 2
Kane – 1
Mic/Promo Skills
I wasn’t even going to talk about that, but since most of the “compare” columns I’ve read on-line do (and they should), I felt I’ll just mention it. It’d be impossible to pick between Undertaker and Kane where Mic skills go, because until 2002, Kane’s character did not speak, or did so on very rare occasions. We never really knew much about Kane, and that mysterious part of him was what made him so great. From his current promos, and his older gimmicks though, I’d say that Glenn Jacobs is OK on the mic, and that’s really the best way to describe it. The Undertaker, on the other hand, cuts some incredibly good promos and even during his “Phenom” years he had a lot of stuff to say, and all good. I’d definitely go with Undertaker, but it wouldn’t be fair since Kane’s character doesn’t allow him to talk as much.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 2
Kane – 1
(No Change after that category)
Wrestling/Moves/Techniques/Etc.
I’d definitely say that both Undertaker and Kane deserve to be at the top because they do have a lot of wrestling skills. However, Undertaker is definitely the better man in this one. After all, the Dead Man’s been around for a long time, and has had every style of wrestling tried out and patented in his matches. Most recently brawl due to nagging injuries and hip problems, but in the past Undertaker has had hardcore matches (think of the Hell In A Cell bouts as well as the other bloody matches he’s had), was doing high-flying and even some mat wrestling at one point. Undertaker has went through all these cycles and has proved that he’s definitely a top guy with main reason being his wrestling skills. Kane on the other hand always seems to be somewhat unsecured in the ring. Many argue that this is one of the reasons the WWE wasn’t too fond of him in recent past and pushed him back. Kane does take a while in the ring to think things through and his move list seems to be limited to several powerful slams he does. ‘Taker is the man here.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 3
Kane – 1
The “It” – Charisma / Finisher
Call this what you want. “The ‘It'”, the “X-Factor”, the “Special Thing”, whatever you want. What I am referring to is that “special thing” which some wrestlers have that is so powerful that gets the crowd going no matter what. That’s a very special thing in professional wrestling and not too many have it. A good example of a person with a lot of Charisma and “X-Factor” would be Hulk Hogan. He’s able to pump up the crowd and has that “special thing” about him which makes you like him. (Well, we won’t get into details if you don’t) Both Kane and Undertaker have charisma, and I think it’s hard to choose one here. ‘Taker always gets the crowd going, but Kane’s awesome “story behind it all” and his actions are always a good pump-up for the crowds. Since this would have been another “no winner” decisions, I decided to include the Finisher move of the two on here. There’s really nothing else to do, but go with Undertaker. After all, Kane’s Chokeslam and Tombstone Pile Driver both belong to ‘Taker. Not only that, but ‘Taker has the Last Ride to use now-a-days. I still like the way Kane sets up for his finisher, it gets the crowd going, but still, Undertaker comes out on top in this one.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 4
Kane – 1
Selling Moves to Opponents
Do I even need to answer here? If you’ve been reading about professional wrestling, you should know by now why is this answer so obvious. I’ll make it short and sweet — Undertaker does NOT sell. I can give you millions of examples. A low blow is like a “Hello” to him and a finisher could be anything but hurtful.
Current Score:
Undertaker – 4
Kane – 2
Undertaker / Kane — Today
The Brothers of Destruction are probably 2 of the most interesting and powerful men in the business. The Undertaker’s legend has grown over the years and Mark is definitely a representative of wrestling history and wrestling itself! With his run with the WWF(E), Kane has also done a lot, and I would look for him to do even more these days, or in the near future. Speaking of these days… Undertaker is in the SmackDown! main event at No Mercy (Hell In A Cell) and Kane is in the RAW main event trying his luck with the Triple H Effect. We’ll see how things go, but I wouldn’t expect ‘Taker to win. I’m not sure about Kane, but as of this writing rumors have it there’ll be a rematch, so I don’t see the Game losing his beloved World Championship. The PPV is not of a huge importance though as it is what the WWE did this past week. Since the company is getting back to their “Soap Opera” storylines in order to get some fans in, Kane and Undertaker, being the 2 faces of the 2 main events, were the first ones to suffer the bad taste writing and the vulgarity the WWE has lowered to. Apparently, now Kane is a “murderer” who rapes his victims after he kills them, whereas Undertaker has been having a relationship with a woman named Tracy, though in the past as he claims. No matter which way you look at it, these two storylines kind of ruin everything these two great athletes have been through. I still love both guys and I think they’re incredibly talented! I also want to thank them for entertaining me for so long! 🙂
Well, there ya have it. Undertaker defeats Kane 4 to 2. Now, there might have been other categories I could have used, but what can I say, those popped up into my mind (it’s now 2:OO AM here) and I felt like using them! I was just eager to write my column on Undertaker vs. Kane, since I like both guys and Kane is one of my favorite wrestlers. See how un-bias I was? Kane was my favorite, yet I still didn’t mind telling what I truly believe in and having Undertaker win this little “thing” we have going here. Ah well, I hope you guys respect that. I just want to say Thank You very much for reading my column and for sending in your feedback! Keep doing so, and I’ll get back to you, as I read and respond to all my mail. Thanks for reading!
Eddie
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