Why WWE Didn’t Bring Kane Right In After His First Tryout

Kane hasn’t always been the Big Red Machine and he just recently became the Mayor Of Knox Country Tennessee. But there was a time when he was just starting out and although WWE loved his look (why wouldn’t they?) he just didn’t have what he took to be a Superstar in 1993 and it wouldn’t be until 1997 until we first saw him as The Undertaker’s brother.
Therefore, as Bruce Prichard explained on Something To Wrestle With, WWE took one look at Kane and knew they had something with him. The only big issue was that he needed training and they didn’t have NXT or even OVW at the time, so they called Jerry Jarrett to help out in Memphis.

“Glenn was greener than grass, Glenn was greener than the Christmas tree outfit that he wore as the Christmas menace or whatever the hell he was — Christmas Creature in Memphis Tenessee which was hilarious! Every time that picture would surface we’d kinda put it up around the dressing room for the Christmas Creature which was a green unitard basically head to toe with tinsel and balls hanging from it. So it was kinda funny.
“[Kane] was just very, very green and Jerry Jarett had promoted him as the second coming of Sid Vicious.”
“So we brought him in and took a look at him and he did have a great look. The big bastard, but he was not ready for prime time and we needed to get him a little more experience and kinda get him down on the farm before we were ready to bring him in. But we liked the size, the potential, plus he was a super nice guy on top of that.”
“There was something there, we didn’t have developmental, we didn’t have a Performance Center. We just had places like Memphis or someplace that had a school or someplace that they could work every day. That’s what needed to happen with Glenn at the time.”

It eventually worked out for Kane, obviously. At this point, he’s a shoo-in for the WWE Hall Of Fame and enjoying a career in politics. He’s also able to come back and wrestle a quick angle for WWE if they need him including a trip to Saudi Arabia for WWE Crown Jewel where his city benefited in the process with a huge donation from WWE for allowing them to borrow Knoxville’s Mayor for a bit.
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