Match of the Debut - Kane's in-ring debut under the red light

Kane vs. Mankind - Survivor Series (1997)

A Month after the unforgettable debut of the Big Red Machine at Bad Blood, the deranged in his own right - Mankind becomes Kane's first opponent at Survivor Series '97. While this may have been Kane's first official match, for those first few weeks since arriving in WWF Kane was leaving carnage in the ring every time he showed up.

Fun fact: Kane was given a special "eerie" red light during his first few appearances much like Sin Cara's, well, Sin Cara botch lights.

Match of the Day - Elimination Chamber #1

Shawn Michaels vs. Rob Van Dam Vs. Kane vs. Booker T vs. Chris Jericho vs. Triple H - Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship - Survivor Series (2002)

Whether or not you are watching Elimination Chamber, or No Escape as it's called in Germany, here is look back at the very first Elimination Chamber match from 2002.

The match includes HBK's hella god awful "returning after four years" ring gear, RVD destroying Triple H's throat from the first "top of the pod" shot ever performed, and an overall good first Elimination Chamber.

Match of the Day - Two indie darlings and some masked dude

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane - WWE Championship Triple Threat match - No Way Out (2012)

I'm just going to keep this one short and sweet because this match is not too old, yet I honestly don't remember the AJ Lee love triangle (or would it be a square?) storyline too well. I will however point out how much things have actually changed since this match in June of 2012. 

Plus, this match is pretty good. But you probably already guessed that. 

Match of the Debut - The first Hell in a Cell and... that's gotta be Kane!

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels - first Hell in a Cell match - WWF Bad Blood: In Your House (1997)

The match that started it all: the very first "Hell in a Cell" match. The main differences between a Hell in a Cell match and a regular WWF/E cage match is that the cage is wider with room for the wrestlers to go outside the ring, there's a roof on the cage, and you can't win via escaping the structure.

While this match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels marked the first Hell in a Cell match, the match is probably remembered more for its ending. The ending goes like this: Just as Undertaker is about to finish off a bloodied Michaels after blasting him over the head with a blue steel chair, the lights got and from the darkness appears Paul Bearer, Taker's former manager, following a large figure clad in black and red from head to toe. After weeks of Bearer mentioning that Taker has a long lost brother, it is finally confirmed that he is still alive and looking for his brother. As the large individual walks to the cell, Vince McMahon from his headphones reveals, "that's gotta be... that's gotta be Kane!" before ripping the cage door right off its hinges. The two brothers of similar height then square off in the middle of the ring until Kane makes his move and takes out Taker using the Phenom's own tombstone piledriver and forever cementing his legacy as the Big Red Machine!

This match also features a fair amount of brawling outside the ring and on top of the cell, Michaels abusing cameramen, and a bump off the cage that will forever be overshadowed by the legendary bump that Mankind takes in the next Hell in a Cell match.

Match of the Day - The Legion of Doom return for the last time

Speaking of Warrior returns...

Rob Van Dam & Kane vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) - World Tag Team titles match - Raw (2003)

Eric Bischoff decides to "raise the bar" on Raw in 2003 by bringing in one of the greatest tag teams of all time - The Road Warriors (referred to as the Legion of Doom in WWF/E) - to face the tag champs at the time, RVD and Kane for one night only.

Unfortunately, this match would not only be LOD's last return match to WWE, but also Hawk and Animal's last Televised match as a team. Hawk passed away after years of battle with his personal demons and alcohol addiction a few months later.

But yes, they did looked a lot better than that last Ultimate Warrior return we just saw.

Match of the Day - May 19th! It's happening again!

Kane vs. Big Show - Backlash (2006)

What's going on inside Kane's head?

May 19th may have been the release date for WWE's first film released by WWE Films that starred Kane as   the slasher, Jacob Goodnight, but it was also a date that Kane never wanted to be reminded of ever again. What was so significant about May 19th? Why was it such a traumatic remembrance?

Clearly the date was enough for Kane to turn on his tag team partner, Big Show just for mentioning it. The attack on Big Show, which damaged his eye*, resulted in one of the most dominate teams to split and led to this match at Backlash.

As it turns out, May 19th was the day that Kane's brother, The Undertaker burned down the funeral home which killed his parents and left Kane permanently scarred! So, yeah... pretty heavy stuff.

Unfortunately, the voices in Kane's head did not stop after May 19th had passed that year and it was later revealed that the voices were of impostor masked Kane... an angle that was quickly dropped soon after Drew Hankinson (Festus/Luke Gallows) debuted with a god-awful wig on.

*Kane damaging Big Show's eye was also a little jab at the release of Kane's movie, See No Evil, clearly.

Match of the Day - X-Punk whips Shane-O-Mac and HHH & Chyna join the dark side at WM15

X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon - European title match - WrestleMania XV (1999)

As a much younger, full time mark, I had a special best of WrestleMania DVD (one of the first DVDs I ever owned) that chronicled some of the best matches and events at the grandest stage of them all from WMI to WMXV. Whether it was the fact that my attention spend gave out right before the end of the video and I was getting antsy or that this particular WrestleMania was just the most exciting to my young brain, I remember always getting really amped up when this match was being recapped! 

And then there's the swerve: As X-Pac laid out Shane McMahon via the X-Factor and was about to cover him for the won, Triple H and Chyna come down to ringside and pulled Test out of the ring. Then Chyna distracted the ref while Triple H climbed into the ring and does the unthinkable. Triple H pedigrees X-Pac and drapes Shane-O-Mac over his unconscious friend, signifying that Triple H and Chyna had turned on their own team/stable and gone to the dark side: The Corporation.

Just one year before this, Triple H introduced the returning X-Pac as the new member of D-Generation X on Raw the night after WMXIV!

Theme results:

WrestleMania: WMXV

Match of the Day - Wrestlemania X-Seven's triple threat hardcore title match

Hardcore Wednesday:

Raven vs. Kane vs. Big Show - Hardcore Tile match - WWF Wrestlemania X-Seven (2001)

In one of the most memorable hardcore Wrestlemania, the hardcore champion, Raven must battle the two biggest wrestlers WWF had in 2001, Kane and the Big Show. 

This hardcore match lasts about a minute in the ring before making its way to the backstage area where many  memorable spots are performed including: Raven getting thrown through a glass window, Raven slipping and almost getting run over by the cart, and Kane and the Big Show going through a door then through a wall. The match ends at the entrance way when the Big Show and Raven both fall off the side of the entrance ramp into a cloud of smoke giving Kane the chance to perform what looks like a blind flying leg drop into the carnage to the side of the ramp. Kane ends up landing on the Big Show and gets the pinfall to become the new hardcore champion at the seventeenth annual Wrestlemania.

Overall a very enjoyable worked match!

During this match we also learn that Paul Heyman's favorite type of snapple is diet peach.

Match of the Day - It's Time! It's Time! It's... Paul Bearer Time!?!

Kane vs. Vader - Mask vs. Mask - WWF Over The Edge (1998)

Kane and Vader go mask to mask in this match that marks Vader's decline into jobber status. After losing to Kane even after using that wrench that came with a lot of Kane action figures back in the day to wear the big red monster down, Vader gives a very unforgettable speech about making the biggest mistake of his life and then proceeded to call himself "a big fat piece of shit" before storming off into the back.

Since Kane had previous destroyed Vader's face with that very same wrench we see make its return in this match, Vader had to get surgery on his face, therefore giving this who mask versus mask stipulation a little more believability considering Vader usually ditched his mask halfway through every match anyways.

After Vader loses his classic face mask to Kane's tombstone piledriver, Paul Bearer puts the sweaty jockstrap looking face wear and announces into the camera that, "It's Time! It's Time! It's Paul Bearer Time!" after The King jokingly says Paul Bearer's line moments beforehand. The mask was never seen again on Paul Bearer's ugly complexion known as a face again and neither was Paul Bearer Time.

Vader did however reappear wearing his signature face mask again after this match but the lose at the hands of Kane here at Over The Edge 1998 was really a metaphor for losing his career, since, like I mentioned above, this was really Vader's last match before becoming a glorified jobber and losing to all the young up-and-comers from Mark Henry to Bradshaw to Edge on Sunday Night Heat (his last televised match in the WWF).

Match of the Day - Rock 'n' Sock Connection are in grave danger!

The Rock & Mankind (c) vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show - WWF Smackdown! (1999)

In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.

The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.

The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...

Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!

This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.

Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.

Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.

Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.

Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.

Match of the Day - USWA's Christmas Creature

The Christmas Creature vs. Trey Keller - USWA (1992)

Before Glenn Jacobs found the perfect role for himself as "The Big Red Machine" Kane, this 7 ft tall individual had many unsuccessful and forgettable gimmicks including: Isaac Yankem D.D.S. (yes, the evil dentist) in WWF, "fake" Diesel (as WWF owned the rights to Kevin Nash's 'Diesel' character in the early 90's and could do whatever they wanted with it), and Bruiser Mastino (a WCW jobber). Jacobs even began his career as "Angus King", the name of my home state of Maine's senator-elect... But none of these personas can possibly hold up to the bad taste that was "The Christmas Creature".

The Christmas Creature was a gimmick given to Jacobs while he was with Jerry Jarrett's Memphis-based rasslin promotion, United States Wrestling Association (later owned by Jerry Lawler). And while Jacobs would eventually hold the companies' Heavyweight title in 1997 as the masked Doomsday, this first little stint as the red, white, and green tinseled-monster, was not as successful. I mean, he wins his match shown above against Trey Keller, but overall this whole evil-looking wrestling Christmas present has to be one of Jacobs' worst gimmicks to date.

Overall reaction to whatever this was: USWA was a development company that experimented with a lot of bad gimmicks. Gimmicks such as Ninja Turtles, Freddy Kruger, The Spider, The Candyman, and even Spellbinder (better known as that magician named Phantasio who only appeared once in WWF - he actually did fairly well in USWA). With that being said, it's no wonder that this creature from Christmas past was thought up and thrown together like so. For the other stuff that goes on before the Trey Keller squash -  including Brian Christopher (AKA Grandmaster Sexy AKA Jerry Lawler's son) yelling about who-knows-what this week and Bert Prentice kicking Santa's fanny, well, this was USWA remember; there wasn't a whole lot of time or room for explanations.