The Undertaker and fictional brother Kane have talked about their notorious rivalry in 2010 and why WWE felt they could always call on the pair to anchor the main event.
Kane vs. The Undertaker in 2010 is one of the lesser remembered storylines from the pair’s twenty three year tale. However, that doesn’t mean to say that it was any less important to the overall arc than everything else they did.
To relive this rivalry, we have to travel back in time ten years to the June 4, 2010, SmackDown. ‘The Big Red Machine’ appeared on television to state that he had found his brother in a vegetative state over Memorial Day weekend.
Vowing revenge on whoever attacked ‘The Phenom’, the weeks were filled with Kane invading locker rooms and interrupting matches to gain a lead on the mystery assailant. Despite it being clear who the oppressor was, Kane began to point the finger at Rey Mysterio after defeating him at Money in the Bank to capture the World Heavyweight Championship.
With Kane and Mysterio pointing the finger at each other, the tale took a twist at that year’s SummerSlam when a frail looking Undertaker made his return to confront the two men and ended up being dropped by a Kane chokeslam as the champion revealed himself to be the attacker.
The Undertaker and Kane did battle over the next few months on pay-per-view and the story even took in the return of Paul Bearer who predictably turned on ‘The Deadman’ once more at WWE Hell in a Cell. The feud came to an abrupt and confusing finale at WWE Bragging Rights when, with the aid of Nexus, Kane defeated The Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match.
In all honestly, the rivalry and performances aren’t were not that well regarded by fans at the time, but according to the two men, they enjoyed every part of the journey.
Appearing on Notsam Wrestling, The Brothers of Destruction recounted 2010 and how they attempted to approach it differently to what had been done before. First up was Kane:
“That was really a chance thing and WWE just taking advantage of that. The trick this time was to try to do it differently, how not to be the sequel, and how to make it unique. What Mark did in his idea, was like, ‘This was a chance to elevate Kane.’ Kane and Undertaker are truly equal as far as in the eyes of WWE. For me, it was thanking him very much for doing that.
That was, from my perspective anyway, of his thinking in this is how do you get Kane to really be the equivalent of The Undertaker? Which was no small feat because we had this long history before. I guess the biggest challenge though was how do we make this different and unique this time.”
Though The Undertaker’s point of view was similar to his storyline brother’s, ‘The Man From the Darkside’ likened the pair to real brothers in the way they thought about and executed the rivalry:
“I didn’t have any doubt that we could make it good and make it relevant again. It was just being creative, and then just changing the narrative from what people had seen early on. That was Kane dominating The Undertaker, and it was like, ‘Oh, okay. I guess little brother finally caught up to big brother, and now, he’s going to pay the price.’ It was fresh and new again.”
Fresh and new it was and even though the story is less well regarded than others the partners and rivals have executed over the years, it did manage to elevate Kane to true monster status.
Following his rivalry with The Undertaker, Kane moved onto a program with Edge and dropped big gold to the ‘Rated-R Superstar’ at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladder and Chairs at the end of the year.
Credit for the interview: Notsam Wrestling
h/t for the transcription: Wrestling Inc.