Kane has recalled his very first meeting with Vince McMahon.
The Mayor of Knox County recently had an interview with Outkick. He talked about things such as his early days in wrestling, his favorite version of Kane, wrestling with and without a mask and more.
During the interview, the former World Champion was also asked about the Isaac Yankem gimmick he was given before he became the brother of The Undertaker. Kane noted that Vince McMahon pitched it to him during their very first meeting:
“Yeah, I’ll never forget my first meeting with Vince McMahon and he brought up the Isaac Yankem character as only he could. He asked if I had ever been afraid to go to the dentist. I was like ‘No I haven’t been.’ He’s like ‘Well I have this idea for a character, a wrestling dentist – Isaac Yankem.’ He’s like ‘I yank em, get it?’
Then he starts doing the Vince laugh. I was mortified actually because here I am sitting across from Vince McMahon who’s the most powerful person in the wrestling industry and all I could think was ‘Wait you flew me all the way up from Knoxville Tennessee to New York to tell me that you want me to be a wrestling dentist?'”
I Couldn’t Sink My Teeth Into It: Kane
Though according to Kane, the management was not trying to sabotage his career with the gimmick. He explained that it was on par with the other characters of the era and they actually thought that it could be successful:
“But that’s where the industry and WWE specifically was at that time. it was pretty campy. You see some of the characters from that period. It was just cartoonish and it was really focusing on going for kids actually. The product itself was very sanitized.
You look at what happened a few years later in the Attitude Era and the pendulum completely swung the other way. So for that particular period of time, it wasn’t like they were thinking ‘Oh we’re gonna saddle Glenn with this horrible gimmick.’ They actually thought it could be successful. But unfortunately I couldn’t sink my teeth into it.”
