The year 1997 didn’t just bring the kickoff of the Attitude Era in WWE. It also featured the arrival of one of the most iconic monster heels of the era: Kane, the demonic, fire-themed half-brother to The Undertaker. Making his first appearance at the pay-per-view Bad Blood: In Your House — appropriately, in October — Kane spent nearly three decades as a staple of WWE television, working babyface and heel.
Despite his supernatural nature, Kane wasn’t invincible. In fact, it wasn’t long before he started taking losses in the ring. Let’s take a look at the first 10 wrestlers to beat Kane, starting with the very first.
10 The Undertaker
Prior to receiving his famous gimmick, Kane clashed with The Undertaker in previous years, once in Smoky Mountain Wrestling as Unabomb, and then in WWE as the pro wrestling dentist Isaac Yankem. After becoming Kane, his first of many encounters with ‘Taker happened at WrestleMania 14, resulting in his first loss happening about five months after his debut. In the bout, The Undertaker came out with the win after a trio of Tombstone Piledrivers — and even that barely kept Kane down.
9 Steve Austin
Weeks before his match with The Undertaker at ‘Mania, Kane had his first bout against the arguable top star of the Attitude Era, Stone Cold Steve Austin, on an episode of Raw, which ended in a No Contest. A few months later, Kane was WWE Champion thanks to the events of King of the Ring 1998, with Austin challenging the monster for the belt the following day on the 6/29/1998 episode of Raw. After eight and a half minutes, Austin emerged as the new Champion.
8 Vader
Kane’s first appearance at Bad Blood happened on October 5th, but it would be several weeks before fans actually saw him compete in an actual match, with his first bout happening on Halloween 1997 against another red-clad monster, Vader. Kane of course got the win in this house show match, as well as a televised win at In Your House 20: No Way Out of Texas.
Vader wouldn’t come out on top until nearly a year after their first encounter, defeating Kane in a steel cage match in Springfield, Massachusetts.
7 The Rock
Kane spent decades as a go-to heel, so he ended up having a match (if not a full-on feud) with pretty much every top star in WWE, including the other big icon of the Attitude Era, The Rock. Their first singles match together ended up being a TV match on the 9/14/1998 episode of Raw, with The Rock getting the win over Kane. From there, 10 matches went down between them happened all the way to their final bout on the first Raw of the year 2001.
6 Ken Shamrock
A wrestler turned MMA fighter turned wrestler again, Ken Shamrock’s WWE run didn’t quite amount to much, but is nevertheless a bit underrated and forgotten. While he captured the Intercontinental and Tag Team Championship, he also served Kane one of his early losses in one of the two singles matches they ever had together. This loss for Kane happened mere weeks after his loss to The Rock, and was once again on an episode of Raw. Their second singles match happened at a house show in England in April 1999, with Kane winning.
5 Mankind
On January 4, 1999, Mankind — better known these days under his real name of Mick Foley — won the WWE Championship in a huge underdog triumph on an episode of Raw. While his title run only lasted 26 days, he ended up defending it eight times across televised events and house shows, with his first defense being against Kane days after his title win aired on TV. Mankind got the win over Kane there, but their following bout on Raw ended in a disqualification loss for the champion.
4 Triple H
One of Kane’s most infamous feuds was with Triple H in 2002, as part of a storyline revealing Kane’s dark past with a woman named Katie Vick that involved creative decisions that were in incredibly poor taste. But that was nowhere near the first time the two collided in the ring.
The first time actually happened a few years earlier on an early February 1999 episode of Raw, with Trips defeating Kane in a Steel Cage match.
3 Billy Gunn
Triple H wasn’t the only former D-Generation X member to defeat Kane in 1999. June of that year brought the King of the Ring pay-per-view, with both Kane and Billy Gunn entering the eponymous tournament that year. After defeating The Big Show in the first round, Kane took on Gunn in the semi-finals, with the latter pulling out the win. For Billy Gunn, Kane proved to be a stepping stone on the way to winning the entire tournament.
2 Hardcore Holly
During that aforementioned Big Show vs. Kane match at King of the Ring, perennial midcarder Hardcore Holly interfered in the proceedings, resulting in Holly eating a chokeslam from Kane. As a result, Kane and Holly had a match the following night on Raw, which Holly won due to interference from The Big Show. That didn’t put too much of a damper on Kane’s day, however, as the monster got up and delivered multiple chokeslams to Hardcore Holly in the aftermath.
1 The Big Show
The three-way enmity between Kane, The Big Show, and Hardcore Holly carried over to the following pay-per-view, Fully Loaded. The result wasn’t a Triple Threat, as one might expect, but instead a singles match between The Big Show and Kane, with Holly as a guest referee. Big Show ended up coming out on top in the contest, but it was hardly a fair fight — Hardcore Holly proved to be a crooked official, attacking Kane and then doing a fast-count to give Big Show the win.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKeoqqSowaa%2BjZympmenrLJussirqq1lp6eytMDLnqmsZZSas6at02aimqaVYrCpvs6npqWnl56woriMqKmdnaJk