10 Wrestling Moments That Couldn't Live Up To The Hype
2. What's In Kane's Bag? (WWE Raw, August 11th 2008)
The year was 2008 and if that doesn't marry up with the title of the entry in your memory, consider yourself forgiven. WWE's gradual move to PG was ongoing and would eventually yield quite the impressive in-ring turnaround in the early part of the 2010s, but there's a reason this period was defined almost entirely by the Chris Jericho/Shawn Michaels series.
Little else mattered, though the company stumbled on a mystery angle so fundamentally silly and carefully nostalgic that it worked in creating a modicum of suspense. What the f*ck was in Kane's burlap sack, and in the 'Big Red Machine's own words, "Is he alive or is he dead?"
He first spouted the phrase after losing a Number One Contender's match on Monday Night Raw, not long after being drafted away from an actually-not-terrible run as ECW champion. Who was the he? And was he alive or dead? The plot was as thick as your writer felt watching it.
Was it Paul Heyman, the former architect of Extreme? Perhaps Vince McMahon after he'd been flattened by his own Million Dollar Mania set? Or did McMahon the commentator have the answer all the way back in '97 when he wailed "that's gotta be Kane!" to herald his iconic arrival?
Gumshoe General Manager Mike Adamle believed so, and reckoned upon the bag having an old Kane mask in as this new version of the person got to grips with it being "dead" forever. 1-0 to him and to all of us, it was Rey Mysterio. Yes, Kane had beat the sh*t of of him to near-death, then spent weeks carrying the mask as a trophy.
We'd not seen footage of any attack before the reveal, but we could pay for the revenge matches. What a time to be alive...or are we dead?