One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WWE History
25. 2000 - The WWF Nearly Booked An Explosion Match
At WrestleMania 2000, Kane teamed with Rikishi to beat X-Pac and Road Dogg. It was one of several matches booked to get as many names as possible on the card in what was a bizarre historical curio: just one singles match took place on the show. It was dire, but in WWE’s defence, so many of those names were over.
WWE was right to reward Rikishi with the spot. He had exploded very suddenly in popularity - and on the subject of explosions, his inclusion in the Kane Vs. X-Pac programme helped to thwart the original plan.
Kane Vs. X-Pac was first envisaged as a singles match, and the idea thrown around - just long enough for WWE to look into the logistics, anyway - was for it to be wrestled under Exploding Death match rules. Obviously, that never happened. It was a very un-WWF thing, even in the experimental, dangerous turn of the century landscape. There was no way of doing it well, creative surmised, especially indoors.
And what a pity.
Kane staggering around and doing very little in the way of movement before getting over in a stunt was the role he was born to play.