Well, so much for my retirement. This was just an overlooked gem I came across after erasing it from Notepad but now I've brought it back and just in time. Let me just begin something here: If there was any justice, Kane would be a World Heavyweight Champion and be taken seriously as a credible monster heel. Rather it has anything to do with the substandard booking or some sort of corporal punishment, these have been three horrendously rotten years for Glenn Jacobs. From being squashed by the Undertaker to being put in some ridiculously incoherent pregnancy storyline to having to job to the talent-less slug Gene Snitsky and feud with him by the end of the year, Jacobs deserves better than to be utilized in some amateurish and unintelligibly silly story angles and be treated like a jobber to the star (and this was from last year alone!).

His outing at WrestleMania XXI gave me high hopes for a better future instead after that, he has gone from a credible main event threat to feuding with the no-talent Viscera and be put in hopeless situations involving Lita, reducing his heat and deceiving the kayfabe of being a face or a heel.

That's not to say this is the first time he's put through one embarrassment to another; Glenn Jacobs has been put in bad situations and even worse gimmicks prior to his recent outing...before and after he became the Big Red Machine, he was a dentist, a copyright infringement of Diesel, a freakin' clown with Christmas decorations and a murderer of some female named Katie Vick. If anyone were put in his shoes, they would've shot themselves. Gimmicks like this would've been considered career suicide to any wrestler that were utilized them. I mean, we're talking about gimmicks and character traits even worse than G.I. Bro, even worse than Glacier and even ten times worse the goody-two-shoe Doink the Clown.

Even going through these horrendous gimmicks and ridiculous booking decisions, however, Glenn Jacobs deserves my respect for working as hard as he could just so that he can put some fans' butts on their seats, even though he's part of some of the worst storylines in wrestling history. Jacobs, for his huge size, is a decent worker who can have good-to-great matches if put with some talented athletes. His matches with Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle are the some of the best in his entire career and his mic-skills are impeccable in a sort of an old-school feeling.

Sadly, fans will never be able to connect to Kane the same way they had when he debut in 1997 as the Undertaker's "brother". It's a shame really because Kane, for all his flaws, is actually a competent wrestler that can do wonders given his size. I mean, look at the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania XXI and see him flying in the air on top of five of his opponents. You think the Big Show or Batista would be able to do something that? Sure, the Undertaker did it but he did it perfectly when he was healthy. We're talking about a guy who's been in this sport for nearly a decade and can still execute a beautiful top-rope clothesline at 320 pounds. But thanks to all the ludicrous angles he's been involved in, no one will ever look at Kane and say that "you're one of my favorite wrestlers and I like you". Kane was a monster heel to end all monster heels...who could ever forget his feud with the Undertaker where he was so extremely dominant not even the Mastadon Vader could penetrate his offense. The fact that he won the WWF title just seven months after his debut is a strong accomplishment. Unfortunately, he held it for one day and became nothing more than a lackey for the Undertaker, the Corporation and X-Pac. After that, his success in the WWE has been less than stellar from being an inspiring monster to being a posterboy of the necrophilia storyline to ridiculing in unbelievable (as if to say NOT BELIEVABLE) battles with Shane McMahon and the Undertaker and then jobbing to the likes of Matt Hardy, Shawn Michaels, Gene Snitsky and most recently, Edge. Kane's career has fallen apart faster than a 2002 Guns N' Roses tour.

At the same time, however, you can't help but feel some sympathy and admiration for a guy that has endured more public humiliations on a live television show than Ashlee Simpson and Courtney Love combined. So far, from last to this year, he has jobbed in more pay-per-views than Barry Horowitz during his 1995 run. That's bad, folks. Really BAD!! Meanwhile, his other "brother" gives some of the worst matches in wrestling and gets a title shot at a PPV three times where Kane hasn't had any title shot or rematches on a pay-per-view since Badd Blood, even though he's a much superior worker, a healthier wrestler and makes his opponents look better than the Undertaker has ever done since his 2000 return.

I mean, look at the differences between Kane and the Undertaker and how their careers have unfolded lately. Whenever Glenn Jacobs is in a ring with a superb talent like Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels, he makes them look like competent underdogs, selling their offense and then getting pinned cleanly like a man. Whenever you see the Undertaker in the ring with guys like Eddie Guerrero or Booker T, he at times treats them like impotent jobbers and crushes their credibility. I mean, is kicking out of two signature frog splashes at Armageddon 2004 considered making your opponent look good. No, it just reduces the impact of the finisher as a whole. Also, Taker and Kane have had matches with no-talent hosses like Gene Snitsky and Heindenreich but the after-match is so strikingly contrasting that even a brain-dead five-year old can notice a pattern. If Kane beats Snitsky, he has to have TWO MORE matches without the benefit of having his career being pushed. Meanwhile, Taker beats Heidenreich and the Dudleyz and he's already the no. I contender for the WWE title. That doesn't mean I dislike the Undertaker. I always had respect for Taker's previous accomplishments and legacy but how is this fair when you have a dedicated wrestler that treats his opponent like a monster, wins and doesn't get push while the other treats his opponent like a monster, beating him and HE ends up getting the push. Kane is a better worker and he gets de-pushed. Undertaker is an average wrestler and HE gets a deafening push like he just beat Triple H in an iron-man match.

This defies logic in many levels of qualities.

Yet despite all this, Glenn Jacobs doesn't care about how bad the storylines damage his reputation, as long as he goes out, works his butt off and gives everything he has to make sure that they are almost worthwhile. Kane may not be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time but his survival through all these horrific gimmicks and these lobotomizing angles is fascinating and the fact that he continues to do this takes guts and I mean, a lot of guts to do. That is why Kane is, at times, the REAL PHENOM and not the Undertaker. Because while the Undertaker has been laden with terrible storylines, awful opponents and atrocious matches before, Kane has being continuing to follow this procedure time and time again without the benefit of a main event push since his WWE return...and can still provide the energy and entertainment to make them seem interesting. It's just too bad fans aren't taking him seriously. If the fans were to understand the pressure of what Jacobs has been going through, they'd be behind him and give him a large babyface pop that is just as loud as John Cena or boo him for the right reasons. So far, Kane was caught in an uproariously horrendous and convoluted storyline involving Matt Hardy, Edge and Lita and has become nothing but an afterthought... ...until now.

Kane returns after a few month hiatus and is automatically put in the WWE Title picture at long last for Taboo Tuesday. It seems that finally we might be able to forget about the atrocities that were his storylines and get the re-motivated monster that we wanted. There IS great hope for the Big Red Machine after all. Let's just that hope doesn't fade as much as his previous pushes.

If Kane wins the World title (as if it will ever happen but we can dream on), then it will make me happy because if anyone deserves to be the leader of RAW for at least a day after what he had to go through for the past couple of years, it would be Glenn Jacobs: The Real Phenom, The Big Red Machine and the Monster Known as Kane.

by Joe L. --- [View Joe L's Column Index]..