Post by KingSnoop on May 5, 2006 23:20:29 GMT -5
Kane Interview
WWE monster talks movies and the mat.
by Jon Robinson
May 4, 2006 - May 19. If you've watched WWE the past month, you know the date of Kane's movie release sends the crazed wrestler into a violent rage. But what about the flick makes Kane insane?
"The date actually holds significance to Kane beyond the movie," The Big Red Machine told me over the phone as I asked him about his head-smashing ways. "I'm not going to spoil it, but you'll find out more in the coming weeks."
And it should be an interesting few weeks for Kane, who is ready to see his movie, See No Evil, debut in theaters while his feud with The Big Show continues to heat up.
"It feels strange to be the small guy in the ring," Kane says with a laugh.
Here's what else the wrestler so scary they turned him into a movie murderer had to say about See No Evil, wrestlers as athletes, and who he would like to feud with in the coming months.
IGN Sports: Growing up, did you used to look in the mirror and think 'Movie star'?
Kane: I looked in the mirror and saw a lot of stuff, but movie star was never one of them. This is a natural role for me, honestly, based upon what I do in the wrestling ring. It translates very well to the big screen.
IGN Sports: Does being on the male soap opera known as Raw make for a natural transition to the movies?
Kane: Yeah, because we do a lot of the same things with our television product that happen when you're filming for a movie. It wasn't very difficult for me to adapt.
IGN Sports: What is tougher for you, doing stunts for the movie or in the ring?
Kane: They are both completely different. What we do in the ring is so very physical and you only have one shot to do it. Physically, WWE is much more demanding than what you'll find in a movie, although I did my own stunts, and there was an amount of activity, but it isn't anything close to the amount of physicality that goes on in a WWE ring.
IGN Sports: Do you think with wrestling having the Sports Entertainment label, the average fan thinks the wrestlers are more protected than they actually are in terms of steel chairs and ladders and steps that you guys get hit with?
Kane: Absolutely. People all the time come up and ask how we do this or how we do that, and there isn't any secret to it. You're just getting bashed with something, and you're either a man and you take it, or you're not. People don't realize the toughness of WWE superstars.
IGN Sports: Obviously you're not the first wrestler to star in a movie. Do you have a favorite movie starring a wrestler?
Kane: I always liked They Live with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. I thought that was cool. And I think what The Rock has been able to accomplish has been amazing. He has just done a phenomenal job in all of the movies he has been in.
IGN Sports: How similar is the Kane character to the character you play in See No Evil?
Kane: They are very similar, actually. I would say that if Jacob Goodnight was a wrestler, he'd be Kane. As far as the character development with the two, both of us had horrible childhoods and both of us do essentially the same thing, using our size to achieve our objectives. In WWE that means I beat them up. In See No Evil I take care of them permanently.
IGN Sports: It must be a compliment to the creepiness of Kane that they would ask you to star in a horror movie.
Kane: It says something about my work, for sure.
IGN Sports: What's the basic story of the movie?
Kane: It's about a group of delinquents who are on a work release program, and they go to this abandoned hotel to do some community service to get some time taken off of their sentences. Unbeknownst to them, it happens to be the lair of Jacob Goodnight, who is an extremely large, psychopathic, sociopath. What happens after they meet up is good for fans of the movie and good for Jacob, but very bad for the kids. The really cool thing about this movie, when I was younger I was a big fan of Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween and Friday the 13th to some extent, and this movie is much harder, and much more of a throwback in the level of violence and the level of gore to those movies than what has more recently been promoted as horror movies. If you're a fan of those types of movies, you're definitely going to like this.
IGN Sports: After fans see the movie, what can they expect out of Kane's future in the ring? Is there anyone in the business you haven't had a chance to work with yet that you'd like to feud with?
Kane: John Cena. We've never had an actual match. The only times we've ever been in the ring together, we were on the same side of a six-man tag, and then we both in the Royal Rumble in Fresno two years ago. He would be the one guy right now I'd love to have a match with, especially a championship match.
IGN Sports: It's incredible how strong Cena is.
Kane: Oh yeah, when he picked up The Big Show, that was amazing. Then the other night, he picked up Triple H and Edge at the same time and gave them both the F-U.
IGN Sports: What's it like being in the ring with The Big Show?
Kane: I get to trade roles. I get to be the faster, smaller guy. I have to change my tactics a little bit. Normally I work on overpowering my opponent, but against someone like The Big Show, that's not going to happen. When you fight someone bigger than you, you need to work on your movement, time your shots, and when you know you can get one in, make sure it's a big one.
IGN Sports: You talk about the ability to change roles from strength to speed. Do you think wrestlers are underrated athletes?
Kane: I do, especially when you see guys like Shelton Benjamin. He's one of the best athletes I've seen in any sport, bar none. He's just unbelievable. Rob Van Dam and the stuff he does, and don't forget The Big Show and Mark Henry. Those are two of the most powerful men in anything. Then you take a guy like me or Undertaker and we're the size of NFL linemen, but we can jump and we can run and we can do a lot of very athletic things, especially when you're talking about guys who are nearly seven feet tall and over 300 pounds. I would definitely say the WWE superstars are underrated athletically. In fact, that's one of the things that always attracted me to wrestling. How the guys not only did what they did well, but I always thought they were so gifted athletically.
IGN Sports: What's the hardest you've ever been hit in the ring?
Kane: I've gotten knocked out a few times. The worst thing that ever happened to me was in Tucson, Arizona. I had a cage match against Triple H when he was in D-X. Chyna was my manager at the time and X-Pac came to ringside and slammed my head in the cage door. It opened up about a three inch long cut all the way down to my skull and almost knocked me out. As I was laying there in my own blood, I was wishing it would've knocked me out. [laughs] I've played basketball and football, and I've been hit harder in WWE that I ever got hit playing football.
IGN Sports: Coming from a basketball background, how would you rate Raja Bell's clothesline of Kobe? Was it JBL worthy?
Kane: No, man, I missed it. I knew Kobe got kicked out, but I didn't know what precipitated his ejection. I wish I could rate it, but if it got Kobe kicked out, I'll give it a 10. Shaq was my man. I'll leave it at that.
IGN Sports: With the craziness of the Kane character and the back story involved, do you find that you have some of the craziest fans?
Kane: Yeah. I think Undertaker is also that way. Not only the "crazy" fans, but I think our fans, not just because of the craziness of the character but because of the storyline between the two, we attract very dedicated fans. The people that are Kane fans, they're always there. No matter what I do, they're always very supportive. So I would say, yeah, I attract crazy fans and I also attract fans who are crazy about us and about me. Because Kane does have a history in WWE, a lot of people have been attracted to the mystery and the mystique.
IGN Sports: And the mystery is about to deepen once we figure out what the true significance of May 19 is.
Kane: Exactly.
May 19. You know what to do…head to theaters and see Kane in See No Evil. Just don't go around saying the date too loud. You never know where the big man might be lurking.
WWE monster talks movies and the mat.
by Jon Robinson
May 4, 2006 - May 19. If you've watched WWE the past month, you know the date of Kane's movie release sends the crazed wrestler into a violent rage. But what about the flick makes Kane insane?
"The date actually holds significance to Kane beyond the movie," The Big Red Machine told me over the phone as I asked him about his head-smashing ways. "I'm not going to spoil it, but you'll find out more in the coming weeks."
And it should be an interesting few weeks for Kane, who is ready to see his movie, See No Evil, debut in theaters while his feud with The Big Show continues to heat up.
"It feels strange to be the small guy in the ring," Kane says with a laugh.
Here's what else the wrestler so scary they turned him into a movie murderer had to say about See No Evil, wrestlers as athletes, and who he would like to feud with in the coming months.
IGN Sports: Growing up, did you used to look in the mirror and think 'Movie star'?
Kane: I looked in the mirror and saw a lot of stuff, but movie star was never one of them. This is a natural role for me, honestly, based upon what I do in the wrestling ring. It translates very well to the big screen.
IGN Sports: Does being on the male soap opera known as Raw make for a natural transition to the movies?
Kane: Yeah, because we do a lot of the same things with our television product that happen when you're filming for a movie. It wasn't very difficult for me to adapt.
IGN Sports: What is tougher for you, doing stunts for the movie or in the ring?
Kane: They are both completely different. What we do in the ring is so very physical and you only have one shot to do it. Physically, WWE is much more demanding than what you'll find in a movie, although I did my own stunts, and there was an amount of activity, but it isn't anything close to the amount of physicality that goes on in a WWE ring.
IGN Sports: Do you think with wrestling having the Sports Entertainment label, the average fan thinks the wrestlers are more protected than they actually are in terms of steel chairs and ladders and steps that you guys get hit with?
Kane: Absolutely. People all the time come up and ask how we do this or how we do that, and there isn't any secret to it. You're just getting bashed with something, and you're either a man and you take it, or you're not. People don't realize the toughness of WWE superstars.
IGN Sports: Obviously you're not the first wrestler to star in a movie. Do you have a favorite movie starring a wrestler?
Kane: I always liked They Live with "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. I thought that was cool. And I think what The Rock has been able to accomplish has been amazing. He has just done a phenomenal job in all of the movies he has been in.
IGN Sports: How similar is the Kane character to the character you play in See No Evil?
Kane: They are very similar, actually. I would say that if Jacob Goodnight was a wrestler, he'd be Kane. As far as the character development with the two, both of us had horrible childhoods and both of us do essentially the same thing, using our size to achieve our objectives. In WWE that means I beat them up. In See No Evil I take care of them permanently.
IGN Sports: It must be a compliment to the creepiness of Kane that they would ask you to star in a horror movie.
Kane: It says something about my work, for sure.
IGN Sports: What's the basic story of the movie?
Kane: It's about a group of delinquents who are on a work release program, and they go to this abandoned hotel to do some community service to get some time taken off of their sentences. Unbeknownst to them, it happens to be the lair of Jacob Goodnight, who is an extremely large, psychopathic, sociopath. What happens after they meet up is good for fans of the movie and good for Jacob, but very bad for the kids. The really cool thing about this movie, when I was younger I was a big fan of Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween and Friday the 13th to some extent, and this movie is much harder, and much more of a throwback in the level of violence and the level of gore to those movies than what has more recently been promoted as horror movies. If you're a fan of those types of movies, you're definitely going to like this.
IGN Sports: After fans see the movie, what can they expect out of Kane's future in the ring? Is there anyone in the business you haven't had a chance to work with yet that you'd like to feud with?
Kane: John Cena. We've never had an actual match. The only times we've ever been in the ring together, we were on the same side of a six-man tag, and then we both in the Royal Rumble in Fresno two years ago. He would be the one guy right now I'd love to have a match with, especially a championship match.
IGN Sports: It's incredible how strong Cena is.
Kane: Oh yeah, when he picked up The Big Show, that was amazing. Then the other night, he picked up Triple H and Edge at the same time and gave them both the F-U.
IGN Sports: What's it like being in the ring with The Big Show?
Kane: I get to trade roles. I get to be the faster, smaller guy. I have to change my tactics a little bit. Normally I work on overpowering my opponent, but against someone like The Big Show, that's not going to happen. When you fight someone bigger than you, you need to work on your movement, time your shots, and when you know you can get one in, make sure it's a big one.
IGN Sports: You talk about the ability to change roles from strength to speed. Do you think wrestlers are underrated athletes?
Kane: I do, especially when you see guys like Shelton Benjamin. He's one of the best athletes I've seen in any sport, bar none. He's just unbelievable. Rob Van Dam and the stuff he does, and don't forget The Big Show and Mark Henry. Those are two of the most powerful men in anything. Then you take a guy like me or Undertaker and we're the size of NFL linemen, but we can jump and we can run and we can do a lot of very athletic things, especially when you're talking about guys who are nearly seven feet tall and over 300 pounds. I would definitely say the WWE superstars are underrated athletically. In fact, that's one of the things that always attracted me to wrestling. How the guys not only did what they did well, but I always thought they were so gifted athletically.
IGN Sports: What's the hardest you've ever been hit in the ring?
Kane: I've gotten knocked out a few times. The worst thing that ever happened to me was in Tucson, Arizona. I had a cage match against Triple H when he was in D-X. Chyna was my manager at the time and X-Pac came to ringside and slammed my head in the cage door. It opened up about a three inch long cut all the way down to my skull and almost knocked me out. As I was laying there in my own blood, I was wishing it would've knocked me out. [laughs] I've played basketball and football, and I've been hit harder in WWE that I ever got hit playing football.
IGN Sports: Coming from a basketball background, how would you rate Raja Bell's clothesline of Kobe? Was it JBL worthy?
Kane: No, man, I missed it. I knew Kobe got kicked out, but I didn't know what precipitated his ejection. I wish I could rate it, but if it got Kobe kicked out, I'll give it a 10. Shaq was my man. I'll leave it at that.
IGN Sports: With the craziness of the Kane character and the back story involved, do you find that you have some of the craziest fans?
Kane: Yeah. I think Undertaker is also that way. Not only the "crazy" fans, but I think our fans, not just because of the craziness of the character but because of the storyline between the two, we attract very dedicated fans. The people that are Kane fans, they're always there. No matter what I do, they're always very supportive. So I would say, yeah, I attract crazy fans and I also attract fans who are crazy about us and about me. Because Kane does have a history in WWE, a lot of people have been attracted to the mystery and the mystique.
IGN Sports: And the mystery is about to deepen once we figure out what the true significance of May 19 is.
Kane: Exactly.
May 19. You know what to do…head to theaters and see Kane in See No Evil. Just don't go around saying the date too loud. You never know where the big man might be lurking.