In 1997, in a rather cartoony
angle, the
WWF split up
The Undertaker with his long time manager, Paul Bearer. In order to get revenge, Bearer revealed that 'taker had a past: as a boy, he started a fire in which his parents and brother died. Later it was revealed that not only was Kane alive (though baddly scarred and muted), but he was in fact Paul Bearer's child by Undertaker's mother.
When the WWF finally brought in Kane (his name a play on the story of Cain and Abel), it was noted with some amount of amusement that this huge, deadly, red masked bohemoth was in fact the same wrestler who earlier played the part of the deadly dentist Isacc Yankem. Kane demonstrated his outrage with the world by chokeslamming and tombstoning every wrestler in sight: his style was little more than an adaptation of that of Undertaker.
In time, Kane was liberalized into a face when he turned on Bearer. For a time he tag teamed with X-Pac, and they won the world title. Several attempts, peaking around this time, were made to make Kane's speaking allowable, although up to this point, they have been failures. X-Pac turned on Kane, and for a short time afterward Kane was managed by Tori. Tori in turn sided with X-Pac. This caused Kane to bring Paul Bearer back.
Titles:
Former WWF Heavyweight Champion.
3-time former WWF Tag Team Champion.