
The pro wrestling landscape in 2002 was a weird place.
To many fans, the end of the vaunted “Attitude Era” culminated at WrestleMania X-Seven (or “seventeen”, for people who don’t hate roman numerals), when the biggest star in company history “Stone Cold” Steve Austin turned heel (bad guy). While Austin has often cited creative burnout with being a top babyface, the move to turn heel would negatively impact WWE’s business in ways that are still being felt today.
In the coming year, Vince McMahon and company would run an invasion storyline after he purchased WCW and kinda-sorta-halfway purchased the right to ECW from Paul Heyman, who didn’t own the copyright, but that’s another story for another time. The InVasion angle largely fizzled due to a lack of big name stars from WCW, many of whom had performed in WWE previously, like Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. By time 2002 rolled around, WWE was still in a creative funk.
The WWE tried to revitalize the nWo concept, but fans would not boo Hulk Hogan, who hadn’t wrestled with the company since 1994. Chris Jericho would go on to become one of the most legendary and long-lasting acts of all time, but was still treated like a mid-carder in his WWE Undisputed Championship run.
A series of high profile absenses further hurt WWE. While Austin returned to being a babyface in 2002, by the spring, burnt out, beat up, and unwilling to lose to Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifier on a random episode of RAW, he headed home to Texas. The Rock, the other bonafied star of the Attitude Era, had gotten his first taste of Hollywood after a turn in The Mummy Returns, and would then go on to helm his own movie, The Scorpion King. Following a brief return to put over Lesnar, The Rock also disappeared from screens.
This happened amid a brand split from WWE, wherein the WWE’s two weekly primetime television shows, RAW and SmackDown! (yes, they always have to be written like that, don’t ask me why) were treated as separate entities operating under the WWE banner. While the move was supposed to mimic the competition people experienced during the Monday Night Wars, it took what was increasingly a painfully thin roster and stretched it even further.
While Paul Heyman would construct a roster known as the SmackDown! Six and build SmackDown into a show that actually competed with Monday Night RAW (spoiler warning: Vince would later cut the legs out from SmackDown, because he couldn’t stand the thought of his own show being successful, amassing ratings and making money primarily on the work of Paul Heyman’s ideas), RAW’s roster was decidedly weaker.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Mark “The Undertaker” Calloway were perhaps the biggest names still around without The Rock and Stone Cold to drive business. The Undertaker was placed on SmackDown! to anchor the show and continue to put up Brock Lesnar as the company’s “Next Big Thing”. Triple H, therefore, would be tasked with anchoring Monday Night RAW.
It went poorly, to say the least.
While Triple H was almost certainly one of the biggest stars in the company, his ability to draw was largely dependent on having marquee names across from him. Without a star the caliber of The Rock or Austin to bounce off, Triple H was figuratively and literally able to steamroll anyone who came his way. The power vacuum left by Austin, Rock, Undertaker and even respected veterans like Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero on RAW meant that Triple H was able to expand his political pull backstage, which naturally benefited his character on stage.
The only big name left from the Attitude Era on RAW was Glenn “Yes, He Is Actually a Mayor Now, Don’t Be Surprised When He Runs for Congress” Jacobs, better known as Kane. Kane had one of the better introductions into the then-WWF by virtue of being “related” to his “brother” The Undertaker. Kane was immediately placed as a main event level talent who could also hang in the midcard and elevate himself and talent as well. After a long absence from injury, Kane returned, sporting a new look and some un-before seen charisma.
Kane beat Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship on September 30th. At the time, he also held the WWE Tag Team Championships with a wrestler named The Hurricane, who thought he was a superhero. (Wrestling is weird.) Since his return, Kane had been nye-on unstoppable, and with a crowd who was already kind of over Triple H’s dirt mall Ric Flair act, it seemed inevitable that the two would collide.
And collide did they ever.
It started innocently enough; with a unification match for the Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Championships announced for WWE’s October pay-per-view No Mercy. At the time, the RAW’s onscreen general manager Eric Bischoff was pushing for “One Show, One Champion”. The idea seemed to be that, with there only being one championship on the show, it would make all the other wrestlers want to gun for the World Heavyweight Championship. In practice, it simply left most of RAW’s midcarders with nothing to do and nothing to fight for, especially since the Hardcore and European Championships had already been absorbed by the Intercontinental Championship.
But still, the letter of the idea was sound. The fans loved Kane and were popping for him louder than any other good guy. The fans hated Triple H, who had “crippled” Shawn Michaels, and then was literally handed the championship by the evil boss. This should have been a straight forward match-up between champions.
Instead it was…just…not.
It started innocently enough; on the October 7th episode of Monday Night RAW, Triple H and his manager/lackey Ric Flair (yes, Ric Flair played Triple H’s lackey) attacked The Hurricane ahead of their scheduled defense for the World Tag Team Championships in TLC 4 (back when the Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches were actually numbered, before they happened so damn often that they literally got a pay-per-view devoted to them). Kane fought valiantly and managed to retain the tag team championship by himself, further cementing his status as RAW’s new number one babyface.
And then came Triple H, sauntering onto stage. Triple H smarmly asks Kane if he remembers a woman named “Katie Vick”, while the crowd, which had previously been going crazy for Kane, murmured in awkward silence. Triple H then announced that 10 years prior, Kane had killed Katie Vick, and that he was a murderer.
Now…to understand why this is puzzling to wrestling fans (before we get to the part that is puzzling to everyone), you have to understand the lore behind the Kane character. In kayfabe, Kane was severely burned in a fire at the funeral home his mother and stepfather owned. (It was revealed that Paul Bearer was actually his father after Kane spending most of his life thinking his stepfather was his actual father. Again, wrestling is weird.) Kane spent much of his formative years in institutions, and was only taken out when Paul Bearer needed him to exact revenge on Kane. Wrestling fans had been paying new that as far as kayfabe was confirmed, Chyna had been Kane’s first “crush”, and that Tori had been his first girlfriend. X-Pac was his first real friend. It sounds silly, and it is silly, but those story beats had formed much of the reason why fans had been able to empathise with Kane, even when he was being a big nasty heel.
Now, suddenly, there was an aspect to Kane’s origin that made no sense given what we’d been told about the character. It’d be like if you see how Tony Stark becomes Iron Man in the first movie, watched Iron Man 2 and 3, and then there’s an end credits scene where the Mandarin says “well actually, Tony Stark was Iron Man before the first movie, and he shot a dog with his repulsor beams”. It would only get worse from there.
Kane would show up on the October 14th episode of RAW and attempt to explain himself, in a way that further eroded the mystique of the character. In Kane’s recollection, he and Katie had been at a party together. Katie had a little too much to drink, so Kane decided to drive her home. Unfortunately, Kane didn’t know how to drive a manual (this is actually a plot point in this stupid angle) and, when an animal jumped out in front of them, Kane swerved off the road to avoid it. Kane only broke his arm, but Katie was killed instantly.
This storyline would be trite even for Saved by the Bell, but it would’ve been fine if that had been it. Kane insists Katie’s death was an accident, Triple H keeps calling him a murderer to play mind games with him, Kane chokeslams Triple H all the way to hell and wins the World Heavyweight Championship, baddaboom, baddabing, everyone is happy.
…Instead, what happens is Triple H coming out again. Because Triple H is either clairvoyant or has spent months researching previously unknown information on co-worker, Triple H informs the world that Kane was also drinking! (GASP!) And also he was in love with Katie Vick! (DOUBLE GASP!) And that when they had done in autopsy on Katie, they found semen! (…ewww…).
It’s important to note that at no point does Kane actually refute any of Triple H’s claims. He has been called a murderer, and it is heavily implied he is a necrophiliac, and Kane largely stands there and takes the criticism.
But wait…it gets worse.
On the following episode of RAW, Triple H tell Jonathan “The Guy Who Works the Latest of Latest Shifts on ESPN 8: The Ocho” Coachman that he obtained footage of Kane from Katie’s funeral. What proceeds to happen in the next five minutes is one of the grossest, most insane things that’s happened in pro wrestling.
Triple H, wearing a Kane mask, enters a funeral parlor with a mannequin inside of the casket. Triple H then gropes the mannequin (leading to his hand being blurred), then strips down to his skivvies and proceeds to simulate sex with a dead corpse. The skit is on the line that I’m sure made Vince McMahon, a weird man who once proposed a storyline wherein he would be the father of his daughter’s unborn child, guffaw in evil delight. “I did it; I screwed your brains out”.
WWE’s Attitude Era was rife with problems. It’s treatment of women was sophomoric at best and morally bankrupt at worse; their homophobia led a character of the show to say things like “England ain’t nothin’ but a place full of f-words”. Despite touting their Make-A-Wish contribution, there was a solid year where Kane was repeatedly called a “Big Red Retard”.
Those things were not okay.
In 2002, though, the toxicity ramped to eleven in the midst of RAW and SmackDown’s post-Attitude Era ratings slide. They faked a gay wedding, leading to GLAAD actually sending them a gravy boat, only for the characters to scream “WE’RE NOT GAY! NOT THAT WE DON’T LIKE GAY PEOPLE!”. Molly Holly was one of the companies best workers, but she was repeatedly called fat by RAW announcer and literal-actual-accused child molester Jerry “The King” Lawler, and Chris “The Guy Has Done Revolutionary Research on CTE and Was Just Doing His Job But It’s Still Gross” Nowinski boldly proclaiming how he couldn’t wait to “break her hymen” because Molly was playing a character who was a virgin. Vince McMahon let Eric Bischoff refer to Linda “Actually Had a Role in the U.S Government” McMahon as a “big breasted beauty” and fondled her breasts before forcing a kiss on her. In a SmackDown! storyline, Dawn Marie coerced Torrie Wilson into having sex with her in a bid to get Marie to stop having sex with her father Al Wilson.
If the humor of the Attitude Era could best be described as “sophomoric” and “immature”, the humor of the dawning Ruthless Aggression era could be defined by being as gross and abhorrent as possible, all while the company wondered why less and less people were watching it and gravitating towards the fledgling UFC. Maybe no one wants to see their wrestlers mock bang a corpse on a Monday night, and they definitely don’t want their kids to see it.
To put a cap on the storyline, later in the night, Kane beats down Triple H, throws him in a trunk, and more or less threatens to rape him.
…So…naturally, the reactions to the segment ranged from “appalled” to “welp, I’m never watching that shit again”. Rather than apologizing, Triple H came out to the ring with the Katie Vick mannequin. In a long promo, Triple H berated the fans for not being able to take a joke, in words that I can only imagine were personally penned by McMahon himself. They tried to make up for it by airing a segment wherein a dummy with a Triple H mask had objects removed from his ass, which is exactly as tone deaf as you’re imagining it is.
By the time No Mercy rolled around, Kane’s forward momentum had been completely halted. The crowds which had roared for him before were no longer interested in seeing him. The boos at Triple H were less because he was an effective heel, and more because he was a boring guy who was clearly put in his position because there were no other good choices, ironically because Triple H kept handedly beating them in title matches. Triple H retained the World Heavyweight Championship, dissolved the Intercontinental Championship, and Kane was dead in the water. Triple H’s “comeuppance” would only come in a casket match the following night, which Kane won with an assist from a returning Shawn Michaels, kicking off a feud that started off gold and then, much like COVID-19, just stuck around, sucking the life out of everything that surrounded it.
The Katie Vick storyline is infamous, and Triple H has deflected most of the criticism regarding his participation as a “Vince asked me to” thing. He doesn’t say that he ever refused to do the story, as his wife Stephanie did with the aforementioned “Vince is the father of his daughter’s baby” story. (Fun fact: when Vince couldn’t figure out why Stephanie was grossed out by the idea, he instead insisted his son Shane should be the father instead.) Jacobs barely mentions the angle in his recent autobiography, because, ya know, a sitting mayor being in a storyline where he allegedly rapes a corpse and threatens to rape a co-worker is probably not a good look.
WWE is probably at it’s most profitable and visible at the moment, despite being stagnant and dead in the water creatively. Let’s all hope they never get desperate enough to dive deep into the well of classic “gems” like this for storyline ideas.
I remember watching that and feeling pretty gross afterward. WWE creative is the worst. They are just consistently missing the mark. Sixth graders could write more imaginative story lines. But then again if the product were better, they wouldn’t need “story lines” to begin with.
I just read Shoemaker’s book about a month ago. I thought it was really well done.