Kane Credits The Undertaker With Saving WWE During the Mid-1990s

Before “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was the biggest wrestling star in the world and the Attitude Era was in full swing, the WWE found itself floundering back in the mid-1990s. Between the steroid scandal and WCW scooping up a bunch of its biggest stars, the company scrambled to try and build up new main event stars like Bret Hart and Diesel, and the many of the angles from that era aren’t remembered fondly. But there was one bona fide main eventer, The Undertaker, who never left the company no matter how bad things got. In a new interview with The Radio Times, Kane (real name Glenn Jacobs) argued his decision to stay with WWE was a big reason why the company survived.

“When I came to WWE in 1995, things were terrible, frankly,” Kane said. “He was the the guy who was leading the charge into the Attitude Era and [Steve] Austin came along, The Rock came along, Undertaker was still in the mix. We see Austin and The Rock as highs, but the reason the company survived to reach those highs was because of a guy like The Undertaker and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for that.”

During a recent interview with Bill Simmons, Undertaker said it was around that time he stepped up as locker room leader.

“I would have to say around ’95, ’96,” Undertaker said. “That time period is when it became a talking point. Believe me, I had plenty of good times but nothing came before business. I don’t care how late you stayed out the night before or what you did, at bell time it’s go time and you’re not going to be hungover or drag ass because you had a pretty good night the night before. That’s how it started and then people just trusted me.

“I had this connection with Vince and normally when a talent is tight with somebody in the office then there is a stooge, well I never got that,” he added. “Everybody knew I was able to go and talk to Vince and talk to our talent and give them my perspective and what I had seen. I think they appreciated the fact I didn’t play one side against the other and I was a pretty good spot to start when guys had issues. I handled things in the locker room before they ever had to go to management.”