On July 14th 2003 WWE presented Raw from Indianapolis Indiana. On this night one of WWE's greatest monsters turned corporate stooge, crossed the line and set a man on fire, that man was Jim Ross.
A few weeks earlier on June 23rd, Kane lost a match with Triple H, back when he was the bearer of the golden shovel, and thus was forced to take his mask off. When he debuted in 1997 he did everything he could to goad the Undertaker into facing him, culminating in a match at Wrestlemania 14. He struck people with lightning, and hit Vader in the face with a hammer, all to get what he wanted. This version of Kane however, was indiscriminate in his violence, just like the great horror monsters of the big screen.
On this night Jim Ross, as a punishment arranged by Raw general manager Eric Bischoff was ordered to conduct a studio interview with Kane. The reason for the punishment was JR's apparent joy at seeing Kane choke slam Eric off the stage. Near the end of the night Kane arrives at WWE HQ in Stanford, bearing a gift for JR. Following the final match of the night, Gail Kim vs Molly Holly, Kane's interview began.
If you knew your history you had a bad feeling about this. Five years earlier Jim Ross had conducted a similar interview with Mankind, which opened up that character beyond being just a strange individual. That interview which aired over several seeks broken up managed to humanise the once inhuman Mankind, but it ended with JR feeling the wrath of the mandible claw, and so in this interview JR's safety was in doubt. Before the final commercial break Kane insists that JR open the present he entered with, revealing a can of gasoline. Kane claims that if Jim makes fun of him one time, he will set him on fire.
When we come back from the break, JR does his absolute best to walk on eggshells, even calling Kane one of the most extraordinary athletes he has ever seen. He then throws to a video package surely designed to aggravate Kane, showing Raw's co-GM Steve Austin trying to motivate Kane into being the monster he used to be. If I were JR sat in that chair I'd have been hating whoever made this video package and aired it in that moment.
Kane explains that he was a normal child until a fire turned him into a hideous monster, but the crucial part of early Kane's character is that the real damage is in Kane's mind, and he isn't as hideous as he thinks he is. A photo of Kane that sometimes goes around pre his televised debut shows him wearing a cape to the ring, This and the mask were meant to make Kane to feel like a superhero, but now they are taken away and we're left with an aimless, vicious monster.
Kane talks about being deformed and JR boldly attempts to convey some truth to Kane, that in the few times we had seen him unmasked, he is not actually scarred or deformed in any way. Kane retorts that he sounds like the doctors who told him the same thing, and Kane responded by hurting all of them. JR is barely looking Kane in the eye at this point, and who could blame him?
As Kane pulls the towel off his head, JR makes one last plea to him. Jim tells Kane that he sees a man that needs help. He pleads with Kane to see that the people love him no matter what he looks like, and that Stone Cold and Rob Van Dam were trying to help him. But not ready for this thoughts to be confronted by rationality, Kane takes this the wrong way.
Having heard enough Stone Cold comes to the ring, not at all helping by calling Kane a son of a bitch. After all the antagonising Kane can take, he throws JR down, pours gasoline on him, and drops a match...
Watching back 19 years later, this is edited truly awfully, but I as a child was filled with fear. Imagine trying to go to bed with that the last thing you saw. Kane's rampage would continue throughout the Summer of 2003. He would destroy Rob Van Dam at Summerslam, the man he blamed for convincing him to gamble his mask in the first place. On the July 21st Raw he would cross the line again, hitting a tombstone on of all people, Linda McMahon. This would cause Shane to return to WWE to get revenge, resulting in some of the most bafflingly violent stunts in Raw history, such as Kane attacking Shane's privates with starter cables, and the big red monster being knocked into a literal dumpster fire. Kanes violent streak would calm down after Survivor Series 2003, where he would defeat Shane in an Ambulance match, and would set his sights on Goldberg and the World title.
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