Wrestlenomics: Breaking Down Glenn Jacobs' WWE Career
After 20 years on national television, Glenn Jacobs has established quite the WWE legacy.
No one else comes close to matching his character Kane's record for number of modern WWE matches. Kane has racked up nearly 900 television matches between 1997 and 2014. Additional stints as Isaac Yankem DDS (1995-1996) and Fake Diesel (1996-1997) bring dozens more to Jacobs' televised total.
| Glenn Jacobs (Kane) | 928 | 1995-2014 |
| The Big Show | 766 | 1999-2014 |
| Chris Jericho | 736 | 1999-2014 |
| Triple H | 702 | 1995-2014 |
| Matt Hardy | 696 | 1996-2010 |
| Edge | 667 | 1998-2011 |
| Randy Orton | 655 | 2002-2014 |
| Christian | 649 | 1998-2014 |
| The Undertaker | 626 | 1990-2014 |
| John Cena | 592 | 2002-2014 |
| Jeff Hardy | 557 | 1996-2009 |
| Shawn Michaels | 547 | 1988-2010 |
| Billy Gunn | 532 | 1993-2014 |
.jpg?w=256 "WWE NXT Live Grades")
The secret to Kane's mammoth television record is his longevity.
Since his epic debut at October 1997's Badd Blood: In Your House, Jacobs has not left active WWE competition for longer than six months. That's an astonishing record.
Kane's longest in-ring break was July 2011 through December 2011.
On the July 22, 2011 SmackDown, Kane lost a street fight to Randy Orton and was destroyed post-match by Mark Henry. Kane returned to television on the December 12, 2011 Raw, attacking John Cena.
Month after month and year after year, Kane continues to compete.
According to a spreadsheet maintained by Jason Campbell of ProWrestlingHistory.com, Kane has been in more than three dozen pay-per-view main events for the WWF/WWE.
What's most interesting is that Kane has been periodically mixed in with the top talent from the beginning of his career all the way through the present.
When Kane started in 1998, he was immediately thrust into top feuds with talent such as The Undertaker and Steve Austin. Fast-forward 15 years later, and Kane was still facing off against the upper echelon of WWE including John Cena, Daniel Bryan and The Shield.
It helps that Kane has evolved.
Fans have seen him wrestle under a mask as the demonic half-brother of The Undertaker. Fans have seen Kane wrestle unmasked as the ECW champion and WWE world heavyweight champion. Fans have even seen Kane wrestle his own doppelganger (Luke Gallows playing Impostor Kane).
Kane is an old man in a young man's game.
The average age in the WWE hovers around 32-33 years old according to my analysis.
Among active talent, Kane is certainly an outlier. He's the oldest among the small group active in WWE north of 40 years old: Kane (47), Triple H (45), Batista (45), Goldust (45), Mark Henry (43), Rob Van Dam (43), Big Show (42), R-Truth (42), the Great Khali (42) and Christian (40).
It takes a remarkable amount of tenacity to survive in the WWE for over a decade.
According to WrestlingData.com, during his career, Jacobs has faced off against over 100 WWE wrestlers at least 10 times. Kane has faced everyone from Big Boss Man to Hakushi to Rhyno to Big E.
While his appearance and allegiances may shift, Kane remains a constant on WWE television.
Sometimes he's Corporate Kane assisting Triple H. Sometimes he's The Big Red Machine terrorizing Pete Rose. And sometimes he's just an evil groom forcing Lita to marry him.
One thing is for certain: No matter how silly the character or demonic the angle, Glenn Jacobs tries his best.
Unfortunately, commitment to his character hasn't exempted Kane from some pretty awful matches and some terrible feuds. In fact, Kane was part of the "Worst Feud of the Year" (as voted by Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers) many, many times.
Kane's terrible feud wins included 2002 (vs. Triple H), 2003 (vs. Shane McMahon), 2004 (vs. Matt Hardy and Lita), 2007 (vs. Big Daddy V), 2008 (vs. Rey Mysterio), 2010 (vs. Edge) and 2012 (vs. John Cena). It's a surprisingly diverse group of wrestlers ranging from the very top to the very bottom of the WWE pecking order.
One of Kane's lowest moments was the match pitting the Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane) against KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) at 2001's Unforgiven pay-per-view. The encounter won the Wrestling Observer's "Worst Match of the Year" award for 2001 (as RD Reynolds of WrestleCrap.com has documented, it was a pretty terrible match).
Yet even with Kane's history of lackluster feuds, he's still an effective monster when he needs to be.
One can always count on Kane to supply at least a few eliminations every year at the Royal Rumble.
So raise your glass and toast Glenn Jacobs! He's a company man tried and true.
Even after two decades on WWE television, he's still out there each week giving the fans his all.
No one knows how much longer he'll stay with the WWE. Perhaps he'll finally retire after he records his 1,000th televised match for WWE.
.jpg?w=480 "WWE NXT Live Grades")
.jpg?w=600 "WWE Raw Results & Grades 🔠")
