Glenn Thomas Jacobs (born April 26, 1967) is an American politician, actor and professional wrestler. He rose to fame in WWE under the ring name Kane and in 2018 became the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
Jacobs began his professional wrestling career on the independent circuit in 1992, wrestling in promotions such as Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association before joining the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1995. He played various characters until 1997, when he was repackaged as the masked wrestler Kane, a horror-themed personification of fire and the juggernaut younger half-brother of the Undertaker and son of Paul Bearer.
Kane alternatively feuded and teamed with the Undertaker, the latter as the Brothers of Destruction. Following his WWF debut, he remained a pivotal component of the company’s Attitude Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, defeating top star Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship in his first pay-per-view (PPV) main event at King of the Ring in June 1998. He continued to headline PPV cards over the next 20 years, with more PPV appearances than any other performer in WWF/WWE history besides Randy Orton.
In WWE, Kane won numerous championships; he is a three-time world champion (having held the WWF Championship, ECW Championship and World Heavyweight Championship once each), a 12-time world tag team champion (having held the World Tag Team Championship, WCW Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship), and a WWE Grand Slam Champion. He holds the record for the most appearances in a Royal Rumble match at 20, as well as the highest cumulative total eliminations at 46. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
A long-term supporter of libertarian political causes, in March 2017, Jacobs announced that he was running for the mayoral seat of Knox County, Tennessee as a Republican. He won the Republican primary election on May 1, 2018, and the general election on August 2, 2018. He was reelected on August 4, 2022.
Jacobs made numerous appearances in film and on television, including the lead role in the 2006 WWE Studios production See No Evil and its 2014 sequel.
Jacobs was born in the Spanish town of Torrejón de Ardoz to a United States Air Force family that was stationed in Spain at the time of his birth. He grew up in the United States near St. Louis, Missouri, and attended high school in Bowling Green, Missouri, where he excelled in football and basketball.[20] He went on to earn a degree in English literature at Northeast Missouri State University, where he played both basketball and football.
Jacobs was trained by Dean Malenko, Ray Candy, and Jeff Bradley. He debuted in 1992 under the ring name “Angus King” for the Central States Wrestling Association in Hannibal, Missouri, which was owned and run by his childhood friend Mark Morton. In December 1992, he joined the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in Memphis, Tennessee, appearing as the “Christmas Creature,” an “evil Christmas character” who wore a garish costume (made by Jacobs’a mother) featuring a green mask, candy cane-striped sleeves, and tinsel. The Christmas Creature unsuccessfully challenged Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship before leaving the USWA later that month.
In March 1993, Jacobs made a one-off appearance with World Championship Wrestling, losing to Sting on an episode of WCW Saturday Night filmed in Macon, Georgia, under the ring name Bruiser Mastino. Later that year, he relocated to Tampa, Florida, in order to further his training.[26] During his time in Florida, he wrestled a handful of matches for the International Championship Wrestling Alliance as “Sid Powers”. After leaving Florida, he returned to the USWA as “Doomsday.” On October 10, 1993, he wrestled in a dark match for the World Wrestling Federation under his real name, defeating Mike Bell at a WWF Superstars taping in Burlington, Vermont. In December 1993, he wrestled in Japan for Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi under his real name.
In 1994, Jacobs began wrestling for Tri-State Wrestling promotion in Central City, Kentucky, and the Indianapolis-based Championship Wrestling as Doomsday, as well as making a handful of further appearances with Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi in Japan. In May 1994, he relocated to Puerto Rico to wrestle for the World Wrestling Council as Doomsday, where he feuded with Invader 1. In November and December 1994, Jacobs wrestled for the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany as “Spartacus”, competing in its Catch Cup tournament.
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