There is a part of me that wants to give Kane the 10/10 because Kane is the primary reason why I got into wrestling. There's more factors of course, but when I was first introduced to WWE through a, quite frankly terrible, video game WrestleMania X8, Kane was the main guy I gravitated towards. Because just regular old dudes didn't do anything for me, but Kane was this cool monster with a fire theme wrapped around his design and presentation, and as pyromaniac, that really got me hot. Then around 2006 when I randomly caught a Smackdown after Deal or No Deal, I started talking wrestling with a friend I knew was into it, and the first thing I asked him about was Kane. He kinda became one of those regular dudes in hindsight, but to me I was still intrigued, and I actually do have a lot of fondness for his unmasked days. I don't think I ever clamored for him to be re-masked, mostly because I didn't think the booking would change and I was right but still. Of course I'm greatly fond of masked Kane, and his original run was magnificent from everything I saw. And his debut is easily the greatest in wrestling history, I don't think any other one even comes close personally. Along with that best ever, Kane has my favorite entrance in history. Because it has fire, almost every song he used was amazing (Slow Chemical being the best, if only because I don't think he ever actually used the rap theme), it has great iconography, and it's quick and to the point unlike Undertaker's.
But I have to give Kane an 8/10 because in-ring ability matters and there's a lot of unfortunate stuff in his history. I don't need to discuss the latter and with the former I just find Kane to mostly be average. I feel confident in saying that if I made a list of my favorite singles matches in WWE history, he wouldn't have a single match crack the top 100. I just can't give a 10/10 to somebody who I feel certain hasn't provided a match I consider that good. And the other point is dock for obvious inconsistency. I also really hate his final design, it's stripped down to be incredibly simplistic and the fire on his tights is poor clipart. I do want to end on a positive by saying his mic skills, are pretty great. His comedic timing in Team Hell No is a thing of beauty and I thought he handled promos really well during his World Heavyweight Championship reign.
