Before becoming one of WWE's most legendary characters, Glenn Jacobs debuted in 1996 as the villainous dentist Dr. Isaac Yankem, who aligned with Jerry Lawler during his feud with Bret Hart. The character was introduced after Lawler claimed Hart's actions in their Kiss My Foot Match had left him needing dental treatment.

Speaking on WWE's Photo Shoot, Kane admitted he never believed the gimmick suited him and said the opportunity to work alongside Jerry Lawler was the only real positive to come from the role.

"The story was that Jerry Lawler had lost a Kiss My Foot match to Bret Hart, and when Bret put his toes in Jerry's mouth, it caused Jerry to have some tooth decay. So he found a dentist who could fix it. That dentist was Dr. Isaac Yankem. I never saw myself as a wrestling dentist. I always saw myself as a big guy taking care of business and didn't feel that my business should have been taking care of people's teeth. But being able to work with him, that was probably the only good thing that came out of this character for me anyway."

Kane also looked back on his transformation into The Big Red Machine, revealing that one of his most famous entrance moments came directly from an idea pitched by The Undertaker.

Discussing his debut and signature entrance, Kane explained that the arm drop used to trigger the ring post pyro was deliberately designed as the opposite of Undertaker's entrance.

"I ripped the door off the Hell in a Cell cage and got in there with Undertaker. The pyro cue that I use where I raise my arms and throw them back down, that was his idea because it was the opposite of what he would do. He would raise his hands and bring the arena lights up. I was the opposite of him, so I'd throw my hands down."

The WWE Hall of Famer also credited the late Paul Bearer, real name Bill Moody, with helping him handle the pressure that came with becoming one of the company's biggest stars.

"On a personal note, Bill Moody, who portrayed Paul Bearer, he was instrumental also in my success as Kane because there's a lot of things that, as far as pressure and stress, and you're in this situation now where you're one of the top stars in the company, and he really helped me through all that. He would book our travel for the both of us. He didn't have to do that, but he did because he wanted to make things as easy as he could on me."

Kane also revisited the controversial decision to unmask in 2003. On the June 23, 2003 episode of WWE Monday Night RAW, he lost a World Heavyweight Championship match to Triple H with the added stipulation that defeat would force him to remove his mask.

Although the unmasking remains one of the most talked about moments of his career, Kane said he personally felt the character had reached its ceiling with the mask still on, despite its importance to the mystique of The Big Red Machine.

"We shaved my head part way because Bruce Prichard thought that was a very unique look of having half a head of hair, and I was like, 'dude, that's ridiculous.' So we ended up cutting the rest of it off as well. But to my mind, I'd gone as far as I could with the mask on. I mean, it adds a lot of mystique to the character. But it also didn't allow me to use my face to portray emotion, and our business is all about emotion. It's about portraying emotion to the crowd and eliciting an emotional reaction from the crowd. I felt that I was limited in that respect. This is what we did."