5 of Kane's faces: Before and after the mask

Enter — The Big Red Machine Kane was on fire for ages in the WWE

Masked or not, Kane has been a staple of the WWE for nigh on 20 years. The Big Red Machine has chokeslammed and tombstone, piledrivered his way to glory, but the man known as Glen Jacobs outside the ring did not hit the ground running with a fully-realized gimmick.

In fact, before Jacobs became Kane, he spent a couple years in pro-wrestling purgatory trying to find his footing in WWE. Here are the faces of Glen Jacobs before and after he donned the mask.

The Unabomb

Enter ca — Mike Unabomb before he became Kane

Before coming to WWE, Jacobs wrestled in Smoky Mountain Wrestling under the arguably-distasteful moniker of Unabomb. When he first joined the then-WWF, Jacobs was given the name Mike Unabomb.

His first WWE contest was a dark match at a taping of RAW in 1995, defeating Reno Riggins. Unabomb never appeared on TV.