WWE Royal Rumble 2018: So What Do We Do With Kane?

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At WWE Royal Rumble 2018, Brock Lesnar will defend the Universal Championship in a Triple Threat match against Braun Strowman and Kane. Everyone expects Kane to take the pinfall, but the real question is, what does the WWE do with him afterwards?

It’s fair to wonder what was the point of bringing Kane back to WWE for his latest run, because he hasn’t really achieving anything. The crowd couldn’t care less about a man who has been irrelevant in the world title picture for years, and it’s not like he’s done anything memorable since tossing a bunch of chairs on top of Braun Strowman at TLC.

Kane gets a shot at the Universal Title against Brock Lesnar and Strowman at WWE Royal Rumble 2018, and absolutely nobody can take him seriously. Sure, he beat Finn Balor after the latter’s grueling match against Finn Balor, but to be honest with you, that didn’t build up Kane in the eyes of the fans. No, all that win did was piss people off…big time.

In fact, all Kane has done since returning is annoy people. Sure, most fans respect the performer behind the character and used to love him. But that’s the key phrase: “used to”. Kane, who also inexplicably defeated the Kingslayer Seth Rollins on an episode of Raw, hasn’t been a regular in the world title picture since 2012. Since then, his only other world title match came in 2015 at Hell in a Cell against Rollins during the “Authority” storyline.

Basically, the fans can see right through the WWE, and they can’t buy into Kane as a legitimate threat to win the title. Everyone sees him as the fall guy – the dude who is just going to get pinned by Lesnar so that Strowman doesn’t have to be pinned twice. He’s no real threat to win, because there’s nowhere to go with him as champion. Furthermore, nobody cares about the guy, so why the heck would they want to see him as champion? If he gets heat, it isn’t good heat, because people won’t tune in to see him get his butt kicked. They will tune out in frustration.

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My real issue is this: What the heck does WWE do with Kane after he loses? We’ve already seen Kane vs. Strowman on Raw, and while we never saw Strowman pin Kane, would anyone care about this match? Does Strowman really need to beat Kane to take some sort of torch?

I worry that the WWE is interested in having Kane cost Strowman during the Triple Threat match, setting up a WrestleMania match between Kane and Strowman that has little crowd interest.

It just feels like Kane is here to make sure the Universal Title match is at the Rumble.

The WWE didn’t know who else to feed to Lesnar (they didn’t want the Demon King to lose), and they already used a lackluster F5 finish on Braun at No Mercy.

So what did they do to put this match on the card and make it feel “different”? They threw in Kane, after “building him up” with wins over Balor and Rollins, who are far more credible wrestlers than a 50-year-old.

Like, I get that Kane is huge, but in what world would a 50-year-old have a chance at the top prize in the company? And why on earth was he booked to defeat two former world champions, Rollins and Balor, who are positioned as two of the biggest stars in the company?

The more I think about it, the more it ticks me off. And that’s a shame, because Kane’s career is one that should be honored. But this match? All the production trucks being destroyed in the world couldn’t get me to care about it, because I just don’t see anything positive from the fallout. Kane has nowhere to go, and if Strowman isn’t going to win the Universal Championship, then he needs to move on to something bigger than Kane at WrestleMania.

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As for Kane, I really don’t care what they do with him, as long as they keep him out of the world title picture and avoid feeding elite young talent to him.