Glenn Jacobs, who is better known as his WWE alter-ego Kane, the “brother” of legendary WWE personality The Undertaker, has been elected Mayor of the third-largest community in Tennessee:
The Big Red Machine has been elected to political office.
Glenn Jacobs — better known as WWE wrestler Kane — won his bid for Knox County, Tennessee mayor after roundly defeating his opponent, Linda Haney. He had the Democratic nominee on the ropes in Thursday’s election, tallying twice as many votes — 51,804 to Haney’s 26,224.
It was a much easier victory than his primary win over fellow Republican Brad Anders, who took the wrestling superstar to the mat — Jacobs only won that race by a 23 vote margin.
In his wrestling persona Jacobs, most often a “heel” or villain, is a fan favorite. He has previously wrestled in a red mask, giving rise to his nickname.
He was already winding down his wrestling career before he ran for office, according to Bleacher Report.
His new responsibility, Knox County, is home to the city of Knoxville and is the third-most populous county in Tennessee.
A self described “farm boy from rural Missouri,” Jacobs was aiming for a career in pro football before a knee injury shattered those dreams. The injury allowed him to instead focus on wrestling and after several years of performing in local competitions he signed for the WWE in 1995. He debuted the Kane character two years later.
Described as “a monstrous abomination that seems to have been extracted directly from your childhood nightmares” in his character’s WWE bio, the wrestler weighs over 320 lbs and stands at 7 ft.
His final WWE appearance — assuming he doesn’t mount a post-politics comeback — was an Extreme Rules SmackDown Live tag team championship match, which he and partner Daniel Bryan lost to the Bludgeon Brothers, according to Bleacher Report.
Generally speaking, I haven’t really watched professional wrestling since my early years in college, although I did return to the audience for a brief time in the late 90s when the WWE’s expansion with broadcasts on major cable networks such as USA and TNT, along with the rise of a new breed of stars such as Dwayne Johnson, who has of course gone on to an extraordinarily successful career as a movie star. In any case, it was around that time that the Kane character was introduced and he was indeed a ‘scary’ character that fit into the heel role quite well, especially when paired against his ostensible “brother.”
As for Jacobs, he has been politically active for several years now and has described himself in the past as being generally libertarian in his political philosophy. He supported Ron Paul in the 2008 and 2012 elections and was courted as a potential Senate candidate in 2014 as a primary challenger to Senator Lamar Alexander, although he did not run in that election. As noted, Jacobs had narrowly won the Republican nomination for Knox County Mayor back in May, but the fact that he won the election by such a wide margin yesterday is a strong indication of just how heavily Republican this part of the state is.
In any case, perhaps a few body slams are just what we need in government.
