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

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.

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The Unabomb

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.

#2 Isaac Yankem

Isaac Yankem

Jacobs would finally hit the screen thanks to the feud between Jerry "The King" Lawler and Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Naturally, he would be portraying a wrestling dentist.

Isaac Yankem DDS was Lawler's dentist AND also his muscle, setting his sights on Hart. Part of the schtick was that this purported dentist actually had bad teeth himself.

It was essentially impossible for Jacobs to get the idea of Yankem over, and he was swiftly dispatched by Hart, leading Jacobs to his next makeover.

#3 Fake Diesel

Fake Diesel was a demotion for Jacobs

Arguably, somehow Jacobs ended up worse off soon after. After Kevin Nash and Scott Hall memorably took off for WCW, changing the face of wrestling in the process, the WWE did not respond in the smartest way possible.

Jim Ross announced that Diesel and Razor Ramon, the characters played by Nash and Hall, were returning. Big Daddy Cool and The Bad Guy may have indeed returned…but they weren't Nash and Hall.

They were instead Rick Bognar as Razor and, yes, Jacobs as the fake Diesel. This should have died on the vine, but Jacobs was still stuck as the fake Diesel from September 1996 until April of 1997. Then he would get repackaged one final time as The Undertakers long-lost brother, and his career would skyrocket.

#4 Behind the mask

Kane without the mask

Kane debuted under the guide of Paul Bearer in an attempt to get revenge on Undertaker. This led to one of the most memorable feuds in WWE history.

As Kane, Jacobs would win essentially every title under the sun. However, the WWE would eventually get further and further away from being a place where his supernatural abilities and backstory worked.

He'd lose the mask, revealing himself to be a pretty ordinary looking guy who perhaps reminded older fans of a certain heel dentist. The loss of the mask allowed for one more twist to the Kane character though.

#5 Corporate Kane

Corporate Kane was a rebirth of sorts after he lost the mask

In 2013, Kane joined the heel faction The Authority, becoming "Corporate Kane." Suddenly, the demon was not just a man, but a man in a suit and tie.

It was a drastic change for the character, although not an entirely unsuccessful one. That feels particularly true these days since we know that, away from the ring, Jacobs has entered the political realm, even running for the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

This probably makes him the first political candidate who was once able to summon fire at will.

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