On June 23, 2003, Kane took off his mask for the first time ever, revealing his face to the world. Free from his mask, Kane became more unhinged and more disturbed than ever before.
Kane Attacked Linda McMahon While On A Path Of Destruction
Kane was bent on destruction and demanded a World Heavyweight Championship match. Week after week he was beating down wrestlers, officials, even attacking Jerry Lawler and setting JR on fire! As a result of the chaos, Linda McMahon tried to reason with the monster, but even she wasn’t safe from his wrath and Kane delivered a brutal Tombstone Piledriver to her on the stage.
The next week on Raw, in a shocking moment, Shane McMahon made his return to WWE for the first time since the Invasion angle to get revenge on his mother’s attacker. Shane beat down Kane with a chair over and over again, making Kane fall off the stage and through a table on the floor. In spite of the brutal beat down though, Kane was unaffected, sitting up and laughing at Shane, showing just how demonic Kane had become since losing his mask.
In the weeks following, Kane would attack Shane at any opportunity, costing him matches and fighting with him throughout the arena. A particular highlight was when Kane led Shane backstage to a dumpster he had set on fire. In the first of many over-the-top brawls in the feud, Kane tried to force Shane into the fire, trying to burn him alive like he had done to Jim Ross weeks prior. Shane McMahon however, for the first time since the feud started, managed to get the advantage and threw Kane himself into the dumpster’s fire!
The following week, Kane would get his revenge in perhaps the most infamous part of the feud. Attacking Shane McMahon once again, Kane would tie Shane to the ring post and then hook jumper cables to Shane’s crotch and proceeded to electrocute Shane McMahon’s testicles! It was insanity, in fact, the entire feud was way over the top.
This led to Kane and Shane McMahon having a Last Man Standing Match at Unforgiven 2003. It was a great match, it went nearly 20 minutes and had some amazing spots, Kane won when he moved out of the way of Shane’s Leap of Faith Elbow off of the TitanTron! Shane couldn’t answer the count of 10, so Kane was declared the winner.
That should be the end of the feud, right?
Wrong.
Shane McMahon Vs. Kane Continued For Some Time
The Raw after Unforgiven, Kane attacked Shane in the hospital! Two weeks later, Shane returned and attacked Kane, luring him into the parking lot, trapping him inside a limo, and then crashing that limo into a truck, seemingly killing him!
Kane was fine though, and later that night Shane issued a challenge for Survivor Series. This time it would be an Ambulance Match. The Raw before Survivor Series, as if this feud couldn’t get any wilder, Shane invited Kane… to dinner. Shane and Kane literally sat in a restaurant and gave threats to each other with eating dinner, like a mafia movie. After everything that had happened, Kane attacking his Linda, Shane throwing Kane into a dumpster fire, jumper cables to the balls, countless attacks and beat downs, and yet the final segment had a calm chat over dinner. Very strange.
At Survivor Series in the Ambulance Match, Kane brought the feud full circle by hitting a Tombstone Piledriver to Shane on the concrete floor, just as he had done to Linda all those months ago. Kane then threw Shane into the back of an ambulance to win.
Overall the feud was insanely over the top, almost to the point where it was impossible to suspend your disbelief. Kane was perhaps at his most interesting as a character at this time, right after removing his mask, so it was a strange decision to have him selling so much for Shane McMahon of all people (though that is an issue that comes up a lot in Shane feuds).
Although, unlike a lot of stuff on Raw in 2003, the feud was definitely not boring. A lot of the segments were crazily over the top but you can’t exactly go wrong with huge brawls and countless high spots. It was one of WWE's wildest feuds and one that is unforgettable to many fans watching at the time.