On Raw , Kane made his surprising return during the steel cage match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. The angle that was weaved throughout Raw started when Dean Ambrose once again ate his own words by stating that The Shield as a unit is willing to take on more than three competitors. The Miz made Ambrose keep his word by adding a “fifth member” to the team. General Manager Kurt Angle originally rejected the idea. However, Miz made Angle uphold the Integrity part of his three “I”s, which caused Angle to make a stipulation to the main event steel cage match scheduled between Reigns and Strowman.
Just like all of the other hard-hitting matches between Reigns and Strowman, the two assaulted each other to the point of exhaustion. At the conclusion of the match, Reigns hit Strowman with a series of Superman punches, but the “monster among men” was able to recover enough to kick out at two. As Strowman was charging toward Reigns, he was hit with a spear. All of a sudden, the lights dimmed, and the Big Red Machine appears from underneath the ring. After multiple chokeslams on Reigns, followed by multiple running powerslams by Strowman, Reigns was defeated, and Miz celebrated on top of the ladder. He also announced that the actual fifth member of their team is indeed Kane.
Was Kane’s TLC Main Event Addition a Last Minute Decision?
According to PWInsider , the plan of adding Kane to the main event match at TLC was beyond his appearance on Raw . The feeling from WWE was that they are comparing this match to the tag team bout of The Rock and John Cena against R-Truth and The Miz from Survivor Series in 2011. The overall evaluation from WWE was that they were disappointed with the overall buy rate of that event, seeing how this was before the advent of the WWE Network. Since TLC will also have a non-title tag team main event, the theory is that it will draw a bigger appeal if more star power is added.
Kane was also reported to be hidden from other talent in order to keep the mystique of his return and has also been training at the WWE Performance Center to shake off any ring rust at least since last week. Since campaigning to become mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, Kane has not wrestled in a televised WWE match since November of 2016, as he was able to defeat Luke Harper on an episode of SmackDown Live .
[Featured Image by WWE]
