Mayor Kane - My Life In Wrestling and Politics BOOK REVIEW
A few months back, I was fortunate enough to obtain an advanced copy of Under The Black Hat: My Life In The WWE And Beyond by Jim Ross, a book which many were heralding as arguably the greatest wrestling book ever written. While I disagreed with that assessment, I noted that it absolutely belonged in the upper echelon of books written about the business, sitting alongside those written by Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley and Gary Hart. Today, we take a look at a book sadly on the other end of the spectrum, Mayor Kane: My Life In Wrestling And Politics, written by the man behind the mask, Glenn Jacobs.
Given his incredibly lengthy and historic career, in addition to the interesting post-wrestling career choice, this one seemed like a layup for a great read. Unfortunately, it reads more like an extended Cliff’s notes of the man’s wrestling career along with his transition into the world of politics.
Jacobs spends little time recounting his life before wrestling, which for some may be a good thing. Wanting a book to dive into the subject matter of which you are attached is a normal thing, but it also leaves us without a connection to our narrator. Jacobs discusses his love of sports and the way he was able to move easily into the business due to his sheer size, something which a former WWE star once advised can’t be taught.
At an almost breakneck pace, he moves through his early days of training in the remains of the territorial systems, before moving to Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling. It is here where he first caught the eye of WWE officials, who brought him up as Isaac Yankem, D.D.S., a character which Jacobs admits he outright hated. He does acknowledge it may have had legs had he embraced the gimmick, and so he made that decision with his run as the fake Diesel. It does appear that while we all know that gimmick was not long for this world, his great attitude about it is what helped spawn the character of Kane, which would finally give him his big break.
If you are looking for backstage stories or rumour-mongering, you can move along now. It may seem cruel to say it, but every word seems like it was put through the WWE hype machine and approved by Vince McMahon himself. Jacobs gives one of the most laughably uninformed and embarrassing recollections of the Montreal Screwjob, and a half-page chapter about Owen Hart’s death essentially defends the choice to continue the show. Many of his more salacious storylines are completely ignored, including his long angle with Matt Hardy, Edge and Lita, and the infamous Katie Vick storyline. Maybe the most revealing story comes with his disastrous Tombstone on Linda McMahon, with him stating that he purposefully kept her head a full foot away from the landing and the camera crew was supposed to cut away. He describes Vince as absolutely losing his mind at the camera crew for this snafu.
The latter half of the book describes Jacobs's entrance into politics and his views as a Libertarian. Given the current political climate of the United States, it does seem a little tone-deaf for him to lean so hard into this, especially his choice to run as a Republican and spend a few pages defending the actions of Donald Trump as President.
I didn’t expect to enjoy the political aspect of the book but was hoping to at least enjoy the wrestling content and maybe learn a little more about Glenn Jacobs the man, which we get fleeting glimpses of. In the end, he describes his career as a gift and the ability to bring joy to others through his work, something of which he truly seems genuine about. But that doesn’t save the book from being anything more than a slight chore to make it through the first half, and a slog through the political parts.
Final Verdict: Pass
A copy of this book was provided by Center Street Publishing for this review.
