Summarizing Kane's past year and what's next for him in the WWE

The Authority

Team Hell No and breaking up with Daniel Bryan

A year ago, Kane was one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Team Hell No, along with Daniel Bryan. They dominated the tag team division for nearly a year during which they held the title for over 8 months. And being the champions vastly improved WWE’s tag team division. But after losing the titles to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules in May, their team didn’t last for even a month, as both of them started focusing on their singles competitions.

After that, The Wyatt Family ensured that Team Hell No don’t get back as they attacked Kane on their WWE debut in July, and this assault sidelined Kane from the All Stars Money in the Bank match. He returned 3 weeks later, only to lose to his former tag team partner, Daniel Bryan, and after the match the Wyatt Family attacked him again to set up a Ring of Fire match between him and Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam. Kane lost the match and was attacked again by the Wyatt Family, who then carried him out of the arena. After this, Kane didn’t appear in the WWE for over two months, because he had to shoot for his movie See No Evil 2.

Return and becoming Corporate Kane

Kane returned at Hell in a Cell and attacked the Wyatt Family as well as The Miz. The next night on RAW, Kane made quick work of The Miz and after defeating him he called out Stephanie McMahon and pledged his allegiance to The Authority by handing his mask to her. After becoming the Director of Operations of The Authority, he started wearing corporate attire and acted and made decisions on behalf of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.

Feuding with CM Punk

Since his feud with The Shield in May/June, Kane finally got a legitimate rival in CM Punk after he put him in a 3-on-1 handicap match against The Shield at TLC. During this time, Punk was involved in several matches with the members of The Shield and was also betrayed by The New Age Outlaws, making him assume that Kane is behind all of this. Kane even apologized to Punk, only to choke slam him in the middle of the ring.

This rivalry started heating up when Kane told Punk on the RAW before Royal Rumble that he will be the #1 entrant in the Royal Rumble match, with all intents of seeing Punk lose the match. During the Rumble match, Punk did enter at #1 and went on to eliminate the #5 (surprise) entrant, Kane, who in turn eliminated Punk when the latter was among the final 4 in the match, hence ensuring that Punk lost the match. It looked like this feud would continue with a lot more heat but then Punk left the WWE, leaving his feud with Kane in the balance.

The present scenario and what’s next for Kane?

After his booked opponent was no longer in the company, Kane made his presence felt in Daniel Bryan’s resumed rivalry with Randy Orton and The Authority, as he interfered in his former partner’s match with Orton on RAW to decide who is the “face of the company.” Daniel Bryan won the match despite interference from Kane, but became the victim of an assault from Kane and Orton after the match.

This assault has led to all WWE fans assuming as to what is Kane’s role in this Bryan-Authority feud. Is he setting up a feud with Bryan or is he helping Orton to continue his WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign? Another question on everybody’s mind is whether Kane will participate in the Elimination Chamber match since all its 6 berths are already booked but subject to changes?

So, will Kane replace someone like Antonio Cesaro or Christian in the match, just to help Orton retain his titles and punish Bryan further? Or will Kane act as a warm-up rival for Bryan before he faces Triple H at WrestleMania XXX? It looks like only the next episode of RAW can make this scenario clearer.