Mayor Kane? Pro Wrestler Glenn Jacobs Wins Primary In Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, TN -- In his day job, as nearly everyone knows by now, the finishes are scripted, but even the melodramatic broad-brush writers that craft pro wrestling storylines would have struggled to come up with the latest ending for Glenn Jacobs, who plies his in-ring trade as Kane.

Jacobs, to stretch the grappling metaphor even farther, reached the ropes and scored a shocking, narrow victory in Tuesday's primary for the Republican Party nomination for Knox County, Tenn. mayor, garnering just 17 more votes than his nearest challenger.

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Jacobs, who has been active in Knox County and Tennessee Republican politics for years, received 14,633 votes to County Commissioner Brad Anders' 14,616. The third man in the race, Commissioner Bob Thomas, wasn't just a jobber in the ring to take the pin from the two men at the top of the card, earning a strong 11,296 votes.

Because of the narrow count, the 43 provisional ballots cast Tuesday - by and large, those are submitted by people whose registrations were questioned by poll workers, though one was an emergency ballot necessary when the electronic machine failed - will have to be reviewed by the Knox County provisional ballot counting board before the election is certified. Though there is a chance the powers-that-be could come in and overturn the initial decision - in wrestling parlance, that would be a Dusty finish and, for Jacobs, some hard times, daddy - it's unlikely the provisional ballots will make much difference.

In deeply red Knox County, a center of Tennessee Republicanism dating back to the Civil War, the GOP nomination is tantamount to election, though Jacobs will have a Democratic challenger in the August general election.

Though Jacobs was far more well-known than the others in the race because of his long wrestling career - he's won 11 WWE tag team titles, two Intercontinental titles, and the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship each once - he didn't run his campaign focused solely on his star power. Well-regarded for his conservative and libertarian chops among Tennessee Republicans, he's a staple at GOP events.

Which isn't to suggest he shied away from his professional career, either - the man stands 7-feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, so it's difficult for him to shy away from much of anything. Former rival and eventual tag team partner Daniel Bryan appeared at a Jacobs event, as did the legendary Ric Flair and Kane's kayfabe brother The Undertaker. Jacobs' campaign logo featured the black and red of his ring gear and a stylized flame as a wink to his famous pyrotechnic entrances.

Jacobs, 51, was born in Spain into an U.S. Air Force family and grew up in St. Louis. He began wrestling in the early 1990s and first came to Knoxville in the mid-90s on the suggestion of Tennessee wrestling legend Dutch Mantel to work for Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He made his debut for the then-WWF in 1995 as Isaac Yankem DDS, Jerry Lawler's personal dentist, and later made appearances as Fake Diesel in one of the low points for the WWF during the Monday Night War.

But, it was Kane, the pyromaniacal mysterious long-lost half-brother of The Undertaker, which would propel him to stardom and a crucial position in the storylines of the promotion's Attitude Era.

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