Ex-Wrestler Kane Discusses His Move To Politics

Related

Former WWE star Kane is living a remarkably different life these days.

Kane, aka Glenn Jacobs, is now the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. He stopped by WFAN's "Boomer and Gio" show Tuesday morning while promoting his new book "Mayor Kane: My Life in Wrestling and Politics."

"I've always been interested in government and politics," Jacobs said of his second act, "and as I was coming towards the end of my career figuring out what I wanted to do next, really it was one of those things I literally woke up one day and got to thinking. ... The current mayor was term-limited, so he was out. And I was like, 'I think I could run and win that.' And that's really where that all started.  But it had been the culmination of many years of looking into things and thinking about stuff."

Jacobs admits used his celebrity, in part, to help him get elected in August 2018.

"Our strategy was to use the wrestling stuff to kind of open the door," he said. "I mean, we knew there would be a novelty. But also hopefully people didn't just vote because 'I like the wrestling.' We tried to have some substance there as well and talk about things that people are concerned about.'

WFAN

People will undoubtedly draw comparisons between Kane and Jesse Ventura, the wrestler who went on to become the governor of Minnesota. But Jacobs, who describes himself as an independent-minded Republican, said he was inspired more by President Donald Trump's election.

"I knew that if Trump could win as an outsider that I could probably win, too," Jacobs said. "And I think that's really crossed all levels of politics is the fact that you have folks that are just tired of politics as usual and tired of career politicians. And I thought that I could take advantage of that."

To listen to the interview with Jacobs, click on the audio player above.