{"id":65477,"date":"2020-03-24T16:21:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T20:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=65477"},"modified":"2020-03-24T16:21:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T20:21:53","slug":"undertaker-five-decades-of-the-deadman-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/03\/24\/undertaker-five-decades-of-the-deadman-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Undertaker: Five Decades of The Deadman (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week’s installment<\/a> of this five-part series covered the early career of The Undertaker<\/strong>.\u00a0 The lesser known 1980s portion of his career was explored; assessing the debut of one of the most significant professional wrestlers of all time.\u00a0 Mark Calaway’s nearly-basketball career was covered, too.\u00a0 This part of the series will be covering Undertaker’s most active decade: the 1990s.\u00a0 Additionally, today happens to be The Undertaker’s birthday.\u00a0 Happy Birthday, Deadman!<\/p>\n

The Career of The Undertaker: Recap<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Part 1 left off with The Undertaker’s exit from World Championship Wrestling<\/strong> (WCW<\/strong>).\u00a0 Undertaker, who had been working in WCW for a year, was under-appreciated.\u00a0 He was told in no uncertain terms by head-booker, Ole Anderson<\/strong>, that “no one would ever pay to see you”.\u00a0 Paul Heyman<\/strong>, who was Taker’s (then Mean Mark Callous<\/strong>) manager at the time, then offered Taker’s services to the WWF<\/strong>.\u00a0 During the early part of 1990, Undertaker would meet with the man who would be his boss for the next thirty years: Vince McMahon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During The Undertaker’s first meeting with Vince, The Undertaker made a fatal error.\u00a0 During the informal interview, Vince asked Taker “do you have any hidden talents?” Taker – wanting to make light of the situation – jokingly replied “well, you know, I sing in the shower pretty good.”\u00a0 Undertaker recently spoke of the incident on Steve Austin<\/strong>‘s Broken Skull Sessions<\/em> WWE Network Show<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

‘As soon as I said it i’m thinking “crap, i shouldn’t have said that”.\u00a0 at the time they’ve got some pretty outlandish gimmicks… on the inside i’m thinking “you screwed up, man.\u00a0 you’re going to be shower boy or something.”‘<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McMahon must not have viewed the 6″9 Calaway as a reasonable casting choice for Shower Boy.\u00a0 Calaway was told that there was no spot for him.\u00a0 This caused the future Deadman to struggle for a while, as he had already handed in his notice and left WCW.\u00a0 A few months later, he would get the lucky phone call from Vince which would change both Mark Calaway’s life and the future of professional wrestling forever.\u00a0 “Undertaker, can you come down here tomorrow?” Of course, Taker went and so began a legendary WWE<\/strong> career.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Early Days of Kane The Undertaker<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kane The Undertaker<\/strong> debuted on an episode of WWF Superstars<\/strong> on November 19th, 1990.\u00a0 It is interesting that the first name of The Undertaker is “Kane”.\u00a0 It is usually accepted within WWE lore that the Deadman character adopted it from his assumed dead brother, Kane<\/strong>.\u00a0 This early version of The Undertaker was unable to feel pain.\u00a0 A large part of the gimmick at the time was no-selling his opponent’s moves.\u00a0 In the past, Undertaker has compared the character to Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) and Michael Myers (Halloween).\u00a0 Two large, un-dead horror movies characters who moved slowly and could not feel pain.\u00a0\u00a0Though this was Taker’s official debut, the honor is usually given to Survivor Series 1990<\/strong><\/em>, which took place three days later. \u00a0He debuted as a heel (with then-manager, Brother Love<\/strong>), assisting Ted DiBiase<\/strong>‘s team in their victory.<\/p>\n