As it’s the 30th Anniversary of The Undertaker, we have compiled 30 of the most interesting facts we could find about ‘The Dead Man’, check them out below and let us know how many you already knew.
1. It’s not uncommon for wrestling to have different characters over their career, and it’s even more common when their career spans 30 years, But did you know The Undertaker hasn’t always been The Undertaker?
He has gone through a fair few name changes before simply The Undertaker, including The Master of Pain, Texas Red, The Punisher, Punisher Dice Morgan, Commando, ‘Mean’ Mark Callous and, Kane The Undertaker. Yes, you read that right! Kane The Undertaker. Although it was dropped after a few matches.
2. The Undertaker’s first World Championship was the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship. This isn’t really a crazy fact, many wrestlers have won world titles before WWE. What makes this interesting is that he beat Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
King is a bonafide legend in wrestling, and there is very little he hasn’t done. King putting Taker over is a big deal, maybe he saw the potential before everyone else.
3. Calloway was trained to wrestle by a man named Don Jardine. Jardine has an impressive career in his own right with a masked gimmick named ‘The Spoiler’. Jardine would perfect the ‘rope walk’ The Undertaker is now known for.
If I was a betting man, I would assume this is why it’s become known as the ‘old school’, as a nob to his teacher.
4. Although I’m sure all of Taker’s Wrestlemania wins mean something to him, the first must be extra special. At Wrestlemania, VII Undertaker beat ‘Superfly’ Jimmy Snuka. This also happened to be Calloway’s 26th Birthday.
So the birth or The Streak is also the birth of The Undertaker.
5. The Undertaker’s WWE Championship win over Hulk Hogan in 1991 was shocking enough, but when you think that his reign only lasted six days it becomes a little more shocking. Couple that with the fact that Taker would not capture WWE gold for over six-year after that and you would be thinking why is WWE burying him?
Well, Andre the Giant’s theory was, If Undertaker doesn’t have the title then the show can have two main events. The WWE Championship and The Undertaker match, on the premise that his gimmick is more of an attraction.
(Where is this thought process when it comes to The Fiend)
6. Does anyone remember Hulk Hogan’s movie ‘Suburban Comando’, if you don’t check it out, it’s so terrible you can’t stop watching. Anyway, pre-Undertaker Mark Calloway was in the movie as a big bad henchman. (if the story is true) Hogan got chatting and found out his co-star was a wrestler, Hogan called Vince and told him he needed to check out the big guy… and the rest is history.
(the next fact slightly contradicts the last one, but we will let you decide which is more likely to be true)
7. In 1990, Paul Heyman would be in WCW managing ‘Mean’ Mark Calloway, Paul Heyman saw such huge potential in Calloway that he personally phone Bruce Prichard to recommend Calloway for a tryout because he was a free- agent and knew he would fit perfectly into ‘the land of giants’ that was the WWE.
8. Although Calloway has spent the bulk of his career in WWE, he did have a stint in NJPW in 1990. He primarily worked tag matches on the tour, but could you imagine if he stuck around? The Undertaker facing off at Wrestle Kingdom against the likes of Okada or Nakamura, or winning the G1 Climax, the possibilities are endless.
9. As I’m sure most know, if it didn’t happen on TV, it didn’t happen. Or that’s how WWE works.
So when WWE did a live show in Spain in 1991 and Tito Santana dominated The Undertaker and current number one contender, it didn’t happen. Santana at the time was a lower-mid card wrestler but was facing off against The Undertaker. Santana hit him with three piledrivers and the urn. Santana beating Taker is a rare piece of gold, and the footage is out there if you look.
10. The Undertaker is known for some epic matches, but he can also boast something very few can, he beat himself as SummerSlam. While Undertaker was out with an injury, Ted Dibiase would introduce the new Undertaker, (commonly know as Underfaker) this would lead to Taker vs Faker at SummerSlam.
I’m sure there is a joke about The Undertaker beating himself in the ring in front of thousands of fans… I just can’t find it…
11. While we are mentioning the ‘Underfaker’, many people would be unaware that Taker and Faker are actually the best of friends. So much so that the man behind the Faker, Brian Lee would be the best man at Calloway’s first marriage.
12. When Vince McMahon first saw Calloway’s work he was less than impressed. Vince was watching his match against Lex Luger at The Great American Bash 1990, and (in Prichard’s words) only seen a ‘tall redheaded basketball player’. It was only when Vince met Calloway face to face that he saw the true potential of the big man.
13. You could argue that The Undertaker played no part in the ‘Montreal Screwjob’, why would he? Well, there is a rumor that it was Taker who demanded Vince McMahon go and speak to Bret Hart face to face after what went down. I know what your thinking, no one demands Vince do anything, but would you say no to The Dead Man?
This stern request would result in McMahon taking one of the most justified real punches in all of WWE history.
14. It’s been known that The Undertaker was the locker room leader on Smackdown, it was his show, but he holds a record on Raw that is likely never going to be touched. On June 28, 1999. The Undertaker and Austin went to battle for the WWE Championship, this match garnered a monumental 9.5 rating, which is about 10.7 million viewers.
Taker may have lost the match and his title, but he won big that night.
15. Undertaker has been known to have a few ‘supernatural’ powers under his sleaves, some may say a great example of this is his ability to always pick the number 30 spot in the Royal Rumble. OK, not always but he has done it three times and that’s pretty impressive, and maybe just a little bit of magic.
Although it did take almost 20 years to win from that spot.
16. Amazingly in his 30-year career, The Undertaker never won a mid-card championship (Indertontinetal, European, or United States) except for one. Back in 2001, the American Badass was in full force, it was at this year’s Vengeance PPV that Taker would capture the Hardcore Championship, beating RVD. Although he only had it for two months, just imagine a Buried Alive or Inferno match for the Hardcore Championship.
17. If The Undertaker wasn’t scary enough, did you know he was a black belt? It’s clear Taker is a huge fan of ‘real’ fighting just as much as wrestling but in 2011, he would take up Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and earn his black belt in less than 2 years. (although there are some who dispute his black belt status)
18. Everyone knows the Undertaker vs Mankind Hell in a Cell match, but did you know it was a last-minute switch? King of the Ring was planned to be Mankind vs Austin for the WWE Championship. That was switched when they didn’t want to do Mankind-Austin for the third straight month, so Mankind vs Undertaker was set-up.
I’m not sure if Mankind was meant to win the WWE championship that night, but going from (possibly) winning the WWE Championship to being thrown off a Cell through a table makes that fall hurt just a little more.
19. The Undertaker’s toughness is legendary, none more so than in 2010 when he would suffer second-degree burns on the way to the ring when pyro was set off too early. Chris Jericho not only confirmed that the pyrotechnician was fired immediately, but Taker is double tough because he stuck to the planned match while obviously being in excruciating pain.
20. Of all the Undertaker incarnations, The ‘Ministry of Darkness’ is my favorite, but it seems it was the Undertaker’s least favorite, especially when he had to play second fiddle to the McMahons.
In a rare interview, he said “I’m not sure it was such a good idea to have the Ministry join with the Corporation…It was all about the McMahons, and meant that the Undertaker was no longer leading the pack.” It’s hard to argue his point.
21. In the early 2000s Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton & Batista) would dominate most of Raw’s screen time, but as the brand split happened Undertaker was on Smackdown so never really got to interact with the faction. That didn’t stop him from beating every single member of the team on the grandest stage. Granted it took him a few years to do it, but it’s still no easy feat.
He has almost beat Triple H as many times as there is members of the faction.
22. Undertaker’s love and respect for Vince McMahon is well documented, but no one knows it more than Kurt Angle. On a WWE flight, Angle jumped Vince and (playfully) wrestled him to the ground, a sleeping Taker woke to see the boss, in what he thought was legitimate danger and attacked Angle with his own choke, before realizing it wasn’t real.
23. Everyone knows about The Streak at Wrestlemania, but Undertaker owns another record at the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’. He has wrestled at an amazing 17 straight ‘Manias. This record was held by Bret Hart with 12 straight appearances, but with Undertaker the new record holder, I can’t see anyone taking that crown any time soon.
24. Taker is WWE’s version of Mario, Sonic, or Master Chief when it comes to wrestling games. WWE released their first WWE Game way back in 1992, it featured 10 wrestlers, one of them was The Undertaker. Fast-forward to now and Taker has appeared in over 55 WWE games. There has been some version of him in every Smackdown, Smackdown vs Raw, and WWE2K game.
Who else wants The Dead Man in Super Smash Bro?
25. In his 30-year career The Undertaker has been no stranger to winning matches, but if the maths is correct, he has won over 75% of his matches. It’s said that he has competed in over 2000 matches and only lost about 450 of them. That’s an impressive feat in anyone’s book.
26. The Undertaker hated Dude Love. Let me explain, Taker wasn’t happy when he saw that Mick Foley had switched his character up and was now doing goofy comedy stuff. He felt that all the work he and Foley had done for the Mankind character, to make him as dark and twisted as possible was all for nothing.
27. Some could argue that no one really won the ‘Brawl for All’, but The Undertaker wasn’t even in the competition and still lost. Taker would make a $50 bet on the Godfather vs Bart Gunn match with Bob Holly. (Taker betting Godfather would advance) Undertaker lost the bet. I wonder if this is when Bob Holly became hardcore? When he asked Taker for money and got it, that’s hardcore to me.
28. The Undertaker is The Undertaker, always. Until recently he has done very few interviews and rarely been out of character on any screen. So it has become a badge of honor to make him break character in the ring. Unfortunately, nobody owns this honor yet, but many legends have tried. Although giving him his own documentary series on the WWE Network seemed to do the trick.
29. Before The Undertaker started doing WWE Network interviews and had his own docu-series, he was said to be adamant he would never drop the Deadman gimmick. This would mean he would never be properly inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as he couldn’t or wouldn’t do a regular acceptance speech. This may have changed recently, but have you noticed he has never been in the Hall of Fame audience or inducted anyone?
30. Too many fans the Undertaker was THE guy from the moment he debuted, but that wasn’t really the case as it wasn’t till the 2000s that he was really treated as a main event player. The Undertaker had a new and different allure that meant he didn’t need the WWE Championship to be in the main event, but that didn’t stop the likes of Bret Hart, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and The Rock getting pushed above him in his earlier years.
It was clear that The Undertaker would stand the test of time, even if it took some time to see it.
SLTD Wrestling brings you all the greatest wrestling content. from blogs, to podcasts to exclusive Predictions and Fantasy Leagues.
Recent Comments