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A classic high-elevation leg drop by the Undertaker to Heidenreich
Wrestling historyPre-professional wrestlingMark Calaway experienced his first-ever wrestling training session in 1984. However, Calaway went on to begin his wrestling career properly by training and wrestling at the Dallas Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas, wrestling in Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). He would later go on to wrestle in the USWA, winning the USWA Heavyweight and USWA Texas Titles before signing with WCW in late 1989. During the mid to late 1980s, Calaway used a number of wrestling names, namely, The Commando, The Punisher, Texas Red, the Master of Pain and the Punisher Dice Morgan. Early career in WCWMark Calaway's professional wrestling career and shot at fame began properly with a short stint from late 1989 until late 1990 in WCW. Whilst there, he would be known as "Mean" Mark Callous. He wrestled as part of the Sky Scrapers tag team along with "Dangerous" Danny Spivey and then as a singles wrestler. His most famous match in WCW was against Lex Luger for the US Title at the 1990 Great American Bash, which he lost. At the end of 1990, WCW did not renew Calaway's contract, thus he went to seek work with Vince McMahon's WWF. Career in the WWF/WWE Calaway debuted at Survivor Series 1990 as The Undertaker. In the weeks after he used the name Kane the Undertaker at house shows and on WWF television. The Kane part was dropped awhile after, and Calaway was again referred to as simply The Undertaker, the name he uses to this day. It was also at this time that Undertaker switched managers from Brother Love to Paul Bearer. The story given on WWF television was that Paul Bearer simply bought out Undertaker's contract from Brother Love. The Undertaker's gimmick has changed over the years. At first he appeared as a 'normal' undertaker; a silent giant who was subservient to Paul Bearer. As with many wrestlers in the cartoonish Rock and Wrestling era, he had an over-the-top gimmick—namely an undead zombie wrestler (complete with thick purple gloves) with vague occult powers, most notably being able to control darkness and light and gain extraordinary recuperative power from the ash urn that Paul Bearer carried. In 1997, his on-screen brother, Kane, was revealed to be alive and they have feuded off and on for several years. Deadman Undertaker's current entrance -- smoke and haze In recent years, in line with wrestling's change to a more realistic approach, his gimmick became that of an intimidating redneck biker, first referred to as the "American Bad Ass" (pictured) due to his new entrance music being the Kid Rock song of the same name. Unlike many gimmick changes, this was generally well-received by fans. At the Wrestlemania XX pay-per-view event, he would return in the "deadman" Undertaker persona, again with Paul Bearer to defeat Kane. Currently, his gimmick could be best described as a hybrid of the classic Taker and American Bad Ass gimmicks (Biker Taker was buried alive by Kane several months prior to WrestleMania XX). Several months later, Paul Bearer was kidnapped by The Dudley Boyz at the direction of Paul Heyman, who then took "control" of Undertaker in the storyline. At the June 2004 WWE PPV The Great American Bash, Taker buried Bearer in a crypt of cement after winning a handicap match against the Dudleys as a means of removing his "weakness" so that Heyman or others could no longer control him. Fans were later told that Bearer was merely "seriously injured". At this time, The Undertaker is feuding with Heidenreich and will face him in a Casket Match (a match generally acknowledged as being created by The Undertaker) at the 2005 Royal Rumble. Finisher and signature maneuvers
Championships and accomplishmentsUSWA Heavyweight Championship Title
USWA Texas Championship Title
WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Championship Title
WWF/WWE & WCW Tag Team Championship Titles
WWF/WWE Hadrcore Championship Title
External links
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