Former long time WWE employee Bruce Prichard appeared on Ric Flair's WOOOOO! Nation podcast this week and shared some interesting stories about The Undertaker's debut in the company, some 25 years ago. Prichard revealed that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wasn't very interested in Mark Calway at first because he looked too much like a basketball player. The story goes that Paul Heyman told Prichard that Calway was available and was set to meet with McMahon the night after WCW's Great American Bash PPV in 1990 when Calway wrestled Lex Luger. Heyman was actually the manager for "Mean" Mark Callous (The Undertaker's name in WCW) that night. According to Prichard, Undertaker had a dislocated hip and still worked the match because he knew he had to meet with WWE the next day. The match was bad, so apparently Vince didn't want to meet with him. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3witc_mean-mark-callous-vs-lex-luger_sport Apparently it took some convincing from Calway in order to get a deal done. Prichard explained it: "We finally got the two together, and, as you know Mark, man, he's magnetic in and of himself and he convinced Vince that, 'hey, I'm your guy' and he took off from there." Prichard went on to say that he got The Undertaker gimmick after WWE brought him in to film Suburban Commando with Hulk Hogan. There were people in the company that thought he looked like an "old timey Undertaker" and that's how the gimmick was born. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSUOp5fGTEg Prichard added that one of the original ideas was to bring him in as Kane - inspired by Jason from Friday the 13th - but then The Undertaker evolved into a character of his own. That's an interesting point because at first they did call him Cain The Undertaker. Of course, seven years later they liked the Kane name enough to give it to Glenn Jacobs. During their discussion about The Undertaker, Flair called it the "greatest gimmick in the world" while noting that he kept on getting better, although noted that he slowed down a few years ago. That's because he didn't work as often, but it's a good point. In terms of longevity, it might be the best gimmick ever. Thanks to WrestlingInc for the story and you can listen to the whole podcast here.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
