10 Greatest Vince McMahon Creations
2. The Undertaker
Throw enough sh*t at the wall, and something is bound to stick.
The WWF star-making machine began to falter at the turn of the 1990s. That much was evidenced at Survivor Series 1990, at which The Undertaker and the Gobbledy Gooker made their Federation bows. 'Taker was the progenitor of the occupational gimmick that embalmed the company in the midst of that revolutionary decade. He was an undead mortician with a pun of a manager. It was, on the surface, ludicrous - potentially a disaster in the hands of any other talent.
Mark Calaway's portrayal was so credible and so convincing that, over a quarter of a century later, referring to him by his real name remains an odd reminder that he has one. He is more myth than man. He carved out his aura with brilliant character work in an era in which it was still possible to wrestle as a character and not be met with silence for failing to dive through the ropes.
'Taker survived through era upon era by advancing his work and preserving the psychological nuances of it. He was as over in the headlock and atomic drop era as he was when he started diving over the ropes to pop the increasingly discerning wrestling fandom.