The Undertaker's first national run came in WCW, where he debuted in 1989 as "Mean" Mark Callous. He joined Dan Spivey in The Skyscrapers, a big-man tag team that was managed by Teddy Long. They soon entered into a feud with The Road Warriors, but before the match could take place, Spivey left WCW. "The Masked Skyscraper" (Mike Enos) replaced Spivey, and the four men clashed at WrestleWar 1990, with The Road Warriors picking up the victory. "Mean" Mark entered singles competition, but left WCW shortly thereafter. The Skyscrapers, however, had a history before and after The Undertaker's involvement. Initially, the team was comprised of Spivey and Sid Vicious -- Undertaker only stepped in when Vicious was injured. After "Mean" Mark left WCW, Spivey returned, and teamed with the recovered Sid one last time to take on The Big Cat (Curtis Hughes) and The Motor City Madman at StarrCade 1990. Despite legends to the contrary, Sid and The Undertaker never teamed up -- they simply both called Spivey "partner." Still, there was more on the line than the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 13 -- The Undertaker won the right to call himself a true Skyscraper.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
