8 Vital Elements Behind The Many Faces Of The Undertaker

7. He Had The It Factor (And You Can€™t Teach That)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2e2kt_wcw-1989-mean-mark-undertaker-vs-le_sport WCW didn€™t agree with Calaway, and in the summer of 1990 he put the feelers out with New York to see if Vince McMahon might be interested in him. Upon checking out some photos, however, McMahon was underwhelmed. Calaway wasn€™t cut like Jim Hellwig, or built like Sid Eudy: he was just tall, like the basketball player he used to be. To make matters worse, the night before he was due to be introduced to McMahon, Mean Mark Callous had wrestled 'The Total Package' Lex Luger at the Great American Bash for Luger's NWA United States Championship, coming up short to get the belt. The match didn't drizzle, but it wasn't great. Luger wasn't much of a wrestler, of course - Calaway was, but he had a dislocated hip at the time, and couldn't work any of his rope-walking, high-flying moves into the match. McMahon saw the match, and was even less impressed: by now, he was tempted to pass on the interview altogether. Fortunately for Calaway, he was persuaded to see the Texan and that was that. One thing that everyone who's ever known Mark Calaway agrees upon is that his presence alone is magnetic. As soon as Calaway set foot in the room on July 8th 1990, McMahon was impressed all over again. The worries about his physique, the disappointment with the previous night€™s match - all this paled into insignificance. McMahon could see money in the big man just from talking to him. He didn€™t have anything for him right then and there, however - but weeks later, Calaway picked up the phone to hear that gravelly voice boom, €œIs that The Undertaker?€ Calaway replied, €œHell, yeah€ and the rest is history. McMahon wasn€™t entirely familiar with his new signing€™s moveset and previous work, however. Bizarrely, the man was a legitimately astonishing athlete being asked to run a slow-moving monster gimmick: a damn good pro wrestler being asked to no sell everything his opponent threw at him. All of his usual tricks were made unavailable€ the only thing he had going for him was presence, the it factor, the ability to make people sit up and notice him. Calaway had size, true, and talent to spare: but it was that charismatic presence that got the Undertaker over, right from the very beginning.