8 Vital Elements Behind The Many Faces Of The Undertaker

4. He Was Inspired By Jake €˜The Snake€™ Roberts

Calaway was on a steep learning curve, being pushed to the moon from his very first appearance in the WWF. Pat Patterson has gone on record as saying that everything was going so well with the character- he was so over - that he was amazed that they hadn€™t given him the WWF Championship within his first year, instead of around the anniversary of his debut at Survivor Series 1991. It would be his team with Jake €˜The Snake€™ Roberts that would give Calaway the inspiration and the ammunition he needed to progress and retain control of the character. Calaway admired Roberts, as well as being acutely aware that there were other, less savoury aspects to Jake€™s character that he shouldn€™t model himself after.

"Actually, I learned quite a bit from Jake Roberts - good and bad. Jake was probably, in my opinion... had one of the best wrestling minds, as far as psychology and how to present his character to the audience. From the time Jake hit the arena to the time he left, man he was Jake 'The Snake'. I also watched his brilliance in the ring and applied it to what the Undertaker was going to be about." - This Is My Yard, 2001

The intensity, the dark flair for drama, that Roberts brought to every match, the magnetic grasp of psychology€ Calaway soaked all of it up like a sponge. In the days when he wasn€™t permitted to sell much, to move too fast, or to apply an advanced moveset, all he had to connect with the crowd was his version of Jake€™s gift as a wrestler: the idea that knowing how and when to do something and why were the real secrets of professional wrestling.