https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHTPONwy6xo Quite possibly the brightest gem of WWF's "New Generation" era is the time they went to Caesar's Palace for Wrestlemania and had The Undertaker enter the arena on a funeral chariot - before wrestling Giant Gonzalez - with a vulture perched next to him. By 1993, WWE was in the midst of a significant financial downturn. The idea that Vince and company had partnered with Caesar's Palace means that he likely had some leeway in regards to what could be procured for presentation (that was outside of his budget), so The Undertaker with a vulture may seem hokey, but it was likely an expenditure suggested to him by someone else that he happily agreed to incorporate into the show. Though incredibly simple, the black smoke, austere appearance of the Undertaker and yes, that bird, do everything. Bobby Heenan putting it over helps, too, as well as it being bright and sunny in Las Vegas, and here's someone that on a show with a super-sized sumo wrestler, Samoan witchdoctors, a Native American and an evil clown, he truly stands out as different. Setting the table for what was to come, this is still iconic and impressive to this very day.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.