Sometimes, it's easy to pinpoint the exact moment when a wrestler becomes a superstar. For Steve Austin, it was when he delivered the "Austin 3:16" speech after winning the 1996 King of the Ring tournament. For Shawn Michaels, stardom came when he gave partner Marty Jannetty a superkick and threw him through a plate-glass window. For The Undertaker, his big moment happened the first time he ever walked through a WWE curtain. Leading up to the 1990 Survivor Series, Ted DiBiase promised a mystery participant on his "Million Dollar Team," and when the match came, fans were stunned. A seven-foot-tall newcomer dressed as an Old West mortician made his way into the arena. Dubbed "Kane the Undertaker," the wrestler - clearly a young man, but also one who resembled a walking corpse - was a sight unlike any the fans had ever seen. The future legend was dominant in his first match, eliminating two opponents before being counted out of the bout. The Undertaker had arrived, and WWE would never be the same.
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
