WWE: 8 Embarrassing Early Gimmicks Future World Champions Want You To Forget

3. The Undertaker €“ 'Mean Mark Callous', 1989-1990

This entry on the list illustrates that the WWE machine can and has come up with some of the greatest characters of all time. Though there may be some bumps in the road (as illustrated throughout this list), when they put their mind to coming up with a character for a wrestler to play, the results are often amazing, and often end up drawing a lot of money. Such was the case with The Undertaker. When Mark Calaway came to the WWE in 1990, he was given the legendary funeral parlour dwelling gimmick that may have sounded weird on paper but really caught on with fans. The Undertaker was impervious to pain, and sat up like a zombie each and every time an opponent tried to keep him to the mat. His tombstone piledriver led him through one of the greatest careers of all time, with the pinnacle being a 21-0 record at Wrestlemania. But before this time, WCW determined that Calaway's character would simply be 'Mean' Mark Callous. A far cry from the excellent character he would later play as The Undertaker, Callous wore black, and was labeled as "mean". Apparently he liked snakes, and listened to Ozzy Osbourne. It's not hard to tell that WCW was not really thinking too hard about the character. With such a lazy attempt at a character, it was not surprising that "Mean" Mark did not reach superstardom in WCW. It was not until the creative forces of WWE re-christened him that he began to lay superstars down to rest in peace.