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The Undertaker will surely go down in history as one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. Courtesy of a legendary career spanning nearly three decades, The Undertaker was able to give us countless memorable segments, feuds, and matches and cemented a special place for himself in every wrestling fan's heart.
With him seemingly announcing his retirement now, social media has been buzzing with #ThankYouTaker posts with the WWE Universe thanking The Undertaker for his massive contributions to the world of pro wrestling. People are sharing their experiences and stories about the Phenom's life and career, trying to pay their respect to the WWE Superstar who has carved out such a huge legacy for himself in this industry.
But there are a lot of interesting facts about The Undertaker that most WWE fans might not be aware of. And no, we are not talking about his dislike for cucumbers as that is pretty well-known. So, let's take a look at five such interesting facts about WWE's Phenom. You can also watch our video highlighting the incredible wrestling career of The Deadman!
Be sure to comment below and let me know your favorite moment(s) of The Undertaker's career.
#5 The Undertaker has wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling
The Undertaker is one of the few Superstars who have been loyal to WWE. He stayed with the company through thick and thin, playing a major role in re-establishing it as the biggest wrestling promotion in the world during the Monday Night Wars era. It's tough to imagine him wrestling for another major promotion, right?
Turns out, The Undertaker has actually wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling. This happened in March 1990, a few months before he made his WWE/WWF debut. He wrestled under the ring name, "Punisher" Dice Morgan, and was a part of an extensive tour that lasted several weeks. The seven-time World Champion worked in tag team matches with the likes of Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Benoit. He even challenged for the IWGP Tag Team Titles with WWE Hall of Famer, Scott Hall.
#4 Vince McMahon was not originally interested in signing The Undertaker
Yes, as tough as it is to believe, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was not originally interested in signing The Undertaker in 1990. Before signing with WWE, The Undertaker was in WCW where he was known as "Mean Mark" Callous. Vince McMahon came to watch him in a match against Lex Luger but was not impressed with The Undertaker's performance.
Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince did not want to meet The Undertaker initially and had to be convinced into doing so, and the rest is history! Prichard stated:
"Mark had a dislocated hip, but worked the match anyway because he knew that he was going to be meeting with Vince the next day. It wasn't the best match in the world and Vince didn't want to meet with him. We finally got the two together, and, as you know Mark, man, he's magnetic in and of himself and he convinced Vince that, 'hey, I'm your guy' and he took off from there."
WWE Network's The Last Ride amazingly portrays the relationship that The Undertaker and Vince McMahon share. The two have massive respect and love for each other!
#3 The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak began on his birthday
One of the biggest accomplishments of The Undertaker's legendary WWE career is his once-undefeated WrestleMania streak, something which played a huge role in the success of the Show of Shows for many years. Interestingly, his WrestleMania streak began on his 26th birthday on March 24, 1991, at WrestleMania VII.
In his WrestleMania debut, The Undertaker wrestled and defeated Jimmy Snuka. Many people still have a hard time believing that Snuka was one of the many Superstars to fall to the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak. For the next 22 years, The Undertaker continued digging holes and taking souls on the grandest stage of them all, taking out several top WWE Superstars.
It was the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar who shocked the entire world by ending The Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania XXX. But even though it has been broken, the Streak remains to be one accomplishment that might never be rivaled by any WWE Superstar.
Currently, The Undertaker's record at WrestleMania stands at 25-2 with his last match being against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36 earlier this year.
#2 The Undertaker was a part of the highest-rated RAW segment of all time
While many fans think that the "This Is Your Life" segment involving The Rock and Mick Foley is the highest-rated RAW segment in the show's history, that record is actually held by a match between The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin that took place on June 28, 1999 edition of RAW.
The following is an excerpt from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from July 31, 2012.
"June 28, 1999: A match where Steve Austin won the WWF title from The Undertaker in Charlotte drew the largest rating and audience to ever witness a pro wrestling match or for that matter, any pro wrestling segment, ever on U.S. cable television. The match did a 9.5 rating, which was 10.72 million viewers. Perhaps the most impressive is that one out of every six television sets in the U.S. that had cable that was on during that time was watching that match. Because for more than a decade, Vince Russo has made it a talking point to say how the “The Is Your Life: Rock,” segment was the highest rated segment in history (it did an 8.4 quarter), to show how skits outdraw matches, it’s become a talking point how that was the highest rated segment in Raw history. Actually there were a handful of different quarter hours that beat that total, including most of the second hour of the May 10, 1999 show."
The match in question was for the WWF Championship, and it ended with Stone Cold Steve Austin capturing his fourth World Title by defeating The Undertaker.
#1 The Undertaker was once a Paul Heyman guy
One of the most interesting facts about The Undertaker that many fans might not be aware of is that he was once a Paul Heyman guy. In fact, in his own words, he was one of the original "Paul Heyman" guys.
The Undertaker revealed the following in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated:
"For someone that's been in the business as long as I have, I'm still last to the party for a lot of things. Being a 'Paul Heyman Guy,' I'd heard that for years but never thought much about it. One day I realized, 'Well shoot, I’m a Paul Heyman Guy.’"
"First, I was with Danny Spivey in WCW, and we were the Skyscrapers, and Teddy Long was our manager. Danny left, and it was just me. That's when they brought Paul into the company and put him with me. We travelled together and made all the towns together, and Paul really came to be a beneficial part of my career. Paul was friends with Bruce Prichard, and those two opened up a line of conversation about coming to the WWE."
"Paul played a pivotal part in keeping the lines of communication open with WWE. Paul was talking to Bruce Prichard, and Bruce was talking to Vince. Paul pushed Bruce, and I finally got that meeting with Vince. So hindsight being 20/20, I am one of the original 'Paul Heyman Guys.’”
The Undertaker - known as "Mean Mark" Callous was paired with Paul E. Dangerously (now known as Paul Heyman) in WCW. What's even more interesting is the fact that it was a Paul Heyman guy, Brock Lesnar who ended The Undertaker's legendary WrestleMania streak.
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