Former WWE and TNA executive Bruce Prichard recently participated in an interview with WrestlingInc's Raj Giri, where he talked about how he came up with the "Undertaker" gimmick, and how WWE CEO Vince McMahon was not high on Taker's Mean Mark gimmick, during his run in World Championship Wrestling.
In the WWE, Prichard played the character of Brother Love, the Undertaker's original manager. Talking about coming up with Taker's gimmick, Prichard said that he wanted to have a character that would contrast his own.
Also read: How The Undertaker character nearly never happened
Thus, in the initial stage, he (The Undertaker) was referred to as Kane. The backstory for Kane was that he had murdered his brother Abel and that he would be Brother Love's brother. The outfit they drew for Kane was that of an Undertaker and thus inspired the name "Kane, the Undertaker".
According to Prichard, they kept using the name "Kane" for two or three weeks before dropping it for good. This name was later given to Glenn Jacobs, who took on the role of the Undertaker's long-lost brother and was subsequently introduced as Kane instead.
Bruce Prichard as Brother Love acted as the Undertaker's manager from 1990 to 1991, before selling Taker's contract to Paul Bearer. Below is the Undertaker’s first WWF appearance at Survivor Series, where he was accompanied by Prichard:
The Undertaker, real name Mark Calaway, before his foray in the WWF, wrestled as "Mean Mark" Callous in WCW. Mean Mark's gimmick involved him wearing a black ring attire and being fond of pet snakes and music by Ozzy Osbourne.
Prichard revealed that initially, Vince McMahon wasn't interested in the "Mean Mark" gimmick.
According to Prichard, McMahon never watched any WCW programming unless an executive forced him to. Prichard suggested Vince watch Calaway's work after which, Prichard arranged a meeting between Calaway and Vince, in which, Calaway had a tryout match against Lex Luger.
Despite suffering from a dislocated hip, Calaway wrestled the match because Prichard pointed out that Vince was observing him. But his dislocated hip and Luger's inability to perform well in the ring resulted in an average match.
Afterwards, Prichard says that Vince met Calaway and immediately took a liking to the tall red-headed man. Calaway has since wrestled for the rest of his run in the WWF/WWE as the Undertaker, a character that he portrays to date.
The Undertaker recently returned on the 900th episode of SmackDown Live, you can watch his return in the video below:
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