The Undertaker and me

In a weird sort of way, The Undertaker - who kinda sorta announced his retirement during the last episode of the docuseries about his life, The Last Ride - and I kind of grew up together.

Not, literally, of course. He grew up in Texas, I grew up in the Midwest. He's also 13 years older than me.

I started watching pro wrestling in earnest in the summer of 1990. I was a Hulk Hogan kid - I even wrote the guy a "Get Well" letter after he was attacked by Earthquake on The Brother Love Show and was "recuperating" - aka "filming Suburban Commando". I was also, however, into the NWA/WCW shows on TBS at the time - Sting, Ric Flair, the Steiner Brothers. And it was on one of those old TBS shows that I saw Mean Mark.

Also billed as "Mean" Mark Callous, this monster red-headed giant was managed by Paul E. Dangerously (you kids know him as Paul Heyman now), and absolutely decimated his opponent, finishing him off with his classic move, the Heart Punch (which is exactly what it sounds like). I never saw Mean Mark on another TBS show again, but the image of him stuck with me.

That November, during WWF's Survivor Series, Ted Dibiase introduced the surprise member of his team - The Undertaker.

It was Mean Mark again, but this time dressed as an Old West mortician and being managed by Brother Love.

The Undertaker had arrived. And I was awestruck.

Best. Debut. Ever.

Even at my young age - I was 12 at the time - I was still an insufferable smark. I watched as much wrestling as our local cable provider in Naperville, IL would offer. I went to the local grocery store and bought every wrestling magazine they had every month. I found pro wrestling bulletin boards online - which, at the time, was Prodigy, because that's what my parents had signed up for (if you used Prodigy when you were a kid, mention it in the comments below!). So, when The Undertaker slowly made his way to the ring, I immediately thought, "Hey! That's that 'Mean Mark' guy!"

Then that part of my brain shut up because this wasn't Mean Mark... this was The Undertaker. This was something I had never seen before - and I'm not just talking about wrestling. I mean.... anywhere. The Undertaker captivated me.

He also scared the crap out of me, too.

1990 was an interesting year for pro wrestling, especially the WWF. We were still a few years away from the steroid trial that nearly toppled the company - a trial that Vince McMahon seems to have had won simply through sheer tyranny of will - but the huge explosion of popularity the company saw in the 1980s was slowly starting to die down. WrestleMania VI - Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior - took place that year, which was more than enough to hold on to the public's imagination. But things were clearly starting to slow down.

At the time, the World Wrestling Federation was very heavily gimmick-based - nearly every wrestler had a "job." There were wrestling police officers, plumbers, sanitation workers, and more. The Undertaker was just that - a mortician, and apparently one with supernatural powers, at that. His new manager, Paul Bearer - played by one William "Percy Pringle" Moody (himself a former mortician) - solidified the Dead Man's persona even further.

A year later, Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship (with a little help from Ric Flair) - both cementing his legacy and giving me nightmares for months. The ultimate evil wrestler had defeated the beloved WWF champion (and my favorite wrestler at the time - remember, I wasn't even 13 yet.)

But, as evil as The Undertaker was... the man playing him did such an amazing job that, even as a little kid, you couldn't help but respect the guy. Even find him cool. Because he was cool. And, eventually, WWE pulled the trigger and made The Undertaker a force for good.

Which is weird when you look at it objectively but was still awesome.

Undertaker's second win at WrestleMania was against Jake Roberts

In 1992, during an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, The Undertaker prevented his soon-to-be former ally, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, from attacking Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth with a steel chair.

It's the same old story - much like Roberts before him, Undertaker was so great at being a bad guy that WWF simply had to turn him into a good guy. When that happened, younger me was beside himself with joy. I was also conflicted because, for years, I was also a huge Jake Roberts fan (I joined the "WWF Fan Club" just to get the cassette with all the theme music just to hear his whenever I wanted) and I was heartbroken when he turned heel So, it was pretty conflicting in my head watching one of my favorite wrestlers who was now evil fighting one of the wrestlers who I detested... who was now a good guy.

Being a kid watching wrestling when I was 12 was amazing.

Taker and Roberts had themselves a match at WrestleMania VIII - the second win of his winning streak - which wasn't a great match, but it wasn't awful, either. But, the win solidified Undertaker's position as not just one of the company's top good guys, but one of their top stars.

This wasn't meant to be a retrospective of Undertaker's whole career. And, it won't be.

But, as I mentioned earlier, Undertaker's career went hand in hand with my own wrestling fandom. When his career started to stagnate (despite another WWF Championship win), my interest started to stagnate. When the Attitude Era began and he the Deadman started to dive headfirst into the stories being told, I started getting interested again. The Undertaker wasn't my favorite wrestler, but he was always the one who determined if I was still a fan or not,

Then, there was King of the Ring 1998 and Hell In A Cell.

The match was Undertaker vs Mankind and it would change the way everybody looked at wrestling from there on in.

Just a few minutes into the match, Undertaker (who was still struggling with a broken foot) climbed to the top of the cage, grabbed Mankind by the head, and literally tossed him to the ground, through a table. Take yourself back to 1998, when something like that never happened. All the credit in the world to Mick Foley for staying in that match and everything that happened afterwards....

Undertaker grabbed Mankind by the hair and tossed him off the top of a 15-foot cage, onto a folding table. And history was made.

Mick Foley gets the majority of the credit for the impact of that match - and rightfully so - but Undertaker's contribution to that bout can't be ignored. If that match made Foley a legend, Undertaker was the one who made him.

It's 2020, and The Undertaker is - apparently - calling it a career. It says something that we never got to see the matches over the years that we hoped for. Undertaker vs Sting.

Undertaker vs Finn Balor.

Undertaker vs Goldber... oh, wait.... forget I said that.

The reason I love the Undertaker so much isn't because I started watch wrestling when he debuted in WWE. It's not because he's just generally awesome. Which he is. It's because he has, since joining the WWF/WWE, dedicated himself to the business and the character. I love Mark Calloway because he never pulled the curtain back on The Undertaker until he began to end his career (with a couple of exceptions, but let's not be jerks about it).

When the gong... er... gonged, when the bell tolled, we knew that no matter what shape The Undertaker was in, he would always, always, put on the best performance he could get out of his body. He not only beat everybody in his way, but he also put over news guys who deserved it. Edge, CM Punk, John Cena... all of them are legends now thanks in part to The Undertaker.

We here at Sportskeeda would like to extended our thanks, our congratulations, and our admiration to Mark Calloway, aka The Undertaker, for everything he's done in this business to entertain all of us. As much as we love seeing you in the ring, we sincerely hope you get to stay home with your lovely wife and beautiful children and enjoy retirement.

Raise a glass to The Undertaker, everyone! May his legend never Rest. In. Peace.

How did Ric Flair spend $1500 at a pizza place? More details here