The Undertaker has always been one of the most forbidding and seemingly indestructible part of WWE. Since his debut for the company back in 1990 at Survivor Series, he has etched a path of destruction through the roster, bringing dread with him.
Over time, The Undertaker became one of the more beloved legendary Superstars, known not only for his work ethic but also for his loyalty to WWE. When other wrestlers were leaving WWE to go to WCW, Undertaker stayed strong and became one of the major reasons that WWE was able to make it through the Monday Night Wars.
However, believe it or not, there was a time when The Undertaker wrestled before joining WWE. During this time, he wrestled for various other promotions, including WCCW, Continental Wrestling Association, and for a very short time, WCW.
In that time, he was not known as The Undertaker and instead wrestled under various other names.
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In this article, we will be looking at three other names that The Undertaker was known by, before arriving in WWE.
Let's get into it without any further ado!
#3 Texas Red
When wrestlers begin their careers, they do so wherever they get their first opportunity. For The Undertaker, one of his first opportunities was for World Class Championship Wrestling in 1987, after having trained under Buzz Sawyer.
In this time, he began his wrestling journey wearing a mask and was known as Texas Red. Texas Red dressed in red gear, and later dressed in black wrestling gear with a mask, with only some red on it.
He was younger during this time and was still learning the business, but he could not have had a better man to learn with, as he was accompanied by Percy Pringle, who would later be his manager in WWE as Paul Bearer.
#2 The Master of Pain
Even back in 1989, The Undertaker was wrestling as a vicious and scary Superstar. Never was this more evident than his time in USWA, where he wrestled under the gimmick of The Master of Pain.
In this gimmick, The Master of Pain was supposed to be a character who had just been released by the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta. He had supposedly been imprisoned for five years for killing two men.
While wrestling in this gimmick, he was managed by Dutch Mantel and challenged Jerry Lawler, the then-USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Lawler and thereby won his first-ever wrestling Championship.
#3 'Mean' Mark Callous
Before he joined WWE, for one very short year, The Undertaker wrestled in WCW in 1989 and 1990. He was known as 'Mean' Mark Callous, a name that was devised by Terry Funk.
Jim Ross described Callous as having a fondness for pet snakes and that he loved the music of Ozzy Osbourne. He wrestled as part of the Skyscrapers for a short while, before he joined Paul E. Dangerously aka Paul Heyman and defeated Johnny Ace as well as Brian Pillman.
However, his time here was short and after he was discouraged and told that no one would pay to see him wrestle, and he reconsidered his future. Heyman helped The Undertaker and soon enough he would prove everyone wrong as he made his way to WWE, which was then known as WWF.
During his time in WCW, he also briefly wrestled in Japan, as Dice 'The Punisher' Morgan.
Eventually, he found success in WWE as The Undertaker, and the rest, as they say, is history.