Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Undertaker


Who is Mark William Calaway? He is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name The Undertaker. He was born March 24, 1965. Calaway made his debut in 1984 in the Dallas, Texas based World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) under the ring name "Texas Red". He wrestled and lost his first match against Bruiser Brody. In 1988, after four years in the promotion, he left. After leaving WCCW, Mark joined the CWA (which became the USWA after Jerry Jarrett merged CWA with WCCW) and wrestled under several gimmicks. On April 1, 1989, he was booked to win his first professional wrestling title, the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Jerry "The King" Lawler, under the stage name "The Master of Pain". While performing as the "The Punisher", Calaway won the WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship on October 5, 1989 when Eric Embry forfeited the title.[12]

His first mainstream exposure was in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). While there, he was known as "Mean" Mark Callous and wrestled as part of the Skyscrapers tag team along with "Dangerous" Dan Spivey managed by Teddy Long.[13] During his time in the Skyscrapers, he and Spivey were involved in a feud with the Road Warriors,[14] but Spivey left before the feud came to an end. Calaway then took on the guidance of Paul E. Dangerously and muscled his way through Brian Pillman and Johnny Ace. His most famous match in WCW was against Lex Luger for the NWA United States Championship at The Great American Bash, which he lost when Luger pinned him after a clothesline. WCW declined to renew Calaway's contract, after losing his last match to Sting on September 1, 1990 at a house show. Calaway then briefly wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling as Punisher Dice Morgan and in October 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

After leaving WCW, he briefly returned to the USWA to participate in a tournament to determine the new USWA Unified World Heavyweight champion; he defeated Bill Dundee in the first round, but lost to Jerry Lawler in the quarterfinals.
He is signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), wrestling on its SmackDown brand.

Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway's contract in 1990, in November of that year he joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, which later became the WWE in 2002). Having remained with that company ever since, Calaway is currently one of the senior performers in WWE. He is one of only two wrestlers, the other being Shawn Michaels, to have appeared on the very first episode of Raw who are still with the company today.[7]

He is undefeated at WrestleMania with a 16-0 record (sometimes referred to as simply The Streak) and is a six-time world champion (four-time WWE Champion and two-time World Heavyweight Champion). He was also the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble in which he became the first man to have ever won the rumble starting at number 30.


Calaway is the son of Frank and Catherine Calaway, and is one of five brothers with David, Michael, Paul and Timothy. He graduated from Waltrip High School in 1983, where he was a member of the basketball team. Calaway first married Jodi Lynn in 1989, and they had a son, Gunner, born in 1993, before the marriage ended in 1999. Calaway met his second wife, Sara, at a WWF autograph signing in San Diego, California.[90] He eventually married her in a ceremony in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 21, 2000. Mark and Sara have two daughters together: Chasey, born in 2002, and Gracie, born in 2005.[1] The two have since divorced and Calaway is currently dating WWE Diva Michelle McCool.

As a wedding gift to Sara, Calaway had his wife's name tattooed onto his throat and has said this is the most painful tattoo he has ever had. In 2007, the tattoo was removed from all WWE photos showing Undertaker's throat, most notably on the cover of the November issue of WWE Magazine and in pictures throughout. Undertaker has several other tattoos: a gravedigger, which he refers to as "Original Deadman", skulls, a castle, and a wizard. When talking about his body art, he has said that there is kind of a medieval thing going-on on his arms. He also has a dancing skeleton on the back of his neck. He also has a tattoo on his stomach that says BSK Pride, which means Bone Street Krewe.

Aside from wrestling, Calaway has many hobbies and interests. He collects Harley-Davidson and West Coast Choppers motorcycles and purchased his first brand new motorcycle after defeating Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship at the 1991 Survivor Series. Calaway has also had a custom motorcycle built for him by Jesse James, the founder of West Coast Choppers. He is a massive fan of Nick Cave and all his musical endeavors (The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds). He also enjoys listening to bands like ZZ Top, AC/DC, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Black Label Society. Calaway also enjoys country music and blues music.
As an avid boxing fan, Calaway was also the person who carried the Flag of the United States while leading Team Pacquiao to the ring during the Pacquiao vs. Velázquez fight in 2005.[93] This was also confirmed by fellow wrestler Batista in a televised interview for the Philippine news program TV Patrol World. Calaway is also an avid Mixed Martial Arts fan and has attended several Ultimate Fighting Championship shows.

As The Undertaker had been absent from the WWE due to his 2007 arm injury, Calaway began getting into real estate with his partner Scott Everhart. Calaway and Everhart finished construction on a $2.7m building in Loveland, Colorado. The building, filled with upscale office space, is named the "The Calahart", a portmanteau of their last names. Calaway has said that being a TV star certainly helps him in the real estate business, and he was quoted saying "by no means does it seal the deal, but people do want to sit down and talk with you. It helps us get to meet a lot of people and know what we’re trying to get accomplished."

Calaway has also established The Zeus Compton Calaway Save the Animals fund at the Texas A&M's Veterinary Teaching Hospital to help pay for lifesaving treatments for large-breed dogs.[95] The fund was established as a memorial to his beloved Mastiff Zeus, who died in 2004. more To see more who is click here

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