The Undertaker

Who is The Undertaker?

Mark William Calaway, better known by his ring name The Undertaker, is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE. He is the company's most tenured performer, and is the only remaining active competitor from the very first episode of WWE Raw in 1993. Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling as "Mean" Mark Callous in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway's contract in 1990, Calaway signed with the World Wrestling Federation. After debuting as Kane the Undertaker, the name was shortened to The Undertaker and he has remained with the company since.

The Undertaker gimmick has two polar opposite identities. The first is the "Deadman", an uncanny, undead and macabre entity, which has consisted of several different versions. He debuted his first version of the Deadman during his on-camera debut at Survivor Series 1990. Here, he portrayed a Western mortician—a pain-impervious zombie donned in black attire with gray accessories. By SummerSlam 1994, he began appearing as a mystic, chilling superhuman represented by cool colors, replacing the gray with purple and utilizing blue fog for the first time. At Survivor Series 1996, the Deadman was reborn, this time as the gothic "Lord of Darkness". By January 1999, he began appearing as the ritual-performing dark priest of a stable called the Ministry of Darkness. The Undertaker's alternate identity is a biker dubbed the "American Bad-Ass", which he portrayed from May 2000 to November 2003. Since WrestleMania XX, Undertaker has appeared as a hybrid of all of his previous incarnations. At the same time, the hybrid has seen sharp contrasts, most notably appearing while shirtless and sporting a shaven head/mohawk.