Career
Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Mean" Mark Callous in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway's contract in 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation in October and, after shortening his name from Kane the Undertaker to simply The Undertaker, has remained with the company since.
The Undertaker has two contrasting personas. The first is the role of The Deadman, an undead, occult-like figure, which has consisted of many different styles. He debuted his original Deadman persona during his own on-camera debut at Survivor Series (1990). At this event, the Undertaker was clad as a Western mortician. Next, in September of 1999, the Undertaker appeared as the leader of the Ministry of Darkness (with similar apparel). Since Wrestlemania XX, the Undertaker has appeared as a hybrid version of the Deadman character, using elements of the previous Deadman incarnations.
His other persona has been that of The American Bad-Ass, a biker, which he portrayed from May, 2000 through November, 2003. The Undertaker is also associated with various specialty matches: the Casket match, the Buried Alive match, the Hell in a Cell and the Last Ride match. An important part of the character is the Undertaker character's half-brother Kane, who has also played an important role in The Undertaker's character development. Kane was introduced in 1997, and has both feuded with The Undertaker and performed in a tag-team with him as the Brothers of Destruction.
Undertaker had never beaten Shawn Michaels, so his perfect WrestleMania streak was in dire jeopardy going into the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania. HBK showed why he has been dubbed "Mr. WrestleMania," showing no fear as he absorbed The Phenom’s most lethal maneuvers, including a Tombstone Piledriver, until Undertaker administered a second Tombstone Piledriver for the victory. The win boosted Undertaker's unprecedented WrestleMania streak to 17-0. One year later, The Phenom overcame HBK for the second time at WrestleMania XXVI, forcing Michaels into retirement, while expanding his monumental streak to 18-0 on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
Throughout it all, Undertaker has remained one of WWE’s most popular Superstars, virtually cementing his place as a future Hall of Famer.
The Undertaker holds an unrivaled record of being undefeated at WrestleMania, WWE's premier pay-per-view event, with a 20–0 record. Among other accolades, Calaway is an eight-time World Champion having won the WWF/E Championship four times and the World Heavyweight Championship three times as The Undertaker, and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship once under the Master of Pain character. The Undertaker is also a seven-time World Tag Team champion: a six-time WWF Tag Team Champion and one-time WCW Tag Team Champion. The Undertaker was the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble and became the first man to enter the annual event last and win. Calaway is the only remaining WWE wrestler to have also appeared on the first episode of its Raw television program.