Better known by the ring name The Undertaker, Mark William Calaway is an American professional wrestler, born on March 24th, 1965 in Houston, Texas. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, The Undertaker is a seven-time world heavyweight champion in WWF/WWE, having held the WWF/WWE Championship four times and World Heavyweight Championship three times.
He is currently signed to WWE with his character has two contrasting gimmicks, which are the “Deadman” and the “American Bad Ass.” Calaway began his career in 1987, working as various gimmicks for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) and other affiliate promotions, and he became USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion and WCWA Texas Heavyweight Champion during this time.
After signing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1989, he had a brief stint in the mid-card as “Mean” Mark Callous, before joining the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1990.
He made his debut as Kane the Undertaker at a taping of Superstars on November 19th, 1990 and The Undertaker became one of the most popular characters in wrestling. Calaway was rebranded as “The Undertaker” in the WWF, and gained significant mainstream popularity as a horror-themed, macabre entity who employed scare tactics and held links to the supernatural.
The longest-tenured wrestler in company history at 30 years, The Undertaker was one of the most prominent figures of the Attitude Era, a boom period in the company’s business in the latter 1990s. The Undertaker is heavily associated with WWE’s flagship annual event, WrestleMania, where he became known for “The Streak”, a series of 21 straight victories, and he headlined the event on five occasions.
In 2020, it was assumed by some in the media that he had retired from the sport due to his comments in a documentary about his career. Calaway has held 17 championships. Within WWF/WWE, he is a four-time WWF/WWE Champion, a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, a six-time WWF World Tag Team Champion, a one-time WWF Hardcore Champion, and a one-time WCW Tag Team Champion.
The Undertaker has headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WWE, including WrestleMania on five occasions. He is the only man to have headlined WrestleMania in four different decades, the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
Calaway is the son of Frank Compton Calaway, who died in 2003 and Betty Catherine Truby. He has four older brothers named David, Michael, Paul, and Timothy. Calaway was married to his first wife Jodi Lynn between 1989 and 1999; they had a son, Gunner Vincent Calaway, born in 1993.
Calaway married his second wife, professional wrestler Sara Calaway, in 2000. They had two daughters together, Chasey, born in 2002 and Gracie Calaway, born in 2005 before divorcing in 2007. In 2010, he married former wrestler Michelle McCool.
Their first child together, a daughter named Kaia Faith Calaway, was born in 2012. -It is common for WWE superstars to try their hands at multiple things before pursuing pro-wrestling as a full-time career.
The Undertaker too had a stint as a basketball player, playing for Fort Worth’s Texas Wesleyan University. While he could have had a career in basketball, he selected pro-wrestling. -Given how omnipresent The Undertaker would prove to be in WWE from 1990 onward, it’s hard to believe that there was a point where WWE’s Chairman Vince McMahon was unimpressed by him.
After Paul Heyman made WWE aware of Calaway’s availability, McMahon apparently watched his match at the 1990 Great American Bash, and didn’t like what he saw. McMahon’s mind was changed, however, after meeting with Calaway the following month.
-Calaway’s WWE character has been included in numerous WWE video games, beginning with WWF Super WrestleMania (1992) and lastly in WWE 2K20 (2019). A special Undertaker-themed version of WWE 2K14 was released in 2013.
Undertaker has also made the most appearances out of any wrestler, having appeared in every game in the franchise. The Undertaker has a net worth of $17 million. Considering the many personas the Undertaker has adopted, his biker persona might be considered a low point in his career, replacing the hat and cloak and evil, villain look for a motorcycle, sunglasses, and bandanas.
Nonetheless, one of his most famous possessions is a Western Club Chopper, the $150,000 custom-made bike built by Jesse James that he regularly rode to the ring. As a huge fan of motorcycles, The Undertaker also owns a $15,000 Harley-Davidson Softail Fatboy, a V-twin soft tail cruiser that was named after its “massive presence”.
The Harley-Davidson CVO Limited is also one of The Undertaker’s possession.This CVO Limited design runs about $40,000. The Undertaker lives in his wonderful Austin mansion with his entire family. The reason that The Undertaker lives in Austin, Texas, is to stay close to his hometown – Houston.
This property was once rented to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.