The Undertaker and me
In a weird sort of way, The Undertaker - who kinda sorta announced his retirement during the last episode of the docuseries about his life, The Last Ride - and I kind of grew up together.
Not, literally, of course. He grew up in Texas, I grew up in the Midwest. He's also 13 years older than me.
I started watching pro wrestling in earnest in the summer of 1990. I was a Hulk Hogan kid - I even wrote the guy a "Get Well" letter after he was attacked by Earthquake on The Brother Love Show and was "recuperating" - aka "filming Suburban Commando". I was also, however, into the NWA/WCW shows on TBS at the time - Sting, Ric Flair, the Steiner Brothers. And it was on one of those old TBS shows that I saw Mean Mark.
Also billed as "Mean" Mark Callous, this monster red-headed giant was managed by Paul E. Dangerously (you kids know him as Paul Heyman now), and absolutely decimated his opponent, finishing him off with his classic move, the Heart Punch (which is exactly what it sounds like). I never saw Mean Mark on another TBS show again, but the image of him stuck with me.
That November, during WWF's Survivor Series, Ted Dibiase introduced the surprise member of his team - The Undertaker.
It was Mean Mark again, but this time dressed as an Old West mortician and being managed by Brother Love.
The Undertaker had arrived. And I was awestruck.
Best. Debut. Ever.
Even at my young age - I was 12 at the time - I was still an insufferable smark. I watched as much wrestling as our local cable provider in Naperville, IL would offer. I went to the local grocery store and bought every wrestling magazine they had every month. I found pro wrestling bulletin boards online - which, at the time, was Prodigy, because that's what my parents had signed up for (if you used Prodigy when you were a kid, mention it in the comments below!). So, when The Undertaker slowly made his way to the ring, I immediately thought, "Hey! That's that 'Mean Mark' guy!"
Then that part of my brain shut up because this wasn't Mean Mark... this was The Undertaker. This was something I had never seen before - and I'm not just talking about wrestling. I mean.... anywhere. The Undertaker captivated me.
He also scared the crap out of me, too.