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Initially, Mark Calaway had a short run in 1990 in the WCW. While there, he would be known as "Mean" Mark Callous. He wrestled as part of the Sky Scrapers team and then as a singles wrestler. His most famous match in WCW was fighting Lex Luger for the U.S Title at Great American Bash, which he would not win.
Mark debuted at Survivor Series 1990 simply as The Undertaker. In the weeks after he used the name Kane the Undertaker at house shows and on WWF television. The Kane part was dropped awhile after and he just went by The Undertaker again as he still does.
It was also at this time that Undertaker switched managers from Brother Love to Paul Bearer. The story given on WWF television was that Paul Bearer simply bought out Undertaker's contract from Brother Love .
The Undertaker's gimmick has changed over the years. At first he appeared as a 'normal' undertaker; a silent giant who was subservient to Paul Bearer. As with many wrestlers in the cartoonish Rock and Wrestling era, he had an over-the-top gimmick—namely an undead zombie wrestler (complete with thick purple gloves) with vague occult powers, most notably being able to cause darkness, walk on the ring ropes and gain power from the ash urn that Paul Bearer carried.
In 1997, his on-screen brother, Kane, was revealed to be alive and they have feuded off and on for several years.
In recent years, in line with wrestling's change to a more realistic approach, his gimmick became that of an intimidating redneck biker. Unlike many gimmick changes, this was generally well-received by fans.
Recently, at the Wrestlemania XX PPVPay-per-view is the name given to a system by which television viewers can call and order events to be seen on TV and pay for the private telecast of that event to their homes later. The event is shown at the same time to everyone ordering it, as opposed event, he would return in the "deadman" Undertaker persona, again with Paul Bearer to defeat Kane. Currently, his gimmick could be best described as an undead cowboy (as Biker Taker was buried alive by Kane several months previously). Several months later, Paul Bearer was kidnapped by The Dudley Boyz at the direction of Paul Heyman, who then took "control" of Undertaker in the storyline. At the June 2004 WWE PPV The Great American Bash, he buried Bearer in a crypt of cement after winning a handicap match against the Dudleys as a means of removing his "weakness" so that Heyman or others could no longer control him.