25 Years of The Undertaker: The Rise

Being that this upcoming Thanksgiving marks the 25^th anniversary of Mark Calaway’s  tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment with the debut of his character The Undertaker and that he is by far my favorite Wrestler and one of my heroes from childhood to now and I have to honor him in this series of blogs that are to follow the different eras of “The Phenom”.  

I was first familiar with Mark Calaway due to his time as Texas Red in World Class Championship Wrestling and his time in WCW as Mean Mark Callous with the Sky Scrapers with his soon departure “Up North”.

In the 1990 4^th annual Survivor Series featuring the 4 on 4 Team elimination matches as always one of the top villains was The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Team facing off against The American Dream Dusty Rhoades, Koko B Ware, and Bret “The Hitman” Hart and his tag team partner Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. The rest of the Million Dollar team consisted of The Honky Tonk Man, and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and a mystery partner.

There was much speculation of the identity of the Mystery Partner ranging from Macho Man Randy Savage to Virgil and there was in fact a giant egg that was in arenas at the time and many speculated that the mystery partner was inside the egg.

DiBiase soon announced the identity of his 4^th competitor “led to the ring by his manager Brother Love, Weighing in at 320lbs From Death Valley, I Give You…The Undertaker”

A Somber funeral march began to play as announcers Roddy Piper and Gorilla Monsoon reacted to a 6ft 10in man in black that grimly strode to the ring and started off the match against the Future Champion and Hall of Famer Bret Hart. 

Soon Koko was tagged into the ring and flew off the ropes at his opponent who was soon caught in midair by the pale destroyer who quickly turned him upside down and dropped him on his head in what Monsoon instantly labeled “A Tombstone” and Koko was pinned and rolled out of the ring.

The Undertaker would also eliminate Dusty Rhoades who would then attack Brother Love resulting in Taker coming to his aid being counted out and therefor eliminated from the match. For the brief time that he was in the match he left a large impression on the crowd and the millions watching at home.

Soon it was announced that Brother Love would soon relinquish his managerial duties of the Undertaker and his new manager was announced to be William Moody aka Percy Pringle III but to WWE fans he would always be Paul Bearer.

Paul would lead The Undertaker to the ring carrying a mysterious Urn that The Undertaker would draw his power from and would make quick work of the Jobbers in squash matches before placing them in a Body Bag.

I have to admit that there was a slight fear that I had of The man and I can tell you that I had been ringside during this time and The Undertaker had a presence and when he would walkout it was all silence. 

It was announced that at Wrestlemania VII that The Undertaker would face Superfly Jimmy Snuka and at the event the crowd was amazed during the match at the short work that The Taker made of the future Hall of Famer and legendary wrestler.  

This was the beginning of the Streak at 1-0.

The Undertaker continued his dominance of the WWF Superstars leading to a feud with former Champion The Ultimate Warrior after locking him in an airtight coffin.

Warrior seeking to learn the secrets of death turned to Jake Roberts to get over his fear of the Deadman only to be betrayed by “The Snake” who was revealed to be in with The man in Black all along.

This storyline was quickly dropped after The Warrior left the WWF in 1991 and Jake the Snake was soon locked in a feud with Macho Man Randy Savage after Taker and Jake destroyed his wedding reception.

However The Undertaker was soon announced in the Main Event of the 1991 Survivor Series as Hulk Hogan’s “Gravest Challenge” for the WWF title.

The feud leading up to the event found Hogan facing off against The Undertaker and soon Ric Flair found himself involved in the storyline and interfered in the match with a steel chair costing Hogan the match and giving The Undertaker his first WWF title.

This reign was short lived as Hogan won the title back at the Tuesday in Texas event 7 days later using controversial methods to defeat the Deadman resulting in the vacating of the title.

It was soon after the 1992 Royal Rumble on Saturday Night’s Main Event that while Jake The Snake was about to attack Randy Savage and Elizabeth with a Steel Chair that The Undertaker turned face by stopping the assault.

 Facing off against The Snake at Wrestlemania VIII making his streak 2-0.

It was after Wrestlemania that The Undertaker and Paul Bearer began to feud with the Monsters of the WWF such as the Berserker, Papa Shango, and The Ugandan Giant Kamala. It was the feud with Kamala that came to an end of the 1992 Survivor Series that was the world’s first introduction to The Casket Match.

The purpose of the Casket Match is simple and that is to place your opponent into a casket and close the lid. This was the beginning of many of these matches to come.

At the 1993 Royal Rumble was attacked and eliminated by a The Giant Gonzalez  who gave the undertaker his first real “beat down” resulting in a match at Wrestlemania IX in Las Vegas.

Coming to the ring with a funeral chariot with a large vulture the undertaker took what Gonzalez had to dish out and then gave it back to him and Gonzalez then chloroformed The Taker getting himself disqualified and Taker was soon carried to the back of a stretcher leaving Gonzales celebrating for “Killing The Undertaker”…That is until the bell tolled again and the Undertaker emerged from the back rejuvenated and beating the Giant back to the Back and with the DQ making the Streak 3-0.

While The Undertaker was continuing to feud with Gonzales and Curtis Hughes to Summerslam with Yokozuna dominating the WWF as the champion stating that there was no competition, a feud was inevitable.

While Lex Luger was Captaining the American team with the Steiner Brothers against Yoko’s Fanatics of Ludwig Borga and the Quebeckers  and after teammate Tatanka was put out of action following a beating from the team it was announced that The Undertaker would join Team USA.

The Feud with Yoko resulted in yet another Casket Match and with the advantage in the Undertaker’s corner The champion had some tricks to his advantage.

With the match won and the champion soon being placed in a Double Wide Double Deep Casket The Undertaker soon found himself being attacked by a large amount of heels from the locker room area and after Yoko Smashed Paul Bearer’s urn Taker was placed in the Casket and was wheeled to the back Broken and defeated.

Again the Lights went down and The Undertaker appeared on the screen declaring that he will return and all mankind will witness his Rebirth and that he would not “Rest in Piece”.

Soon the Undertaker would be seen rising to the sky with all wondering if he would ever be seen again.

He would Rise again

In our next Chapter. 

Eulogy for the Hot Rod

For every great hero there has to be a great villain. That being said in the world of professional wrestling the villain eventually becomes the hero and those heroes go on to Chew Bubblegum and Kick-Ass…and are all out of Bubblegum.

I have mourned the death of many wrestlers over the years and well this one hurts the most. Not only am I a wrestling fan but I am also a genre fan and my career in pro wrestling as brief as it was I have spent the past 10 years working in the movie industry and they say that you can’t met your heroes…They are wrong.

I was a child of the 1980s and was introduced to professional wrestling as a fan of the A-Team and one night I saw Mr T on stage with Cindy Lauper and the man that Stallone faced off against in Rocky III who I soon found out that this man was Hulk Hogan and the man that attacked Lauper was Rowdy Roddy Piper.

A fighter all his life!

Despite The character being Scottish Roderick Toombs was born in Canada on April 17^th 1954 of Scottish family Heritage and after a falling out with his Mountie father Toombs left home at the age of 14 and stayed at Youth Hostels and soon acquired bagpipes that he soon became efficient at playing and after being told of the path that his life was taking he was offered a way out beginning his career as a professional wrestler.

Due to his talent on the pipes which he would play before his matches he was named Roddy the Piper and eventually he was christened Roddy Piper.

After losing his first match in 10 seconds and paying his dues , Piper soon worked all of the territories in North America and around the world and building a reputation and talent as a heel performer. He often told stories of angering the crowds and how he and Ric Flair had to be taken out of cities to avoid being killed by angered crowds.

Along the way Vince McMahon started approaching talent across the territories to work for his new Federation that was to utilize video and bring national exposure and eventually worldwide.

While originally brought in as a manager Piper was far more known as a Mouthpiece with his interview style and was used to both get his charges over as well as to rile the crown and make him hated at the same time.

This was the beginning of Piper having his own interview “Talk Show” segment on WWF television titled Piper’s Pit where Roddy would have a guest that he would ask “Tough” questions and often the program ended with Piper pummeling his guest off the stage.

The legacy of Piper’s Pit remains today and was utilized by many of the greats and while often imitated it was never duplicated.

Due to this and the fact that Piper had become a full time wrestler aside He was given his own “Bodyguard” in the form of Cowboy Bob Orton and the two were in seperatable both onscreen and off.

It was around this time that the Rock and Wrestling Connection began with MTV and while Dick Clark, and David Wolf were in the ring to attend a ceremony of Captain Lou presenting Cindy Lauper a gold album for Girls Just want to Have Fun that Piper crashed the festivities and smashed the album across the head of Captain Lou and to add insult to injury while Lauper tried to shield Lou with her bode Roddy delivered a kick to her sending her across the ring and soon manhandled David Wolf.

It was not till Hulk Hogan ran to the ring that Piper would leave and the two would soon face off in The War to Settle The Score on National television.

It was during this match that Mr. T became involved sparking their feud and leading us to the inaugural Wrestlemania in 1984.

Piper and Hogan would go on to feud and would face off in a Tag Team Match to main event  the first ever Wrestlemania. That is one feat that can never be taken away by anyone.

Piper would  be the primary antagonist on Hulk Hogan’s Rockin Wrestling cartoon show on Saturday mornings while continuing to feud with Mr. T. Now what I didn’t know was that there was real heat between Piper and T resulting in Piper facing against Mr. T in a boxing match which ended in Roddy Being disqualified after body slamming the TV star. This is where it all changed for Hot Rod!

Roddy Piper soon became a face and soon after Orton turned on him and Piper found himself in a feud with Adrian Adontis and made the decision to announce his retirement at Wrestlemania 3.

Piper made this decision as a way to keep himself on top of his game and despite the fact that he was “Retired” he still came back for sporadic appearences such as his special segment of Piper’s Pit at Wrestlemania V where he attacked Morton Downy Jr with a fire extinguisher.

Hot Rod would often find himself in minor feuds with wrestlers also around this time and one of the most infamous was his fight against at Bad News Brown at Wrestlemania VI where he wrestled in Black Make-Up as “The Hot Scott”.

Soon after Wrestlemania VI Jessie Ventura departed the WWF to pursue his own ventures and Roddy Piper became the new commentator alongside McMahon on WWF Superstars providing the Blow by Blow…and frequently finding himself involved in storylines eventually finding himself in a feud with Ric Flair.

On the eve of the 1991 Royal Rumble Roddy Piper found himself involved against the Mountie who after winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart challenged Piper to face him In a title match at the PPV resulting in one of Piper’s only title reigns in WWF history.

Throughout his entire WWF run Piper always found ways to not let himself be pinned and this was one of the reasons that he would never allow himself to have a title and did the job to his friend at Wrestlemania VIII and granting him one of the best pushes of his career.

With the exception of a brief appearance playing his Bagpipes at Summerslam 93 this was when Piper disappeared from the WWF for a couple of Years while he pursued his movie career.

Roddy Piper did one thing that Hulk Hogan could not do and that is have a more successful movie career.

Around the time of Wrestlemania III Roddy was approached by John Carpenter to star in his next film.

They Live is a Sci-Fi/Action flick about an alien invasion where the invaders had integrated themselves into our society and take it over using subliminal advertising and taking over our economy.

Roddy Piper stars as a vagrant the acquires a pair on sunglasses that allow him to see the aliens and he must stop them.

They Live is chock full of One-Liners including “Mamma Don’t Like Tattle Tales”, “Life’s a Bitch…and She’s Back in Heat” and finally “I have come to chew Bubblegum and Kick-Ass…and I’m all out of Bubblegum”.

The flick also features one of the best fight scenes in movie history as Roddy fights Keith David trying to get him to put on a pair of Sunglasses.

They Live though not a great hit in the theatres achieved a cult following and cemented Piper’s place in pop culture.

Roddy Piper also starred in Hell Comes to Frog Town, Immortal Combat, Tough and Deadly, Sci-Fighters, and Body Slam.

He also made appearances on many television shows including Highlander, and Walker: Texas Ranger.

In 1994 Piper made a brief return to both Referee the title match between Bret Hart and Yokozunna at Wrestlemania X and had a match with Jerry Lawler and Refereeing Bret’s match with Bob Backlund at Wrestlemania XI all while keeping in touch with his Bottom Line segment on WWF Mania on Saturday mornings.

When WWF President Gorilla Monsoon was attacked by Vader after the Royal Rumble in 1996 He appointed Roddy Piper as the acting president until he returned at Wrestlemaina XII and Piper was the one that (Kayfabe) created the Iron Man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at the event.

Roddy found himself in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl against Goldust at the event which was a precursor to the violent Hardcore matches that were frequently seen on WWF/E Programming in the coming years.

After defeating Goldust Piper waved goodbye to the crowd and would not be seen again in the WWF for years.

That summer in WCW, Hulk Hogan turned heel and formed the NWO and after feuding with the likes of Randy Savage and Ric Flair Hogan was confronted by Roddy Piper at Halloween Havoc effectively reigniting their classic feud in a series of matches with the score staying between the two in victories.

After this feud Piper remained in WCW though he was not utilized like he should have been used and was eventually fired resulting in a lawsuit to get the rest of the contract that he was owed.

Piper soon wrote the book In the Pit with Piper, Roddy Gets Rowdy. In the book Piper laments on his life and breaks his silence on many subjects in the industry and warns us about “The Sickness” which is responsible for the death of many of his “Frat Brothers”.

Due to the fact that Piper went off on many subjects including McMahon many thought that he would never again be seen again in the WWF.

Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon were facing off at Wrestlemania XIX  when a man in a black coat and hat charged into the ring with a lead pipe. When he ripped off the hat and coat it was revealed to be none other than Piper himself to the shock and amazement of the crowd.

Piper had recently been in a car wreck and as a result had put on some pounds which adds to the reason that he was able to sneak into the event un noticed.

Roddy soon began to make his presence felt managing Sean O’Haire and bringing back Piper’s Pit and once again resuming his feud with Hogan trying to unmask him as Mr. America.

However none of this lasted long as Piper before Piper had done an Interview for HBO and one of their documentaries and a down and bitter Piper spoke about his dead friends in a time where they were dropping like flies and soon McMahon was confronted in a separate interview and soon enough WWE severed ties with Piper for a couple of years.

 Piper then had a brief run in TNA.

Alongside Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheik, Jimmy Hart, and Mr Wonderful, Roddy Piper was inducted in to the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2005 and in his speech he refused to make his induction into a period and that is the last thing that he did.

Piper’s Pit returned with a vengeance and Piper also soon returned to the ring in a limited capacity when the WWE Universe saved his life.

In 2006 at WWE’s Cyber Sunday Ric Flair was to seek out the Tag Team titles with a partner chosen by the WWE Universe from a list of three choices. Roddy Piper was the choice in a landslide and He won the belts with Flair that night. The next night on Raw Piper and Flair suffered a major loss and beatdown at the hands of Edge and Randy Orton resulting in Piper being taken to the hospital.

There he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in it’s early stages which he quickly sought treatment thanking the fans for choosing him so that he would discover this and be soon treated.

Soon after this I had the pleasure of meeting him on the convention circuit and I saw him again two years later at the 25^th Anniversary of Wrestlemania where he faced Chris Jericho in an elimination match.

I had the pleasure of meeting him again at the 2012 Texas Frightmare Weekend where he reunited with Keith David and Meg Foster for the They Live Reunion which was a special treat for the fans.

He even served as the introducer to my video of the convention as well as the humorous outtakes.

Roddy Piper continued his appearances for WWE usually making run-ins and special episodes of Piper’s Pit. It was as if he had never left.

Roddy Piper even joined the cast of Legend’s House for airing on the WWE Network.

 I at times felt that he was far too qualified to be on the show as many of the talent seemed to be parodies but Roddy made the show far more entertaining and was the big draw seeing him spark up a close friendship with Hacksaw Jim Duggan all while dealing with his personal Demons.

If you tuned into Podcast One you would have heard him hosting Piper’s Pit where he interviewed both other wrestlers as well as musicians and celebrities and even John Carpenter. Sadly the podcast ended due to a conflict with fellow podcaster Steve Austin.

Piper was also making more movies in these years and sold Tshirts and his own Bubblegum flavored soda pop off his website and his youngest son Colt became a professional wrestler further establishing his legacy for a new generation.

On July 31^st 2015 Roderick Toombs aka Rowdy Roddy Piper passed away peacefully in his sleep of Cardiac Arrest. A man who spent his life fighting went in piece.

As I write this now I still struggle with the words as it has not yet sunk in seeing him receive a 10 Bell salute that I had seen so many of his “Frat” Brothers receive and having the tribute video played for him and the image of the empty chair with a Kilt and the music Hold on Tight by Greg Holden and in listening to the music I can’t think of a better song for Piper.

Roddy Piper never took his life for granted. It can be said that he lived to the fullest and held on tight to what he had been handed because he never knew when he would not have it.

I had the pleasure of meeting him and calling him friend and the lesson he taught me was to enjoy what you have because you can be gone tomorrow.

Go On to the Mountain Young Son for your work here is Done