The first inductee announced for this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class is The Undertaker.
The company made the announcement on Friday prior to tickets for the April 1st event going on sale next Tuesday.
In the release, they confirmed that the Hall of Fame will take place after Friday Night SmackDown at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The event will be streamed live on Peacock and the WWE Network internationally.
Mark Calaway, 56, became one of the most famous characters in the promotion’s history after being christened ‘The Undertaker’ upon his debut in November 1990.
Within one year, the company put the WWE championship on him by defeating Hulk Hogan at the Survivor Series in Detroit with the assistance of Ric Flair. After a disputed finish at the follow-up Tuesday in Texas event, the belt was vacated and led to the famous Royal Rumble victory by Flair in January 1992.
Throughout the ‘90s, The Undertaker was a protected character, fighting off the monster heel of the moment including WrestleMania matches with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy, and Kevin Nash.
In 1997, he won the championship for the second time at WrestleMania 13 in Chicago defeating Psycho Sid and was his first true run as champion that lasted until that year’s SummerSlam event.
In May 2000, he returned from injury and transformed himself into the biker-version of The Undertaker including the company licensing “American Badass” by Kid Rock as his new theme.
He won the title for a fourth time in May 2002 at the Judgment Day event by once again, defeating Hogan. This was the first title change of the “WWE era” as the company shifted its branding based on legal action from the World Wildlife Fund.
Throughout his career, The Undertaker had never lost at WrestleMania and it didn’t really become a notable stat until the performer made reference to it after beating Ric Flair in 2002. After the match, he held up his hands to signal “10” for 10-0. In 2005, it became the key part of his angle with Randy Orton, who set out to end the streak.
The real streak began in 2007, where The Undertaker gained the rep of having the top match at WrestleMania each year beginning with Dave Batista in Detroit and following with matches against Edge, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and CM Punk. Both streaks ended in 2014 when he was pinned by Brock Lesnar in a famous match where the Mercedes-Benz Superdome was stunned when the three-count was registered, and no music played. When the graphic of 21-1 appeared, there was a collective gasp. It was later discovered that The Undertaker sustained a concussion in the early portion of the match and didn’t remember most of the match.
Rather than retire after the loss, he did come back for subsequent ‘Mania matches with Bray Wyatt, Shane McMahon, Roman Reigns, John Cena, and finally with AJ Styles in a pre-taped “Boneyard Match”, which was critically acclaimed in 2020 when the show was performed without fans due to the pandemic.
It ended up being the last “match” of his career, although a cinematic one, with his retirement ceremony taking place at the Survivor Series that year, which marked thirty years of Calaway playing The Undertaker.
