DEAD MAN’S LIVELY TALE
As NBA fans were riveted by ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance,” World Wrestling Entertainment fans are now transfixed by “The Last Ride,” the five-part WWE Network series documenting the recent career of the Undertaker, the 15-time WWE champion who has terrorized foes and fascinated fans for 30 years.
The Undertaker, Mark Calaway, 55, grew up in Houston, played basketball at Waltrip High School and got hooked on wrestling while attending Friday night shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum in the 1970s and ’80s.
Calaway for decades has kept a low public profile in keeping with the Undertaker’s silent, imposing character. In “The Last Ride,” though, he discusses his career, life with his wife, former wrestler Michelle McCool, and family in Austin and the physical challenges of wrestling.
Part 3 of “The Last Ride” will be available at 10 a.m. Sunday on the WWE Network website, followed by episodes June 14 and June 21.
The first two episodes are available for viewing on the network website.
Calaway discussed his career, his most recent Wrestlemania match, which was a horror movie-styled project staged on a film set, and “The Last Ride.”
This transcript has been edited and condensed for length.
Q: How did “The Last Ride” come to be?
A:
I came up with this a few days before (Wrestlemania in 2017). My mindset at the time was that was going to be my last match, and I wanted to document those last few days.
And then, the next thing I know we’re three years down the road and we have all this footage and figured out that we should probably do something on a bigger scale with this.
Q: To what degree was the Undertaker a character that was offered to you, and to what degree did you mold the persona?
A: The name and the original likeness was Vince’s (WWE chairman Vince McMahon) brainchild. Then I went into full-on, ‘OK, how do I make this mine? What is this character?’
I studied everything horror-like, from Jason (in the “Friday the 13th” films) and Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers. I was fortunate enough to be able to pick the brain of Jake Roberts, who was a brilliant mind for wrestling, and we started putting it together and it became part of me.
Q: Silence has been a big part of the Undertaker’s personality. How did silence help build the character?
A: It’s a vital part. Everyone talks about how well I protected the character. In my mind, for this thing to work,
I had to be this character. So that’s why when I did say something, I said it very low and, you know, it was usually pretty morbid or macabre.
Even when I would do shows like Regis and Kathie Lee with Paul Bearer (his ring manager, portrayed by the late Bill Moody), Paul would do most of the talking and I’d sit there and they would poke fun or kind of make me look silly. I would just look at them and people were like, dang, he really is, he’s different.
Q: The documentary details your assorted surgeries, including scenes from the operating room of your hip surgery in 2017. Was that a hip replacement surgery or something else?
A: They’re not full hip replacements. They’re called Birmingham hip resurfaces. I have metal balls and metal sockets in both hips, and the second episode gets pretty graphic with it. If you ever want to see what the Undertaker looks like on the inside, that’s a good episode to watch.
Q: Has physical skills or connecting with people on an emotional level been the larger key to your success?
A: For that character, it was the emotional connection that I had that was more important. The physical end of it came naturally. In fact, early on I had to kind of curb some of the athletic things. I had to dial it back a little bit to work for that character.
The emotional connection with my fan base and my audience was the greatest part of this whole deal and why it’s been able to sustain itself for so long. I get people all the time that say things like ‘you saved my life because of your character. You were different, and it was OK to be different.’
Q: You talk in the film about your recent Wrestlemania cycle of match, surgery, rehab. Did you make it through this year’s Wrestlemania without requiring surgery afterward?
A: There wasn’t as many bumps in that match or falls or anything, but the ones that were there, those hurt. That ground was rock hard with absolutely no give. And you’re also standing around for most of the night while they changed cameras and did all the other stuff, and that was taxing in its own right.
I got cut up when I put my hand through a hearse window, but I didn’t need any surgeries.
Q: What was your impression of the Boneyard Match with A.J. Styles at Wrestlemania 36?
A: (Styles) crossed so many lines with his interviews where he talked about my wife and he talked about me and my age and being over the hill, he crossed so many professional lines that it was really good that we could have that kind of match.
What we do is athletic storytelling. That’s the most important part of the match. And when you cross those lines like he did, you don’t grab a headlock and shoot somebody off into the ropes and drop a toehold, because it’s going to be a fight. And that’s what it was.
The really cool aspect of it was because it was in a cemetery where there was no background noise or fan noise. You can hear me talk trash to him, which if it would have been in real life. I would have been talking to him and then him back to me. So it was really cool.
We got to shoot it on a different film format, which gave it that cinematic feel, like it was a movie. I think they’re going to probably try and do more of that because that worked out so well.
Q: As you’ve gotten older, how have you adapted in a way that enables you to continue performing?
A: The physical aspect is the biggest thing for me. I have to train 10 times harder for half the results. I’m constantly trying to figure out how I can give my all-out effort but try to disguise my limitations and be able to give a match that when people pay their money to see the Undertaker that they don’t leave disappointed.
I don’t want people feeling like I just mail it in. A lot of people are like, well, all you’ve got to do is make your entrance, choke slam somebody and everybody’s going to be happy. I’m not going to be happy because I know how much this means to me. And I don’t want to just phone it in and rest on my laurels.
That’s kind of the struggle of this whole documentary series - me coming to grips with that.
Q: When will you perform again?
A: There’s nothing (scheduled). Usually I’ll get a call a few months out about how I feel about doing something, and if it feels right, it feels good, you know, then I’ll start getting in shape and try and peak for whenever he needs me.
Q: There is a moment in the film where you say that you’re suffering a crisis of confidence and (WWE executive Paul Levesque) Triple H tells you “Remember who you are.” With that in mind, who are you, and what do you represent?
A: I’m the Undertaker. I’m the guy that’s been the mainstay, the constant for 30 years, the guy that you can count on to deliver when it’s time to deliver and go out and perform at a certain level.
When Triple H came up to me and said that, my confidence was really low, and he was trying to remind me ‘Don’t forget who you are in the sense of everything that (you’ve) been able to do and been able to accomplish within our industry.’
Q: The WWE DVDs used to have a disclaimer about athletes saying to “cheer for them, believe in them, but don’t try this at home.” How important is that sense of belief ?
A: Great athletes in wrestling are a dime a dozen. There are guys who can do phenomenal things athletically that never get over and never have a successful career because they can’t identify with their audience. They haven’t learned how to put out there for their fan base to sink their teeth into.
If your fans don’t care for you on an emotional level, you’re spinning your wheels. You can grab somebody’s attention going out and standing on the top rope and doing a double back flip off onto the floor onto somebody. But how many times are they going to see that before they’re like, ‘OK, well, what do you got for me now? I’ve seen that.’
That’s what they have to rely on because they can’t figure out how to make that emotional connection. As I said, if they don’t care about the character in you, you’re dead in the water,
Q: Texas has produced so many great wrestlers, but you arguably stand at the head of that group. Do you enjoy that distinction?
A: I’m so appreciative. I consider myself extremely blessed to be in that consideration. There’s been some really strong talent that’s come out of Texas. My mind is just kind of spinning right now. I’m just thinking of like, you know, the Von Erichs and the Funks and all those people. Crazy.