Wrestlemania XXVIII

I am already in my hometown by the time I email this piece for today’s issue which I almost forgot.
Tuesday night, I was glued to my TV set anticipating the action in Wrestlemania XXVIII. Growing up as a child, I watched the annual professional grapplefest since Wrestlemania III. Those were the era of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, George “The Animal” Steel, Jake the Snake Roberts and Jim “The Hacksaw” Duggan.
It was easier to know the wrestling pros of the past since there was just a few of them. Today, there a bunch of wrestlers and it’s not easy knowing their names.
Tuesday night, I was rooting for The Undertaker and The Rock. The Undertaker (Mark William Calaway) is one of the most recognizable wrestlers of all time. Simply because there is no one dressed and packaged like him. He is one of a kind.
Calaway is the most veteran of all wrestlers under the WWE fold. Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1984. He joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as “Mean” Mark Callous in 1989. When WCW did not renew Calaway’s contract in 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation in October and, after shortening his name from Kane the Undertaker to simply The Undertaker, has remained with the company since.
The Undertaker has two contrasting personas. The first is the role of The Deadman, an undead, occult-like figure, which has consisted of many different styles. He debuted his original Deadman persona during his own on-camera debut at Survivor Series (1990). At this event, the Undertaker was clad as a Western mortician. Next, in September of 1999, the Undertaker appeared as the leader of the Ministry of Darkness (with similar apparel). Since Wrestlemania XX, the Undertaker has appeared as a hybrid version of the Deadman character, using elements of the previous Deadman incarnations.
His other persona has been that of The American Bad-Ass, a biker, which he portrayed from May, 2000 through November, 2003. The Undertaker is also associated with various specialty matches: the Casket match, the Buried Alive match, the Hell in a Cell and the Last Ride match. An important part of the character is the Undertaker character’s half-brother Kane, who has also played an important role in The Undertaker’s character development. Kane was introduced in 1997, and has both feuded with The Undertaker and performed in a tag-team with him as the Brothers of Destruction.
The Undertaker holds an unrivaled record of being undefeated at WrestleMania, WWE’s premier pay-per-view event, with a 20–0 record. Among other accolades, Calaway is an eight-time World Champion having won the WWF/E Championship four times and the World Heavyweight Championship three times as The Undertaker, and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship once under the Master of Pain character. The Undertaker is also a seven-time World Tag Team champion: a six-time WWF Tag Team Champion and one-time WCW Tag Team Champion. The Undertaker was the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble and became the first man to enter the annual event last and win. Calaway is the only remaining WWE wrestler to have also appeared on the first episode of its Raw television program.
Another favourite wrestler of mine is The Rock. Between The Undertaker and The Rock, the latter is more popular having appeared in several movies. The latest of which is The Journey II.
The Rock’s real name is Dwayne Douglas Johnson. Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. He won a total of 16 championships in WWF/E. This included nine World Heavyweight Championships (the WWF/E Championship seven times and the WCW/World Championship twice), two WWF Intercontinental Championships, and five times as co-holder of the WWF Tag Team Championships. He was the sixth WWF/E Triple Crown Champion, and the winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble.
Johnson’s first leading role as an actor was in The Scorpion King in 2002. For this film, he received the highest salary for an actor in his first starring role, earning $5.5 million. He has since appeared in several blockbuster movies such as The Rundown, Be Cool, Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51, Tooth Fairy, Doom, The Other Guys, Faster, and most recently Fast Five starring opposite Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.
Tuesday night’s wrestlemania marathon rolled past midnight and into the early minutes of Wednesday.
No regrets though. My sidekick Jumar lost his bet twice against my boys—The Undertaker (who extended his Wrestlemania streak won 20-0 over Triple H) and The Rock (who beat John Cena).