(Welcome to this week's edition of "A Smark's Guide To Wrestling". This week, we explore some of the wildest and most outrageous ideas ever conceived by the WWF..) Controversy:
Why Wrestling Can't stay away from it.

THE BEGINNING:
1984-1990

In the first few years of Vince McMahon's reign within the WWF, everything was squarely aimed at teenagers and children; a wise move, for it brought about wrestling's true Renascence and the beginning of Hulkamania. However, everything was sanitized; heels were menacing, but not overtly frightening.

A rare exception was Roddy Piper, who was allowed to not only display vicious behavior, but got over on it. Memorable was his 1983 attack of Jimmy Snuka, using a coconut as a foreign object, was surprisingly graphic for its place and time in the history of wrestling.

Wrestling wouldn't really attempt a daring move until 1990, when America fell into a recession period, and Vince McMahon boldly tried emotional manipulation to keep the kids who had grown up as Hulkamaniacs hooked onto the product.

1990:
Hulk Hogan and Earthquake

In the early spring of 1990, Hulk Hogan asked Vince McMahon for some time off. Hogan's wife, Linda, had just given birth to their second child, Nicholas. Hogan wanted to both spend time with his children and recover from the financial disaster that was his first movie, "No Holds Barred."

McMahon, first of all, got the belt off of Hogan and placed it on The Ultimate Warrior, in a classic angle that helped boost the WWF in trying times. Left bereft of a way to get Hogan off the air, McMahon took a bolder route; he elevated John Tenta, a large Canadian grappler, to the top of the card as the main heel. A confrontation was filmed between Hogan and the newly-dubbed "Earthquake" on the Brother Love Show led to Hogan being "squashed" under Earthquake's frame and stretchered out of the arena.

It was an unusually dramatic and scary angle, especially for the young, impressionable Hulkamaniacs watching; Hogan, in the prime of his career, had never been truly lain low until that angle. The WWF highlighted the drama of the situation by running several slow-motion replays of the squashing to a slow, instrumental version of "Real American". The last shot of those "tribute" videos would feature the door to Hogan's locker slamming shut.

The WWF, realizing that it needed to lighten the mood (as they were already receiving parental complaints for the frightening angle) by hiring Dusty Rhode's Nephew-In-Law and portraying him as the ultimate Hulkamaniac: Tugboat. The Tugboat character led a "get well soon, Hulk" campaign, and this seemed to calm parents down.

At SummerSlam '90, Hogan returned to lead the WWF once more, and all memory of the frightening and wild angle (at least for that time period) were erased.

Two months later, a new character would debut, one who would wash away all memory of how "scary" the Hogan angle was.

His name was The Undertaker.

1991-1992:
Jake Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior, Pappa Shango and The Undertaker

When the Undertaker gimmick debuted in the WWF at Survivor Series, 1990, there wasn't anything like it going on in mainstream wrestling. Portraying an undead zombie who was seemingly impervious to pain, McMahon saw his next big thing in Calloway.

To get the duo over, Taker's manager, Paul Bearer, was given an interview segment, much as Roddy Piper and Jake Roberts before him. The "Funeral Parlor" was just that; a set dressed up to look like a mortuary. There, he would taunt faces with his frightening set and high-pitched intonations.

McMahon finally decided to put Taker in a program with The Warrior, who remained world champion. Setting up a shocking sneak-attack, UT jumped Warrior on the set of The Funeral Parlor; and "sealed" him in a large prop casket.

It was the first casket to be practically fetishized on WWE television, but not the last. After half of the company's road agents pried Warrior out of the casket, the character went on a "spiritual quest" in an attempt to "defeat The Undertaker's darkness".

His guide? Jake Roberts.

Between these skits and the previously-mentioned casket sketch, parents began to uniformly lose their patience with Vince's new, dark booking. After skits in which the Warrior was buried up to his shoulders in a "graveyard", and a subsequent incident in which Roberts, turning heel, left Warrior to become the victim of several "poisonous" snakes in an underground cavern, a small protest arose.

It wasn't enough to derail the Undertaker's push; he would go on to feud with Sid as Robert's partner, then Roberts would feud with Randy Savage. Finally, McMahon chose to turn Taker into a face, and Roberts was phased out of the company due to substance abuse problems.

By this time, it was 1992. When a young wrestler named Charles Wright was hired out of the Dallas territories, McMahon didn't hesitate to place him into a controversial angle: as Pappa Shango, voodoo god.

Wright's first feud involved his character forcing the Ultimate Warrior to vomit green goo and black ooze to drip out of Warrior's hand and Mean Gene Okerlund's microphone. After Warrior squashed the character, he was placed in a feud with Bret Hart, whose character's cool disdain and unemotional reaction completely killed off the character.

Between Shango and The Undertaker, a dark door had been opened. Vince had put forth more adult, shocking material, and he hadn't killed off his company.

His next attempt at controversy would be nearly unforgivable.

1991-1992:
Sgt. Slaughter: Proud Iraqi

When the Gulf War broke out, and President Bush (Senior) sent hundreds of thousands of troops overseas, Vince McMahon had an odd response; he sent his wrestlers to air bases and provided coverage of his events over army-approved stations.

And created the Sgt. Slaughter angle.

Slaughter was once a proud patriotic character, so wholesome that he was actually written into Hasbro's GI Joe series. McMahon, just in time for the Gulf War, recreated the character in the image of an Iraqi sympathizer.

It was just one more "evil foreign heel" character stereotype, but this particular gimmick was in incredibly poor taste, because the nation was in a high-profile war at the time.

Slaughter, with Adnan at his side and, additionally, The Iron Sheik, who was reborn as Col. Mustaffa. Slaughter won the world title from The Ultimate Warrior at The Royal Rumble in 1992, and a match was set up for Hogan and Slaughter at WrestleMania 7.

The public reacted to the angle with slight revulsion. McMahon hoped to sell out the LA Coliseum for WM7, but ticket sales were so disappointing that they moved to the Los Angeles Sports Arena. In an attempt to get the angle over, a bomb threat was given as the reason for the company's switching venues.

Slaughter lost to Hogan, but in a post-match angle "threw fire" into his face. A rematch was set for SummerSlam '91, the infamous "Hell" part of the "Heaven and Hell" Double Main Event. Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior beat Slaughter's team, leading to Hogan "naming" Sid Justice as his successor in the company with a post-match pose down.

Slaughter, meanwhile, disappeared for a few months. McMahon seemed entirely aware that the entire match set had flopped. When Slaughter returned, it was with tears in his eyes; he wanted his country back! He was therefore turned into a face and, after retiring, now serves in a backstage capacity with the company.

For a number of years, the WWF settled down. It stopped trying to be offensive and started trying to keep its head above water. During the Bret Hart, Diesel and Shawn Michaels eras, the company almost settled into a sort of inoffensive universe, in which wrestling and getting over was more important than offending.

Then came Vince Russo.

1997-1999:
The Russo Era of Attitude: Val Venis, the Goodfather, Sable, and...Beaver Cleavage?

By the time Vince McMahon bent his ear to Vince Russo's level, the company was in dire straits. WCW was a cultural bulkhead under the NWO, and ECW was America's cultural landmark in the wrestling business. McMahon needed something controversial, and he needed it immediately.

The revolution was led by Steve Austin, whose hardcore badass character was unlike anything ever portrayed within the WWF. Steve Austin Just Didn't Care, just like the millions of men and boys the character connected with.

To fit with the company's new universe, new characters were created to support the image. Charles Wright was re-hired and created in the image of a classic 70's blacksploitation pimp. The Godfather proudly sold women for his own benefit. He was instantly popular.

Val Venis, created from political conservative Sean Morley's sense of humor, was a porn star who boffed everyone and everything. His most outrageous angle involved being nearly "castrated" by Kaientai. Appearance by John Wayne Bobbit and porn star Jenna Jamison only cemented the image.

The list of controversial gimmicks are endless: The Sisters of Mercy (The former Headbangers, dressed up like nuns); PMS (Pretty Mean Sisters, and attempt to make money off of lesbianism), Bever Cleavage (A parody of "Leave It To Beaver" that insinuated both incestual instance and pedophillia; the gimmick lasted all of two matches), Meat (an attempt to get Sean Staziak over on the size of his...manhood). The list of characters and angles is endless. Goldust was paraded about in a green bondage outfit on the leash of Luna Vachon; parodies of OJ Simpson trial; Jerry Briscoe and Pat Patterson wrestling in drag; anything and anything was used to get a cheap reaction out of the audience.

It worked, of course; magnificently well. In the process, ECW went under and WCW became a part of the WWF conglomerate. Even after Russo jumped ship to WCW, Vince McMahon became a billionaire. Then lost a ton of money with the XFL.

Gradually, casual fans lost interest in the company, and the WWE ended up right back where it was in 1996; trying to rebuild a company from the ground up.

Some of the more memorable angles that took place in the Russo era included:
1998:
"Your Daddy's got cancer, and I'm gonna eat your little dog, too!"

Vince McMahon has always loved the idea of getting Ray Traylor over. After a successful heel run in the late 80's, followed by a successful face run in the early '90's, Traylor left the WWF for WCW. After portraying everything from a Guardian Angel (the street enforcement team from New York) to Bubba Rodgers, the bearded villain he'd portrayed during his original stint with the NWA.

Vince McMahon's idea? Make Traylor an evil super heel. His first victim? Al Snow.

Snow was known, at the time, for having several mascots. One was, of course, "Head", the head of a mannequin; after a controversy with Wal-Mart, the company decided to move away from Head and put Al with a new mascot: a Chihuahua named Pepper.

Pepper, like many other animal subjects in the WWF, was destined to become the victim of some heel, and this is no exception. Within the terms of the angle, Bossman captured, then "cooked and served", Pepper to Snow.

Snow swore revenge, and the result was a "Dog House" Cage match that was so badly worked that it became a running joke for Mick Foley. The feud quickly died, with Al claiming his revenge.

Bossman was promptly moved into a program with The Big Show, who, as a face or a heel, hasn't ever really caught on with the company.

The angle was a simple tragedy: Show's father was dying of cancer. Bossman began to taunt Show, pulling pranks involving the death of his father upon him. Incidents included Bossman reading a mocking poem about Show's father on Raw and Bossman having a backstage employee tell Show his father's death when the man (within the terms of the angle) wasn't yet dead.

The angle climaxed at a "funeral" for Show's father, at which Bossman attached Show's Father's "Casket" to the back of his police cruiser and dragged it off, Show throwing his body on top of the object in an attempt to keep it from going anywhere.

Show, of course, ended up on top in the feud, but the angle is so ludicrous that the WWE attempted to make their audience that even they didn't take the angle seriously by mocking it on a recent edition of Confidential.

One angle was truly played for laughs during this era. Unfortunately, all of the laughs were on the company.

1999-2000:
Mae Young; mother of the year

WWF Divas, by the late '90's, were by the large a salacious bunch.
Sable, the queen of the attitude era; inflated her breasts to an outrageous size, wore Black Hand prints over her nipples, and posed nude for Playboy. Her attitude became so unbearable that the company fired her, but not before she took them for all she could in a lawsuit.

Most of the other women could compete, but, thanks to the company's booking style, couldn't get over. The Kat came the closest and this by her wholesale sense of shamelessness.

But the woman who took the cake was the wild Mae Young, who, in her twilight years, managed to shock millions.

At first written as a drunken good-time girl, she was the one who got Stephanie McMahon so shnuckered that she married Triple H in the first place (in storyline terms). Then, the company paired her with Mark Henry...and that's where the fun started.

Henry and Young fell into a "Relationship"; Young eventually claimed to be pregnant from said relationship. When she "went into labor" after incorrectly performing a move, she simply produced a bad case of gas; and a hand-shaped sex toy.

Jerry Briscoe ralphed. So did the entire wrestling world.
A more interesting-presented angle was the "Undertaker discovers 'Satanism'...sort of" production pieces. They, at least, provided a lucrative controversy.

1999:
"The Symbol"

The WWF, needing a strong heel to combat Steve Austin's rising stardom, decided to turn The Undertaker into the company's top heel. This was explained away by giving him a cult-like power, changing his look, and giving him several creepy new assistants.
Dennis Knight, chief among them as Mideon, was used to initially get the gimmick over, by becoming a "sacrifice". Yes, humans sacrifice.

Steve Austin was nailed to a cross-like object and hoisted into the air during the main thrust of the angle, causing no end of complaints, which is exactly what Vince wanted, as it boosted ratings. Another incident took place, in which Taker kidnapped Austin and he and Bearer tried to "embalm" Austin. A series of matches led to Austin being spun off into a series with Triple H; The Ministry of Darkness was disbanded within six months.

The best thing that ever came out of The Undertaker's turn was an effective angle in which he kidnapped Stephanie McMahon and nearly married her in an "evil" ceremony.

The controversy cooled for a brief period; the WWF was in control, ratings were high; then they dipped. And when the dip, Vince McMahon decided to try out controversy once again. That brings us up to this year.

2002:
Gay Weddings and Flags Burning:

When Chuck Pulumbo and Billy Gunn were, once upon a time, playing that eternally favored subtext in the world of pro wrestling tag teams, the partners who are doing it, I swear. Then the WWE decided to get some sort of publicity out of the relationship, and Chuck proposed marriage to Billy.

Of course, as everyone knows, even in storyline terms it was a publicity stunt. But GLADD and the mainstream media were so offended when they discovered that they had been jerked around that the necrophilia angle landed no ink with the mainstream press. Unless he does something drastic, this could prove to be the angle that severs relations between Vince and the mainstream media.

Another angle that offended hundreds of viewers, but was never carried to fruition, was the Un-American angle. Dangerously close to the first anniversary of 9/11, Vince McMahon tried once more to capitalize on the sorrows of America by putting flag-burning anti-patriots on national television only six months after the nation's tragedy.

Lance Storm, Christian, Test and Steven Regal, all talented wrestlers and actors, were stuck in a no-win situation from the beginning. The gimmick was the sad epitome of cheap heat. It didn't get the foursome over. The entire gimmick disintegrated due to backstage politics; when Christian and Test refused to cut their hair, the team died and, until they both cut their hair the required number of inches, their pushes were suspended.

As Raw ratings dip, we were subjected to the most desperate thus far of all the latest gimmicks.

2002:
Death is funny!

Yes, I speak of the Katie Vick angle. Everyone knows the story; Kane "got drunk" and "had sex" with Katie (was she alive or dead?) ten years ago. Katie died because Kane couldn't drive a stick shift. Triple H "found out".
Then he pretended to have sex with a mannequin in a casket.
Kane finally got his heat back a week ago; thanks to Shawn Michaels, Triple H was entombed in a casket.
This is the product of terrible storytelling (by the order of continuity, Kane would have been in a mental hospital when all of this occurred), but it's not without its amusing points.

2002:
In Closing

Wrestling has and will continue to try to shock us by throwing the unusual at us. Titillation is often the name of the game; vis a vis, the return of G-TV. The best advice I can give to the offended? Take it with a sense of humor, or try to support the competition.

(Next week on a Smark's Guide To Wrestling, we take an in-depth look at The Undertaker. Mark Calloway was born a shy kid in Texas. Now, thirteen years after debuting in the pro wrestling game, he's created a record-holding gimmick in the Undertaker. )

(Welcome to this week's edition of "A Smark's Guide To Wrestling". This week, we take an in-depth look at The Phenom, the WWE's longest-running gimmick, the Undertaker. We present......)

A Decade (and a Half) Deconstructed:
The Undertaker By The Numbers

1965-1984:
Pre-fabulous

One of the most interesting things about Mark Calloway is that he's hard to pin down as a human being. Even the date of his birth is sometimes subjected to question, as no official site lists it, even after the humanization of his dead-man's gimmick. It's generally assumed to be somewhere in the mid 60's, placing him in his 40's-late 30's.

He was raised in Dallas, and reports generally describe him as being a quiet and studious young man. When puberty struck and shot him over six-feet tall, basketball became a logical outlet for his athletic interests. By all accounts, he was a shy, self-effacing boy, embarrassed by his looks and by the freckles that carpeted his limbs.

After graduating from West Texas High, Calloway took a scholarship with Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. At this point in his life, his interests were tugged in multiple directions: toward his position as a center on the Wesleyan team; toward his studies in sports management, and, lastly, toward a career in professional wrestling.

Calloway had, apparently, been a fan since childhood; his older cousin, Prime Time Brian Lee, was a journeyman worker who had made a name for him in the southern promotions. When Fritz Von Eric discovered Calloway in a gym and complimented him on his height and look, he signed up for classes at Don Jardine's training camp. Jardine worked for Von Eric; Calloway was well on his way to a privileged stay in the pro wrestling universe. He debuted for Fritz Von Eric's World Class promotion in 1984.

When Calloway's coach was informed of Mark's training, he became upset at the notion of Calloway working with the wrestling business while playing center for him. The conflict became so rancorous that Calloway quit the team in his sophomore year, choosing only to continue his studies at the university. He would graduate with a degree in Sports Management. Due to his studies, he would wrestle only sporadically until 1988.

1984-1990:
Texas Values

Calloway debuted in the summer of 1984, which allowed him to continue working at his degree. Generally wrestling under his real name, he worked various undercard matches. After his graduation in 1988, he took a job bouncing at a local bar, working weekends for the Von Erics.

By the time of his graduation, Von Eric's promotion had folded into Jerry Lawler's USWA. Faced with temporary unemployment, he briefly wrestled for the CWA. Naming himself "The Punisher" after the comic book hero, he wrestled under a mask. His agility amazed everyone around him, as it is and always has been a rare feature in someone so tall. He was initially a heel, managed by the legendary manager General Skandor Akbar. When the promotion folded, he signed with Lawler's USWA territory.

Lawler brought him in as a mighty opponent for his USWA Heavyweight championship; for his tour of Memphis. Redubbed The Master of Pain, and placed under the tutelage of 'Dirty' Dutch Mantell AND Downtown Bruno, he briefly won the USWA Title from Lawler on April 1st, 1989. After a brief, month-long reign, Lawler determined that Calloway's turn as champ had been a failure, and placed the belt on Kerry Von Eric.

Calloway was demoted back to the Texas Territory, where he was briefly re-dubbed Texas Red. Mantell continued to manage him, until he was once again re-dubbed The Punisher.

Given a short reign with the USWA Texas Title (won from Eric Embry, who was being primed for a major heel turn in the Tennessee portion of the promotion), on October 5th, 1989. Once again, he lost his belt to Kerry Von Eric, this time almost a month to the day of his victory in November.

Worrying that his career wasn't going anywhere, he asked Lawler to release him for a brief tour of Japan, which he did. Wrestling as "Punisher" Dice Morgan, he managed to pick up a few tricks from the week-long overseas tour, his first.

When he returned to the States, he discovered that Lawler was trying desperately to up attendance in Dallas by flying in stars from the Tennessee portion of the USWA promotion. Fed up with the situation, Calloway was relieved to receive an offer from the newly formed World Championship Wrestling.

A role that would, for the first time in his career, require the ditching of his mask.

1990:
"They Never Treated Me with Respect"

Given a trim haircut and a leather vest, Calloway was given a biker-type gimmick for this debut with WCW as "Mean" Mark Callous. It was early 1990, and the company was busy transitioning from the NWA-Crockett era to the Turner-based WCW era. Calloway, being seen as charisma-free, was kept to the undercard.

Then, in the spring of 1990, fate intervened.
Sid Vicious and Dan Spivey were, at the time, a tag team sensation. Both tall, charismatic and agile, they were the company's top heel team, The Skyscrapers. Managed by the suave Teddy Long, they were in the midst of a feud with Doom when Vicious collapsed one morning in an airport. He had been walking around with a punctured lung.

Vicious was hospitalized and, lost as to what to do with the team, WCW called up Calloway and inserted him into Vicious' slot. The team lasted for roughly four months before Spivey left the company in a huff over backstage politics.

Left to his own devices, Calloway was placed back in the midcard rankings. With a career that was going nowhere fast, an offer from Vice McMahon's WWF was a true blessing. When WCW decided not to renew his contract, he jumped to the WWF in the summer of 1990.

It was the smartest decision he'd ever made.

1990-1991:
Kane, The Undertaker

The first, and most obvious, difference that Calloway noted was that the WWF willingly listened to his ideas. Nothing made Vince McMahon happier than rubbing his opponent's nose in the fact that he could take their jobbers and make wrestling gods out of them. Calloway, with his creative mind, helped McMahon do it.

Both men carried a flair for the macabre; Calloway, interested in the occult, came up with the notion of a living dead wrestler, a mortician; Kane, The Undertaker.

McMahon approved the idea; Costume designers swathed Calloway in a clip-on tie and his signature bowler hat. The look was apparently based on that of the minister character from the movie Poltergeist 2.

On November 23rd, 1990, the character finally debuted as Ted DiBiase's mystery partner on his four-man team At Survivor Series '90. Taker's first manager was the unctuous reverend Fallwell impersonator, Brother Love, fresh off of his talk show. The effort that went into making The Undertaker into a legend was impressive and extensive, and generally something that's not seen at all in modern day wrestling any more.

1991:
Scourge of The Ultimate Warrior, world-title holder, Wedding-Reception Ruiner Extraordinaire

For the early portion of 1991, the Undertaker character had an instantaneously, intensive demeanor that separated him from the pact; no-selling his opponents moves; walking the rope; rolling his eyes into the back of his head...walking the ropes. There wasn't anyone in the company like him, and, almost instantly, he began to magnetize a cult following.

By the spring of 1991, the company began to set up an undefeated streak for Taker. Feeding him various midcard wrestlers, his first major victory was against Jimmy Snuka, a legend with the company, at WrestleMania VII.

By the summer, Bruce Prichard's substance abuse problems were getting out of control. The WWF fired him, and he took his talents to the GWF. When the company went in search of a replacement manager for The Undertaker, Calloway called in his first political favor and requested the services of Bill Moody, who had been working with the USWA during Calloway's championship reign.

Moody, at the time, was best known for being Chris Von Eric's only opponent during his brief attempt at being a wrestler. He and Calloway had maintained rapport from their salad days; the WWF agreed to Calloway's demands. With a little Gomez Adams-Style stage makeup and some boot blacking on his hair, he became Paul Bearer.

In a further attempt to get Calloway's creepiness over, Bearer began to carry around The Undertaker's urn. It seemed to be the only thing that would 'calm' the character down. Also introduced were "The Funeral Parlor", the interview segment hosted by Bearer, as described in last week's column, and the use of body bags. Whenever Taker would defeat an opponent, the offending jobber would be zipped up into a bodybag and then carried out of the ring.

Small details also helped; the company began running dry ice machines during house shows to fill the arena with smoke and give the impression that Taker was causing the entire arena to go cold.

Finally his push kicked into high gear; he was paired with Jake Robert in the Ultimate Warrior feud (see last week's column), then elevated to main event status, a match was set up between Taker and Hulk Hogan for Survivor Series 1991. One year to the day after Taker entered the company, he won the WWF Heavyweight Championship.

McMahon, having put his first heel over on national pay per view television, feared negative repercussions from his audience. In an attempt to start up a weekly pay-per-view format, the following week's Tuesday In Texas placed the world title back on Hogan. Though the format wasn't successful, it never the less an attempt to erase Taker's reign. This proved unsuccessful; his cult following grew all the more.

He would go over the top the following year.

1992:
About Face

By February of 1992, the face side of the WWF's roster was thinning out. Weeks before the introduction of Ric Flair as the company's new top heel, Taker was turned face when he prevented Jake Roberts from attacking Miss Elizabeth with a chair backstage after a Saturday Night's Main Event, which aired on the Fox network.

The audience took to Taker immediately, and his dark mysticism drew them in. After feuding with Roberts, whom he defeated in his second WrestleMania appearance (Roberts, now far gone in his substance abuse problems, would soon be dropped from the company), he was placed in a mid-card feud with the returning voo-doo warrior Kamalah, the Ugundan Giant. Managed by Harvey Whippleman, who was, ironically, Taker's manager in the USWA, the twosome would battle in the first ever casket match at SummerSlam 1992.

Clearly, this and the following year weren't banner years for Calloway's career. Between building substance abuse problems and the political mess taking place at the top of the card, he lay low in the upper mid card, drawing fans but not at the top of the bill.

1993:
Mid-Card Giants

While Bret Hart, Lex Lugar, Yokozuna, Ric Flair, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior battled for Vince McMahon's favor at the top of the card, The Undertaker spent a quiet, lower-key 1993, drawing much as Andre The Giant had in the 80's as a special attraction.

He spent all of 1993 feuding with The Giant Gonzales, who had been released earlier in the year from WCW. Best known as El Gigante, the young Jorge Gonzales was a huge former basketball star whose career was hampered by a knee injury. Turner transferred him to WCW, where he played the friendly giant El Gigante, member of the Dudes With Attitudes and Brian Pillman's protector. But the youngster simply couldn't wrestle, and he was let go by the company.

McMahon, once more believing that he could turn a silk purse from Tuner's Sow ear, snapped up Gigante and placed him in a furry spray-painted bodysuit. Repackaged as an evil, pre-historic giant, he was placed under manager Harvey Whippleman, making it the second feud in a row for the Whippleman/Bearer camps.

After Gonzales attacked and eliminated Taker from that year's Royal Rumble, the two of them fought at WrestleMania VIII. Taker won, but Gonzales "suffocated" Taker with a rag "dipped in formaldehyde".

When the twosome met again at SummerSlam, this time in a "Rest In Peace" match, which was basically a gimmicked-up Bodybag match. Taker defeated Goonzales.

By this point the company realized that Gonzales simply didn't have his heart in the business. They released him, and Gonzales retired to his cattle ranch in Argentina, where he remains to this day.

By this time, Calloway's substance abuse problems were clearly catching up to him. He chose, voluntarily, to go to rehab. By this time he had a son and a wife, Jodie, and both obviously needed him well and rested.

The angle chosen to send the Undertaker out of the WWF would prove to be the most surprising of his career.

1994:
"There Are Two Of Me Now"

At the Royal Rumble in 1994, monster heel Yokozuna was the first to defeat the Undertaker in a casket match...though he had the help of every heel in the company. Paul Bearer lost possession of The Taker's urn and, seemingly, his powers; as the urn began to smoke, so did UT's casket.

On the video screen, the world got a view inside of the casket, where The Undertaker bid his public a temporary farewell..and then exploded. From the top of the TitanTron, a figure dressed as The Undertaker, representing his spirit, "ascended to the heavens", vowing to return one day.

In real life, an exhausted Mark Calloway would spend six months in rehabilitation for substance abuse problems.

The elaborate storyline continued to play out onscreen; Ted DiBiase brought forth a figure claiming to be The Undertaker, but quite obviously was not. Portrayed by Taker's real-life cousin, Brian Lee, the rulebreaking version of Taker worked under DiBiase. DiBiase continued to claim that this was the real Undertaker, until Paul Bearer made an appearance to defame DiBiase's claim.

The WWF was now willing to claim that The Undertaker was alive; staging "Undertaker Sighting" skits across the nation, Leslie Neilsen was brought in to play Lt. Frank Drebbin, who was on the heels of the whole Undertaker disappearance mystery.

Of course, magically, The Taker re-appeared at SummerSlam '94, summoned by a 'pure beam' of light from the urn of Bearer. The impostor was defeated, and the rejuvenated Calloway took over his old routine.

The remainder of '94 would be spent in a feud with Yokozuna, who was being pushed back down the card after his loss to Bret Hart at WrestleMania IX. He would claim "vengeance", in an example of continuity that's also rarely used these days, in a casket match, ending the feud permanently.

1995 would see an entirely new look for The Undertaker...and a stretch to the acting abilities of Mark Calloway.

(Next week on a Smark's Guide To Wrestling, we conclude our in-depth peek at The Undertaker. This time, next week.)

(Welcome to this week's edition of "A Smark's Guide To Wrestling". This week, we conclude our in-depth look at The Phenom, the WWE's longest-running gimmick, the Undertaker. We present......)

The Undertaker:
Twelve Years of Dark magic.

1995:
Phantom Masks and reborn bats

Continuing along with the feud that had occupied the better part of his storyline for a year (and, in a rare planning move that actually made sense!), Paul Bearer and The Undertaker continued to battle Ted DiBiase's stable, the Million Dollar Corporation.

The main bone of contention in the feud was the all-powerful urn, which Bearer used to use to control Taker. DiBiase and Irwin R. Shyster, IRS (AKA Mike Rotundo, whose other claims to fame include membership in Kevin Sullivan's Varsity Squad in the NWA, and in a tag team with Barry Windham, the US Express), swiped the urn during a match on Raw. Taker went on a quest to reclaim the object, leading to a match at The Royal Rumble.

Taker defeated Shyster, but after the match was attacked by King Kong Bundy, the legendary bald-headed grappler who main-evented WrestleMania 2 with Hulk Hogan.

Bundy, just returning to the promotion after an almost ten-year absence, was hired for a brief feud with Taker. Bundy was made a member of DiBiase's stable, and the blow-off match was scheduled for and worked at WrestleMania XII. Taker, of course, went over, getting back his urn and sending Bundy back to the "Dark Side."

By the middle of 1995, the WWF was feeling badly the pinch from America's economic slump. In an attempt to push new, monster heels out of the pack and into main-event status, Mable, from Men on a Mission, turned on his partners and was elevated to main-event status via the King Of The Ring. Taker lost in the first round, doing Mable the job in exchange for future wins down the line. His loss spun off a brand-new feud with Kama, Papa Shango, repackaged as a tough boxer type.

When Kama interfered in Taker's KOTR match, it sparked off a feud between them. In ensuing matches over a month of Raw, Kama and DiBiase, once more, swiped Taker's urn, but this time, attempting to dump some of the mystical milieu of Taker's character, it was "melted down" into chains for Kama. The feud was finally blown off when Taker defeated Kama in a casket match at SummerSlam '95.

At this point, Mark Calloway had enough money and prestige to dictate to the WWF when and how he took his breaks. Deciding that now would be a good time to have plastic surgery, he told the company he wanted brief time off.

It's never been stated out loud that Calloway had plastic surgery, but the difference in his appearance from his appearance in the summer of 1995 and when we next see his face in November of the following year, he's obviously had work done.

In storyline terms, his "injury" was explained away when Mable and Yokozuna "crushed his face" at a Raw taping after SummerSlam. He continued to wrestle house-shows and tapings two weeks after the "injury", leading up to Survivor Series of that year.

At the SS, Taker returned, this time with an entirely new look. Wearing a gothic "bat" costume, sporting darker hair and more tattoos, as well as a more revealing costume, The Company lowered him from the ceiling into the ring in a bat-like cape.

In order to get heat back on his character, Taker single-handedly defeat Mabel, Triple H, Jerry Lawler, and Isaac Yankem. They succeeded in making Mabel look like a coward, fleeing from Taker's team.

Mable was sent packing into the mains, where Diesel would destroy him until he was released, Taker was free to also make a move back to the top of the company. 1996 would prove, more than anything, that he had the acting chops to carry the company to the top.

1996
Separated

Kevin Nash, by the beginning of 1995, was already chafing to get out of the company. The WWE braintrust chose The Undertaker to become Diesel's final opponent, a last attempt to draw money out of Nash.

It began at The Royal Rumble, during a then-rare face/face world title match-up between Bret Hart and Taker. Undertaker won on a DQ victory after Diesel yanked the referee out of the ring during a pin count attempt, which led to a Diesel/Hart cage match at that February's In Your House. Taker would interfere in the most interesting way...by coming up through the ring and dragging Diesel through the hole he'd made in the canvas.

This led to Taker/Diesel at WrestleMania XIII. The delicious set-up for the match involved Taker playing mind games with Diesel; promos in which he would suddenly appear and caskets in which Diesel would magically materialize were De Rigger. It was an excellent, spooky set up for the main event match, at which Nash did the "honorable, time-honored" thing and jobbed on his way out of the company.

With Nash and Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall headed to WCW, the company once more sought to push new blood. Having recently signed Mick Foley away from ECW, Foley brewed up the gothic backstory to "Mankind". A mentally disturbed former piano prodigy whose career had been brutally ended when his mother slammed the piano's lid shut on his fingers, he at first became an accessory to the Goldust/Undertaker feud, which stretched over the spring of 1996.

At King of The Ring in 1996, management chose to evolve Taker's character even further by beginning the separation process between Taker and Paul Bearer. First, Bearer caused Taker to lose "accidentally" to Mankind at KOTR by smacking him on the head with the re-formed urn.

The new question in this feud became "whose side is Paul Bearer on?" A series of cloudy incidence began to play out, leading up to SummerSlam '69 and the Boiler Room Brawl. An intense contest that many Foley admirers consider his best, the objective of the match was escape the boiler room and retrieve the urn from Bearer. Taker reached Bearer first, but he firmly turned heel by smacking Taker with the urn once more.

Now alone, Taker went his own way while the company built a stable around Bearer. Mankind and The Undertaker fought once more, in a "Buried Alive" match at In Your House: Buried Alive on October 20th of that year. Taker won the match, but Mankind teamed up with Bearer and the brand-new Executioner (Terry Gordy, the former Freebird in his last role with any major company) to bury The Undertaker in Astroturf. But the last sight seen by those who purchased the Pay Per View that Sunday was, shades of the movie Carrie, the waving arm of The Undertaker.

The company continued to build an intense feud between The Undertaker and Mankind, leading to Survivor Series and a match in which Bearer was suspended over the ring in a cage. Taker won the match, and, per his stipulation, won five minutes in the ring with Paul Bearer. This never came to pass, as The Executioner rescued him from further harm. At the December In Your House, the Executioner lost to Taker in an Armageddon Rules match; it would be the feud's blowing off point, as Gordy was released by the company due to various personal problems.

1997 would be the year that placed The Undertaker on top of the world, and would introduce the world to an entirely new cult sensation.

1997
At the Top of The World, it's all Relative

The title picture which led to Mark Calloway claiming the world title at WrestleMania XIII was a bit convoluted, and will require a bit of explanation. Taker had been running a low-level feud with Paul Bearer's new charge Vader, which led to his loss at his single's match that night. He entered the Rumble at Number 30, but was eliminated by Steve Austin, whom the company, at the time, wanted to put over.

However, after Shawn Michaels vacated the belt in 1997 due to personal reasons, it was conjectured in storyline terms that Austin reentered the ring after being eliminated by Bret Hart when the referees weren't paying attention. Therefore, the main event at the February In Your House Pay Per View was booked as a fatal four-way for the title: Vader, Austin, Hart and Taker. Hart won the world title after a cluster-mess at the end involving Austin's interference.

The following night at Raw, Hart lost his strap to Psycho Sid, the ultimate interim champ if there ever was one. The political convolution here was painfully obvious: it was decided through a cage match that Taker would wrestle Sid for the belt at WrestleMania XIV when Sid won a cage match against Hart at the March In Your House.

The next move was fairly formulaic; Taker won the title at WrestleMania, thus giving him his first real long-term reign at the top. The company had, at this point, so much faith in Calloway's drawing power that they created a top contender for his belt, and an entirely new case history for the Undertaker character.

The new storyline began in the form of a manipulation by Paul Bearer: if he didn't do whatever Bearer wanted, Bearer would reveal a horrible secret about The Undertaker's past. In an oddly sadomasochistic pairing, Bearer began to accompany Taker to the ring once more. He demanded more aggression and more vicious behavior from Taker, until, at King Of The Ring that year, Taker broke and decided that the blackmailing wasn't worth the pain (his main event was with a pre-NOD Farooq), choke-slamming Bearer to the mat. The shocking revelation came from the Bearer character at the following Raw was that The Undertaker, as a delinquent or mad youth, burned down the family funeral parlor as a child. Bearer, one of his father's colleagues, had spirited away his badly burned (and heretofore unknown) brother, Kane, and kept him hidden all of this time from public view.

This is the most dramatically interesting feud Calloway has, to this date, ever had to play through. He did it with stoic panache; particularly memorable was a promo delivered by The Undertaker at the "graveside" of his "dead parents".

The Kane character didn't become a main player himself in the feud for months (Glen Jaccobs, his portrayer, was recovering from the disaster that had been his role as the "fake Diesel"). Prior to that Taker had proven his drawing power by defeating Mankind, Austin and Vader at the July IYH Pay Per View.

The scenario that led to Taker dropping the belt involved Hart and Shawn Michaels' political drama more than anything else. At the Hart/Taker main, Shawn Michaels played special guest ref. Michaels ended up smacking Taker in the head with a steel chair meant for Hart, leading to Hart regaining the belt (and setting up for the Montreal disaster a few months down the road).

Taker and Michaels would feud for a few months; the blow-off to that feud would be the infamous first Hell In The Cell match at Badd Blood that October. The finish of that match, at last, incorporated the debut of Kane. Just as Taker was ready to claim his victory over Michaels, the lights went out and Kane debuted, interfering in the match and allowing Michaels to retain what was now, through political malarkey, his title.

The Kane character was built up as a merciless assassin who would do anything to claim revenge on his older brother. Taker refused, however, to wrestle his "baby brother", all the way through to the following year.

1998 would hold the main bulk of the Taker/Kane feud, spinning out a pseudo-legend that would enthrall millions.

1998
It's still just Brotherly Love

In January, a Taker/Kane union was teased. For a few weeks, it seemed that Bearer had disappeared, and the Brothers reached an understanding. This changed, swiftly, at The Royal Rumble. Wrestling a casket match with Shawn Michaels, the entire heel locker room emptied out. Kane then entered the ring to clean house...and chokeslammed Taker into the casket, leading to Michaels' victory.

Paul Bearer then emerged, this time sporting strawberry colored hair, and he and Kane "locked" Taker in the casket (Calloway, in reality, had escaped the contraption through a false bottom), doused it with gasoline, and set it on fire. This was yet another setup to give Calloway more time off; his knee was giving him trouble. One month later at a Raw, Calloway returned, showing up in a casket at the top of the entrance ramp. A "bolt of lightening" brought him back to life; he was now willing to face his brother. Fire was now the theme of the feud, and a series of wrestlers in flame-retardant costumes were lit ablaze to show Kane's use of fire as an intimidator...and The Undertaker's lack of fear in flames. The entire thing was a set-up for the Inferno Match at an upcoming IYH, but that was yet to come.

At WrestleMania XV, Kane and Taker finally battled. Calloway did a lot of selling to get Jaccobs over, but in the end Kane did the job and Taker finally defeated his brother.

The feud, however, was not at an end. In the most famous promo from this period, Bearer had Taker and Kane's parents' bodies "exhumed" and had Kane chokeslam The Undertaker into the caskets, which were filled with actual worms and maggots. That April's Pay Per View featured the Inferno Match, which was such a miserable experience for Calloway that he vowed to never repeat it. Taker won by setting Kane's hand on fire.

Mankind was once again incorporated into the feud; he interfered in a Kane/Taker match that would determine the top contender to Austin's world title belt. This led to a Taker/Austin Versus Mankind/Kane feud, in which Taker's main objective was attacking Paul Bearer.

This led to the King Of The Ring Taker/Mankind cage match, which made Mick Foley's name in the company and nearly killed him in the process. Everyone knows about the tacks/tables finish, so I won't elaborate, but it was horrifying. Taker interfered during the Kane/Austin main, leading to Kane winning his first world championship and the question of whether or not Kane and Taker had formed an alliance. At Fully Loaded in July, Taker pinned Kane and, through convoluted circumstances, won the tag team title for himself and Steve Austin, who were by now the prototype for a favorite Russo booking twist: The wacky tag team made of people who hate one another. Kane and Mankind won the tag titles at a Raw, but ended up splitting, with Mankind transformed into a babyface. Taker, meanwhile, wrestled Austin in the main at SummerSlam, and ended up losing to Austin.

A Triple Threat match was booked at the following Raw, with Austin, Kane and Taker, but this proved to be a tag-team match, as Taker and Kane had finally formed that allegiance the company had hinted to. When the twosome became official, Bill Moody left his backstage duties and reprised his role as Paul Bearer. Finally, at Judgment Day that September, Kane and Taker fought for the world title, with Austin as the special guest ref. Austin, however, counted both men out and awarded the match to himself.

Throughout November, the company decided to throw in some excitement to the title picture by setting up a title tournament using 13 of their wrestlers. Taker got a bye into the second round, defeated Kane, but ended up losing to The Rock.

Taker's final match that year would be a Buried Alive against Austin at Rock Bottom; the finished featured Kane turning face by Tombstoning Taker into the grave.

1999 would take the Undertaker into an entirely new realm...and would, for the second time, visit controversy on Mark Calloway's doorstep.

1999
The Symbol and "The Dark Side"

The change in The Undertaker's character had been a gradual one; darker eyeliner; pointy beard, black nail polish; by 1999, however, he began to appear more and more often like the Wicked Queen from Snow White in drag.

He began to recruit members into a new stable with Bearer: the Ministry of Darkness. The first converts were "Viscera", formerly Henry O Godwinn, whom Taker performed his first ritual sacrifice upon in a skit. He "dug out" one of Viscera's eyes, which led to the man carrying it around in a jar and "speaking to it".

Also recruited were The Acolytes, a pre-beer and sass APA, who played silent enforcers with "symbols" painted upon their chests. Much as the RTC would later "convert" their members, At the Royal Rumble of '99 Taker kidnapped Mable and transformed him to Viscera, whose black plastic bag garb would lead to endless joking among netizens. Desperately looking for a new twist in the year-old Austin/McMahon kurfluffle, the Ministry was thrown into the mix, antagonizing both men. He was once again given the "steamroller" gimmick, and flattened everyone and everything in his creepy way.

When The Brood, the gothic threesome who were portrayed as blood-drinking Vampires rising up to street level from a flaming hole in the ground, couldn't beat the Ministry, they joined up with them. The entire time, Taker made reference to a "higher power" to whom he was serving.

After defeating Kane in yet another Inferno match at The Royal Rumble, Mankind at that February's IYH, then defeating The Big Bossman in a Hell In The Cell Match at WrestleMania XVI..by hanging him from the rafters...The Ministry was moved up into a feud with Vince McMahon and Steve Austin.

First, Taker taunted McMahon with a Teddy bear...which he set on fire, then airing footage of him spying on the McMahon family home. This feud would be the introducing factor that introduced Stephanie McMahon to the viewing public. The the-innocent daughter of Vince and Linda was kidnapped by Taker (the teddy bear was Stephanie's childhood toy). First, Ken Shamrock rescued her from a basement in which she was being held. A week later, she disappeared, only to resurface in the ring. Stephanie was tied to a soon-to-be infamous crosslike symbol and forced to participate in a "dark wedding". Austin saved Stephanie from being stuck in perpetuity doing Satan's dishes. If this sounds like a bad b-movie, it was.

On SmackDown a week later, the Ministry merged with Shane McMahon's Corporation. Finally, by the end of the month, in an attempt to pop the Raw rating, Taker revealed who the higher power was, a result spoiled by WCW's spilling it an hour prior on Nitro...Vince McMahon. It had all been a mind game to get to Austin, of course.

In the ensuing weeks, the WWF dialed up the intensity of the feud, leading to the infamous "crucifixion" angle, in which Taker tied Austin to what the company insisted was a "symbol" and hoisted him into the air over the assembled masses.

At Over The Edge, the long-awaited title match was marred by the death of Owen Hart, which occurred earlier in the evening. Shane McMahon, the special guest referee, put Taker over the top and Calloway's third title reign was off and running.

Taker's next feud was with The Rock, who had been split off from the Corporation and pushed as the company's new babyface. They wrestled at King Of The Ring, a match that The Undertaker won, but the next night Taker dropped the belt back to Steve Austin at Raw.

Taker ended up losing to Austin at Fully Loaded in July, in a First Blood match that was supposed to send Vince McMahon out of the company forever.

Taker was paired with The Big Show, whom had just been signed over from WCW. An an attempt to get Show over (the first of many) he and Taker teamed to feud with X-Pac and Kane. They took the tag titles from the twosome at SummerSlam. As was symbolic of Russo booking, they lost the belts just as quickly the next night on Raw to The Rock and Mankind, the Rock and Sock Connection. The two teams, cheerful opposites to one another, went on to feud for four weeks; the feud was capped during a Dark Side Rules match, in which The Acolytes, Mideon, Viscera OR Taker and Show could be pinned during the match. The Rock pinned Mideon, thus avoiding any of the top tier guys having to do the job.

By this time, September of 1999, the satanic Undertaker character was dangerously played out. Between sponsorship pressures and Calloway's general boredom with the role, the company devised a new, bold direction from Calloway's own life..one that would make The Undertaker an all-too human figure.

1999-2001:
Birth of an American Bad Ass

The stage was set in October of 1999: A six-pack match for Survivor Series, between Taker, Big Show, HHH, The Rock, Mankind and Kane for the World Title. Taker refused to fight Triple H in a casket match, leading to an in-ring promo on a SmackDown.

He entered the ring wearing street clothes and announced that he, Mark Calloway, was sick of playing this evil demonic character. And he "quit".

This allowed Calloway yet another, year-long break from the ring. Between the damage that the "dark" Undertaker incurred to his image, his percolating relationship with a woman naked Sarah and his crumbling hips and knees, the rest was much-earned. Therefore, until May of 2000, no one saw hide nor hair of Mark Calloway on-air.

Rejuvenated, the character made his return at the Judgment Day Pay Per View in May of 2000 that year. Riding his motorcycle down to the ring, he destroyed the now-heel Rock and cleaned house.

By now, the toll of time and injury on Calloway's frame limited his role in the company. He was pegged as a journeyman babyface for the company.

At King of The Ring that June, he faced Triple H, Vince and Shane McMahon with his team of Rock and Kane. If any member of Triple H's team was pinned, he would lose his title, leading to The Rock pinning Vince for the championship.

That July, Taker wrestled the new KOTR, Kurt Angle, leading to a humorous series of promos between the two of them. Taker ended up taking a victory there.

There was, once again, a Taker/Kane feud, leading to Kane's unmasking (the audience never got to see his face). A SummerSlam match between the twosome ended in a no-contest.

At Unforgiven that September, Taker was part of a Fatal Fourway between Kane, Chris Benoit and Rock for the title. The Rock went over, but once again Taker's knee and hip sent him out of the company for a month (during this time period his also married Sarah, his current wife). He returned in early November to promo his Survivor Series match against Kurt Angle.

The match itself ended with Taker losing, on the tenth anniversary of his debut, to Kurt Angle (via the interference of Kurt's brother, Eric). It was an admirable thing for Taker to do; Angle, toward the beginning of his career, took this necessary rub to elevate him to main event status.

His last match of the year was his most interesting: at Armageddon in December, he wrestled in a six-way Hell In The Cell with Steve Austin, HHH, Kurt Angle and Rikishi. Angle eventually won the cluster of a match, which was fairly confusing to watch as well as enjoy.

As the Decade of Destruction came to a close, Taker prepared to take on a more elder-statesman-style role in the company...and to make his young, tough, attractive wife a star.

2001
Stalking Sarah

The Royal Rumble of 2001 proved somewhat anticlimactic for the Undertaker character. He entered at number 20, eliminated everyone in the ring, teased a possible re-connection with Kane, and ended up being eliminated by Rikishi.

The Kane/Taker connection was, indeed, reformed and Taker spent the early part of 2001 in a team with his "Brother". There were brief feuds with Rikishi and Haku, and then Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boys. They were involved in a TLC match with the latter two, which they ended up losing, at No Way Out.

After working for a month in the tag ranks, Taker was once again put into a program with Triple H. He ended up defeating Triple H. at WrestleMania XVII (AKA: X-Seven). Triple H was then paired with Steve Austin once more, leading to a Taker/Kane Vs Austin/HHH feud.

Shortly before that April's Backlash, H3 won the IC belt and Kane and Taker won the tag titles; the Backlash main, with Austin's world title, was therefore for all of the gold. When Kane was pinned by HHH, Austin and Triple H left the arena with all of the gold.

Taker was placed in a singles program with Austin while Kane feuded with Taker; a lot of the feud between the two married Texans involved their wives. Debra had an on-camera role, but Sarah was invoked for the first time from her off-screen life when, within the angle, Triple H had Taker prank-called claiming that Sarah had been in a car accident. The blow-off to the angle had Triple H and Austin Triumphing at Judgment Day via that finish.

The following day at Raw, a brilliant angle commenced involving the surveillance of Sarah Calloway. Slowly, the footage increased in invasiveness until Sarah's stalker revealed himself as a newly incorporated WCW star, Diamond Dallas Page. Even after the reveal, the creepiness of the angle continued to rev up. Promos included the discovery, by Taker, of DDP's Sarah shrine.

Unfortunately, the stalker angle was deemed a failure; Sarah, acting as Taker's valet, was revealed to be stalking DDP, after which a beat-down ensued.

Kane and Taker ended up defeating Chuck Pulumbo and Sean O'Haire for the WCW world tag team titles, around the same time that Chris Kanyon and DDP won the WWF tag titles from APA.

The two teams engaged in a grudge match, at which Sarah seconded the two dark-side men, which blew off the Taker/DDP feud and ended with the merging of the WCW and WWF tag team titles under Taker and Kane.

Briefly, Taker and Kane feuded with Kronik, a feud that was aborted due to an awful match at Unforgiven (which Taker and Kane won) and backstage politics. The Kane/Taker team went on to lose the WCW tag titles to Test and Booker T, and the WWF Titles to the Dudley Boys.

At the Survivor Series, which officially merged WCW into the WWF, Taker was on Team WWF, but ended up becoming the third man eliminated. After Survivor Series, Taker was once more turned heel, and placed in a program that December with Rob Van Dam. It lead to Taker getting the Hardcore Championship.

2002, thus far, would prove to be a bit of a flip-flop of a year for Taker, but a golden one for Mark Calloway.

2002:
Lesnar and a New Deal

After pushing back challenges from Spike Dudley, Tajiri, Matt and Jeff Hardy (With whom he had a brief injury angle), and The Big Show, Taker walked into The Royal Rumble as Hardcore champion.

At the Rumble, he tried once again to give rub to a newbie, this time to Maven. He also became involved in a feud with The Rock, and all of these elements collided in a brave attempt to get Maven over.

At No Way Out, Taker lost to The Rock, leading to a feud with Ric Flair, who interfered in the match.

At WrestleMania XVIII, Taker ended up defeating Ric Flair in a longish and hard-fought contest.

After WrestleMania this year the SmackDown/Raw draft occurred, and The Undertaker was, at first, Drafted to Raw. The character wasn't happy about this because of his ongoing conflict with Flair, with whom he was still feuding. Undertaker ended up in a feud with Triple H, which lasted a good part of the spring.

The feud was blown off, with The Undertaker winning the World Championship at Judgment Day. At King of The Ring, he successfully defended once more against Triple H. Finally placed back into conflict with The Rock and Kurt Angle, he lost the Undisputed Title when The Rock pinned Kurt Angle.

It was the end of his forth reign as champion, and the beginning of a new period in his life. His wife, Sarah, pregnant with their first child together, seemed to herald a calming period in his career.

By now once more a face, Taker fought Test at SummerSlam. He was entangling in the Un-American angle, which was quickly blown off due to political strife.

In September of this year, he was placed in conflict with Brock Lesnar. In a personal angle that involved his wife, Sarah, and her real-life pregnancy, as well as a falsified affair between Taker and another woman. It was all linked back to the machinations of Paul Heyman. Taker ended up losing to the up-and coming champion Lesnar at last month's No Mercy Pay Per View.

Currently, Calloway is taking personal time off to heal his knee and hip, as well as attend the birth of his child with Sarah.

Epilogue:

The life of Mark Calloway appears now, more than ever, to be a work in progress. Always a man, who has seemed rather shy, we've gradually watched him grow comfortable in his on-air role and within his own skin. He seems genuinely happy in his life now, and with his career.

As for that career, even if he had to retire today his legendary status would loom over the company. No one has managed to carve out such a distinctive cult fan-base within the company, and no one has been able to better roll with the times. When he returns from his injury, we'll have to guess as to how he'll fit back into the company, and how, and if, he'll be the one to lead the younger talent into the next decade of destruction.

(Next week on a Smark's Guide To Wrestling, we take a look at Survivor Series. Formerly America's Thanksgiving Tradition, the company's second-oldest pay-per-view has gone through format changes and political controversy to arrive at its current status. This time, next week. Missy)

(Welcome to this week's edition of "A Smark's Guide To Wrestling". This week, we begin an in-deapth, two part series about the WWE's November Pay Per View Series. We present......)

Survivor Series:
Season's Beatings

1986:
History

The Survivor Series was conceptualized by the WWF as a way to capitalize on the massive audience they had drawn to the Andre/Hogan feud. After two successful WrestleManias, McMahon felt confident enough to try to brand another name. The booking committee came up with The Survivor Series, a way to economically put the entire roster onscreen during one pay-per-view by pairing them off into teams of five in massive elimination tag team matches. Sadly, this original theme has been eliminated over ensuing years, turning the production into "just another" pay per view.

Originally run upon Thanksgiving night, for obvious reasons the company moved the show to Thanksgiving Eve. Finally, to give the talent time to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families, the show was moved to two weeks before Thanksgiving.

1987:
Or, Hogan and Andre: Part Deux

McMahon has been honest enough to admit that this pay per view was conceptualized just to give us Hogan/Andre, part two (and, more importantly, to return the favor Andre did in jobbing for Hogan at WrestleMania III). In reality, though, the undercard was solidly built:

Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Brutus Beefcake and Jake "the Snake" Roberts vs. Harley Race, Hercules, Honky Tonk Man, Danny Davis and Ron Bass started off the show. Of course, the match was built around feuds between Race and Duggan (which would lead to Hacksaw becoming King the following year), Hercules and the newly-turned Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat and The Honkey Tonk Man, who would become IC champion in a few months thanks to Steamboat's leaving the company, Bass and Roberts, who had an outlaw feud going on (Bass would soon feud with Beefcake, who had just launched his Barber gimmick), and Davis and Beefcake. Davis had been part of Jimmy Hart's stable, which Beefcake had just left. The match spooled out in a way that left the three top mid-level stars happy: the sole survivors were Steamboat, Roberts and Savage.

The women's match would become an unfortunate unusual in upcoming months: a high-impact contest meant to forward the stock of the Jumping Bomb Angels, upon whom McMahon had spent a pretty penny. Indeed, there was nothing like these girls on the company's canvas at that point, which caused them to stick out like sore thumbs in the company's rankings. The Fabulous Moolah (who had been turned face in the absence of Wendi Richter), Velvet McIntyre, Jumping Bomb Angels and Rockin' Robin ended up taking on Sherri Martel, Lelani Kai, Judy Martin, Dawn Marie and Donna Christanello. In two years, Martel would be transformed into a valet; at the moment, she and Moolah were embroiled in a feud that would put Martel on top of the women's division. Rockin' Robin, the sister of Sam Huston and Jake Roberts, would also have her time on top of the womens' division before its temporary retirement. The Kai/Martin and JBA feud was another obvious jumping off point; as I've written in the Richter/Moolah column from a month before, the twosome would feud over the tag belts, which the Angels would win and eventually retire. The other feuds were all but invented for the show: between willowy McIntire and the tough Dawn Marie (Not the same valet we know today, though they share the same real name) and Christanello and Robin. The WWF got its moneys worth, and the Angels were named the Sole Survivors.

In the insanely difficult to book tag team elimination match, The Rougeau Brothers, British Bulldogs, Strike Force, Killer Bees, Jim Powers and Paul Roma (AKA: The Young Stallions) fought. Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, Dino Bravo, Hart Foundation, Demolition, the Islanders and the Bolsheviks. Strike Force would be placed at the top of the rankings very soon, until Tito Santana was split off from the group, turning Martel heel; they were currently feuding with The Hart Foundation. The Bees were feuding with the Islanders; The Bolsheviks with the Stallions, and the Bulldogs were tangled up with newbies Demolition. The Rougeaus, who still hadn't found their niche as heels, were feuding with the "new Dream Team" comprised of Bravo and Valentine. After a highly athletic competition, the Bees and the Stallions Survived.

In the main, King Kong Bundy, Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, Butch Reed and Rick Rude fought. Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff and Ken Patera. Bundy was feuding with Bigelow in a big man money feud; OMG with Muraco, who had just split off from Mr. Fuji and joined up with "Superstar" Billy Graham, was feuding with Fuji's new charge, One Man Gang. Reed and Orndorff were involved in a lower-card feud, and the newly-joined Rude was in a conflict with Patera over the "World's Strongest Man" Title. In a move that surprised many marks, but shocked no insiders, Andre ended up becoming the Sole Survivor.

When the buyrate came back for that year's show, it proved particularly solid. Survivor Series was now cemented as the WWF's second flagship Pay Per View.

1988:
The MegaPowers Prepare to Explode

The WWF booked the Richmond Coliseum for the second year in a row, perhaps trying to centralize the pay per view and bind it to one area (something that wouldn't end up working, as they would move the show to another venue the following year). The WWF sought to mix up the event more by throwing in a few surprising twists and turns.

Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake, the Blue Blazer, Sam Houston, Ultimate Warrior and Jim Brunzell wrestled Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown, Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, Ron Bass and Danny Davis. This, of course, was the beginning of the Warrior's stellar push; he had just won the intercontinental belt from The Honky Tonk Man. Beefcake, who had been shuffled out of an IC run, was relegated to a feud with Ron Bass, who had "injured" him in an angle created to place the Warrior in his spot. The Blue Blazer, of course, was Owen Hart under a mask; he would tragically die wearing the same costume years later. His feud was with the equally flashy Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. Davis and Jim Brunzell were caught in a feud due to Brian Blair's leaving the company and the WWF having no clue what to do with Brunzell as a single. Bad News Brown and Houston were caught up in a feud over various issues having to do with Houston's "youth" and lack of "toughness". In the end, The Warrior, of course, ended up the Sole Survivor.

It was the big tag team match that, this year particularly, would have an interesting twist to it. The Rockers, Powers of Pain, Young Stallions, Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs fought. The Rougeau Brothers, Demolition, Los Conquistadors, the Bolsheviks and the Brainbusters. In a year's timespan, the Rougeaus had turned heel and were primed for a feud with the Harts, who were still wrestling with The Brainbusters. The Bulldogs were wrapping up their feud with the Rougeaus. The Bolsheviks were still fighting the Stallions, and The Rockers were in a low-level confab with Los Conquistadors. It's amusing that the do-little masked Conquistadors were allowed to advance so far into the match, but the crowd was really being set up for wild switcharoo in the Pains/Demolition feud. Mr. Fuji's botched interference in the match caused the Demos, who were building their own face heat, to turn on Fuji; it was all a setup on the Pains Part, who were now under Fuji's control. The Powers won the match, Fuji, and rejuvenated the whole feud in one swoop.

By 1988, due to physical infirmities, Andre the Giant had been demoted to the upper-mid card. His heel team, featuring the Bobby Heenan-heavy team of Dino Bravo, Rick Rude, Harley Race and Mr. Perfect wrestled Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Scott Casey, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, Ken Patera and Tito Santana. Heenan managed almost one third of the heels in this match; the only guys not under his tutelage were Bravo (then managed by Frenchy Martin) and Race. Andre had a feud going with Roberts, who kept scaring the giant with his python Damien. Bravo and Patera were still feuding, and the Duggan/Race feud was building to a major blow-off. Casey, a newcomer who would become much more famous with the GWF than under WWF contract, had a lower-level feud with Rude, but the even-newer Hennig was embroiled in an athletic feud with Tito Santana. In the end, Hennig would become the sole survivor, along with Bravo.

The main event continued to build on issues that had been established that year at SummerSlam: The Mega Powers loathed Ted DiBiase and The Big Bossman. Hercules hated Haku, who was after the "strongman" after he split off from Bobby Heenan and turned face. Akeem and Koko B. Ware were caught in a jive-talking confab, and the no-nonsense Hillbilly Jim was tangled with Bobby Heenan's new protégé, the Red Rooster. The Rooster was a gimmick that Terry Taylor would never live down, but the WWF was already printing up posters for his big face turn. Of course, the Mega Powers, Savage and Hogan, triumphed...and Hogan hugged Miss Elizabeth for a little bit too long, leading to the team's death early the following year.

1989:
The Big Tease

Finally moving the Pay Per View away from Ohio, the company settled into Illinois for 1989's Survivor Series.

At the bottom of the card, Dusty Rhodes, who had become a WWF employee at the price of Vince McMahon's completely and utterly slaughtering his dignity, became part of a tag team that seemed to revolve, entirely, around the "jobs" the other members had. Brutus 'the Barber" Beefcake, Terry Taylor and Tito Santana met The Big Boss Man, Bad News Brown, Rick Martel and Honky Tonk Man. As you can see, by this point Taylor was a face, feuding with the arrogant Rick Martel, "The Model". Honky and Rhodes had a feud going on, as did Beefcake with Brown, who would soon be feuding with teammate Bossman. The Rooster, now a face, continued his conflict with Heenan's stable by feuding with The Bossman. Rhodes and Beefcake took a victory here.

In a match all but designed to squash the midcard guys on the face side of the ring, Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, Earthquake and Greg "the Hammer" Valentine fought Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Hercules and "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin. Duggan and Savage were feuding over Duggan's "Kingship", which Savage would soon assume. Garvin and Valentine were still embroiled in their hilarious motor-mouthed feud. Earthquake, poised to ascend to the upper card, was involved in a feud with Hercules, and Bravo. In a rare move, Bret Hart had been split off from his partner, Jim Neidhart, austienably to give Bravo a good match. In the end, the heel team of Bravo, Quake and Savage triumphed.

In a match that teased a possible Rude/Perfect split (the two were a kind-of-sort-of team under Bobby Heenan's management). The twosome teamed with the Rougeau Brothers to fight the returning Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and the Bushwackers. Piper and Rude had a conflict dating back from SummerSlam '89, where Piper's surprise return occurred. Snuka was giving the rub to Perfect so that he might ascend up the card, and the uncouth Bushwackers and the Rougeaus were in the middle of a culture-clash feud. In the end, neither the teased breakup or promised face turns would occur; Hennig carried the team's victory.

The Ultimate Warrior's feud with Bobby Heenan found one of it's climaxes here, as Warrior's team of , Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart and the Rockers fought Andre the Giant, Heenan, Arn Anderson and Haku. The attempted split between Neidhart and Hart was in full swing, with Neidhart continuing the Hart's old feud with The Brain Busters. The Rockers had a small feud going on with The Dream Team, Heenan's tag-team created from Haku and Andre. The Warrior pulled out his victory, and once more got to humiliate Heenan by dressing him in a weasel suit.

In the main event, Hulk Hogan once again got to play superman, outlasting outside interference AND the "undefeatable" Zeuz to become the sole survivor of his team. This was the beginning of the blow-off to the almost two-year-old feud between DiBiase and Hogan, as well as the beginning of the end of the Powers of Pain/Demolition feud. Roberts was being transferred into Hogan's slot in a feud with DiBiase, but in the end, it was a Hogan posedown that ended the Pay Per View.

1990:
Camp Classics

No one remembers the details from 1990's Survivor Series (with one notable exception; keep reading). They don't remember that, in that particular year, the format changed; winners from each tag team conflict were teamed together at the end in a heel-versus-face free-for-all to determine one team as the sole survivors (a gimmick that, in my opinion, should've become the company's new tradition and continued on to this day).

Nope. All anyone remembers is the Gobbelty-Gooker.

To be fair, the Gooker is a particularly ignominious piece of WWF history. After weeks of hyping the existence of a giant egg, which would hatch at the Pay Per View, hopes were running high that it would be a new wrestler. They were all wrong, for, when the cracking egg, which had been hauled to television tapings for weeks leading up to the event, finally split open, what Gene Okerlund and the rest of the audience saw was a gigantic, turkey-like bird (under the latex: Hector Gurerro). Originally intended to be the event's new mascot, he led Gene in a comedy pratfall routine that nearly killed the crowd and, despite the sell-job that Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper mustered, the audience almost instantly hated the Gooker. Ever since that day he's remained on the shelf, only surfacing to be mocked by the WWE at events like the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-7.

But what the event will be remembered for in the long-term is that, here, Mark Calloway debuted his Undertaker gimmick. As detailed last week, he was Ted DiBiase's mystery partner in a match that teamed the twosome with Greg Valentine and Honky Tonk Man (Rhythm and Blues) vs. Dusty Rhodes, Hart Foundation and Koko B. Ware. Taker decimated everyone except for Rhodes on the face side, eventually being eliminated when he chased KoKo B.Ware through the audience, at the behest of the urn-carrying Brother Love. This match is also remembered for the fact that Hart went into the ring only a day after his brother Dean died of kidney failure. However, only DiBiase advanced from this match.

In other matches, The Ultimate Warrior, Texas Tornado and Legion of Doom fought Mr. Perfect and Demolition. Warrior continued his feud with Hennig; and the three-man Demolition continued their long-anticipated conflict with LOD. Kerry Von Erich also had conflict with Perfect, having just won the Intercontinental strap from the Perfect one. Warrior would be the only man from his team to advance to the elimination round.

The Model continued his conflict with Jake Roberts (mostly built around the "blinding" of Roberts by a spritz of Martel's Arrogance); in a match that also encompassed the Power and Glory/Rockers feud and the Warlord/Snuka feuds. The feud was building to the Roberts/Martel "hood match" at the following year's WrestleMania, so, of course, this would be no blow-off to the feud. Martel, Warlord and Power and Glory all advanced.

In what has been crudely dubbed the "Accent Match"; Tito Santana, Nikolai Volkoff and the Bushwackers fought. Sgt. Slaughter, Boris Zukhov, Sato and Tanaka. The Bushwackers were feuding with The Orient Express; Santana with Slaughter, who was heading for the upper card with his Anti-American rhetoric, and Zukohoc with Volkoff, who, in a capitalization on the newfound Glahstnost between the USA and the USSR, had turned face and embraced Jim Duggan as a "camrade". Santana, selling an injury, went over and became the match's soul survivor.

Claiming even more vengeance upon the head of Earthquake, Hulk Hogan ended up trouncing his Canadian enemy with the help of his co-patriots Tugboat, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Big Boss Man. Bravo and Tugboat had been feuding since the Hogan/Earthquake feud began, as were Bossman and Haku. The Barbarian, in an attempt to get the burly man over, was trying to get the rub from Jim Duggan. But no one could withstand Hogan's mighty push, and Hogan became the match's sole survivor.

The last survival match was booked as Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Tito Santana versus. The Model, Paul Roma, Hercules, the Warlord and Ted DiBiase. Santana was eliminated early, leading to a "battle against all odds" for Warrior and Hogan. The fed's top two faces, of course, prevailed, leading to the memorable site of the two WrestleMania VI combatants raising one another's arms in center ring.

1991:
The Undertaker goes over...for awhile.

For the first time ever at a Survivor Series, the pay per view's diverted from format, throwing in a singles match on top of the survival match setup.

First, the uberheel team of the newly-entered Ric Flair (accompanied by Curt Hennig in a hideous Bill-Cosby esque sweater), the Mountie, Ted DiBiase and the Warlord fought Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Virgil and the British Bulldog. Flair had conflict with Piper, and the two old friends wrestled together marvelously. This was Bret Hart's second step into the footlights of singles wrestling; he had just won the IC title from Perfect that August at SummerSlam, injuring Hennig's bad back in the process and sending him out of the ring for almost two years. Hart's conflict was with The Mountie, Jaques Rougeau, whom the WWF knew had great potential as a comic heel. Virgil was still in conflict with his old "boss", DiBiase, and The Bulldog was in a muscle feud with The Warlord (whose career would soon be destroyed by the steroid scandal). After much interference by Hennig, Ric Flair was proclaimed the sole survivor.

In another match, Sgt. Slaughter successfully reclaimed his country, almost a year to the day after he "rejected" it. Teamed with Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Kerry "Texas Tornado" Von Erich and Tito Santana, the team was booked, in a rarely-seen move, to go over as a team versus Col. Mustafa, the Berzerker, Skinner and Hercules. Mustafa (AKA: The Iron Shielk) had his beef with Slaughter; The Berzerker with Duggan after the pseudo Viking nearly "stabbed" Dugan with his broadsword. Skinner, the nasty faux-everglade alligator wrestler, had a beef with Tito Santana (in the midst of his "El Matador" gimmick), and Kerry Von Erich, in one of his last WWF appearances, was entering into a feud with Hercules.

In a match that foreshadowed the Janetty/Michaels split, The Rockers and Bushwackers lost to the Nasty Boys and Beverly Brothers. The Bevs were the Rocker's last major feud before the twosome split; one year later Michaels would be main-eventing this pay per view with Bret Hart. Blake Beverly and The Nasties won for their team.

In a match that was booked and rebooked so many times due to politics and injuries (to the point that one suspects that it's the reason the elimination match concept was dropped the following year), Natural Disasters Earthquake and Typhoon (known the previous year as Hogan's little buddy Typhoon) and Irwin R. Schyster wrestled Legion of Doom and Big Boss Man. The match was originally scheduled to contain everyone from Sid Justice to Jake Roberts, but political disaster after political disaster killed the match, and this was the final booking arrangement given the audience. The "happy ending" of LOD beating the Disasters would close the card, mostly because McMahon didn't feel comfortable closing on the down note of Hogan losing to The Undertaker.

I already spoke of the Hogan/Taker match, which gave Taker his first world title, last week. Apparently, the finish so dissatisfied management that the attempt to launch the weekly "Tuesday In Texas" pay per view concept was used as an excuse to springboard a Hogan victory the next week. The weekly concept didn't work out, as NWA-TNA is currently discovering.

1992:
Spot the Foreshadowing

1992 marked the end of any survival-style matches on the company. The concept would, of course, be eventually resurrected, but now apparently it's been abandoned entirely.

The Nasty Boys and the Natural Disasters defeated the Beverly Brothers and Money Inc. The Nasties, now faces having separated from Jimmy Hart, were in the same boat with brand-new faces The Natural Disasters. The Bevs and Money Inc. were the company's premiere heel tag teams at the time; Money Inc. was on its way back from the humiliating Main Event of that year's WrestleMania; they had an interesting clash with the Disasters. The Nasties were in a culture clash feud with the prim, proper and purple Bevs at the time.

Tatanka defeated The Model via pinfall. Chris Chavis was in the middle of his first, initial push as the Native American superstar. Vince was trying to put forth a (for once) pleasing portrayal of an ethnicity. Rick Martel was on his way out of the company and would end up with WCW in two years time.

Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect defeated Ric Flair and Razor Ramon by disqualification. This one was built up in a clever and hilarious Prime Time Wrestling in a pinch after The Warrior fled the WWF in a contract dispute. The theme of the match was centered on the question: could Perfect, who was only a week before Flair's manager, be trusted? The answer was yes, when the twosome won via DQ thanks to manager Bobby Heenan.

Yokozuna defeated Virgil via pinfall. This was the beginning of Yoko's monster heel push. Virgil's had been injured over the summer; within a year, he would be out of the company.

The Headshrinkers defeated High Energy. The 'Shrinkers were the latest Samoan "savages" to be pushed in the tag team rankings; High Energy, the balloon-bepantsed KoKo B. Ware and Owen Hart, would be glued to their mid-level position for an unfortunately long time.

Big Boss Man defeated Nailz. This was beginning of the blow-off to the controversial angle in which Nailz "beat" his "former guard" in an injury angle. The match was brown off in a nightstick-on-a-poll match at the Royal Rumble that year. Nailz' portrayer would be eliminated from the company after a physical confrontation with McMahon (after which he would allege that McMahon sexually harassed him).

Undertaker defeated Kamala via pinfall. This was the aforementioned casket match I described in last week's Undertaker column.

Bret Hart defeated Shawn Michaels by submission. This was the first major meeting between Hart and Michaels, a match that was so good it would be repeated until the twosome developed a rivalry that benefited no one. At the end of the show, Santa Clause came out and handed Hart a check; in an after-match promo, Hart, sucking on a candy cane and sitting on Santa's lap, announced that all he wanted for Christmas was for fans to have a merry one.

1993:
Or, Boston IS Historic

The company went back to the Survival match format this year, and, in particular, tried to keep the stalled momentum of Lex Luger's push up by linking he, the Steiner Brothers and The Undertaker into the historically rich background of Boston, Massachusetts by having them voice over a segment extolling the history of that year's host city.

Another pre-card feature: Lex Lugar and his wife and children wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving and a merry Christmas. The push to get Lugar, family man, over was in full gear at this point.

1-2-3 Kid, Marty Jannetty, Razor Ramon and Randy Savage wrestled. Irwin R. Schyster, The Model, Diesel and Adam Bomb. The Kid/Jannetty tag team was scheduled to go somewhere, until Janettey fell off the wagon and was replaced by Bob Holly. Shyster and Ramon had a feud that vaguely had something to do with "back taxes" Ramon "owed" to the IRS. The Model and Savage had a feud linking back to The Model's, once more, illegally using "Arrogance". Newly-entered "nuclear disaster" Bomb was feuding with the Kid, and Jannetty with Diesel over his continued conflict with Shawn Michaels. The Kid and Janetty were the sole survivors.

In an infamous gimmick match that featured The Bushwackers and MOM in full Doink The Clown drag, the foursome defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (being primed for a main event at WrestleMania the following year), The Headshrinkers, and Bastion Booger. Booger, known for having entrance music featuring only flatulence and belching, a costume that made him look like a hunchback, eating a lot during commentary spots and generally being grotesque, was tossed into a feud with the Bushwackers, and the Headshrinkers were in a world title conflict with MOM. It was Bigelow, however, who was saddled with a gimmick in which he feared clowns. The entire Clown team survived.

In the only match that wasn't of the survival gimmick, the second inter-promotional match between Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the WWF, The Heavenly Bodies defeated the Rock 'n' Roll Express for the Smoky Mountain Tag Team Championship. The Bodies would soon become a permanent part of the WWF roster after losing a "loser leaves town" match in SMW.

Perhaps the most memorable conflict from this particular Survivor Series was the match in which the Hart clan took on what was supposed to be Jerry Lawler's team of masked knights. Lawler, however, was arrested for statutory rape in the middle of his feud with Bret Hart, and, to avoid further controversy, was replaced by Shawn Michaels in the match. The Knights were portrayed by, among others, Barry Horowitz and Jack Victory, but most importantly, the match led to the rift between Bret and Owen Hart which would supply the WWF with a long series of incredible matches, when Owen was the only member of team Hart eliminated. (the other brothers participating in the match were Bret, Keith, and Bruce)

In the main event, Lex Lugar was the sole survivor in a match that pitted he, The Undertaker and the Steiner Brothers versus. Yokozuna, Jacques Rougeau, Crush and Ludvig Borga. The concept behind the match was that the four patriots were trying to rid the company of various anti-American forces represented on the heel side, including the still-Mountie Rougeau, Crush, now a member of Mr. Fuji's stable, and the Finnish environmentalist (?!) Ludvig Borga.

(Next week on a Smark's Guide To Wrestling we conclude our look at the Survivor Series. This time, next week. Missy)

Archives
Retro