WWE News: WCW Executive Who Doubted Undertaker Revealed

An interesting WWE news has surfaced, as Jim Ross has revealed the WCW executive who doubted that the Undertaker would ever be a draw in professional wrestling, as reported by Wrestling Inc.

No one questions the legendary status of the Undertaker nowadays, as his resume as a professional wrestler includes the following things:

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated Match of the Year (four times)
• Feud of the Year (with Mick Foley)
• WWE Heavyweight Championship (seven times)
• WWE World Tag Team Championship (with Steve Austin, Big Show, The Rock and Kane)
• WCW World Tag Team Championship (with Kane)
• USWA World Heavyweight Championship
• Royal Rumble winner
• 21 straight victories at Wrestlemania
• Wrestling Observer 5 star match (vs Shawn Michaels at Bad Blood 1997)
• Wrestling Observer Match of the Year (twice)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2004)
• future WWE Hall of Fame inductee

He’s obviously a legend, but that was not always the case.

Back in the late 1980s, a couple of years before the Undertaker was ever created, Mark Calaway was working his way up the business through the Texas and Tennessee territories. He spent time learning the trade in WCCW and the USWA. Very few people back then really took notice of Calaway because he was just another guy at the time.

By 1989, Calaway had worked himself up enough in the business to get a contract with WCW. He was brought in as a monster heel. Terry Funk took a liking to him, so he gave him the name, “Mean Mark Callous.” Though not as dark as the Undertaker character, Callous was a pretty brooding character. He had an affinity for the darkness.

Callous wasn’t given much to work with right away, as the singles division had good depth at the time. When Sid Vicious went down with an injury, Callous ended up in the Skyscrapers tag team with Dan Spivey. There wasn’t a ton of success there either, and the team split up permanently when Spivey abruptly left WCW days before the Skyscrapers were supposed to work a Clash of the Champions match against the Road Warriors.

Now back in the singles division, Callous built up some momentum. He had a memorable feud with Brian Pillman. The singles push culminated with Callous receiving a shot at the United States Heavyweight Championship held by Lex Luger, which he failed to capture. That feud earned Callous a spot on the Great American Bash card.

Sensing that he was never going to be given a fair shake in WCW, Callous decided to check on his options elsewhere. WWE, then known as WWF, was more than willing to give him a chance and a contract. There were those in WCW that did not want to let a big man with potential get away, especially to the competition, so they tried to campaign for him to stick around.

Through his podcast interview show this week, Jim Ross revealed that he was one of those that tried to convince WCW to keep Callous around. The legendary commentator stated that Ole Anderson was the lead booker at the time, so he was essentially in charge of the talent roster. Ross campaigned hard for Anderson to give Callous a contract.

Anderson, however, did not think very highly of Callous. Ross stated that Anderson felt that the man who would later become the legendary Undertaker “would not draw a dime” in the business.

As we all know now, Undertaker drew plenty of dimes for the business.

[Featured Photo by WWE]