The Undertaker (wrestler)

This tall, looming figure is often referred to as "The Grim Reaper", or "The Deadman". His whole angle in the ring is centered around an ominous, funereal vibe. Adding to the sinister vibe around him is his signature wide brimmed hat, black leather long rider coat. But outside of the ring, he's not Mark Calaway "The Undertaker", he's simply Mark Calaway

Birth name: Mark William Calaway

DOB: 3/24/1965

Where: Houston, Texas

Trademarks

-He's known for rolling his eyes into the back of his head, revealing the whites of his eyes

-His arms are covered in tattoos, these tattoos being "The Undertaker"

-In the ring, he's known for walking on the top rope

-His entrance theme is funeral music while he walks somberly down to the ring with purple light and smoke

-Some of his signature moves include: Hells Gate (a type of submission hold that makes opponents bleed from the mouth), Old School (walking on the top rope while holding the opposing wrestler's arm and jumping off to club the other wrestler's back), Taking Care of Business (a standing Dragon Sleeper hold), Tombstone Pile Driver (holding the opponent upside down and slamming them, head first, into the mat)

-For a man his size, he has incredibly agility

-He's known for his black leather long rider coat, eye liner and black wide brimmed hat

-He is known for lying completely motionless when struck by his opponent and then suddenly sitting up

-The angle he's known for involves horror and a slight biker angle

Trivia

-He's worn many nicknames over the years. They include: The Lord of Darkness, The Deadman, The Man from the Dark Side, Texas Red, Big Evil, Mean Mark, Kane the Undertaker, The Punisher, The Demon of Death Valley, The Last Outlaw, "Mean" Mark Callous, The Master of Pain

-His wrestling career with WWF started in 1990 as the mystery partner to Ted DiBiase at the Survivor Series 1990

-He was crowned WWF World Champion four different times. 1.) Survivor Series 1991, where he won against Hulk Hogan. Hulk would win the title back, but would be stripped of this title when the circumstances of his win were discovered. 2.) 1997's WrestleMania 13, where he won against Sycho Sid. 3.) 1999's WWF Over the Edge, where he won against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. 4.) 2002's WWE Judgement Day, where he won against Hulk Hogan once again

-His official introduction into the world of wrestling came in 1984, starting out with World Class Championship Wrestling. 1989 seen him joining World Championship Wrestling (WCW). When this company didn't renew his contract, he decided to join World Wrestling Federation, which changed its name in 2002 to World Wrestling Entertainment. November 2002 seen him take on the name The Undertaker. He's been with that company since then and is now one of the senior WWE wrestlers. He and Shawn Michaels are the only two wrestlers who appeared on the very first episode of Raw

-He was part of a group of wrestlers called The Ministry of Darkness

-Prior to taking on the name The Undertaker, he wrestled as "Mean" Mark Callous

-In 1995, he suffered a crushed eye socket when wrestler Mabel gave him a badly performed leg drop. He wore a mask to protect his eye until it recovered

-He had to go on medical leave for 7-9 months because of a torn pectoral muscle

-The WWE bills his height at 6'10 1/2''. His actual height is only 6'8''

-In a 2001 interview, he says that the 1999 "Lord of Darkness" gimmick is the worst part of his career

-As a wedding gift to his second wife Sara, he had gotten her name tattooed on his throat. He stated it was the most painful tattoo he's ever gotten

-December 1991-September 1993 seen an unbeatable winning streak for The Undertaker

-One thing he's known for is his strong love for family. He's been quoted as saying "Mess with me or my family and I WILL make you famous!"

-The Undertaker had not lost a single match until WrestleMania XXX (30).The opponents he fought against and won against include:

• Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (WM VII)
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts (WM VIII)
• Jorge "Giant" Gonzalez (WM IX)
• King Kong Bundy (WM XI)
• Kevin Nash aka "Diesel" (WM XII)
• Sid Eudy aka "Sycho Sid" (WM 13)
• Glenn Jacobs aka "Kane" (WM XIV and XX)
• Ray Traylor aka "Big Boss Man" (WM XV)
• Paul Levesque aka "Triple H" (WM X7)
• "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (WM X8)
• Tag team Paul Wight aka "Big Show" and Matt Bloom aka "A-Train" (WM XIX)
• Randy Orton (WM21)
• Mark Henry (WM22)
• Dave Bautista (WM23)
• Adam "Edge" Copeland (WM24)
• Shawn Michaels (WM25)

-Prior to his 2002 WWE Judgement Day match with Hulk Hogan, he referred to himself as "judge, jury and executioner of Hulkamania"

-He has three kids. A son named Gunner Vincent Calaway with his first wife Jodi Lynn and two daughters named Chasey and Gracie

-Before he became a wrestler, he dreamed of playing professional basketball in Europe until a knee injury ended those dreams

-He went to Angelina College in Lufkin, Texas on a basketball scholarship

-He has a brother, Paul, who is a police officer

-His last WCW match was against Lex Luger

-His WCW manager was Paul Heyman

-One of his closest friends is wrestler Brian Harris, aka "Chainz" to WWF fans. He was the best man at Mark's first wedding to Jodi Lynn

-One of the biggest thrills of his career was riding his own motorcycle to ring in his hometown of Houston, Texas during 2001's WrestleMania VII

-One of the most memorable moments for him was at 1992's Summerslam at Wembley Stadium in London. He entered the stadium in the back of a hearse in front of 80,000 fans

-1991 seen Paul Bearer replacing Brother Love as The Undertaker's manager

-He was almost always chosen for casket matches. He won against Mark Henry at the 2006 WrestleMania 22 casket match

-MMA fighter Pat Miletich and his students Jeremy Horn and Matt Hughes are close friends of The Undertaker. Mark is also a huge fan of MMA and attends UFC and Pride FC events

-A lot of the wrestling techniques he employs comes from MMA, such as triangle chokes, arm-bars, key-locks

-When he's not wrestling, he's a real estate investor

-With his height of 6'9'' and over 325 pounds, he was the first nearly 7' tall wrestler to do high flying moves in the ring

-One of the properties he owns - a ranch in Cedar Creek, Texas - he leased to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie because they were in the area while they filmed Brad's 2011 film The Tree of Life

-During his February 2010 WWE Elimination Chamber PPV event, he received first and second degree burns resulting from a pyrotechnic issue during his entrance to the ring

-He's of Irish and American Indian descent

-He caused Shawn Michaels to retire after two back-to-back wins over him at WrestleMania 25 and 26

-In 1998, he wrestled Mick Foley aka "Mankind" with a broken foot during his Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring

-In 2005, he took some time off to not only recover from a hip injury, but also to welcome the birth of he and his wife Sara's second child together

-He announced his retirement on January 30, 2016

-He holds a record for most appearances in video games. He has appeared in every WWF/WWE video game released, starting with WWF Super WrestleMania in 1992 on the SNES system. He was not included on the Sega Genesis edition. Since then

-He's an intensely private person. He values the time he has with his family and asks that fans respect him while he's out with his family by not approaching them

-He's a Fulbright scholar who left college to pursue wrestling. He was a few credits short of fully graduating

-He wore his full Undertaker costume to the first game of the Cleveland Cavaliers game of their 2016 season

-He's a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers and his favorite player is LeBron James

Sting (wrestler)

This professional wrestler, born Steve Borden, is simply better known by his wrestling name of Sting. His costume is a one piece black bodysuit adorned with a white scorpion and his signature move is the Scorpion Death Lock and the Scorpion Death Drop. His face paint, black and white, is inspired by the film The Crow

Birth name: Steve Borden

DOB: 3/20/1959

Where: Omaha, Nebraska

Trivia

-He has held the WCW World Title at least 10x in addition to multiple other title

-Out of all the wrestlers in the WCW, he was the only one to stay from the late 1980s. But he did have reconstructive knee surgery in 1991

-He is one of the few wrestlers for WCW who didn't leave this company to go to WWE until 2014. He worked for WCW from 1988-2001 when it was bought out by WWE

His last official wrestling match was in 2015 against Seth Rollins

-He made his debut as part of a tag team called "The Blade Runners" with his tag team partner "Rock", not to be confused with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

-He gained fame overnight by participating in a one hour time limit draw with Ric Flair at the first "Clash of Champions" on 3/27/1988

-Former wrestler Red Rolland Bastien is his trainer

-He has three kids named Garrett, Steven and Gracie

-He appeared in all 10 of the World Championship Wrestling video games

-His "Blade Runners" tag team partner was Jim Hellwig, who would later go on to be known as the "Ultimate Warrior"

-He is fluent in Spanish

-His signature move, the Scorpion Death Lock, is exactly the same as Bret Hart's signature move the Sharpshooter

-He wrestled in the first and last episodes of WCW Monday Nitro against Ric Flair

-In 1998, he became a born-again Christian. One of his brothers, Jeff Borden, is a pastor at "Church on the Rock"

-He officially announced his retirement from wrestling on 4/2/2016

Filmography

-He's mostly known for wrestling on TV, but he has appeared on TV and in a few movies

Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End. Character: Junkyard

Walker, Texas Ranger. Character: Grangus

Thunder in Paradise. Character: Adam "Hammerhead" McCall

10 Things You May Not Know About Sting | Cultaholic

From humble beginnings

-In the early days, he was still going with his natural blonde hair and was often known as a "surfer" because of that. He earned notoriety overnight due to his initial match with Ric "Nature Boy" Flair at the March 1988 Clash of Champions. Shockingly to almost everyone, he was not a fan of wrestling growing up. The reason is because he never had access to a TV and his trainer, Rick Bassman, tried to get him interested, but it took a long time and many tries. From there, what got him into wrestling was seeing a match between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant in LA

Things are moving now

-He took the nickname "Sting" in 1986, when he was part of a tag team with Jim Hellwig, who would later go on to be the "Ultimate Warrior", called "The Blade Runners". He simply took the name Sting because it sounded better than some of the names he used in the past, like "Flash". He and his tag team partner had formed a tag team known as Power Team USA and then The Freedom Fighters before settling on The Blade Runners

Big Name Battles

-Like all wrestlers, Sting had to wrestle some interesting people. From big name people destined for fame to people who dropped off the face of the earth, Sting wrestled some interesting people. These matches were interesting and exciting enough to make you wish there was video footage somewhere. Sting is the only wrestler to have wrestled The Undertaker and Kane. 1990 saw Mark Calaway, when he was still working for WCW as "Mean Mark Callous". He would eventually don a leather long-rider coat and wide brimmed hat and remodel himself as The Undertaker when he went to work for WWE. 1993 seen Sting wrestle and defeat 23 year old Glenn Jacobs for a taping of WCW Saturday Night. This was before Glenn was known as Kane; he was still working under the name Bruiser Martino

Helping Hands

-The mid-90s seen WCW getting bigger and more successful. Sting is not the kind of man to seek fame for selfish reasons. But he did manage to have at least one shocking moment in the Monday Night Wars, acting as a go-between. Sting let WCW CEO Eric Bischoff know that Lex Luger had been working with WWE without a contract. Bischoff was, not shockingly, angry at this. Sting offered to be the peacemaker and talk to Lex. At Sting's home, in his garage, Luger, Sting, Bischoff had a small meeting. It was in this meeting that Bischoff offered Luger what some might call a lowball contract, while also imposing the rule of Luger giving Vince McMahon notice. Luger agreed and it made for entertaining TV; Lex Luger returning to Nitro after a secret meeting at Sting's home

Angels and Demons

-As 1996 came to a close, Sting adopted a new look. Instead of the blonde hair he was born with, he went completely dark and started to adopt a new black and white look. The high energy Sting people knew before was destroyed and replaced by a black void of no emotion decked in black and white. This silent version of Sting was referred to as "Crow Sting" because of the striking similarities to the resurrected Eric Draven from the film and comic book The Crow. Sting gives Scott Hall, aka "Razor Ramon" the credit as he suggested the idea. But in the 2018 book Nitro, Scott Hall wasn't the one who gave Sting this idea. It was actually artist/special effects expert Andre Freitas who gave Sting the idea for the "go Goth" look. Sting personally went to Freitas' studio, where the artist showed him the concept running through his mind. He showed Sting not just imagery from The Crow, but also singer Marilyn Manson and the bodysuit worn by Kyle McLachlan from the film Dune. Once Sting saw these images and the concept together as a whole, Freitas said he was hooked

Off to Europe

-Since there is a WWE World Cup, there's also the WWE European Cup. WWE held a couple of European wrestling matches, one in March 1994 and another in November 2000. Not shockingly, Sting won both. The 1994 European Cup was a 16-man match that hosted a variety of different wrestlers and Sting defeated Stevie Ray, Ron Simmons, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vader on his way to the win. Six and a half years later, Sting won a competition involving four wrestlers Mike Awesome, Kevin Nash and Alex Wright. He received an automatic bye into the finals by winning over Kevin Nash, who had defeated Alex Wright and Mike Awesome

Grade A Revenge

-Sting didn't wrestle a single match for 15+ months. He also didn't show his thoughts or motivations. He simply busied himself with studying WCW and was looking for the right time for a little payback. He certainly seemed keen on a little payback to the New World Order. His payback would come in the form of Starrcade 1997. He challenged "Hollywood" Hogan for the World title in what would turn out to be a severely one side match with Sting winning the gold. The match did pretty good and had a large audience. According to those keeping an eye on the number of pay-per-views for this, Starrcade 1997 had 700,000 pay-per-views. It completely destroyed the Halloween Havoc's record of 405,000 pay-per-views. At the time, WWE had only slightly beaten this record with 1989's WrestleMania 5, who had 767,000 views. The main thing is people wanted Sting to knock the egotistical Hogan off his pedestal and were willing to shell out money for it.

Get ready to go digital

-WCW and WWE have released video games over the years featuring their respective wrestlers. There have been some that have been really good, like WCW/nWo Revenge and WCW vs. nWo: World Tour. Sting had made an appearance in all of them. WCW released 10 games from 1990-2000 and Sting is the ONLY wrestler to have appeared in all 10. Whether it's red and black Wolfpack clothes on NES' WCW Wrestling, swinging a cattle prod on the Mayhem release, there's no doubt Sting had been the one constant in all of the games.

In the Name of Fame

-2012 saw the opening of the Hall of Fame for TNA. It seemed odd, given that this wrestling company had only been around for 10 years. Sting was the first inductee into these halls, a sign ofSign out respect showing him that he had done something right. He added a sense of legitimacy to his career to this young company in the mid-2000s. It will be marked down in history that Sting was the first man to be inducted into both the TNA and WWE Halls of Fame, during his 2016 induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. Since then, only four other people have gotten this same kind of honor-Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle, The Dudley Boyz. They may have been good wrestlers, but none of them possessed the same kind of charisma Sting did, like when he used a demonic bird to hold back Eric Bischoff

Leader of the Pack

-From his time-limit match with Ric Flair to his long career with TNA, Sting seems to have done it all. He's often relied on to be the face of places he's wrestled in. All the wrestling companies he's been a part of - WCW, TNA and others - understood that Steve Borden would be rewarded through a strong number of World Title championship belts that almost rivals Ric Flair's number of 16. Sting's total seems to be 15. While with WCW, he holds a number of 9 (six World Titles, one NWA title and two WCW International titles in 1994. While with TNA, he gained five more; four with the Impact Wrestling belt and one with the NWA title while TNA was still using it. Few would argue that Sting didn't deserve them, but most would agree he did. He's the kind of wrestler that people can admire for being honest, not playing dirty or having an ego.

August Birthdays

Since it's August, it's time to say Happy Birthday

Bruce Dickinson

-Birth name: Paul Bruce Dickinson

-DOB: 8/7/1958

-Where: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England

-What introduced him to music was hearing "Child in Time" by Deep Purple blasting out of a student's dorm room while he was at boarding school

Joe Elliott

-Birth name: Joseph Thomas Elliott

-DOB: 8/1/1959

-Where: Sheffield, England

-He's one of the original members of Def Leppard since it's creation in 1977

Rob Halford

-Birth name: Robert John Arthur Halford

-DOB: 5/25/1951

-Where: Sutton Coldfield, England

-He knew that he would end up being a gay man, even at the age of 10

Glenn Hughes

-DOB: 8/21/1951

-Where: Cannock, England

-Prior to joining Deep Purple on bass and backing vocals, he was the bassist of the three piece funk band Trapeze

Robert Plant

-Birth name: Robert Anthony Plant

-DOB: 8/20/1948

-Where: West Bromwich, England

-He told his then wife Maureen that if he was not able to break into music by the time he reached his twenties, he would officially get a proper job

James Jagger

-DOB: 8/28/1985

-Where: New York City, New York

-He shared a drama class with Robert Pattinson in high school

Antonio Banderas

-Birth name: Jose Antonio Dominguez Banderas

-DOB: 8/10/1960

-Where: Malaga, Andalucia, Spain

-His debut into American movies came in 1992 with The Mambo Kings. He didn't speak English at the time and had to learn English phonetically

Viola Davis

-DOB: 8/11/1965

-Where: St. Matthews, South Carolina

-She is the first black woman in history to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the television series How to Get Away with Murder

Vivian Campbell

-Birth name: Vivian Patrick Campbell

-DOB: 8/25/1962

-Where: Belfast, Ireland

-His official debut in the band was at the Freddie Mercury AIDS-awareness concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992. In fact, his first album with the band was 1992's Adrenalize

John Deacon

-Birth name: John Richard Deacon

-DOB: 8/19/1951

-Where: Leicester, England

-He retired from the band after vocalist Freddie Mercury's death

Sean Connery

-Birth name: Thomas Sean Connery

-DOB: 8/25/1930

-Where: Edinburgh, Scotland

-DOD: 10/31/2020

-Where: Nassau, Bahamas

-He was a good friend of actors Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Michael Caine