{"id":14355,"date":"2024-07-02T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/?p=14355"},"modified":"2025-03-08T08:59:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T08:59:53","slug":"undertaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2024\/07\/02\/undertaker\/","title":{"rendered":"undertaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Netflix documentary, Sly<\/em>, he talks about how, early in his acting career, he would get typecast as a thug. And his approach there was\u2013 instead of saying \u201cno way, I\u2019m not a thug\u201d, he said<\/a>, \u201cthat\u2019s true, I am. But I\u2019m also nice. I\u2019m kind of a soft touch. If you could put that together, that would be a really great character.\u201d That was arguably a huge part of what made Rocky<\/em> such a resounding success. We got to see the heart underneath the tough guy exterior, and we really rooted for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had an interest in pro-wrestling since I was a kid. I remember it would be shown on the local TV station, Channel 5\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look to other creatives for inspiration. I was watching some WWE videos on youtube, and found myself reflecting on Mark \u2018The Undertaker\u2019 Calaway. Before he was The Undertaker, Mark experimented with many different gimmicks or personas, such as Commando, Punisher, Master of Pain. They all look strangely comical in hindsight once you know what he subsequently evolved to become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 90s The Undertaker had a distinctive and macabre Deadman persona\u2013 he\u2019d be followed around by a guy named Paul Bearer (pallbearer) who carried an urn, that seemed to give him supernatural abilities\u2026 it\u2019s always funny trying to explain pro-wrestling if you haven\u2019t witnessed it, because the whole thing is basically theatre and it doesn\u2019t need to make actual sense. If you aren\u2019t familiar with it I recommend checking out Wrestling Isn\u2019t Wrestling<\/a><\/em>, a 24-minute \u201csomewhat-mostly-accurate educational parody film\u201d by Max Landis. It\u2019s an excellent video even if you have no interest in ever checking out the WWE. Though I think if you\u2019re interested in my writing you\u2019d at least be curious like me to understand why pro wrestling is such a powerful force in culture as a whole. After that it\u2019s worth checking out How Politics Became Pro Wrestling<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why am I talking about The Undertaker? I just think it\u2019s interesting to study the shifting aesthetics of the most popular character in one of the greatest spectacles in entertainment, and personally I find inspiration in studying how the greats do it. So\u2013 for the bulk of the Undertaker\u2019s career, he was basically variations of The Deadman, this spooky guy with the spooky clothes and hair and music. But in 1999 he was out of commission for several months due to injury, and when he returned in 2000 he made an abrupt shift into his American Badass gimmick\/persona, aka the BikerTaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pictures selected here are tonally similar to the others\u2013 all black\u2013 but during that time he also wore denim, and a red bandana. He would ride out on a motorcycle, first to American Bad Ass<\/a> by Kid Rock, and then to Rollin\u2019<\/a> by Limp Bizkit. It was a strange tonal leap\u2013 and these days when you ask Undertaker fans about it, most of them say they weren\u2019t too crazy about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Report:<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But I do think it was an interesting risk to take at the time, and it was pretty well received at the time, too. The early 2000s were the \u201cAttitude Era\u201d for the WWE. Think more broadly about all of the things that were changing at the time. The Undertaker started out wrestling with Hulk Hogan, Jake The Snake (who would bring an actual python to the ring), Macho Man Randy Savage, Rowdy Roddy Piper in his kilt, The Ultimate Warrior with facepaint and streamers, Doink The Clown, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lex Luger with his star-spangled\u2026 it was all comical, over-the-top\u2026 everybody played larger-than-life caricatures. The Attitude Era felt like a turn towards something grittier\u2013 lagging behind grunge music\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i\u2019m geting tired and i\u2019m going to bed but this is interesting juicy stuff. talk about the pizza hut logo maybe? lol. something about exile?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thesis, anthethisis, synthesis? as the American Badass or BikerTaker, he picked up a new finishing move called The Last Ride<\/p>\n\n\n\n

other characters? HBK, Triple H? The Rock\u2019s theme?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

music? Bowie, Taylor Swift?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/heavyweightchampionoftheyear.medium.com\/deadman-and-me-3145237629c5\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Netflix documentary, Sly, he talks about how, early in his acting career, he would get typecast as a thug. And his approach there was\u2013 instead of saying \u201cno way, I\u2019m not a thug\u201d, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s true, I am. But I\u2019m also nice. I\u2019m kind of a soft touch.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[806],"class_list":["post-14355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3Jx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14356,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions\/14356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}