Every wrestling legend starts from somewhere. Stone Cold wasn’t always Stone Cold, he was stunning. The Rock used to flex and The Undertaker was Master of Pain.
This wasn’t a degree he picked up from Parts Unknown Community College. It also isn’t a weird mix of Dean Douglas meets The Undertaker.
Simply put, this was an oddly named gimmick that was perfect for Memphis in the late 1980s.
Undertaker As Master of Pain
Each of The Undertaker’s previous gimmicks fed into the persona he’s best known by today.
A fan of the deceptively agile grappler The Spoiler, young Mark Calaway emulated his style to a degree when wrestling as Texas Red, Master of Pain, and “Mean” Mark Callous.
Master of Pain was a phase of The Undertaker’s career that really saw him develop as a wrestler in the Memphis-based USWA in 1989.
At the time, he had been in wrestling for a little over a year. His Master of Pain gimmick was that of an ex-convict who went to prison for five years for killing two guys in a fight.
Why You Should Know Master of Pain
Now, the awesome thing about this gimmick isn’t his involvement in several USWA storylines or winning titles. It was how casually he saunters up to commentators and just tells them that he was in prison.
In WWE, the Undertaker was introduced with some production and added to the promotion. He didn’t seem out of place with the other personas in WWE at all.
Sure, the gimmick was morbid but it was all in the execution. In USWA, Calaway simply showed like “Master of Pain” was his government name and went full TMI about his past on Saturday morning TV.
In some ways, I kind of liked how he was introduced. A bunch of production and backstory isn’t needed for an ex-con character.
Plus, The Undertaker came off as nervous and probably just worked with the summary of the gimmick as it was told to him.
Remember, back then, stuff such as the training background of a wrestler wasn’t particularly important to fans.
For instance, in 1992, Nailz just showed up in WWE with little promotion and feuded with the Big Boss Man. This dude’s gimmick was an ex-con hellbent on revenge.
Even that feud left some unanswered questions but this is about Master of Pain. The gimmick worked in Memphis which usually ran short-term monsters for Jerry Lawler to defeat.
Check out Taker’s debut in Memphis as Master of Pain below!
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE! Don’t forget to check out Gamestingr for gaming news and reviews and TV Rocker for recaps and the latest gossip!
