With over thirty years in the game of professional wrestling, The Undertaker is a figure that epitomised millions of people's childhoods. The phenom has had a deep and illustrious career that saw him rack up multiple titles and go on the legendary run of 21 wins at wrestling's biggest show, Wrestlemania.
However, those days are seemingly behind him and the once terrifying, mysterious and demonic figure has hung up his long black leather coat and black Stetson hat. Now he goes by his real name Mark Caloway, a 58-year-old father of three from Houston, Texas.
Ahead of his popular tell-all one man show which will be coming to the Albert Hall in Manchester in July, the Manchester Evening News got a chance to sit down with the former American Badass to talk about what he does in his down time, and one of his greatest matches of all time that took place right here in the UK.
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With a beautiful backdrop of bright blue skies, gigantic trees and faraway mountains, Caloway looked at peace and relaxed wearing his iconic black bandana across his head and a plain black t-shirt, as we spoke to him from his home in the US.
Now more content with spending time in nature with his family and watching sports, his life is a long way away from pyrotechnics and epic showdowns with the likes of Shawn Michaels, John Cena and The Rock.
Mark is still adjusting to retired life and getting to grips with deconstructing the myth of The Undertaker by telling fans about stories of the backstage. But it seems not everyone is happy with his new found candidness, according to Mark.
"It's so funny, because I was the last guy that put that kind of effort into protecting the business and protecting a character," he told the M.E.N.
"It's so funny the amount of hate that I've got, from people now, you know, they hear my normal voice, and me talk about normal things.
"The hate that I get because people feel like I destroyed their childhood and I'm like "me!?, me!? I was the last one. I was the last one, I'm the guy you're gonna take you're heat out on?"
But for Taker, his decision to lift the curtain on his career wasn't to ruin anyone's childhood, but a way for him to remain in an industry he sincerely loves.
Speaking about his decision to embark on the one-man show after retirement he said: "Once I gave the speech at Hall of Fame. That's when we figured that we might have something as far as a show or the ability to connect with the audience a different way.
"Because I had two options, if I want to stay involved in the industry, I've got to evolve, what does that Undertaker character bring if you don't get into the ring?
"Either I completely remove myself and let the legacy of the character move on. Or, I have 30 plus years of life experience, stories, funny stories, sad stories, insight on things that had happened to me through the years, and I wasn't really ready to be done with the business."
Mark will be telling these stories in a country he has very fond memories of, the UK being the place he had one his favourite matches of all time with fellow Hall of Famer, Bret The Hitman Hart.
"I remember having a match against Bret Hart and Bret in the states was a heel (villain) at the time, but everywhere else he was still a face (hero).
"We had a match in the UK, it must have been 45 minutes and through the course of the match, one moment they're going 'lets go Bret' and two minutes later it's 'lets go Taker'. It was so cool to have that kind of energy, it was just off the charts.
"Probably one of my favourite matches of all time, it was really good. Bret pushed me to be more than a character. He pushed me into figuring out how to be the character and be a wrestler too.
"That's something I'm really grateful to him for pushing me in that direction, because I don't think I would have lasted as long as I did if I didn't evolve."
Tickets for UNDERTAKER 1 deadMAN SHOW are available on presale this Wednesday, May 31 at 10am BST exclusively to O2 customers and WWE fans who sign up at https://www.wwe.com/undertaker-uk-tour-2023.
General tickets are available Friday, June 2 at 10am BST from AEGpresents.co.uk.
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