The Undertaker On What Gimmick He Was Worried That WWE Was Giving Him, Vince McMahon Phone Call
Texas megachurch pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX has released a new out-of-character interview with The Undertaker. Young made wrestling headlines in September 2018 when he held a series of "Wrastlin'" sermons that featured Taker along with WWE Hall of Famers Sting, Ted DiBiase and Ric Flair.
Taker talked to Young about leaving WCW in 1989. Taker said he eventually landed a meeting with Vince McMahon at WWE HQ. Taker left the meeting hopeful of a job with WWE but he soon started to worry about the kind of gimmick they would put him in. Taker had seen the mysterious egg that was put on display during WWE programming leading up to the 1990 Survivor Series pay-per-view, which ended up being for the reveal of The Gobbledy Gooker.
"So, I eventually get a meeting with Vince, right? I was like, 'OK, I'm going to walk in here and blow them away.' I'll get hired right there on the spot, right? I'm thinking that," Taker recalled. "So I go to Connecticut and I meet with Vince. At the end of the meeting he goes, 'Well, we really don't have anything right now, maybe at the first of the year after WrestleMania we might have an opening.' So, I was like, 'Oh wow, I'd already quit the other place.' I didn't figure that part in."
Taker waited for another call from WWE and soon got it. He picked up the phone and Vince was on the other end, asking for The Undertaker. Vince had already figured the gimmick out, he just needed Mark Calaway to make it happen.
"Anyway, I'm kind of hanging out and getting bookings where I can," Taker said. "All of a sudden, it was WWF back then, they start this promotion where they've got this giant egg on one of the stages. And at that point, I had short hair and I had started growing my hair. I was thinking... egg, right? So, I started having this whole drama in my head, like, 'Oh man, I'm going to be Egg Man or something like that. He's going to want me to shave my head and my eyebrows.' I'm just in a panic. This had nothing to do with me. So, I'm at home one day and the phone rings. Back then you know, you had to go pick it up. I pick the phone up, 'Hello, is this The Undertaker?' So, I put the phone down and I'm thinking to myself, Undertaker? Well, I sure ain't Egg Man or Egg Head. So, I pick the phone back up and I said, 'Yeah, yeah this is The Undertaker, yeah!'
"I had myself... I probably was on the verge of an ulcer I was so uptight about this and when I got that call, it took me a second to even process who it was. But Vince's voice is... you can distinguish it pretty quick. I was like, 'Yeah... OK.' I had no clue."
Young commented on how Vince already had the concept of The Undertaker in his head. Taker added, "He had the character... he just needed somebody big with no personality. And... I'm your guy!"
Taker would go on to make his official debut as The Dead Man at the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 22, 1990, joining The Million Dollar Team (Taker, DiBiase, Greg Valentine, The Honky Tonk Man) to defeat The Dream Team (Jim Neidhart, Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware). That same pay-per-view saw the giant egg hatch to reveal The Gobbledy Gooker, played by Hector Guerrero.