As one of WWE's most high-profile and enduring characters,[15][16] The Undertaker is famed for his funerary themeing around an undead, macabre "Deadman" persona, which gained significant mainstream popularity and won him the Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for Best Gimmick a record-setting 5 years in a row.

[37] He was portrayed as a sinister force, wearing predominantly black ring attire and was described by commentator Jim Ross as having a fondness for pet snakes and the music of Ozzy Osbourne.

[38] Callous was promptly drafted into The Skyscrapers tag team to replace a legitimately injured Sid Vicious, and made his debut on January 3, 1990, in a match later televised against Agent Steel and Randy Harris.

Their face turn was solidified on the February 29 episode of Superstars when Roberts confronted The Undertaker on the Funeral Parlor set over the matter (aired on Saturday Night's Main Event XXX).

Chuck Norris (portraying his Walker, Texas Ranger persona) was involved in the match as special guest enforcer, preventing interference from wrestlers that Yokozuna, Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji had again enlisted for help.

[76] Unable to rely on much as far as interference this time around (only Irwin R. Schyster able to get in a brief ambush) due to Norris averting the attempts of several heel wrestlers, Yokozuna was defeated by The Undertaker and sealed in the casket.

Due to the incident happening at a house show, Vince McMahon had it presented to the audience as though it had occurred from Mabel and Yokozuna's exchange of leg drops and splashes on The Undertaker on the Monday Night Raw that had aired 2 days prior.

[82] After being buried alive and a following month-long hiatus, The Undertaker returned at the Survivor Series again pitting him against Mankind, but with a unique stipulation: Hanging 6.1 m (20 ft) above the ring would be Paul Bearer, enclosed in a steel cage.

Under the control of Paul Bearer, Kane stormed the arena, ripped off the cell door, and laid out a nonplussed Undertaker with his own trademarked finisher, The Tombstone Piledriver, allowing Michaels to pin him for the victory.

[98] The Undertaker and Mankind's wildly violent, outlandish feud from over a year previous to this point was revitalized over the next month, ultimately taken to a new graphic height and decisively resolved when they faced each other in a Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring.

[98] The Undertaker and Austin's reign as tag team champions lasted only two weeks, as Kane and Mankind regained the titles from them in a fatal four-way tag-team match on the August 10 episode of Raw is War.

Conversely, while on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions podcast on November 22, 2020, Calaway revealed that there was no way he was ever going to rejoin WCW, that the gimmick's biker transition was just a matter of him mixing things up because he didn't feel the character's Deadman side properly fit with the then ongoing Attitude Era.

[116] In May 2000, Calaway expanded on The Undertaker gimmick, returning under a human alter ego of the gimmick—a smack-talking, redneck biker, dubbed "The American Badass", known for motorcycle-riding, tobacco chewing/spitting, and donning a sporty appearance and manner.

[120] When The Undertaker returned near the end of the iron man match for the WWF Championship between Triple H and The Rock at Judgment Day on May 21, 2000, he took out all the members of the McMahon-Helmsley Faction, which created for a face turn after having left things off as a heel before his hiatus.

[138] Introduced was a more dramatic, theatrical and supernatural Deadman than in years past, his presence, mannerisms, and entrances significantly elaborated on as well, such as with more intensity, special effects and rising and falling flames.

[179] At No Way Out on February 17, The Undertaker defeated Batista, Finlay, The Great Khali, MVP and Big Daddy V in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match to become the number one contender for Edge's World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXIV on March 30.

[198] After a four-month hiatus, The Undertaker returned at SummerSlam on August 23 by attacking CM Punk, who had just won the World Heavyweight Championship from Jeff Hardy in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.

After a hiatus (which included wrestling two matches on Raw), he returned to SmackDown on May 28, defeating Rey Mysterio to qualify for a spot at the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view on June 20 to compete for the World Heavyweight title.

[244] The Brothers of Destruction returned on the November 9 episode of Raw and attacked The Wyatt Family, setting up a tag team match at Survivor Series, which honored The Undertaker's 25 years in WWE.

At WrestleMania 36, The Undertaker presented his third and final identity, "The Unholy Trinity," a combination of The Deadman, American Badass, and himself as Mark Calaway, this blend allowing him to trash talk Styles over real life matters during their encounter, while also able to maintain his superhuman horror capabilities.

Despite the assistance of Gallows and Anderson, The Undertaker buried Styles in the grave to win this match and ride off on motorcycle into the sunset,[270] scoring his 25th WrestleMania victory to complete his professional wrestling career.

[278] Undertaker issued a Twitter response later on that same day, which read: After over 30 years of long roads traveled, countless hours of TV, and one hell of a ride together… couldn't think of anyone better to put me in the #WWEHOF than @VinceMcMahon.

[293][294][295] Filled with bells and whistles, The Undertaker's godlike superhuman presence and indignation were signaled by funeral tolls, settings of pitch-black darkness and blue/purple semidarkness, flickering lights, hazy fog, thunder, lightning strikes, and other bone-chilling scenes and sound activity.

[307][308] The Undertaker took to many trademarked idiosyncrasies and themes, including a stylized throat-slashing gesture,[309] grimacing facial expressions fit with eyeballs rolled back so that only the whites of his eyes displayed,[310] backwards hair-whips so as to expose his ominous facial expressions,[311] fixed stares on adversaries,[310] protruding tongue displays, jolting of his head with a fury so that it faced the direction of his antagonists,[312] his celebratory take-the-knee pose,[313] sonorous vocalizations,[314] collectively labeling his fanbase as "Creatures of the Night",[315] voice of God-like promos in which things were interrupted with dimmed lights and thunder while The Undertaker's communications were heard booming throughout the arena with no physical trace of him;[316] messages filled with death threats of a deeply posthumous insight into impending corpse decomposition, maggot feasting, unsouling and so on.

[318] The character's godlike powers were routinely put on display in these moments, triggering lights back to the arena either gradually or suddenly dependent on his either slowly or abruptly raised arms.

[319] WWF Composer Jim Johnston embellished on the Chopin march, using the historic melody as a pre- and post-chorus to a main chorus of bell tolls, along with an original transition section to the song of a slow, lugubrious instrumental feel.

[120][117] In performing this alternate identity, he rode to the ring on motorcycles, chewed tobacco, donned cargo garments and/or denim, printed shirts, and sporty fashion accessories (sunglasses, necklaces, bandanas).

Among subtle details left over from his biker identity were his in-ring MMA style between his stances, strikes, and submissions; penchant to sporadically lower his tank top for a barechested appearance; celebrating victories with an arm-raised fist; etc.

[375] In the 1990s, Calaway started a backstage "posse" called the Bone Street Krew which consisted of some of his best friends and fellow wrestlers Yokozuna, Savio Vega, Charles Wright, The Godwinns, and Rikishi.

During the rally, the song was accompanied by a music video playing on large screens, advancing through multitudes of scenes intended to alarm the public of looming danger resulting from the presidency of Trump's successor Joe Biden.