It’s hard to imagine anyone getting one over on a fledgling rookie Undertaker in WWE, but that’s exactly what Hulk Hogan managed.
To fans today, Undertaker is arguably WWE’s greatest ever character creation, playing the Deadman on TV for over 30 years before his retirement in 2020 and still making the occasional TV cameo besides.
Taker is a widely respected, multi-time former world champion and a household name whose fame has extended in the modern era thanks to his popular podcast series.
All careers start somewhere, though and there was once a time when the Phenom was just another cartoonish figure in a cartoonish world of 1990s ‘WWF.’
Though having been in the wrestling business by the time of his WWE debut at Survivor Series in 1990, he was still a relative newbie, particularly in comparison to Hulk Hogan, who was, at that stage, the company’s biggest star.
Take rose rapidly through the proverbial ranks, though, and the two collided within a year, Undertaker snaring the WWE Championship from Hogan at the 1991 Survivor Series, only for disaster to strike.
When the Texan, real name Mark Calaway, dropped Hogan with his patented Tombstone finisher, he was shocked to hear the champ writhe in pain and anguish – later realising the proverbial groundwork had been earlier in the afternoon.
“It was a set-up from the get-go,” he would later tell ESPN. “Back then, we would show up around noon, Hogan would roll up around four or five. I remember getting there at noon and Hogan was already there.
“He goes: ‘Hey kid, can I talk to you?’ We go to the shower – that’s where business was settled – and he goes: ‘I’ve got this neck injury. I’m nervous about taking your finish.’ I said: ‘Hulk, believe me, I will protect you. I pride myself on not hurting people. I promise you; I will have you so tight that there’s no way you will hurt your neck.’
The match played out later that night in front of a wild 17,000 crowd in Michigan, at a time when a section of the WWE fanbase was slowly beginning to turn on Hogan, weary of his superhuman act that served him so well during his career.
Many erupted when Undertaker won the bout, history made as he became the youngest WWE Champion in history at that time – but the new champ’s heart had already begun to sink.
He added: “As soon as my knees hit [on the Tombstone]: I hear: ‘Oh, you got me, brother.’ I’m like: ‘How?’
“I’m 24 and I just crushed Hulk Hogan. That’s what’s going through my head. They gave me this opportunity and I just hurt the golden goose. I’m mortified.”
Undertaker, in character, made a slow and menacing walk to the backstage area clutching his newly won crown, and went straight in search of Hogan who, he was told, was lay in Vince McMahon’s office.
I go in to check on him and here come the paramedics,” he went on. So, I go behind a wall with Shane [McMahon]. I listen to them check him out and I hear: ‘Somebody get my wife and kids on the phone.’
“Shane [then told] me: ‘Mark, his head wasn’t close to touching the mat.’ I’m like: ‘No, I hurt him.’
Undertaker said he was left ‘devastated’ at the idea he’d hurt the biggest star in the business, but his guilt would seemingly have disappeared when he later watched back the event and seen McMahon’s assurance – and similar given to him by other wrestlers on the night – was accurate.
Detailing how he cornered Hogan at the follow-up pay-per-view Tuesday in Texas days later, he explained: “I got to San Antonio and was like: ‘Terry, I watched it back, your head never hit.’ [Hogan replied: ‘’Oh brother, what it was, you had me so tight that when I came down, I had nowhere to move and that’s what jammed my neck, I couldn’t move at all.’
“At that point, I was like: ‘Okay.’ Then I knew what he was all about.”
In Texas, promptly won the WWE title back from Undertaker before it was later vacated for storyline purposes, ending the Deadman’s maiden reign at just a matter of days.
He’d have to wait another six years before winning the championship for a second time, by which time Hogan had long since jumped ship to WCW.