The men known to fans as WWE stars The Undertaker and The Godfather have been the firmest of friends after an explosive first meeting almost 35 years ago.
The Undertaker, real name Mark Calaway, is renowned for having worked largely under the guise of the phenom for almost his entire 30-plus year wrestling career.
The Undertaker is one of the best known stars in WWE’s historyWWE
Charles Wright, however, was a star of the Attitude Era as The Godfather, but also competed in WWE under the characters of Papa Shango and Kama among others.
Despite their extensive and contrasting careers that saw them remain part of WWE for decades, they met before achieving any of that notoriety.
In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Wright has detailed the first time he encountered his now long-time friend – when he was new to the business and Calaway had been at it for just a couple of years.
They wrestled in 1989 for the Memphis-based USWA and, having been tutored by veteran Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler, Wright went into the clash as The Soultaker. assuming he’d have to smarten up the ‘new’ face on the block, despite still being arguably being more inexperienced himself.
Matters weren’t helped by the fact the pair hadn’t even had chance to meet before they wrestled, at which point Wright was given a very firm reply from his new colleague and opponent, who worked under the name The Master of Pain.
“I just worked a program with Lawler, they didn’t know what to do with me,” Wright explained. “I’m as green [inexperienced] as Kermit the Frog.
“Taker has been in the business a couple of years now. So they said: ‘Hey, we’re gonna bring this big, tall white kid in to work against you. He’s been in the business a couple of years, maybe we can do something with you.’
“So Mark’s driving in from Texas. I never get a chance to meet him. Everything I’ve done so far is what Jerry Lawler has told me to do in the ring. I know nothing, just what somebody’s telling me what to do, which is a whole other story.
“I met [Mark] in the ring. We have a match where I’m like: ‘Oh, here’s another one of these big a** white boys I’m gonna have to deal with,’ so it was a little physical in the ring with me and him.”
Wright, now 63, went on to suggest that the man who was still a year away from debuting as The Undertaker in WWE decided to bring matters to a head in emphatic style by subtly breaking character to deliver one almighty blow.
A young Mark ‘Undertaker’ Calaway and Charles ‘Godfather’ Wright were rivals then firm friendsWWE
Charles Wright wrestled in WWE throughout the 1990s and 2000s and held the Intercontinental titleWWE
He added: “He tells me to throw him out, so I throw him out. I go after him; I’m chasing him around… [and] I guess he found that chair he was looking for.
“He hit me over the head with a chair so hard that you know the cartoons when you see the stars and little birdies? I swear I [saw] that.
“He looked down at me and said: ‘Do you want to do this easy way or the hard way?’ I said: ‘I think let’s do this the easy way.’
“From that point, we became really good friends from that day.”
Wright’s assertion that their friendship was struck quickly is boosted by the fact that, within weeks of that incident, they were a wrestling tag team in USWA – even taking on a young Stone Cold Steve Austin.
By late 1990, Calway had become The Undertaker in WWE and, for him, the rest was history as he went on to become arguably professional wrestling’s greatest character creation.
Wright wrestled under the voodoo-inspired Papa Shango gimmick from 1992 onwards and hit his peak with the emergence of The Godfather.
Charles Wright wrestled in WWE throughout the 1990s and 2000s and held the Intercontinental titlewwe
The two wrestlers collided in WWE again over the years and remained firm allies off screen, and both are now in the company’s Hall of Fame.
