Where Is The Undertaker?

After beating Shane McMahon in a grueling Hell in a Cell Match at WrestleMania 32, have fans seen the last of The Undertaker in WWE?

On paper, it was perhaps the biggest mismatch in WrestleMania history — a 46-year-old businessman against the most dominant juggernaut in WWE history inside the unforgiving confines of Hell in a Cell. But “Shane-O-Mac” delivered an incredible performance in a surprisingly competitive, and dangerous, bout. While the son of Vince McMahon has continued to appear on WWE television since the brutal contest, The Undertaker has yet to resurface.

Fans has been speculating about The Undertaker’s future in wrestling since the turn of the century. However, every year, he defies expectations with an extraordinary in-ring performance at WrestleMania. For a while, though, some felt he’d ride off into the sunset in his home state of Texas at WrestleMania 32. Rumors of retirement subsided when it was announced that he’d be battling Shane McMahon on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” since it’s hard to believe that the last match of his career would be against him.

One thing from the match that caused retirement rumors to spark again is The Undertaker taking his gloves off after besting Shane and casually laying them down in the center of the ring. To some, it appeared as if he was saying that he was done and that he had just wrestled the final match of his career. According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer, The Undertaker was telling people afterwards that it was indeed the last “big match” of his career. Meltzer, however, noted that The Undertaker has made that vow before.

Legendary broadcaster Jim Ross, who called some of The Undertaker’s most famous matches, doesn’t think “The Deadman” will be hanging up his boots anytime soon.

“I get this question every day on Twitter. No, I don’t think The Undertaker is going to retire any time soon,” he said in April on The Ross Report.

“Good Ol’ J.R.” thinks The Undertaker’s retirement would likely be the biggest news story of the year, whenever that may be.

“I think that when he does retire, unless there is complete insanity [that] has engulfed the world of sports entertainment, that it will be the biggest news of the year, the last match for “The Deadman,” Ross said. “And I think that last match for “The Deadman” will be at a WrestleMania. When that will happen, I don’t know. [WrestleMania] 33? I don’t know. [WrestleMania] 34? Who knows?”

So what is The Undertaker doing now?

The 51-year-old WWE Superstar, whose real name is Mark William Calaway, likes to refer to himself as a reluctant celebrity. Although he’s been in the limelight for over two decades, he is someone who works diligently to separate his Undertaker persona from the personal life he closely protects, and even people who knew him “from way back when” might be shocked by the transformation Calaway’s life has undergone over the years.

For years, Calaway was a self-professed hellraiser away from the squared circle, indulging in life on the road to the fullest. Those were fun times and the stories have become legend, but they were not necessarily happy times. Then he met a woman named Sara, who would have a profound effect on him in every way imaginable and eventually become his wife.

Calaway married Sara on July 21, 2000 in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 2001, Sara appeared as a television character for WWE — then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) — as part of a feud between The Undertaker and Diamond Dallas Page where she was acknowledged as his wife. The couple had two daughters together; Chasey, who was born on November 21, 2002, and Gracie, who was born on May 15, 2005. The couple divorced in 2007 and Calaway began dating then-WWE wrestler Michelle McCool, whom he married on June 26, 2010 in Houston, Texas.

Although the ensuing quotes are from a rare interview The Undertaker gave about his personal life to WWE Magazine in 2002, much of what he said could apply today.

“It took meeting Sara to really know what personal happiness was,” Calaway said. “After that, I had no desire to go to strip clubs; I had no desire to go out and drink Jack Daniel’s by the gallon. I guess those were all crutches, for lack of a better term. But once we met, I found somebody I was not only attracted to physically, but also mentally. We have so many of the same interests. Everything was like, ‘Here is my best friend, who I’m also highly attracted to.’ It’s been that way ever since.

“It’s just amazing that after going out every night drinking, hanging out and carrying on … boom! Overnight, I had no desire to,” he continues. “As much as I went out and partied, I was waiting for that desire to go hang out and come back. But it hasn’t.”

Now, long nights of partying with the boys and raising hell have been traded in for quiet times with Michelle, on their spacious and private ranch in Austin, Texas.

The more domesticated lifestyle Calaway enjoys with Michelle is like night and day compared to the wild days of yore. Like many entertainers and athletes who spend extended periods of time on the road, WWE Superstars can often be notorious party animals.

Even within that framework, however, Calaway’s nights of excess stood out. But as great as those stories might be, they came at a heavy price. Calaway was burning the candle at both ends, and burning it down fast.

“Within the circle of the business, my nightlife and partying was the stuff that legends are made of,” he said. “My home life, without getting into details, was miserable. I hated being at home. When I was out, I got the most out of a celebrity’s nightlife. But I didn’t take care of my body. I never allowed it to affect what I did in the ring — business always comes first — but it made things harder for me at times.”

Calaway is quick to point out that his hard living and endless excess never affected the business he is fiercely protective of. He has never missed shows feeling hung over, nor did his performances in the squared circle ever suffer from the previous night’s libations. Those are transgressions he will never tolerate from himself, nor from others in the locker room.

Yet, it was not until he abandoned that lifestyle that he began to notice that he wasn’t as young as he used to be, and that his body suffered from years of abuse and neglect. As happens to many big men who wrestle for so many years, Calaway was suffering from painful knee and hip ailments. His metabolism had also naturally slowed with time, and food he used to burn off with minimal effort was now sticking to him and adding weight, causing further stress on his ailing lower body.

Unlike many WWE Superstars, Calaway was never a gym rat. He worked out and did general maintenance on his body, but did only what was necessary to stay in shape. Blessed with superior genetics, he was able to stay on top of his game with very little effort in the weight room.

Not only was he happy to be spend his nights at home with Sara, he also found that he had a partner who was a fitness fanatic, and who inspired him to hit the gym with her.

“Sara really pushes me to the brink,” Calaway said in 2002. “You can see how great her body is in the WWE Divas swimsuit magazine. With her energy, desire and motivation to keep her body at that level, it motivates me. We motivate each other, and that’s fun. She’s a great training partner.

When the former couple moved from Florida to Texas, one of the first things the WWE Superstar did was install a state-of-the-art gym on the ranch. Calaway, who often works out, takes much of the restless energy he once spent living the wild life and puts it to work in the gym, strengthening his battered and injury-plagued body in order to keep up with the younger members of the WWE roster.

Calaway embraced his new outlook as the greatest challenge of his legendary career — defying the effects of time and reversing years of punishment suffered both in and out of the ring.

“I’m getting a little older, I don’t recover as quickly as I used to, and the weight isn’t as easy to keep off as it used to be. Now that I have this personal happiness, I had to take it and use it to motivate me to keep physically fit,” he said. “When we moved to Texas, it was a new beginning in how my life was going to be lived. It’s a constant struggle to keep my body at a level to fight off injuries and to compete with guys that are 25 to 26 years old. It’s a constant struggle, but with the commitment I have now, I’ll be able to be productive for some time to come.”

The spread also allows Calaway some much needed peace of mind when he’s not performing for WWE. It’s a place where he can leave Undertaker behind and be himself — a husband and a father, and a man who’d now rather spend time at home than out raising hell.

“This is awesome. I am a very reluctant celebrity,” he said. “I don’t put much status in being seen or having notoriety like that. When I’m off, it’s nice to be able to come out here to the ranch and not have to deal with anything other than my animals and family. It’s fun to be able to live that kind of life and be normal. I can go out on the property and be lost all day. It keeps my feet grounded when I’m here.

“I can’t wait to get home now. I guess it would have been nice if Sara had continued to work with me. I know a lot of fans didn’t appreciate her being with Undertaker, because he had been a loner for so long. I think they took that awkwardly. But it was nice having her on the road with me, traveling and training together. Now, that she’s home, I can’t get home soon enough — and I cant stay long enough. It’s always nice having someone you love and respect waiting for you.”

With his personal life now in order, Calaway has begun to give thought to life beyond The Undertaker. He remains a force in the professional wrestling industry, a legend who is still very much on top of his game. But, he realizes that even the phenomenon known as The Undertaker has a finite lifespan, and the day will come when the character is gone and only Mark Calaway remains.

But even then, the business he has given so much to over the past several years will always be a part of his life, in some form or another.

“I think in the next few years I’ll work a little less. But, I’ll still be out there quite a bit,” Calaway said. “I just want to take a little time to spend with my family. The reality is, I don’t know how many years I have left. The people who backed me and stayed behind me all these years, I don’t want to sell them short. It’s going to be a juggling act.”

“I’ve got a lot of different irons in the fire. I think initially I’ll just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I definitely feel like I have something to give back to the business. Whether I stay on the ranch and have WWE Superstars come and work out with me, or whether I go out on the road and do something behind the scenes, I don’t know. I don’t have any desire to go out and be a full-time agent. I want to spend more time at home. So the more things I can do from here, the better. I have some interest in developing some real estate as well. But, I think most of it will be here, hanging out at the ranch, relaxing and enjoying my life.”