John Cena References The Undertaker’s Pre-WWE History With Rare Photo

Last night on Raw, John Cena demanded a response from The Undertaker following his highly personal WrestleMania challenge last week. Cena didn’t get it, but he did get one from Undertaker’s brother, Kane, who dropped him with the Chokeslam.

Over on Instagram, Cena today posted a rare photo of The Undertaker before he became “The Deadman.” The image itself notes his wrestling debut in 1984 for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) under the ring name Texas Red.

Cena didn’t write a caption for the photo, as is always the case with his Instagram page. His account’s description states, “These images will be posted without explanation, for your interpretation.”

A post shared by John Cena (@johncena) on Mar 20, 2018 at 8:54am PDT

The Undertaker is actually not Texas Red in the photo since he wore a mask for that persona. Here is footage of his first-ever wrestling match, which was against Bruiser Brody.

You can also see his debut match on the WWE Network in the Vault section on an episode of WCCW dated July 11, 1987. His manager on that night is Percival Pringle III, who would go on to be his manager in WWE, Paul Bearer.

The photo Cena posted is from The Undertaker’s time in WCW under the name “Mean” Mark Callous. He grew his hair out by the end of his run with the promotion in 1990 and wore black and dark red attire with a single glove (as also seen in the video below from August 1990).

While The Undertaker’s pre-WWE history has yet to be referenced in company storylines, it was acknowledged in a 2000 VHS/DVD release highlighting his WWE career up until he became the “American Bad Ass.” There is a chapter on his run in WCW, with Undertaker, Paul Heyman, and Jim Ross talking about that time in his career.