~PAGE TWO~
~THE WCW ERA~
At the beginning of 1990, Mark Callaway got his first taste of the big leagues when his impressive look and obvious talent gained him a one-year contract with WCW. He finally discarded the mask and was repackaged as Mean Mark Callous. As a replacement for the injured Sid Vicious, he joined with Dangerous Danny Spivey to form The New Skyscrapers under the management of current WWE referee Teddy Long.
The original Skyscrapers had been embroiled in a feud with The Road Warriors that continued after Callous joined the mix. In early February, the two teams met at Clash of the Champions X from Corpus Christi, Texas. Resulting in a disqualification win for Hawk and Animal. They faced off again at the end of the month during Wrestle War '90 with the Skyscrapers losing in a Chicago Street Fight.
"My time in WCW was very tumultuous and also very interesting. I learned a lot from Spivey. I learned that nothing was too important to compromise your health for if you're not getting an appropriate return. We were right in the midle of a program with the Road Warriors, and Danny didn't like the direction we wre going in, so one day, he dropped me off at the hotel in Atlanta and told me to tell the powers that be that he was going home. Sure enough, he didn't go to the TV taping the next day, and I didn't see him for another four years. He just said the hell with it. He showed me some of the politics of the game and how to deal with it. He left me there, but it was a good esperience because it really taught me how to deal with the higher-ups."
By the spring, The New Skyscrapers were no more. Mean Mark struck out on his own in WCW, enlisting Paul E. Dangerously (a.k.a Paul Heyman) as his new manager, and using the heart punch as a finishing move. He scored an impressive win over Johnny Ace in May at Capital Combat. The following month, he handily defeated the late Brain Pillman at Clash of the Champions XI from Charleston, South Carolina. During his WCW run, Callous also participated in a Japanese tour for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) under the name, Punisher Dice Morgan.
Mean Mark Callous' singles push continued with a string of impressive victories, leading to a shot at Lex Luger's Untied States Championship at the 1990 Great American Bash in Baltimore. After Luger came out the winner at the Bash, Callous' push came to an abrupt halt.
Unfortunately, his persona had never been properly fleshed out, and despte his obvious potential, Mean Mark came across as nothing more then a run-of-the-mill-tough-guy heel.
"I was actually called into their office and I think the presidents of the company were Jim Herd and Jim Barnett. They pretty much sat me down and told me that I was a great athlete, but that "Nobody would ever pay money to see you wrestle. You're a mid-carder at best."
Mean Mark never quite clicked with the fans, and WCW chose not to renew Callaway's contract at the end of the year. At the time, it may have seemed like a dead end, but it turned out to be the greatest thing ever to happen to his career. In spite of his hampering persona, his natural ability and look in WCW had caught the attetnion of WWE's talent recruiters.
"I was upset. I knew that I had some thing to offer. Paul Heyman put me in touch with Bruce Prichard. He was trying to get me a meeting with Vince. I think there was one time when Vince was actually going to sit down one time when Vince was actualy going to sit down and watch one of my matches but my hip was hurt, and I had to wrestle Lex Luger, who was never really accomplished as a wrestler. Anyway, I did what I could do, but needless to say, Vince wasn't impressed. Fortunately, Bruce Pricyard really persisted and kept pushing for a meeting. A month later, we met."
Mark Callaway's formative period was over. The Undertaker was about to be born.
