WWE Had Different Name For The Undertaker Prior To Debut

WWE Executive Bruce Prichard recalls the name that could have been The Undertaker’s name.

It’s hard to think about any other name for WWE Hall of Famer and world-famous pop-culture icon The Undertaker. The Phenom’s name is so deeply etched in the consciousness of everyone following wrestling from the 1990s to the present day.

The Undertaker is a name and character that caught on and made waves in the broader scheme of pop culture, where even non-wrestling fans have heard of him and recognize the “Deadman” gimmick.

Before embarking on what would become an illustrious three-decade career, The Undertaker made his debut in Survivor Series: 1990, as Kane “The Undertaker”.

The Kane part of his name was quickly scrapped and shelved until WWE star Glenn Jacobs famously resurrected it for himself to create another character that would go on to reach supreme levels of worldwide fame. Kane was billed as The Undertaker’s long-lost brother.

WWE Executive Bruce Prichard Explains Why He Decided To Drop The Kane Name From The Undertaker’s

Prichard, who played the character of The Undertaker’s manager, Brother Love, recently revealed on the latter’s Six Feet Under podcast the reason for the name change. Prichard tells The Deadman the behind-the-scenes story of how WWE legend Pat Patterson mentioned that one of the sketches of dark characters they had for him looked like an old-fashioned Undertaker (The kind that works in graveyards).

Prichard reveals that he wished to keep the name Kane as a biblical reference to the most evil character ever.

They sent over the drawings of different looks for you to be this dark character, and the coolest one was what we ended up with. He (Pat Patterson) goes, ‘He looks like an old fashioned Undertaker.’ And I was like yeah that’s great, but I wanted to call you Kane, because Kane (Cain) was the first man to commit murder. Kane killed his brother Abel.

In many ways Kane was the most evil person in biblical lore, kills his own brother, first man to ever commit murder. And I just loved that name, cool strong name Kane.

And so it was going to be Kane The Undertaker, that was the deal, you couldn’t get more evil than Kane.

Prichard recalls feeling that once the Kane name was dropped three weeks later, the name The Undertaker wouldn’t get over with the WWE fans.

We were gonna go with that, we went three weeks with Kane, until we dropped it. We did three weeks and then we did TV, that’s why I remember its three weeks because we did that whole TV’s as Kane The Undertaker.

The next TV, which was three weeks later, we dropped the Kane and you were just The Undertaker. And I was like, ‘That’ll never get over.

h/t: wrestletalk.com

Also read: What The Undertaker Had Stuck In Him For A Year After Final WWE Match