 The following, musical journey through the career of the one and only Undertaker. Over the five decades that professional wrestling superstar Mark Calloway wrestled, his theme music was one of the main reasons as to why he became such a larger than life character before he even stepped inside the squared circle. He's had a song to fit every version of every character he's ever played, including during his pre-Dead Man years as he paid his dues until his big WWE break finally came. Mark also owes some of his success to the man behind the music, Jim Johnston, without whom the Undertaker would not have become the legendary superstar that he is today. This is our chance to reflect on his iconic collection of entrance music. From the master of pain to the ministry of darkness, let's take a look behind the themes. Deadlands by the Bullet Boys Growing up in the wrestling hotbed of Texas, Mark Calloway had always watched pro wrestling on TV and was especially fond of the Vineric Boys. Making his debut back in 1984 in the house that they built, the Dallas Sportatorium and World Class Championship Wrestling, Calloway got the you-know-what kicked out of him by none other than the wild and crazy Bruiser Brody. From there, he'd bounce around between world class, the CWA and the USWA and wrestled under several gimmicks from the Masked, Texas Red to the Master of Pain and back under a disguise as the Punisher, which is when he finally received his first piece of entrance music. Badlands by the Bullet Boys is not a cover of the classic Bruce Springsteen song, but rather a fairly straightforward piece of hair metal folly from the late 80s headbangers ball. China White by Scorpions After primarily wrestling in the Lone Star State for the better part of his early career, Calloway's first bit of mainstream exposure was in World Championship Wrestling during 1989. There he became known as Mean Mark Callis, No Relation and wrestled as part of the Skyscrapers Tag Team alongside Dangerous Dan Spivey. Hailing from Metropolis and being managed by former referee Teddy Long, the Skyscrapers were the epitome of big badass wrestlers and their slow walk to the ring was in step with this song's thunderous bass chords and devastating intro riffs. Replacing an injured, Sid Vicious who was shelved with a punctured lung, Callis and Spivey would use their intimidating saunter to psych out their opponents before powerbombing the Bejesus out of them. Now while the Scorpions were more renowned for one of the greatest weather songs ever, Rock You Like a Hurricane, this tune made everybody batten down the hatches during the Skyscrapers entrance. Southern Rock During his time in the Skyscrapers, Callis and Spivey were involved in a feud with the Road Warriors. But Spivey left before the feud came to an end, leaving Mark to fend for himself, becoming a Paul Heyman guy, Taker dropped the Callis last name and became solely Mean Mark, muscling his way through jobber after jobber. The only thing meaner than his first WCW theme and his heart punch finisher was his glorious ginger mullet flowing for all to see. Heavenly Thunder As Mean Mark moved up the WCW ranks, he was rewarded with a new entrance theme that was a slightly less generic piece of mullet rock. It was also around this time that Callaway began to question his future in WCW after being told by Booker Oli Anderson that nobody would ever pay money to watch him perform. Freakin' Oli, man, what a curmudgeon. Callis challenged Lex Luger for the U.S. heavyweight championship at the Great American Bash in the summer of 1990 but was unsuccessful. According to Taker's good buddy and WWE executive Bruce Prichard, Vince McMahon watched that match and although Vinny Mack wasn't initially interested, WCW wound up not renewing Mark's contract that fall. So he signed on with the WWE and was hopeful to not become the Eggman or Shower Boy. Funeral March by Jim Johnston The Undertaker's very first WWE theme still gives us the heebie-jeebies to this day. This haunting dirge had all the makings of something legendary, plus isn't it impossible to not picture children looking scared stiff in the crowd as Taker destroyed Jabba's week after week on wrestling challenge and superstars. I also can't hear this song without hearing Rowdy Roddy Piper's voice in my head saying, Would you look at the size of that ham-hawk? It's hardly a surprise that the dead man made an immediate impact on audiences when the near seven foot monster made his way down the aisle to this Jim Johnston owed to the Phantom of the Opera. The foundation upon which every single version of Taker's entrance theme was built by this track and it's hard to imagine where we'd be without this perfect combination of music and presentation. Graveyard Symphony by Jim Johnston Taker's first ever reinvention came four years into his WWE career and brought with it a total refresh, including a new tie, gloves, boots, hair color, arena lighting and yes, a brand new entrance theme. Building upon the original Funeral March theme, Johnston toned the organ sound down and made it a little more melodic, fleshing out the middle section in order to split it into two unique sounds before it eventually came back around to the recognizable funeral dirge. He also added four gongs to the intro instead of two and just made the whole thing sound more spooky than its predecessor, if that was even possible. The blueprint for multiple themes to follow, this one was very much a product of its time, but it's hard to not get goosebumps watching that iconic image of Purple Taker's silhouette before the infamous Undertaker vs. Underfaker main event at SummerSlam 94. Dark Side by Jim Johnston As the wrestling landscape began to mature in the mid-90s to a more adult-oriented reality-based entertainment, the WWE began to rid itself of the cartoonish characters it had relied on for so long. A monumental feud with mankind saw Taker shift from the WWE's grim reaper of justice to the Lord of Darkness. In this then new form, he took on a gothic persona and was given a more cutting edge entrance theme to match his new attitude. Using the traditional gong in the opening, it initially sounds like the typical Undertaker theme but mere seconds in, all hell breaks loose as a sick guitar riff gives way to an edgier piece of music that attacks your ears as an unholy choir serenades the masses. Seeing this theme accompanied by lightning strikes, explosions, and a more callous phenom, get it callous? This was just the beginning for the Darker Deadman as he would soon channel his inner David Koresh and become a cult leader. Ministry by Jim Johnston The darkest of the Undertaker's days needed the darkest of Undertaker themes and that's exactly what you got with his Ministry of Darkness masterpiece. After building up to his second heel run in the latter part of 1998, Callaway introduced an updated version of his dead man identity by January of 1999 as a dark priest who often claimed to be taking orders from a higher power. Moreover, he often appeared in a hooded black robe, sat on a throne that was specially designed into his character symbol, and spoke in tongues while performing sacrifices on select wrestlers. I mean, this was some crazy-ish indeed, utilizing most of the previous Dark Side theme while employing its own more melodic bridges. The loud and aggressive feel of Taker's Ministry music ensured that it was his most sinister of all. However, it's the wicked intro in which the Lord of Darkness actually chants in Latin. Now we used our connections here and we were actually able to get a translator to find out exactly what Taker was chanting, and it turns out what he said was that Danhausen is very nice and very evil. Who knew? Corporate Ministry by Jim Johnston Speaking of Danhausen, just picture for a second, Danhausen being revealed as the higher powerhausen. Now that would have been light years better than good old Vinnie Mack appearing from underneath that gigantic hoodie. The merger of the corporation and the Ministry of Darkness in the spring of 1999 to become the mega-faction Corporate Ministry was as campy as it sounds, at a time when the undertaker was using some of his best entrance music ever. The formation of this supergroup just never felt right, since members of both factions seemingly forgot their past conflicts and worked together as one massive stable. However, as far as WWE mash-up themes go, this isn't too bad, but there seems to be just a wee bit too much of No Chance in Hell being sung in this song. Thankfully this theme lasted less than four months, until the undertaker formed another unexpected and yet unholy alliance. Unholy Alliance by Jim Johnston Joining forces with the big show in late 1999 gets a little hate every now and then because of how random it was, but at the very least it gave us this underappreciated classic for your listening pleasure. While Taker would still use his Ministry theme whenever he arrived alone, he and the big show would often stalk their way down to the ring in an almost synchronized BFF kind of walk. You could tell that Jim Johnston had some fun with this tune because he mixed these sort of twisted, carnival sounds in a trippy, indefinable manner that made this sound way more frightening than it really should have been. Then again, that's the obvious underlying theme throughout most of Taker's music. That is, until the dawn of a new century brought forth the beginning of a new chapter for the Undertaker, as the Phenom shed the last remaining fragments of his dead man persona and became a character that closely resembled Mark Callaway's real-life personality. American Badass by Kid Rock The dawn of a new century brought forth the dawn of a new chapter for the Undertaker, feeling as though his tenure run as the Phenom needed some freshening up, Taker used a injury-imposed hiatus to shed the last remaining fragments of his undead persona and began to put the finishing touches on a new biker persona. Far closer to Mark Callaway's real-life personality, this motorcycle-riding bandana-wearing badass needed a theme that would match the cutting-edge aspects of this new character and needed to completely move away from the Johnston catalog in order to really make this new gimmick work. After months off-camera, Taker made his dramatic return in the middle of the rock and Triple H's Iron Man match at Judgment Day 2000, wearing leather biker gear instead of his classic dead man outfits, and as Kid Rock's American Badass blasted from the speakers, the crowd went freaking wild, indicating that the dead man's more human persona would certainly be a good fit during the height of the Attitude Era. Rolling by Limp Biscuit Now not everyone was over the moon with this gimmick change. In fact, the head honcho himself, Vince McMahon, was completely against Callaway's switch to the American Badass because of just how much the Undertaker character meant to him. Crossing your boss is usually not best for business, but somehow Taker convinced Vince to let him trade in his dark magic and supernatural abilities for a three and a half year stretch in the early 2000s. But truthfully, McMahon still never liked the gimmick. On the other hand, the dead man once said that he wouldn't have made it through the Attitude Era without becoming the American Badass. He felt his character had become stale and needed to change so he did what he had to do. Undoubtedly, the most iconic of all his Badass themes, Taker adopted Rolling by Limp Biscuit at the end of 2000 and maintained it throughout the following year and into the beginning of 2002. Seeing Biker Taker tear down to the ring on a motorcycle to a song called Rolling was truly bad ass. Dead Man by Jim Johnston It's safe to say huge success. Desperate to remain relevant amidst a new influx of talent now that McMahon had bought WCW for pennies on the dollar, the Big Man turned heel and probably one of the most shocking of his turns as he attacked good old Jim Ross on an episode of Raw that was live in JR's home state of Oklahoma. Becoming a bad guy meant more changes and tweaks to his character, so he cut his hair short and developed a new brawling, do what I want, bullying attitude, argued a new theme song so Jim Johnston got to work and came up with this tune. There's a neat intro and then it's just generic but rock. You're gonna pay by Jim Johnston. Taker's whole big evil persona seemed purely transitional. Like, when was it gonna be acceptable to resurrect the phenom once again, right? The majority of the Undertaker's career has been surrounded by death and darkness, yet the WWE universe receives it as life and hope. And that is the straw that ultimately stirs the Undertaker drink. Stay thirsty, my friends. So this is almost the best mix between Taker's badass biker and undead mortician motifs, which pretty much makes it the best apple in a pretty nasty bunch. Keeping the solid intro of Deadman walking and putting some fairly decent lyrics on top of it, you're gonna pay gets a passing grade for sure, but his fans long for a return of the classic Deadman character that they grew up with. Turns out that everyone got what they wanted after the American badass was buried alive at the 2003 Survivor Series thanks to his brother Kane opening the door for the return of the phenom. Rest in Peace by Jim Johnston. When the real Undertaker returned at WrestleMania 20 in Madison Square Garden, he did so by returning to his iconic character. Once again accompanied by Paul Bearer, the Deadman's old school look saw his supernatural powers and mind games return and gave Jim Johnston the perfect excuse to go back to the drawing board and update the legend's classic theme one more time for a new generation. In doing so, Jim single-handedly crafted the best version of them all. Rest in Peace is the culmination of the Undertaker's core theme from 1990. It has the eerie gongs at the beginning to rile up the crowd and then reaches the first peak just as the audience goes nuts when Taker first emerges from the smoke and fire. From there, it ever so suddenly mixes the creepy funeral dirge with a guitar that adds even more layers of rock than graveyard symphony without taking away from the frightening core. It's louder, more refined, and a lot more triumphant. In short, it's everything the Deadman should be and so much more. Ain't No Grave by Johnny Cash. The only non-Jim Johnston track Taker ever used during his supernatural days, though initially it was only used as a lead-in for his actual theme. Taker started using it for his full entrance at the beginning of 2011 and even made his way to the ring to it at WrestleMania 27 when he squared off against Triple H, referring to himself as the last outlaw because he was portraying more of an aging gun slinger. This song worked really well here. It still had that sense of somberness, but it was never meant to be any sort of long-term theme, both because the WWE probably didn't want to pay the likely pricey Johnny Cash music rights for very long and also because this isn't a wrestling theme per se that really grabs a crowd's attention. Now That We're Dead by Metallica. It takes a lot of guts to add a new entrance theme this late in the game, but it really just goes to show us all just how timeless the Undertaker character is to switch things up after nearly two decades when the formula still works, takes some great fruits for balls, and yet for the second time in his career, the dead man went badass. However, what sets this apart is the fact that he's more of a hybrid of both versions of this character because he dresses like Biker Taker and still has all the phenom supernatural abilities. And as the fitting anthem to Taker's final match, the instant classic Boneyard match versus AJ Styles from WrestleMania 36, Metallica's Now That We're Dead ticks all the boxes as the track references death, saints, sinners, and living forever. What an unforgettable way to go out. Guns of Blazing tearing through those cemetery gates for the last time. An entrance befitting of the show of shows and a theme befitting of The Undertaker. Troubadour by George Strait Though technically never one of Taker's themes, this is the song that rode Mark Calloway off into the sunset as his tremendous five-part documentary series The Last Ride came to a close. We felt that it was only fitting to close our two-part documentary with the same song. I hope that you've enjoyed watching this and we look forward to taking you further behind the themes in future episodes. Please do us a favor if you can by giving this video a massive thumbs up and go ahead and share it with your friends who you think might also like it because it really helps our channel grow and reach new people. Also, if you haven't already, please consider subscribing for weekly wrestling theme song content and don't forget to follow us on social media so you get all our latest updates and we'll see you next time wrestling behind the themes.