The Undertaker got his wrestling start in WCCW, and he recently recalled how an encounter with Fritz Von Erich led to his being booked. The WWE Hall of Famer looked back on making his WCCW debut in 1987 during an appearance on Mighty with Demetrious Johnson, and you can check out the highlights below (h/t to Wrestling Inc):
On trying to get noticed in WCCW: “So, every Wednesday I would go to the offices or where they had the wrestling and I would sit in the lobby. And I’d sit there and like the booker – the one who made all the decisions – he would come in and I’d go to stand up; he would never stop. They just walk right by me… I would like sit there every week and I was like ‘Man – ‘and I was at my wit’s end. Like, I was like ‘This isn’t working. I don’t know what else I’m gonna do.’ And it was probably one of the last couple of times that I was going to make this trip because I couldn’t even afford the gas anymore.”
On running into Von Erich: “Who walks through the door? It was Fritz Von Erich. And he was the one that owned the company and did all that. Here’s the thing: he walks in, and so he’s standing at the door and he’s staring at me… And I can hear him like he said ‘No, this kid’s been coming for months, he’s just trying to get a – he’s just trying to get a booking.’ And Fritz? He just had a really deep gravelly voice and I heard him say ‘Let’s book him Friday night.’ It’s crazy.”
On getting booked: “And he said ‘Let’s book him. He looks like David.’ And I hear that, you know, and then he came by, and get up again, and he walks right by me. But I showed up and that was the start and so I showed up Friday night and so I was ‘Texas Red.’ That was the first name, the first time I got a paycheck.”
