The SpiveyTaker?

Hey Scott,

I decided to go back and look through SuperBrawl I after reading your re-rant last night. I loved the Spivey squash of Morton, and it reminded me of what a remorseless killer Spivey was capable of being. In instances aside from his mauling of Hawk at that one Clash of the Champions, of course.

Spivey and his frightening eyes got me thinking: we tend to think that only Mark Calaway was capable of playing The Undertaker effectively, but now I’m wondering about Spivey. If in 1990 Vince brought Spivey in and gave him The Undertaker gimmick, do you think he could have pulled it off just as well? Granted, his body was only a few years away from betraying him, and Calaway was far younger, but otherwise Spivey fit the criteria.He had the height, the mean streak, and holy fuck those eyes. The thinning hair may have been a dealbreaker, sure.

​I think he would have had two major problems working against him:

1) He was a known commodity that people would have instantly pegged as Dan Spivey, whereas Mark Calaway was largely unknown to WWF fans and was thus a blank slate.

2) He was TOO intense. Calaway truly projected the aura of someone who was ALL business, nothing personal, whereas Spivey was someone who you didn’t mess with. Mark made it work precisely because people could buy that he was remorseless and unstoppable, with no emotion in his work. Spivey could never project that.​