Legendary professional wrestling manager Dutch Mantell has revealed tales from The Undertaker’s time as a bouncer, long before his iconic run as ‘The Lord of Darkness.’
The Undertaker, who was recently revealed as the first entrant into the WWE Hall of Fame 2022, is one of the most legendary Superstars in WWE history. His long, illustrious career spanned over four decades and ‘The Deadman’ has well and truly earned his place as one of pro wrestling’s all-time greats.
Appearing on a recent episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling’s Smack Talk with Rick Ucchino and Sid Pullar III, veteran manager and fellow legend Dutch Mantell discussed a time before Calaway became ‘The Phenom.’ He recalled a particular incident in which The Undertaker went toe to toe with an inebriated customer:
“He told me about some of the fights he had there. He went to throw one out out one night and the guy said, ‘I’ll leave, but you ain’t making me leave.’ And Undertaker says, ‘Okay, okay.’
“Then finally, 15-20 seconds later, the guy is drinking his beer and he said, ‘Hey man, we gotta go. I’ll go, but you ain’t making me go.’ That’s twice already.
“Third time he said you ain’t making me, he slammed his head on the bar, picked him by his belt and threw him through the front door out. He said, ‘Now you’re out, stay out.’ He made him go.”
This was not the first story Mantell has shared of someone coming up short against The Undertaker in a bar. Back in 2009, Dutch wrote of a particular evening with the multi-time WWE Champion, in which another bar patron learned a hard lesson. Upon hearing a commotion at the bar, Mantell feared the worst:
“As I was looking into the crowd of people toward the back looking for Mark, I saw some activity going on and I heard some loud yelling. Since Mark was right beside me and he had been drinking, I had the wrestler’s intuition that something was wrong. It took me 30 seconds to find out.
“Off I went to find Mark and as soon as I got close to the rear of the club, I saw some dude laid out all over the floor. Everybody was standing in a circle around the guy with some girl kneeling over him. He was in dreamland.
“I then saw Mark over to the side with the bouncers talking to him. I walked up and asked what had happened and the bouncer said that Mark had levelled this one guy with one shot and he dropped him like a bad habit.”
Long feared as a force to be reckoned with inside the squared circle, Dutch Mantell’s recollections show that The Undertaker truly is an ‘American Badass’ inside and outside the ring.
H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the above transcription.