If you don’t know who The Undertaker is you probably have been living under a rock the past 3 decades. Not only is The Undertaker a living legend but also a former basketball player in high school and college. I would have never thought that I’d be writing about The Undertaker AND Kobe Bryant in the same article. This is incredible.
The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway, attended Waltrip High School in Houston, TX. He played both basketball and football while attending, but received a full basketball scholarship to Angelina College in Lufkin, TX. Not only did he play there, but also at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas, and played one year of basketball before dropping out. Calaway was looking forward to a career in sports and briefly thought of playing in Europe before he decided to focus on professional wrestling.
After 33 years, The Undertaker decided to film his “final year” in professional wrestling entitled “The Last Ride”. It is currently airing on the WWE Network. It’s more like a filmed documentary taking fans behind the scenes of both his wrestling career and personal life. Calaway touched on important events and he’s been through… one of them being the death of Lakers Legend Kobe Byrant.
In the final episode, there’s also a scene where you see The Undertaker in the dressing room after a match being interviewed and as he’s removing his wrist tape, he throws it in the trash all while saying “Kobe” as it goes in. Whoa, who it’s like 2 worlds colliding that I would never have imagined.
Legends recognize legends.
Undertaker interrupts his own sentence with a "Kobe!" pic.twitter.com/EHGur0LmAC
— LakersSpin (@LakersSpin) June 21, 2020
The Undertaker didn’t stop there, he did go on briefly about how the death of Kobe impacted his life:
“Even before my brother passed, Kobe Bryant’s death was amazing how that struck home. It made me realize that I’m not getting this time back and it’s time to be present and give home what I give the business. Cause you never know. You never know when your number is going to get called”
Kobe’s passing touched so many lives on so many different levels. Many of us are still reeling from the pain and shock. Seeing The Undertaker pay homage to Kobe for the simplest thing of shooting trash into a can while saying “Kobe” is amazing.
It just shows you that the Mamba Mentality is strong and will always be forever.
