RIP Paul Bearer (originally posted March 2013 on my other blog)

Hello folks, it's me, it's me, it's ... Dave. Also known as the Aussie Mouthpiece, and I'm back with a special post.

As we all now know, William unfortunately passed away today, at only 58. This news seemed so shocking to me, and completely out of the blue. I found out probably the same as most people, through a status update on facebook. It really is the age of social media.

So I thought today that I would write about what Paul Bearer meant to me, and some of my favourite memories involving him, both on, and off TV.


When I first started watching WWE wrestling, it was 2003. Undertaker was coming to the ring on a bike, and had short hair. Regardless, something drew me to his character, and I started renting old VHS tapes from my local video store. I remember clearly, the first one that I rented was Wrestlemania XII. Undertaker vs Diesel. (Incidentally I was drawn to Wrestlemania XII because of Kevin Nash being a part of it, and me being a big WCW fan when I was a kid).

This was the first time I'd seen the "Deadman" Undertaker, and of course, his manager Paul Bearer. And what a match it was. And, what a pair they made. Over the next few years, as I completely fell in love with pro wrestling, I started watching as much as I could, and more specifically, learned all I could about the history of The Undertaker. I read all about Paul Bearer and Undertaker, from Ted DiBiase introducing Paul as Undertaker's manager after Brother Love wasn't working out, through to the Undertaker vs Undertaker, and of course, Paul Bearer betraying Undertaker and aligning himself with Mankind, and Vader among others.

And of course, how could I forget, Kane.

So fast forward a few months, and it's March 2004. It's Wrestlemania XX. The Undertaker is returning, and more importantly, The "Deadman" is returning.

Now, this was before I had Cable TV. I had to read about the results of Wrestlemania 20, but I do definitely remember downloading two very small, very bad quality clips of Undertaker's match. One being his entrance, and the other being the finish of the match. (I also remember them taking forever to download.. ahh, the days of dial up internet). But the first video began with Paul Bearer holding his urn up, and that familiar tolling of the bell. I must have watched them at least 50 times.

In the ensuing years, I picked up a lot of dvds, including the Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble Anthologies, so I got to see a lot of Undertaker matches, along with the Undertaker dvds that were released by the WWE.

I think the thing that drew me to The Undertaker and Paul Bearer was that they were completely unique characters. Everything about them was totally different to everything else going on in the WWF, even after the introduction of Kane. They were much darker, a great contrast to the over the top, cartoon like characters, and the Hulk Hogans and Ultimate Warriors of the early 90's. Paul Bearer's eerie voice, cutting through all the yelling and over the top shouting most characters would do, became iconic to me. And it complemented Undertaker's seemingly "death rattle" like voice, when he chose to utter a sentence or two.

I think something that we need to remember though, is that William Moody has been involved in wrestling for a lot longer than the Paul Bearer character has been in existence for. Before coming to the WWF in 1991, William was known as Percy Pringle III, and worked in the NWA territories, managing Rick Rude, Steve Austin, and even a certain wrestler who later on became The Undertaker. Also prior to arriving in the WWF, he did in fact complete a degree in mortuary science, and was certified as a funeral director and embalmer, something which would be instrumental in devising the Paul Bearer character. So, while a lot of us younger fans may know this man simply as Paul Bearer, we have to remember that William Moody put 44 years of his life into wrestling, and he should be remembered as such.


Now let's fast forward to June 2011, which is when I started writing my first wrestling blogs. I also started using twitter around the same time. After getting used to how things work on twitter and gaining a few followers, I decided to try my luck and tweet Paul Bearer. And to my delight, I got a reply back. This was, at least in recent years, my favourite thing about him. Just about every single time I would send him a tweet, be it something as simple as "have a nice day" or a specific question about some match I was watching at the time, or a general question, he always took the time to reply to me. Now I know that it really only takes a couple of seconds to reply to a tweet, but it's something I will never forget, and am greatly appreciative of.

It reminds me of a quote from Rob Zombie (which I will completely paraphrase). He was telling a story about people asking for autographs, and he said basically that he, as the celebrity won't remember the kid asking for him to sign something a week later, but that kid will remember the time he met Rob Zombie forever. So if he was a jerk, the kid would never forget that. And in the end it takes no time really to be a nice guy, and sign something.

And it's the same with tweeting. Every time I've ever gotten a tweet back from someone I look up to, or even just a favourite or a re-tweet, it makes me feel amazing, as I'm sure it does you too. I feel lucky that some of my favourite wrestlers have given a little piece of their time to respond to something I had to say. Wrestlers like Raven, and Road Dogg, even Dolph Ziggler. But my favourite replies always came from Paul Bearer. Like the one time I told him watching his shoot interview DVD's had really made me want to be a wrestling manager, and he replied with a witty "all that glitters, is not always gold". Or the time I said that the Undertaker/Kane program in 1998 would not have had the same impact if Paul wasn't a part of it, and he replied with a very humble "I disagree, but thank you", the man always took the time.

And Paul, I have to disagree with your "disagree", you sir, did make that program what it was. After now having watched the episodes of raw in their entirety, and seeing all the promos Paul cut after the burn incident, I can say that without a shadow of a doubt, it was Paul Bearer that made that story amazing, and epic, and wonderful to watch.

Now, one last thing. I've already seen some talk today on the interwebs about whether WWE will, should, or can incorporate this tragic news into the current story with Undertaker and CM Punk.

My thoughts are this: Firstly, Undertaker would have to sign off, and I'm sure he wouldn't go near it without Paul Bearer's family's permission. Secondly, if anyone can do it, it's CM Punk. Look at how well he did with the touchy subject of Jerry Lawler's heart attack. It could push the storyline into something a little more epic, but I do think it would completely 100% guarantee an Undertaker win (not that it's not already guaranteed, but still).

However... I don't know that it's the right way to go, but having said that, I'd like to think Paul Bearer would be ok with it if they do go down that road.

My theory on what should happen, and I really hope this is the way they go, or at least something like this. They should let The Undertaker come out to the ring next week on Raw, and talk. He doesn't necessarily need to break character, but at this point it really doesn't matter if he does. I feel like he should be given the opportunity, and Paul Bearer should be given the respect he deserves, and a proper send off.

Maybe they do that and then Punk interrupts (think of the heat!). Maybe they just let Undertaker speak, maybe even a tribute video. I think Paul Bearer should be acknowledged, and time should be allocated to give him a small, public goodbye.

Whatever happens, this Wrestlemania will be just a little less bright, knowing that Paul Bearer isn't around to see it.

So thank you Paul, thank you for all the memories, for all the amazing promos, for taking the time to reply to a no-name wrestling blogger, and for giving us so many years of your life, just to entertain us. Thank you for everything. You will be missed.

RIP.