William Alvin Moody (April 10, 1954 – March 5, 2013) was an American professional wrestling manager. He performed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) under the ring name and gimmick of Paul Bearer, manager of The Undertaker, as well as the storyline father of Undertaker's storyline half-brother, Kane.
Moody was born in Mobile, Alabama, on April 10, 1954, and attended San Antonio College and the University of South Alabama.
Moody entered professional wrestling in his teenage years as a ringside photographer. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving four years on duty; during this time, he often wrestled for independent promotions during off-duty hours.
In 1979, Moody began managing as Percival "Percy" Pringle III in southeastern independent promotions; a few years earlier, in June 1974, he wrestled as Mr. X. There had been previous Percy Pringles in wrestling who were not William Moody. He was given the name by booker Frankie Cain. Immediately after his first son's birth, he cut back his involvement in the wrestling business in order to obtain a degree in mortuary science and earn certification as an embalmer and mortician.
In 1984, he resumed full-time involvement in the wrestling business, using his Pringle character in Championship Wrestling from Florida and World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas. During this time, he was WCCW's answer to Bobby Heenan by doing "Heenan"-like promos, even looking like Heenan as well with the blonde hair and attire. He served as manager for numerous wrestlers; he notably managed Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin, and Mark Calaway in their early careers. As Percy Pringle, he was also associated with the careers of Lex Luger, Eric Embry, and Dingo Warrior. Warrior turned babyface after falling out with fellow Pringle proteges Buzz Sawyer and Matt Borne following a six-man tag defeat in 1986.
World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment (1990–2002)
Managing The Undertaker (1990–1996)
Moody joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on December 22, 1990, after being mentioned by Rick Rude to WWF owner Vince McMahon. McMahon used Moody's real-life involvement in the funeral industry to create the character of Paul Bearer, a name given to him by Road Warrior Hawk and a play on the term pallbearer. In his portrayal of a very histrionic, ghostly manager, Bearer regularly communicated in his shaky, high-pitched, wailing voice and was almost always seen bearing an urn, which led to his mantra, "the power of the urn," allowing his main protégé The Undertaker to revive strength. His keeper-of-the-urn gimmick led to several storylines in which The Undertaker's antagonists stole his urn, causing The Undertaker to lose much of his supernatural strength. Bearer's leading catch phrase was "Ohhhh, yes!"
Moody made his first appearance in February 1991, as a heel, when Brother Love, who originally managed The Undertaker, delegated Bearer to take on the role of The Undertaker's manager. Complementing The Undertaker's Deadman gimmick, Bearer took on a spooky, ghastly character. Bearer hosted his own WWF talk show segment entitled The Funeral Parlor, which included moments such as Ultimate Warrior being locked inside a casket, among others. In late 1991, Bearer managed The Undertaker to the WWF Championship when The Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan at that year's Survivor Series, though The Undertaker would lose the title back to Hogan six days later at This Tuesday in Texas. In early 1992, The Undertaker and Bearer turned face when The Undertaker stopped former ally Jake "The Snake" Roberts from ambushing Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth with a chair backstage; The Undertaker and Roberts had a match at WrestleMania VIII, which saw The Undertaker win.
In June 1993, Moody's contract expired and was written off television, to explain his absence on the air, Undertaker's rivals Giant Gonzales, Mr. Hughes and manager Harvey Wippleman (whose previous client Kamala had feuded with The Undertaker) attacked Undertaker and Bearer and stole the urn. Throughout the Summer of 1993, The Undertaker would appear without Bearer in his corner and in late August 1993, Moody signed a new contract with the WWF and returned at SummerSlam and got the urn back and reunited with the Undertaker.
In January 1994, The Undertaker began having back problems and requested time off, so after losing a Casket match to Yokozuna at Royal Rumble (with several other heel wrestlers getting involved), The Undertaker appeared on the videowall saying he'll be back and was lifted to the top of the arena as if he went to Heaven (Marty Jannetty was actually the one dressed as The Undertaker). The Undertaker and Paul Bearer were again written off television. Starting in the spring of 1994, fans began claiming they've seen The Undertaker in various places and even Ted DiBiase claimed he saw The Undertaker. In June 1994, Bearer appeared for the first time since Royal Rumble calling DiBiase a liar. DiBiase even brought in his own "Undertaker" and Bearer even realized that DiBiase's Undertaker was a different person and a match was set for SummerSlam for both Undertaker's to settle it in the main event. Bearer's Undertaker finally returned in a new purple attire and a larger urn was brought in. Bearer's Undertaker defeated DiBiase's Undertaker to end the feud. Afterwards Bearer's Undertaker resumed his feud with Yokozuna by defeating him in a casket match at Survivor Series with Chuck Norris as the referee.
Managing Mankind, The Executioner, Vader and Kane (1996–1998)
For the next two years, The Undertaker continued to dominate the WWF with Bearer by his side, but by early Summer 1996, wrestling fans were getting tired of the urn giving power to the Undertaker and fans began booing them and a change was needed. At SummerSlam, Bearer turned on his longtime protégé and aligned himself with Mankind. According to The Undertaker, the original plan was for The Undertaker and Bearer to turn heel, and Mankind was to turn face, but Undertaker wasn't ready to turn heel. According to Moody, the WWF wanted Bearer to turn on The Undertaker for him to get ready for the storyline with Kane the following year. At In Your House 11: Buried Alive, Bearer brought The Executioner and other wrestlers including Hunter Hearst-Helmsley & Crush to help Mankind and bury The Undertaker alive and Bearer managed The Executioner for two months until Bearer fired him and at Royal Rumble, Bearer became the new manager of Vader after helping him defeat The Undertaker. In April 1997 at In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker, The Undertaker set Bearer's face ablaze using a fireball, which was done in retaliation for Bearer having Mankind set a fireball to The Undertaker's face several weeks prior. Resulting from The Undertaker's actions, Bearer suffered (kayfabe) burns to his face and was bandaged for a time. Once healed from the burns, Bearer changed his looks, shedding the makeup of ghostly pallor and jet-black color to his natural strawberry blond hair and less make-up. Bearer even dropped his ghostly appearance and shaved his mustache (which grew back by fall 1997) and became a loudmouth manager and began speaking in his Percy Pringle III voice.
Around mid-1997, Paul Bearer blackmailed The Undertaker (WWF Champion at the time) into being his protégé again with the ultimatum of revealing a deep, dark secret from their past. During this time, Bearer made references to the "fires of hell," likening The Undertaker's dark secret to The Undertaker's act of setting fire to his face. Under duress, The Undertaker accepted after several weeks of resistance. While "managing" The Undertaker this time around, Bearer engaged in tyrannical behaviors towards him, harassing him constantly. Eventually, The Undertaker lost his patience and refused to allow Bearer to continue being his manager, leading Bearer to reveal the secret.
The dark secret suggested that Bearer had a disturbingly traumatic past with The Undertaker which long preceded Brother Love's joining the two in January 1991. The dark secret dates back to The Undertaker's youth and involves domestic matters: Paul Bearer, while working for The Undertaker's parents as an apprentice mortician in their family funeral home business, witnessed a felony act during The Undertaker's adolescence. Bearer claimed that The Undertaker had committed an arson murder, burning down his parents' family funeral home, in the process, killing them. This act also killed The Undertaker's younger "brother"—or so The Undertaker long thought. Bearer, who claimed to be attending a mortuary science college course at the time of the fire, hid Kane in a mental asylum during the rest of Kane's youth into adulthood. At the time throughout mid to late 1997, The Undertaker denied all this, claiming it was his younger brother's fault. Bearer, blaming The Undertaker, accused him of being an "arsonist", "murderer", and "liar." (Connected to these accounts, it was later revealed approximately six months after Kane's WWF debut that he was actually the half-brother of The Undertaker. The Undertaker's mother had an affair with Bearer and, as a result, gave birth to Kane. Bearer unintentionally (kayfabe) revealed to a Raw audience that he was actually Kane's father. This came to light when Bearer informed Jerry Lawler on Monday Night Raw, at a point in which he thought cameras had stopped rolling for a commercial break but were still on. Up until that point, The Undertaker was under the impression that Kane was fully related to him and his family. Presumably, The Undertaker's deceased father lived his entire life under the same impression). Because of the fire, The Undertaker thought Kane had been dead for all those years, claiming he was a "pyromaniac", obsessed with starting fires and, due to the incident, couldn't possibly be alive. However, Bearer introduced the vengeful, fire-personified Kane in October 1997 at Badd Blood: In Your House. In this first appearance for the character, Kane cost The Undertaker a Hell in a Cell match to determine the #1 contendership for the WWF title against Shawn Michaels. This led to a bitter rivalry between The Undertaker and Kane and Bearer. Kane was not revealed as Bearer's son until April 27, 1998, on Raw is War, a day after the first Inferno Match, at Unforgiven, where Kane was set on fire. The Undertaker was shown to have also been unaware of this at that time, and helped to build the feud up further, as The Undertaker initially refused to believe the story until an in-story DNA test proved it to be true. The feud lasted into summer of 1998, when Kane seemingly abandoned Bearer to side with The Undertaker, beginning a face turn.