Early career (1984–1990)

Calaway made his debut in 1984 in the Dallas, Texas based World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) under the ring name "Texas Red". He wrestled and lost his first match against [[Bruiser Brody]]. In 1988, after four years in the promotion, he left. After leaving WCCW, Mark joined the CWA (which became the USWA after Jerry Jarrett merged CWA with WCCW) and wrestled under several gimmicks. On April 1, 1989, he was booked to win his first professional wrestling title, the [[USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship]], defeating [[Jerry Lawler|Jerry "The King" Lawler]], under the stage name "The Master of Pain". While performing as the "The Punisher", Calaway won the [[NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship|WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship]] on October 5, 1989 when [[Eric Embry]] forfeited the title. His first mainstream exposure was in [[World Championship Wrestling]] (WCW). While there, he was known as "Mean" Mark Callous and wrestled as part of the Skyscrapers tag team along with "Dangerous" Dan Spivey managed by [[Theodore Long|Teddy Long]]. During his time in the Skyscrapers, he and Spivey were involved in a feud with the [[Road Warriors]], but Spivey left before the feud came to an end. Calaway then took on the guidance of [[Paul Heyman|Paul E. Dangerously]] and muscled his way through [[Brian Pillman]] and [[John Laurinaitis|Johnny Ace]]. His most famous match in WCW was against [[Lex Luger]] for the [[WWE United States Championship|NWA United States Championship]] at [[The Great American Bash#1990|The Great American Bash]], which he lost when Luger pinned him after a clothesline. WCW declined to renew Calaway's contract, after losing his last match to [[Sting]] on September 1, 1990 at a house show. Calaway then briefly wrestled in [[New Japan Pro Wrestling]] as Punisher Dice Morgan and in October 1990, he signed with the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|World Wrestling Federation]] (WWF). After leaving WCW, he briefly returned to the USWA to participate in a tournament to determine the new USWA Unified World Heavyweight champion; he defeated [[Bill Dundee]] in the first round, but lost to [[Jerry Lawler]] in the quarterfinals.