The Undertaker: The Complete 90s Collection

[Music] so mark callaway signed with the wwf in october of 1990 before making his way to new york mark had worked under multiple names and gimmicks from texas red and world class championship wrestling the master of pain and the punisher in the uswa mean mark in wcw punisher dice morgan in new japan very briefly and right before his wwf debut he worked as mark kallus once again in wcw when mark had his first meeting with vince mcmahon he was initially told that there wasn't a spot available for him eventually vince called him back around the time of survivor series 1990. in the run-up to this pay-per-view a giant egg was revealed on tv that would hatch at the survivor series show and mark halloway revealed on steve austin's broken skull sessions that he thought he was being brought into the company to be the surprise that hatched out of this very egg so the undertaker at one point thought he was going to be the gobbledygooker mark said that he was worried so much about being the eggman that his stomach began to hurt though thankfully vince called him back and told him he would be the undertaker and he was invited to stamford where he was shown sketches of what the undertaker character might look like mark said that it took him a while to put all the undertaker stuff together but as we know it all worked out in the end bruce pritchard the man who would manage the undertaker in his very early matches has taken credit for coming up with the undertaker gimmick pritchard said i was a big fan of his when he broke in in dallas because he wrestled and he moved and he walked the ropes like the original spoiler don jardine i was just a big fan of his and i watched him from the time he broke in in dallas all the way to wcw paul heyman called me when he was available and said hey this guy is looking to get out and i said i'd love to have him the original idea was mine to basically have the black to my white so when he came in the original idea was that he would come in under the name mccain as in kane and abel so he was keen the undertaker we then dropped the cane name after about two or three weeks and he just became the undertaker one month after signing with the wwf mark had his first matches in the company on the 19th and 20th of november both of these dates were tapings for wwf superstars and wwf wrestling challenge respectively in his very first wwf match mark defeated mario mancini in a squash match on superstars and the next day he defeated rex samson now these were of course tapings and therefore they were aired at a later date so his famous survivor series debut aired on tv before these tapings as stated earlier in bruce pritchard's quote mark was first known as kane the undertaker during his initial matches in the wwf with the name kane eventually being used for undertaker's storyline brother early footage from his first superstars and wrestling challenge matches shows him being announced as kane the [Music] undertaker the name was of course dropped it's been incorrectly reported over the years that undertaker was introduced at survivor series 1990 as key and the undertaker during the live broadcast people seem to think that this was the case and the wwf edited the name on home releases but this just isn't the case here is the live version recorded from vhs and he is indeed announced as the undertaker [Music] so ted dibiase had a surprise for us at the 1990 survivor series his million dollar team featuring greg valentine the honky tonk man and dibiase himself were set to take on the dream team featuring bret hart jim nadhart dusty rhodes and coco b ware before the match began dibiase announced that the fourth member of his survivor series team would be the undertaker and fans at home got their first look at this new character as he made his way down to the ring he looked huge when he got in the ring and he went on to eliminate coco beware with a tombstone piledriver within the first minute of the match undertaker also eliminated dusty rhodes before getting counted out himself but what did come across quite well during this match was that the undertaker seemed to be unstoppable he couldn't be hurt and he no sold everything in an attempt to look as strong and indestructible as possible dibiase team won their survivor series match here and so the undertaker's debut was a success undertaker would finish 1990 with wins over enhancement guys before making his way to the 1991 royal rumble in the royal rumble match he had a good showing he came off as indestructible but the royal rumble match was won here by hulk hogan on tv the undertaker would continue destroying job guys while working against more notable stars on high shows undertaker had matches with the big boss man jimmy snuka and a string of matches with tug about throughout january and february it was also in february of 1991 when paul bearer made his first appearance in the wwf as the undertaker's new manager brother love passed the undertaker on the bearer on tv and paul would end up becoming synonymous with the undertaker character when people think of the early days of the undertaker they usually think of paul bearer and not so much brother love soon afterwards paul bear and the undertaker would have their own promo segment on wwf television known as the funeral parlor wrestlemania was next and the undertaker's winning straight began with a victory over superfly jimmy snicker not one of undertaker's greatest wrestlemania victories but still notable for being the very first almost immediately following wrestlemania the undertaker began working house shows with the ultimate warrior and davey boyce smith with every single match ending in a dq loss for the dead man on the tv shows taker was still defeating enhancement guys but soon enough he was put into a program with the ultimate warrior himself many will remember the undertaker locking warrior in a casket and the body bag challenge match that happened on tv and this stuff was actually pretty entertaining the body bag match though wasn't the first in the wwf the warrior and undertaker had a ton of these matches on the house show loop before the match made its way to television the 1991 king of the ring saw undertaker make it to the quarter finals he defeated road warrior animal in the first round however he and sid were double dq'd in the quarter-finals meaning neither man moved on to the semis undertaker would then go on to work with the likes of sid jim duggan and roddy piper on the house shows and he also got a televised win over carrie von eric in october so you can see here with the people that undertaker was working against that he was being booked pretty strong as a hill so from his debut at the 1990 survivor series right up until the 1991 edition of the same pay-per-view undertaker was pretty much dominant with the ultimate warrior being the only guy to really give him a run for his money the 1991 survivor series then saw undertaker get a shot at hulk hogan's wwf championship and the undertaker won the match thanks to help from wwf newcomer ric flair the undertaker was now the wwf champion but due to flair's involvement in the match finish a rematch was ordered between hogan and taker this time happening at the this tuesday in texas pay-per-view event at this tuesday in texas flair again tried to interfere and following a chaotic series of events hogan was able to pin the undertaker jack tony though wouldn't let the wind stand so the belt was put up for grabs in the 1992 royal rumble match ric flair won the title and the undertaker wouldn't hold the wwf championship again until 1997. i've always felt though that the undertaker never needed the wwf belt his character was so over and he was always a marquee attraction at big events that he didn't ever need to be in the title matches to me and i think the wwf felt the same way during these early years also february of 1992 saw undertaker turn babyface when he stopped his ally jake roberts from attacking miss elizabeth a funeral parlor segment saw undertaker solidify his new fan favorite status by telling jake he was no longer on his side before running him off after a short scuffle this led to jake roberts versus the undertaker at wrestlemania 8 a match that i felt was better than the snooker mania match a year prior undertaker of course won this match the remainder of 1992 for the undertaker wasn't really that noteworthy unfortunately as the undertaker worked against guys managed by harvey whippleman he also worked against the berserker on his shows and by the summer of 1992 he began a feud with kamala summerslam in 92 saw undertaker defeat kamala via disqualification in wembley stadium a match that didn't even reach the 4 minute mark but to be fair undertaker had an excellent entrance during this show at survivor series undertaker defeated kamala in just over five minutes in their casket match by this time though the fans were very much behind the undertaker and in just over two years the wwf had built an extremely popular and marketable superstar undertaker kicked off 1993 with a main event appearance in the first ever episode of monday night raw defeating damien demando during the landmark show and after this undertaker made his way to the 1993 royal rumble the undertaker entered the rumble match at number 15 and quickly began eliminating superstars harvey whippleman then appeared with an extremely large man by his side later revealed to be the giant gonzalez i won't talk too much about gonzalez here that's for a different video but jan gonzalez had worked in wcw prior to making his way to the wwf and here in the royal rumble gonzalez attacked the undertaker and threw him over the top rope eliminating him from the match this setup undertaker's match with gonzalez at wrestlemania 9 a match that some consider undertaker's worst wrestlemania showdown this match is noteworthy though for being the only undertaker straight victory that was gained via disqualification as during the match gonzalez used a chloroform soaked rag to take out the undertaker i didn't really like the match that much and i know the comments will fill up with people saying it was great for one reason or another so if you enjoyed jan gonzalez versus undertaker at mania9 i'm happy for you the feud would continue on with whittleman bringing in mr hughes a man who also had some matches with taker on house shows and also mr whittleman managed to gain control of undertaker's iron the source of his mystical powers so undertaker continued to work against jan gonzalez and mr hughes on house shows for around two months before stopping off at the uswa to take on bran christopher the uswa southern heavyweight champion in memphis they had two matches in june with bryan winning both matches via disqualification at summerslam 1993 then the undertaker defeated jan gonzalez in a rest in peace match basically a no dq match and he also got the iron back taker then began a series of household matches against wwf champion yokozuna before making his way to survivor series 93 where he was part of lex luger's winning survivor series team in the main event soon enough the undertaker would get a title shot on pay-per-view against yokozuna at the 1994 royal rumble so by the time 1994 had came around the undertaker was firmly established as a main wwf attraction the character was popular with fans his ring style captivated younger audiences and his reputation had grown backstage with the rest of the locker room hulk hogan had left the wwf vince mcmahon was prepping himself to go to trial over the juicing scandal there was a new generation movement within the world wrestling federation on the cusp of becoming the leading television initiative so things looked very different at the beginning of 1994 in comparison to when taker first showed up in 1990. yokozuna was the wwf champion heading into the 1994 royal rumble and the undertaker would be getting a title shot at the pay-per-view during this time period the undertaker had been dealing with back problems and he needed to take time away from wrestling to heal up so with this in mind the undertaker versus yokozuna casket match at the royal rumble was used as a sort of farewell match to the undertaker the match was indeed memorable it done a lot to build anticipation for when the undertaker would eventually return months down the line and even in losing this match the undertaker became what this pay-per-view is mostly remembered for the undertaker had yokozuna properly spooked in the run up to this match and credit to yokozuna he played the part perfectly from being apprehensive when he thought the undertaker could be lurking around to legit falling down in fear when the undertaker made an appearance yokozuna's work leading up to the royal rumble was great the match itself was also pretty good and again credit to yokozuna here he wrestled differently during the early stages of this match he was afraid of the undertaker but he knew he had to try and hurt him the two i felt worked well together and although everyone remembers the ending there's also a good wrestling match here between taker and yokozuna anyway towards the end of the match taker was about to close the casket on yokozuna and win the wwf championship but crush made an appearance and attacked the undertaker aftertaker had taken out crush a bunch of hills ran to the ring to assist yokozuna and thanks to the mystical qualities of the urn undertaker was able to fight back this led to even more bad guys running to the ring and for a while the undertaker was easily defeating six guys at once soon enough though it became too much and the heels of the wwf took out the undertaker while yokozuna took the urn away from paul bearer it was the complete destruction of the undertaker here and with mercy yokozuna ended the match by rolling tigger into the casket the heels began bringing the casket back up the ambulance way and just then green smoke began coming out of the casket the lights went out an undertaker appeared on the screens from inside the casket undertaker said that all of mankind will witness the rebirth of the undertaker before announcing that he will not rest in peace just then the undertaker began levitating from the screen up to the rafters now this was really cool and bonus points for the creativity but the way this was shot for the viewers at home wasn't that great it was hard to see the levitation because it was so dark it maybe looked better in the arena but at home yeah a bit more ladding could have helped still take nothing away from this match at the royal rumble and the ending people still remember the end of yokozuna versus the undertaker at this pay-per-view so yeah undertaker was now gone to heal up his injuries this would mean that undertaker would miss wrestlemania 10 in madison square garden and it's kind of intriguing to think of where he could have slotted into the wrestlemania card of 1994 the wwf wouldn't just stop mentioning taker on tv though far from it instead videos would air with people saying they spotted the undertaker out and about as a wild hunt for the whereabouts of the undertaker began on tv this dude here said taker came in to get some food and vanished these ladies said that the undertaker popped in to get a new solid gold learn the firefighters said that they saw the undertaker in a cloud of smoke even these kids said that they saw the undertaker eventually the million dollar man teddy beyosie said that he would bring back the dead man he knew where he was and he would reintroduce him live on tv dbrc did bring the undertaker back but it wasn't the undertaker we all knew this undertaker was not controlled by the urn but he was controlled by money paul bearer knew it wasn't the real undertaker and the younger fans at home well some still weren't too sure this fake undertaker was portrayed by primetime brian lee a man who made a name for himself in smoky mountain wrestling and after this undertaker business was done with he would return to the wwf as chains of the doa branley also worked for ecw during 1996 and early 1997 but yeah most fans will know that this wasn't the real undertaker i'm sure all you guys watching knew it wasn't the undertaker but i must say that bran lee pulled the stunt off well when you think of the limited options they had for guys to pull this off i don't think the wwf could have picked anyone better than bran lee dubious about this fake undertaker paul bear said that he would bring back the real undertaker and so we had a mystery on our hands and a mystery like this needs mr leslie nielsen leslie had acted in the highly recommended spoof naked gun movies and the police squad tv show if anyone was going to find the real undertaker and get to the bottom of this mystery it was the ever lovable frank drabin leslie promised us throughout a bunch of skits that he would solve the case at summerslam and it just so happened that ted dibiase's undertaker would face paul bears undertaker at the same pay-per-view just a quick note on leslie nielsen here i've read online that people didn't like his involvement they found it goofy along with the usual stigma with celebrities taking up tv time on wrestling shows i wholeheartedly disagree with this i loved his involvement yes it was silly but if you call this silly while sitting down to watch the undertaker versus the undertaker with a straight face as a grown adult then i really don't know what to say the undertaker versus the undertaker then at summerslam 1994. you have to watch this back with the eyes of a kid really it's easy for us to watch this now and complain about this gimmick match man of ending the biggest wwf pay-per-view of the summer but as a kid who doesn't know any better this stuff is totally nuts and it's really what wrestling should be for the younger audience it's fun people tend to pick this match apart these days doing deep dives into everything surrounding the match from leslie's involvement beforehand the fact that bran lee was smaller than mark callaway the intricacies of the fake undertaker's movements i mean people take this really seriously if you don't take it so seriously and you watch it for what it's supposed to be a gimmick attraction match then it's enjoyable it isn't flair versus steamboat it isn't hard versus austin it's an attraction match and also as a kid seeing the entrance of the real undertaker at summerslam 1994 was awesome and still to this day this is one of my favorite undertaker entrances with paul bear holding the spotlight urn and all that stuff i'm not going to go into great detail here about the match it was the classic mortal kombat mirror match with the real undertaker coming out on top and we had the real undertaker back on our tv screen soon after taker replaced his gray and black outfit with a purple and black outfit and we're off once again bruce pritchard revealed a story about summerslam 1994 that's worth mentioning bret hart took on his younger brother owen heart in a steel cage match an excellent match in itself and really it needed to be those who get so offended by undertaker versus undertaker have brett vs owen beforehand so there really shouldn't be any complaints that being said brett and owen went way over there a lot of time owen and brett took an additional 20 minutes apparently which is absolutely insane when you think about it but this is what bruce pritchard said brad versus owen went for a total of 32 minutes bail the bell an undertaker versus undertaker went for around 8 minutes now think about it really think about it which match would you prefer to have gone on longer when asked about undertaker's reaction the brat known going overtime pritchard said undertaker was hot nobody was there for the confrontation because no one wanted to be there but taker did go and talk to brad just to let him know he wasn't happy with it it didn't get heated taker's not that kind of guy but he did have a conversation with him that night and no one was there so there was no witnesses the only people that know what happened are undertaker and brett immediately following summerslam 1994 undertaker faced crush and yokozuna in a series of house show matches for around a month undertaker then got his revenge on yokozuna on pay-per-view by defeating him in a casket match at the 1994 survivor series this one i felt wasn't as good as the royal rumble encounter their first match was much more memorable for sure tagger would then go on the feud with ted dibiase's million dollar corporation a feud that took up most of the undertaker's 1995. the royal rumble then in 1995 saw undertaker defeat irs and a pretty forgettable match after the showdown king kong bundy distracted the undertaker which allowed irs to repossess the urn and take it away from paul bearer so ted dibiase not had control of the urn and wrestlemania 11 would see a continuation of the undertaker versus million dollar corporation feud as tiger squared off against king kong bundy on the grandest stage of them all during the match undertaker got the iron back briefly but kama ran to the ring and stole it back running off backstage while undertaker was busy with bundy undertaker of course scored the win at wrestlemania but he had once again lost the iron comma ended up melting the iron into a chian necklace and the undertaker set out to get it back on his road to summerslam where the undertaker would face kama undertaker faced mabel in the king of the ring tournament at the king of the ring pay-per-view the undertaker put mabel over and mabel won the entire king of the ring tournament the comma vs undertaker match at summerslam 1995 probably meant a lot more to the men involved in the match than to us watching at home charles wright and mark holloway were good friends backstage and it must have been fun for both guys to work against each other here on pay-per-view the two had already met previously of course quite a lot on the house show loop and also the two men faced each other in a dark match during the very first in your house show again at summerslam we had another casket match though and this one is different from past casket matches thanks to it being a much more hotly contested wrestling match past casket matches felt a little gimmicky and that's not a bad thing either it's a gimmick match after all but kama and undertaker decided to work a longer match here that was more about the fight than the actual casket it's a decent match here it's never really brought up and you should still check it out undertaker gets the win and he gets back his arm albeit and she informed for a little while while watching this match and realizing it was much better than i remembered i went online to see what the general reviews were for this match just to see what others thought about it i ran into an article that went through all of undertaker's summerslam opponents on den of geek.com yes these guys are clearly not the authority on wrestling matches but they are a huge pop culture website and they get a ton of traffic anyway here's what they wrote in regards to the undertaker versus comma at summerslam 95 undertaker's summerslam opponents didn't get much better in 1995 his lengthy feud with ted dibiase's million dollar corporation came to an end when he took on kama the supreme fighting machine keep in mind by this point he had already dealt with an evil undertaker and king kong bundy this is like playing through a teenage mutant ninja turtles video game getting past shredder and crying then having to defeat bebop in the final level it was a casket match and to add some flavor to the bottle cama had stolen the urn and had it melted down in the gold chains i can't fault the man for style kama otherwise known as papashango and the godfather is one of the worst performers in the company's history so this fight was borderline unwatchable so there you have it folks according to den of geek charles wright was one of the worst performers in wwf history and the casket match at summerslam is unwatchable i know for a fact the charge right statement is so far off the mark that it's ridiculous and i can't change anyone's opinion on the summerslam casket match but make up your own minds and watch it i've watched a ton of wrestling in my lifetime and calling comma versus the undertaker on watchable is as equally as ridiculous to me as saying kama was one of the worst wrestlers in the company and you may very well agree with this guy but calling kama one of the worst wwf performers in history especially when discussing a 1995 wwf much i just find this insanely off the mark but anyway let's get back on track following summerslam the undertaker suffered a broken orbital bone an injury that was caused by king mabel in normal circumstances this would lead to a lengthy hiatus from wrestling to allow the superstar to heal but the wwf were going through some hard times here and takers soldiered on the wwf decided to kayfabe the injury a little by having the undertaker wear a mask adding it to the story whereas the mask was really being warned not to cause any further damage i loved the undertaker's mask it doesn't get talked about too much these days but i thought it looked really cool the wwf put it across that a series of leg drops from mabel caused the injury but in reality it was a botched clothesline a month later taker came back to tv wearing the mask at the survivor series in 1995 then taker led his survivor series team featuring fatou savio vega and henry godwin into a match against jerry lawler hunter hurst helmsley isaac yancum and king mabel taker's team scored the victory what you should note here though is that undertaker's team were all part of the bone street crew a group of friends who hung out together backstage and drove together from time to time also of note here is that this was really the last king mabel match to hold any sort of relevance the injury the undertaker's face pretty much sealed his fit in his final raw appearance then of 1995 the undertaker defeated isaac yancum dds a man who would play a huge part in the undertaker's story in the years that followed so our previous video ended at 1995 the undertaker was wearing his phantom of the opera style mask at the time and he was also due a wwf title shot brett the hitman heart had won the championship from big daddy cool diesel at the 1995 survivor series so the undertaker would get his opportunity at the 1996 royal rumble diesel on the other hand would have to enter the royal rumble to try and earn a wwf championship rematch hbk shawn michaels eliminated diesel to win the royal rumble match and afterwards diesel wasn't too happy but still he celebrated with sean after the match after the royal rumble match we had bret hart versus the undertaker for the wwf championship while i failed their summerslam 1997 encounter was better this taker versus bret match was also pretty good however the ending just didn't feel decisive i will say though that there was definitely an unpredictable feeling about this match seeing his undertaker had been pretty dominant going into 1996. as tiger was making his way to the ring diesel stood at the entranceway to stop the dead man in his tracks diesel felt annoyed about not winning the royal rumble and missing out on an opportunity to face the champion at mania and so he traded blues with the undertaker before the championship match got underway anyway the match began it was quite good and interesting to see a babyface versus babyface main event but again summerslam 1997 is your match if you want to see brad versus tiger notable here though is that during this match bret hart removed the undertaker's mask and this would be the last time we would see the mask on the dead man undertaker had the match won after nailing brett with a tombstone but diesel came back and pulled the ref out of the ring during the three count the ref disqualified brett undertaker wins the match but not the wwf championship diesel flipped the undertaker off and walked back up the entranceway so in short the undertaker was robbed at the 1996 royal rumble immediately following the royal rumble guerrilla monsoon announced that diesel would get his wwf championship rematch from the survivor series at the next in your house pay-per-view so it seemed like diesel was getting rewarded here for interfering in taker's match diesel had an interview afterwards where he said he got involved in the undertaker's match just to prove that he was number one and he also told tigger that he wasn't afraid of the dark before getting to in your house in the cage match between brad hart and diesel brett and the undertaker had a wwf championship rematch on raw diesel was at the commentary desk for this match and the match itself was actually really good the referee got took out when taker went for a tombstone and diesel used this opportunity to take out both brett and the undertaker so again we had another good match with an indecisive finish so onto in your house in february of 1996 and brad defended his title against diesel in the cage notable about this match here is that the crowd was also cheering for diesel plenty of times there were loud diesel chance in the audience even though he was booked as a strong heel here feuding with both bret hart and the undertaker anyway diesel had the match won he was about to exit the cage door but undertaker appeared from under the ring and he grabbed diesel which allowed brad to escape the cage and win the match when diesel and taker re-emerged from under the ring big daddy cool quickly ran away and the show went off the air the following night on raw undertaker had a match with tatanga during the match diesel came out holding an axe and he grabbed a cameraman to go backstage after the commercial break we saw diesel destroying the undertaker's casket while taker continued to work against tatanka and the ring taker got the win and he was able to see diesel destroying the casket on the big screen the dead man went backstage but diesel had already left all that remained were the broken pieces of the casket paul bear warned diesel that he would pay for his actions the following week on raw the undertaker vs diesel was officially announced for wrestlemania 12. diesel also had a match on this night against bob hawley and during the showdown diesel would continually look over his shoulder the paranoia of the undertaker showing up seemed to be getting at big daddy cool diesel won the match and seemed pleased that taker didn't show up so he made his way back up the entranceway just then the lights went out an undertaker appeared in the ring diesel turned around to go aftertaker but the lights went out again and taker had vanished undertaker appeared on the big screen telling diesel that if he wants to play man games then big daddy cool will play man games with the master looking back now i thought this was really well done and added a nice touch to the story the undertaker's mission was to make big daddy cool lose his cool the march 18th edition of raw then and it didn't take long for diesel to lose his cool diesel was booked into a match with barry horowitz diesel was still paranoid chagging under the ring before starting the match and all that stuff but early into the match paul bearer came to ringside with a casket diesel naturally thought that the undertaker was in the casket but what he would find was maybe even more disturbing than the dead man himself after beating barry horowitz with a punch to the face and no i'm not making that up diesel approached the casket diesel opened the casket and he saw himself one of the most creepy things the wwf have ever done here it was really really good and diesel looked totally freaked out afterwards his reaction was believable he didn't know what to do so how was this chilling stunt pulled off camera work and editing is your answer the shot of diesel in the casket was pre-recorded so that is the real kevin nash you see in the casket the show quickly cut to this pre-recorded spot for a brief second then went back to the arena to capture diesel's reaction what you see here is a mannequin dummy and what you see here during the close-up is kevin nash himself many people said it was actually glenn jacobs in the casket during the shots right here but bruce pritchard revealed on his podcast that it was actually a dummy who knows it seems weird that we never get to see the dummy any other time like in candid photos or backstage photos and things like that but i prefer to take a producer's word on things like this if we have no other definitive explanation all in all it was an excellent piece of work here and it was definitely freaky one of the better undertakers supernatural moments in wwf history and one that doesn't get brought up all too often the following week the final row before wrestlemania paul bear and the undertaker had an in-ring interview with vince mcmahon paul bear explained that this all started because diesel cost undertaker the championship back at the royal rumble undertaker said that after wrestlemania all that will remain is the carcass of big daddy cool undertaker said that he won't just beat diesel mania but he will also take his soul wrestlemania 12 then and i honestly feel that diesel versus the undertaker is quite underrated for two big guys it's a pretty physical match that hits nearly 17 minutes diesel was able to hit two jackknife powerbombs on the undertaker but it wasn't enough and the undertaker left wrestlemania 12 with a victory 5-0 at wrestlemania up to this point this was the undertaker's best wrestlemania match i feel and even though kevin nash had already given his notice he didn't get lizzy here and maybe this was out of respect for his opponent both he and undertaker had a good showing here there's also a lot of speculation in regards to the outcome of this match being different had diesel not gave his notice kevin nash even said recently that there's a possibility he would have ended the streak had things been differently when he said if i would have stayed i wouldn't have dropped the belt of brad to give to sean unless i was guaranteed to win at mania against taker i wouldn't have done it no i would have had too many losses in a row i would have needed a big win right there so there goes the streak mark and reference to the undertaker wasn't a mark he would have done it i'm not saying it would have happened i'm not saying vince would have booked it but i definitely wouldn't have coughed it up without something in regards to the wwf championship this match ended the diesel versus undertaker feud and next up for the undertaker was mankind kicking off a feud that would last years and become revered in the wrestling world vignettes had been airing for weeks signaling that mankind was on his way to the wwf and the night after wrestlemania mankind showed up and destroyed bob hawley undertaker main evented this episode of raw against justin hawk broadshaw and after taker delivered the tombstone mankind stormed to the ring and laid out the undertaker mankind totally decimated the dead man here with mick foley being positioned as a real threat to the legend of the undertaker over the coming weeks mankind would continue to interfere in undertaker's matches gaining the upper hand each and every time at the 1996 king of the ring then mankind defeated the undertaker when paul bearer accidentally hit taker with the urn allowing mankind to apply the mandible claw an undertaker lost via tko undertaker got an intercontinental title shot against gold dust at in your house beware of dog kickstarting a secondary feud here which would run at the same time as undertaker versus mankind at beware of dog taker and goldust met in a casket match and just when ticker was ready to win the match mankind appeared from the casket costing the undertaker the intercontinental title after beware of dog we went to vancouver for in your house international incident a show that featured an undertaker versus gold dust rematch again in this match mankind interfered by emerging from the ring and applying the mandible claw to the phenom mankind came back up and it seemed like he had lost the undertaker somewhere underneath the ring and just then taker emerged from the other side of the ring a brawl broke out between mankind and undertaker leading all the way to the arena boiler room after the show gorilla monsoon announced that mankind and undertaker would face each other in a boiler room brawl at summerslam 1996 on his way to summerslam undertaker had a match with stone cold steve austin on the july 29th episode of raw before undertaker could get the win against austin mankind came to ringside causing undertaker to get counted out and stone cold got the win undertaker returned to the ring and informed mankind that at summerslam the reaper will enter the serpent's lair the boiler room brawl was an interesting match the whole thing was pre-recorded and the wwf hadn't really done many matches of this nature with the exception of maybe the hollywood backlot brawl at wrestlemania 12 where the majority of the showdown takes place backstage and ends in the ring back then these kind of matches were novel but they were also really cool to watch at home i mentioned before that the boiler room brawl has been surpassed in the years that followed but back then this was some great stuff anyway tigger and mankind battled around the arena boiler room and beyond destroying each other with whatever items they could find lying around with mcfally taking some ludicrous bumps in the process to win the match a competitor had to leave the boiler room and retrieve the urn from paul bearer when undertaker got to the ring the unthinkable happened when paul bear turned on the dead man siding with mankind here and allowing mick foley to score the win a good match here for its time it created a lot of buzz with the actual match itself and with paul bearer parting ways with the undertaker the end of the match was indeed shocking mankind know how possession of the urn and paul bear had left the undertaker after all these years the following night on raw it was announced that mankind had earned himself a wwe championship match against sean michaels at in your house mind games during mankind's in-ring interview on this night the lights began flickering in the arena and all of the sudden the lights went out a group of druids carried the undertaker to ringside laying him down on the floor paul bear said that the undertaker was dead but the phenom set up and got to his feet causing some power to go off in the ring as mankind and paul bearer ran away it was clear that the undertaker would continue on without the urn and without paul bearer after sean michaels defeated mankind at in your house mind games in an excellent match the undertaker appeared from a confident ringside attacking mankind as the audience in attendance went totally nuts the taker versus mankind feud would move on to the next chapter at in your house in october the main event would be the first ever buried alive match putting the dead man versus mankind in the first ever match of this kind no one knew what to expect here but commentators told us on raw that a real cemetery would be built in the arena and the only way to win the match was to bury your opponent alive this brought a great deal of intrigue to october's in your house pay-per-view the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view showed undertaker digging mankind's grave and pre-taped vignettes while mankind was shown exhibiting fear about possibly being buried alive and in your house at the pay-per-view there was a gravesite set up beside the entranceway and yes the loser of the match would indeed get buried alive more intrigue was added thanks to the wwf and storyline not sanctioning the match the first time this was ever done in the wwf this meant according to vince mcmahon on the headset that the wwf would not take responsibility for what could happen during the match good stuff due to interference from the executioner better known as terry gordy of the fabulous free birds and other hills of the wwf mankind was able to get the win over the undertaker when the numbers got too much for the dead man this was very reminiscent of the 1994 royal rumble when the hills took out the undertaker in the casket match showing here that a great way to defeat the dead man is with strength and numbers after the match an iconic moment in the history of the undertaker occurred when his hand rose above the dirt signaling that the undertaker wasn't dead just yet when taker returned one month later at the survivor series he had a brand new look as the evolution of the undertaker character took another step forward so with the 1996 survivor series it was announced that undertaker will return to face mankind this time paul bear would be suspended above the ring in a cage and if taker won he would get his hands on his former manager undertaker's entrance was spectacular coming to the ring from the rafters while spreading his bat wings as he slowly descended into the ring taker was now wearing all black leather he had a fake teardrop tattoo placed below his right eye and he looked totally different there's been speculation over why he had this teardrop with no sources ever being quoted from losing a close friend to the end of the paul bear relationship being mentioned as reasons so i'm not even going to get into it it's never been explained i just thought it was a nice addition to the new taker character undertaker won this match and i can remember being shocked seeing the vhs of survivor series 1996 as the sky sports broadcast here in the uk had cut this match way down to around two and a half minutes no joke i always thought this was a squash match for the longest time until i bought the vhs and seeing it in all its glory made me question other pay-per-view matches i had watched on sky sports in the past still a good match here taker didn't get his hands on paul bearer though instead the executioner came to the ring allowing paul to make an escape this set up the executioner versus the undertaker at in your house it's time in december a match that the undertaker won just going back to the survivor series match briefly i recently done a survivor series 1996 watch along for the wrestling bios channel supporters and watching this back made me realize how good paul bearer was at hamming it up he was really funny before the match where he refused to get into the cage and also he was really really good in the pre-match promo good stuff the taker versus executioner match at in your house its time was billed as an armageddon rules match basically a last man standing match but you had to get a pinfall or submission before the ref started the tan count old school fans would know these matches were built previously as texas death matches mankind attempted to interfere in this match leading to security coming down and spraying mace in mankind's eyes why this happened i don't know it was an odq match security also put a straight jacket on mankind but anyway after battling around and outside the arena the undertaker nailed the tombstone and the executioner was unable to answer the 10 count after the pinfall take away the stuff with security missing mankind and all that and you have yourself another underrated and fun match here as normal 1997 started with the usual build towards the royal rumble taker's first televised match of the year occurred on the january 13th episode of raw however the match was taped on the 30th of december 1996. undertaker took on crush here it was announced as undertaker walked to the ring that he would be facing vader at the royal rumble pay-per-view in a singles match and also undertaker would be entering the royal rumble match itself undertaker won via dq here on raw when the nation of domination and vader hit the ring and attacked the dead man this royal rumble match here in 1997 is one i feel i've talked about loads of times but i honestly don't mind it was one of the more entertaining wwf events at the time the vader vs undertaker match here was decent it was very watchable but these two men would have a better match a few months down the line on pay-per-view but a little more on that later vader got in a ton of offense here but the undertaker managed to turn the tides and just as taker was going for the choke slam he noticed paul bear coming to the ring after laying a few punches into his former manager bearer stayed at ringside and assisted vader where he could and after paul hit undertaker with the urn vader was able to pick up the victory vader and paul bearer left the ring together so it seems that vader had just found himself a new manager in the royal rumble match stone cold steve austin decided to slide back into the ring after getting eliminated the referees didn't see austin get thrown over the top rope and stone cold went on to eliminate vader undertaker and brad hart to win the entire rumble match brad hart was very annoyed and the next night on raw he decided to quit the wwf because of this injustice to entice brad hart back wwf president gorilla monsoon announced that a final four match would happen at the next in your house pay-per-view to decide the real number one contender for the wwf championship the final four match would feature the three men steve austin eliminated at the end of the royal rumble bret hart vader and the undertaker and the match would also feature stone cold steve austin himself the rules of this elimination match were quite unique a superstar could get eliminated by pinfall submission and also a superstar could get eliminated by being thrown over the top rope there were also no disqualifications before getting to the final four match the undertaker wrestled steve austin on this same episode of raw and it ended when all final four participants brawled in the ring sean michaels would forfeit his wwf championship because he lost his smile and so the winner of the final four would be named the wwf champion there's something about these in your house shows from late 96 to mid 97 where you can tell the wwf were trying to cut corners and save money from the entrance ways to the broadcast feed quality the presentation these days is enough to turn some fans off but whatever you do don't sleep on in your house final four the main event match pitting the undertaker against bret hart vader and steve austin is one of the best matches of the year and that says a lot considering 1997 was packed with good stuff the participants took advantage of the no disqualification rule vader got busted open in a bad way and during the entirety of the match it was really hard to pick out a winner all four men had a great night here anyway the noise of the audience is totally insane when we got down to the final two bret hart and the undertaker taker nails the choke slam on brad harden goes for a tombstone but the eliminated steve austin was hell-bent on still trying to attack brad hart austin got on the apron and the undertaker punched austin to get him out of the way allowing bret hart to take advantage of the situation and clothesline taker over the top rope to win the wwf championship i can't say it enough if you haven't seen this match get on it as soon as possible bret hart dropped the wwf title the very next night on raw the psycho sid and it was also announced that the undertaker would be the number one contender for the championship at wrestlemania the sid vs undertaker match at wrestlemania 13 definitely wasn't one of my favorite mania taker matches i know there are people out there who like this match and that's absolutely fine there's stuff i like that i'm sure others don't but this match here just didn't do it for me at all tigger though had his work cut out for him not only was he going up against sid here but the classic brad hart versus steve austin match also happened on this night and that match was insanely good i also don't blame tiger for the match being a little underwhelming he had worked with big guys in the past and gotten good great matches out of them from yokozuna to diesel but the pace was kept incredibly slow during this mania 13 match it can be a bit of a chore to sit through one thing i will say that was pretty cool though the undertaker came out wearing his own black and grey ring attire the same gear he wore during his debut years in the wwf anyway taeger was able to capture the wwf championship here for the second time in his career after nailing the tombstone brad hart would get involved in the match a few times and yeah not much else to say the vigil of undertaker holding the belt and wrestlemania 13 though was good to see the fans loved it and it also gave us this iconic photo the next night on raw undertaker was featured in the final segment and an interview spot undertaker welcomed the fans to the dark days of the world wrestling federation saying he is prepared to defend the title against all challengers mankind was announced as the number one contender for the title an undertaker admitted that mankind was the most dangerous man in the wwf paul bearer walked down the ramp mankind appeared on the screen asking paul not to leave him and the show went off the air before we could get an idea of what was going on it appeared that paul bearer was trying to get back in the undertaker's good books while also leaving mankind but we would need to wait for a week before finding out the next week then paul bearer came to the ring and said he made a mistake in leaving the undertaker's side and he wanted to once again stand side by side with the dead man taker came to the ring and he said that betrayal is something he will never forget but it may be something he could forgive taker said he owes paul bearer for all the years that they stood together in the past and it seemed like the two men were going to reunite but taker ended up punching paul bearer undertaker began stalking paul around the outside and that's when mankind appeared from under the ring mankind then shot a fireball into the undertaker's eyes and in your house revenge of the taker then the undertaker did indeed get his revenge when paul bearer was on the receiving end of a fireball while there are better mankind versus taker matches out there this match at revenge of the taker is still worth your time the may 12 1997 episode of raw then would kickstart the next career-changing storyline of the undertaker now normally here i would tell you guys that i've covered this already and you to another video but i know some people don't really like that and would prefer if everything is covered in one neat video so i'm going to show some clips from a previous video here i made on the introduction of kean so you guys won't need to click back and forth at the revenge of the taker show paul got a fireball thrown in his face by the undertaker on the may 12 1997 episode of raw a comically bandaged paul bearer and mankind made their way to the ring to make an announcement paul bearer said you remember undertaker oh yes you do i'm going to give you one chance one more chance for us to get back together if you do not accept this final offer i'm going to do something that only you know about undertaker the secret that only you know i'm going to reveal your secret to the whole world you hurt me undertaker come back or i'm going to hurt you so we were left wondering what on earth paul bearer could have been talking about here undertaker made his way to the ring the following week on raw and in an interview segment with vince mcmahon paul bearer appeared on the titan tron demanding that undertaker comes back to him or the secret will be revealed undertaker asked for more time and bear gave undertaker another seven days to make his decision of course this was a tactic to get people to tune in again a week later so let's jump to the following week the may 26th episode of raw at the end of the show paul made his way to the ring paul said that the secret had been burning in him for years making references to undertaker's family and how paul had promised the undertaker's parents at their graves that he would never reveal this secret before paul could say anymore undertaker quickly made his way to the ring undertaker said that he hates paul bearer and he hates what he has to do on this night undertaker then grabbed paul bearer by the throat and we all thought taker was about to destroy him but as raw went off the air the undertaker let go and he sided with his old manager there were more questions than answers here and the whole thing kept viewers tuning in to see the story unfold the following week on raw we learned that the undertaker and paul bear relationship would be a rocky one paul bearer said that undertaker would now be his personal item of destruction an undertaker was only allowed to do what paul bearer said in the weeks that followed the undertaker found it very difficult to take orders from paul bearer and on the june 30th 1997 edition of raw paul bearer made his way to the ring and the secret would be revealed so during this promo paul bearer said we are talking about a funeral home a family-owned funeral home the father was the mortician the mother was the secretary and there were two little kids there one kid was a little red-headed punk and then there was a second kid a sweet little kid named kean i was the apprentice at the funeral home the undertaker's father was a mortician of excellence he taught me everything i know but while i was working at that funeral home i noticed a lot of things going on that little red-headed punk there was something funny about him he had a look in his eye the look of the devil what was so sad about the whole situation was that poor little kane followed undertaker everywhere he went undertaker was kane's hero anything the undertaker did was fine my apprenticeship went on for about two years the undertaker and kean would run around the funeral home like wild man they'd sneak behind the garage smoking cigarettes but one particular afternoon i was leaving to go to school i looked behind me and who do i see that little redheaded devil saved the undertaker and his little brother something didn't seem right but i went to school i came back that night and what do i see i see fire trucks i see ambulances i see smoke i see the funeral home and ashes someone burned down the funeral home inside the funeral home was the family who took care of me i looked at the bushes and who do i see i see the undertaker undertaker you burnt the funeral home down to the ground undertaker you are a murderer later in the night we were shown the undertaker backstage undertaker said he was not responsible for setting fire to the funeral home undertaker said his parents and kane were in the funeral home when it burned down but he was not responsible for starting the fire and it was actually kane who started the blaze undertaker stated that when paul bearer forced him to look at the charred remains of his mother it changed him forever and he took it upon himself to become the undertaker character that we all know today sounds [ __ ] ridiculous as i say this now but to be fair the undertaker done a great job here during this promo it was also revealed later that kane was bearer's illegitimate son and the undertaker's half-brother paul would say that kane is actually alive paul said that parts of cain's body were disfigured and he was unable to go outside under the sunlight paul also said that for years kane has always dreamed of coming face to face with his brother in order to get his revenge we were then tased in the wakes that followed that cain was going to indeed show up undertaker started a feud with sean michaels after hbk cost taker the wwf championship at summerslam 1997 after their match at in your house ground zero ended in an old contest the first ever hell in a cell match was booked for in your house bad blood we all kind of knew that kane was going to show up at bad blood the keen debut had been teased for so long by this time and the tv advertisements promoting the show kind of gave it away also during these commercials paul bearer could be seen saying the words he's coming dead man referring to the arrival of kean with this in mind the first ever hell in a cell match featuring sean michaels versus the undertaker at bad blood was so captivating that kane was the last thing on my mind anyway as the match played out in the final moments of the match when undertaker was about to defeat sean michaels the lights went out in the arena we heard the church organ introduction the kian's endurance team for the very first time and out walked paul bearer and kane glenn jacobs new and most successful character kane proceeded to rip the door off the hell in the cell structure as the undertaker looked on in shock kane delivered a tombstone piledriver to the undertaker and walked away as shawn michaels took advantage and penned the dead man now that we have the introduction of kane out of the way it's only fair that we take a few steps back to before the undertaker lost the championship as there were some notable matches here that need disgust at in your house a cold day in hell live from the richmond coliseum the undertaker successfully defended his wwf championship against stone cold steve austin again a decent match but not the best showdown that these two had this one was more standard around the austin versus heart foundation feud next up we had the king of the ring where nation member farook would get a chance to become the wwf champion undertaker got the win in this one when farook got distracted by his nation teammates fighting on the outside and in your house canadian stampede the undertaker and vader once again squared off in the ring and this match i felt was better than their royal rumble encounter from around 6 months prior undertaker was victorious here too the two men worked hard throughout the whole match and it comes recommended the bret hart vs undertaker match 2 at summerslam where undertaker drops the belt is worth watching it has much more heat than their raw rumble 1996 encounter and it also had a great sense of unpredictability the ending 2 was quite surprising when special referee sean michaels had taker accidentally with a vicious chair shot this finish was expertly done sean didn't necessarily want brad hart to win but he had no choice he had to kind take her shoulders to the mat after nailing him with a chair along with this the match itself as a complete package was extremely good also so there were title defenses here against austin farooq vader and brad hart on pay-per-view but the whole kian's secret storyline overshadowed what was happening in the ring this is why i feel taker's title run here was maybe not as good as it could have been don't get me wrong the dead man was doing some phenomenal work in the ring in 1997 and it's good to see a champion defend against a range of different wrestlers something that is sometimes lost in today's wwe but the kanan paul bearer stuff was at the forefront here meaning the focus of the actual title rain was given the backseat in terms of storytelling brad hart winning the championship at summerslam i feel was the right move the undertaker vs keem program definitely didn't need the championship there was enough meat on that bone already one thing is for sure though throughout the entirety of undertaker's title reign and beyond not once did fans support waver the undertaker was a consistent fan favorite throughout the entire year after wrestling shawn michaels at in your house ground zero and after the excellent hell in the cell match at bad blood all focus was put on kane versus the undertaker paul bearer and kean would try to goad undertaker into fighting his younger brother but taeger would refuse saying he wouldn't fight his own flesh and blood with this in mind undertaker ended his pay-per-view year by facing jeff jarrett at the near house degeneration axe and yeah it felt like taker and jared were just wasting time in the ring here until kane showed up when the big red machine did make an appearance he came to the ring looked at his brother and slapped him across the face to try and get taker to fight back undertaker wouldn't retaliate so kane and paul bearer simply walked away jeff jared won by disqualification here but taker did drop jeff with a choke slam after the match our last undertaker video ended with the debut of kane kane would completely torment the wwf during his initial months within the company while the undertaker would consistently refuse to fight his brother it felt like the undertaker was really the only man who could stop kane but taeger had no interest in fighting his own flesh and blood at the very beginning of 1998 the storyline remained the same however there was a glimmer of hope sean michaels the wwf champion would be defending his title against the undertaker at the 1998 royal rumble in undertaker's trademark match the casket match and to try to get an upper hand shawn michaels and the generation x would try to enlist kane making the undertaker's brother the newest member of dx undertaker came to the ring on the january 12th 1998 episode of raw and he told sean michaels not to involve kane in their business leading to dx beating down the undertaker in the middle of the ring keen then made his way down the ramp and this was interesting because we didn't know what kean was going to do instead of joining dx the big red machine assisted the undertaker and for a moment it looked like kane and the undertaker were on the same page giving us this classic moment when both men saluted each other as kane walked back up the rampway next up then was the 1998 royal rumble another casket match for the dead man this one was memorable for two reasons first we had sean michaels taking that back body drop and clipping his back on the casket and this would lead to sean's early retirement just a few months later secondly the ending was memorable due to the undertaker getting locked inside the casket and the casket itself getting set on fire by keon signaling yet another demise of the undertaker at a royal rumble event and again and a casket match obviously the undertaker wasn't successful here ken and the undertaker were not on the same page as we initially thought and the plan was now to finally have the undertaker face kane at wrestlemania 14. this casket match though at the royal rumble 1998 is still worth your time it isn't my favorite sean vs taker match but they told a good story here this match then featuring kane and the undertaker would be used as a main attraction going into wrestlemania people were legitimately excited to see this battle go down the undertaker didn't have any television matches after the 1998 royal rumble but he did work out shows and dark matches the dark matches even saw him face keon albeit in tag team showdowns meanwhile keane would have a brief feud with vader to pass time until wrestlemania the march second episode of raw though saw the undertaker return to challenge kane at wrestlemania this return here was really well done with a lightning bolt hitting a casket that was set up at the entrance way and the undertaker rising once again undertaker speaking without a microphone too in the arena was a great touch undertaker said he will do the one thing he promised he would never do he would face kane even demonstrating during this promo that he would legitimately walk through the fires of hell to stop his little brother a real undertaker moment here that doesn't get talked about all that often then two weeks later the undertaker appeared on the top of the titantron when kane was about to attack sable making a coffin go up in flames as he told his little brother that all he can do now is rest in peace let's look at the wrestlemania 14 match then keem versus the undertaker this one is special because it's the first match on tv anyway featuring the undertaker squaring off against kane it definitely has its place in the history books but the match itself in my opinion could have been much better you have to remember that the kian storyline started all the way back in april of 1997 around a month shy of a complete year of building up here so there was this substantial amount of pressure to make sure the match was spectacular keep in mind too that the wwf would be banking on further undertaker versus cane matches to attract audiences down the road wrestlemania was never really in jeopardy of low pay-per-view numbers thanks to the upcoming title run of steve austin along with mike tyson's involvement the wwf making sure to recover after wrestlemania 13 here so it was important that kane and the undertaker delivered don't get me wrong it's still a good match but there was something missing here that stopped these two having that classic wrestlemania moment it's a shame too both men had all the momentum in the world going into wrestlemania 14 and i also know people will dismiss my opinion here and call this match a classic but it didn't do it for me and even watching it back now you just know both men were capable of so much more it's telling that people remember pete rose getting tombstoned by kane at the beginning of the match more than the match itself and on that subject too as funny as it was as the years went on having kane get involved with pete rose i felt heard the mistake of the cane character pete rose was also out there being a hail before kane took him out so the audience were cheering for keane before the undertaker even made his way to the ring but that's being a little nitpicky also undertaker won the match at wrestlemania after three tombstones kane attacked taker after the match and hit a tombstone on a steel chair to keep the feud going and there's arguments to be made here too that maybe kane should have been the one that left with the victory but anyway let's move on i don't want to leave this match saying i didn't think it was good it was a good match but i feel it could have been better [Music] and get better it did the very next month at wwf unforgiven the undertaker and kane were booked in a first of its kind match an infernal match this match brought a great deal of intrigue with it and i remember being very curious about how this would play out the ring was legitimately surrounded with fire the flames were controlled in such a manner that the fire would rise after a big move was pulled off and the object of the match was to set your opponent alight you can only imagine how hot it must have been inside and immediately around that ring it must have been a hard match to pull off but keen and the undertaker had a good interesting match here and one that i feel was better than their wrestlemania encounter i mentioned earlier that the wrestlemania pay-per-view was already sold thanks to steve austin and mike tyson but wrestlemania 14 could have been so much more had the infernal match took place then instead of one month later anyway kean's arm got satellite and undertaker won the match and i remember thinking that the finish was cheap keane's arm was covered up and all that but now that i think about it i'm not sure i want to see someone's face getting burned off on pay-per-view the next night on raw the undertaker wrestled barry wyndham and it was a squash match it was over in around a minute and you can't help but think that undertaker versus a barry windham still in his prime would have been such a huge deal at one point but it is what it is after the match the undertaker spoke to keon saying the infernal match wasn't the end it was only the beginning undertaker called out his little brother for a fight prompting the big red machine and paul bear to arrive on the stage paul said he wanted a truce the farting noi had to stop between kane and the dead man and paul then went on to reveal that kean was actually his son jerry lawler after the segment was all giddy because this man paul bearer slept with the undertaker's mother and yeah what more can you say here on the may 4th episode of raw paul bear was scheduled for an interview backstage with jerry lawler but the cameras were left rolling and we got an opportunity to eavesdrop on a conversation between lawler and paul bearer jerry asked paul if he nailed his word not mine nailed the undertaker's mother paul bears said he did indeed on the kitchen floor paul said he was interrupted during the deed by undertaker's little fate coming down the stairs saying it was a good thing that he didn't walk in and see the side of his mother's legs in the air one foot in new york and one foot in l.a as paul bearer put it afterwards jerry lawler apologized that this conversation had just made the air later in the evening keon had a match with dust and the undertaker stormed of the ring to attack paul bear and kane things got ridiculous on the may 18th episode of raw when paul bear and keon paid a visit to the local medical facility to get a dna test completed paul wanted to prove to the world that keon was indeed his son this dna testing procedure went a step further by having a doctor appear live on raw to reveal the results the doctor told us that paul bearer was kane's father without a doubt paul bear and kane came to the ring paul had some choice words for the taker's mother prompting the dead man to hit the ring and launch an attack undertaker and kian would get involved in the wwf title picture afterwards undertaker came down to ringside during the steve austin vs dude love title match at over the age 1998 and we all thought he was there to ensure the match was called fairly after taker himself had a run-in with vince mcmahon on raw undertaker was there to make sure austin didn't get screwed over but after the match he looked at steve austin in a not so friendly manner giving the impression here that he was coming after stone cold and he was coming after the wwf championship the next night on raw the undertaker was uncharacteristically dressed in sweat and he began a sort of worked shoot promo targeted at vince mcmahon undertaker said that his title reigns within the wwf were always cut short because vince mcmahon didn't think the undertaker should be the face of his company taker said he stayed loyal when everyone else left for more money and he got repaired by vince mcmahon telling paul bear to go on live tv and talk about taker's family for tv ratings taker said that while he was working against kane stone cold rose to the top and secured the wwf championship and now the taker wants a shot at the gold the undertaker said that it was time to take what was rightfully his vince mcmahon came out and said that the undertaker was both loyal and a man of honor but vince wanted to know what had the undertaker done for vince mcmahon lately after taking jabs at the undertaker's mother vince said that undertaker will become the number one contender if he can defeat his opponent on that evening his brother kane during the match mick foley ran to the ring and applied the mandible claw on the undertaker which ultimately led to the undertaker taking the loss kane became the number one contender he would face steve austin at the king of the ring 1998. mankind and the undertaker though would have their own match a hell in a cell match at the king of the ring pay-per-view history would be made on this very night what can i say about the 1998 king of the ring undertaker versus mankind match that hasn't been said already i guess the best thing i can do here is give my recollections of watching this live when it went down it was truly a memorable match just so i'm not contradicting myself here i've said in previous videos that i preferred the hpk versus taker cell match at bad blood 1997. i liked how the cell itself became a living breathing character within that match and hoyshawn michaels displayed fear being locked inside he had to either fight or get ripped apart inside the steel structure so when king of the ring 1998 came around i couldn't help thinking that this hell and a sale here wouldn't be anywhere near as good as michael's versus undertaker what mankind and the undertaker done right though was they completely altered the story of the match this one did not play out like bad blood at all and it was the absolute right decision that being said what these two guys ended up doing would be the talk among my friends for weeks upon weeks undertaker in mankind's hell in a cell match here was dangerous it was shocking it was reckless and it was everything that was truly awesome about this time in wrestling sure many modern fans will complain about the dangers of such a match and why this isn't real wrestling and you'll get your hypocrites who complain about hardcore wrestling but put this match on a pedestal but this hell in a sales showdown is a landmark match in wwe history and i remember actually being a little dismissive of the match beforehand because in my mind it was never going to be as good as bad blood boy was i in for a shock i'm not going to go over the match move for move because it's been done countless times even the commentators get asked about the match constantly and with good reason too may i add but i can't bring up the match and not talk about these insanely scary falls during the match the match started off on top of the cage and within minutes mankind was thrown off the top of the cell and he went through the announce table i was speechless during this moment when i watched it live and putting myself back when i saw this in 1998 it was just so unexpected too i think that's what was more shocking there was no build up to the fall taker just grabbed fully and threw him off like he was nothing vince mcmahon broke character by coming to ringside to see if foley was okay terry funk came out to see if thought he was okay it really did feel like a scary moment this spot though was planned the next fall the one where fully went through the cage roof and hit extremely hard on the ring mat that was not planned and foley was legitimately knocked out after the fall it was at this point i was just totally blown away by what i was saying it was mick foley putting himself through agony attempting to entertain fans while having no care at all about his own well-being a chair also fell here with mick foley that smacked mike in the face knocking one of foley's teeth up into his nose and when mick tried to get to his fate a simple working punch from the undertaker made his knees buckle and he again crumbled to the mat knocked out once again undertaker won the match and i'm not sure what else i can say here but simply you need to see this match from start to end if you haven't already seeing the clips does not tell the story there's more insanity here with thumbtacks still chairs dangerous offense all around and if you haven't seen this much from bell to bell for whatever reason you're in for a real roller coaster ride keep in mind too that undertaker versus mankind the 1998 king of the ring was not the main event keane got his title shot against steve austin at this same show and kane won the wwf championship in a first blood match against the texas rattlesnake during the match the undertaker accidentally hit steve austin with a steely chair causing austin the blade and therefore keon became the new wwf champion taeger even tried to pour gasoline and set the referee on fire here taker was definitely showing a more sinister side to his character at the 1998 king of the ring the next night on raw the undertaker said he did what he had to do at the king of the ring when he interfered in the title match vince mcmahon came out and said the undertaker helped kane because taker knew he could beat kane but he also knew that he couldn't beat stone cold steve austin implicating here that the undertaker was looking for an easy path to the wwf championship during a wwf title rematch later that evening between kane and steve austin undertaker came to the ring against vince mcmahon's orders and the dead man stood by as steve austin defeated keem to recapture the wwf title after the match steve austin delivered a stone-cold stunner to the undertaker and raw went off the air with both the undertaker and kane standing in the ring staring at the wwf champion the july 13th episode of raw saw kane and mankind get a tag team title opportunity against the new age outlaws and kane and mankind won the match due to interference during the match however dx managed to talk vince mcmahon into ordering a rematch later in the evening steve austin and the undertaker were ringside enforcers for the rematch and when the referee got took out both austin and undertaker interrupted each other from counting kane and real dog's shoulders to the mat respectively in the end kane and mankind remained tagged champions and the big ongoing tease here was that the undertaker and kane were now on the same page the following week vince mcmahon called the undertaker to the ring and it was announced that steve austin and the undertaker would have to coexist when they faced mankind and kane and fully loaded for the tag team titles this match was pretty fun we didn't know if undertaker would attack kane and the whole match evolved around this will he won't he narrative but undertaker did indeed lay in the offense to his little brother securing the tag titles here for both steve austin and himself even though taker left the ring with both belts keen and mankind won the tag team titles back on the august 10th episode of raw during an excellent 14 tag match undertaker took the pinfall lost to kane but it wasn't all bad news for the dead man as taker was named the number one contender for steve austin's wwf championship their match would happen at summerslam 1998. immediately after dropping the tag titles though steve austin looked at the undertaker as if something wasn't right undertaker looked back at austin without much emotion on the august 17th 1998 episode of raw stone cold steve austin came to the ring for a confrontation with the undertaker but underneath the trench coat stone cold instead found kane dressed up as his brother another excellent moment here that i thought was done pretty well again this fueled more speculation about kane and the undertaker working together and if this wasn't enough when steve austin threw kane into a hearse that was in the arena it was only the undertaker who was behind the steering wheel much to austin's surprise raw went off the air with the undertaker slowly driving the hearse away with his brother inside we wouldn't need to guess anymore the very next episode of raw the summerslam go home show opened up with the undertaker walking side by side with kane this is quite historic too the first time the brothers of destruction walked to the ring together as a team vince mcmahon came to the ring with a big smile on his face and when he stood in front of kane and the undertaker vince said that the brothers together were the most destructive force in the wwf and there's no doubt that the undertaker will now win the championship at summerslam and playing that kane can help tiger defeat steve austin vince went on to say that the undertaker will need vince mcmahon during his upcoming championship round and vince wanted to know if the undertaker was his friend or if the undertaker was his foe paul bearer then came out trying to guilt tripp kane because of this new lance the big red machine now i had with the taker poll bear instructed kane to destroy the undertaker but kane turned his back allowing the undertaker to attack bearer later in the evening undertaker answered vince mcmahon's question he was still his foe and raw went off the air with the undertaker and kane brawling with steve austin summerslam 1998's main event featuring steve austin versus the undertaker again should have been much better than what it was but there's a reason for this being a little average steve austin was legitimately knocked out in the early moments of the match and this led to some awkward exchanges along with austin's timing being a little off steve austin said himself after he got knocked out and he asked referee erin hebner where he was he really didn't know what happened and he didn't have his bearings for a moment and erlappinger told him he was in madison square garden imagine that for a moment the sudden realization that you're in the world's most famous arena in the main event of a pay-per-view and you didn't even know how you ended up there for a brief moment anyway still all things considered the match was possible but even austin says today that he knew he was capable of much more he kind of beats himself up over it austin won the match and take her tased a heel turn after the match but he ended up handing the championship title to steve austin and walking away with kane at his side undertaker got another opportunity against austin at breakdown in your house the following month but this match also involved kane a triple threat match here where kane and the undertaker were not allowed to pen each other both keown and undertaker penned austin at the same time meaning there was no clear wwf champion when the show went off the air the title was taken away by vince mcmahon we didn't know who the champion was and we wouldn't have a new wwf champion for quite some time after this undertaker was ordered to wrestle kane at judgement day in 1998 in october with steve austin as the special referee this match was for the wwf championship and this match again ended with no clear winner thanks to steve awesome declaring himself as the winner we need to go back to judgement day to get a full picture here the undertaker took on kean for the vague wwf championship with stone cold steve austin acting as the referee we already know that the match ended with no clear outcome thanks to steve austin declaring himself as the winner but something else happened during this match that is very noteworthy in the closing moments of the match paul bearer came to ringside holding a chair he got in the ring and it looked like he was going to hit the undertaker but paul bearer would hit his son keon while keane's back was turned paul bearer then invited the undertaker to pin kane but steve austin wouldn't count the pin attempt the match ended then with austin counting the three while both men were let out on the mat so we would need the tune in the raw the very next night to see what was going on stone cold steve austin was also fired by vince mcmahon on this night the very first time mcmahon said his infamous your fired catchphrase and the wwf championship still didn't have a rightful owner the next night on raw saw steve austin take vince mcmahon hostage in one of the more memorable episodes but before all this happened vince mcmahon kicked the show off with an announcement vince said that because of steve austin the wwf has no champion and therefore the upcoming survivor series pay-per-view will host a 16-man tournament to crown a new champion later in the show the undertaker had an interview segment and walking side by side with the dead man was paul bear once again taker got in the ring and said a reconciliation had been made and the undertaker said that paul bear has come home to lead the dead man's ministry of darkness undertaker said that he sure that many people out there couldn't understand why he would realign himself with such a despicable evil maniacal individual but undertaker explained that paul bearer allowed him to clear his head and refocus on what he was in the wwf for taker said this is a new era and the ministry of darkness will unleash a plague on the world wrestling federation paul bearer took the mag and explained that he used kane like a little pet and because kane could never see and understand the true darkness paul bear had no further use for the big red machine undertaker then dropped a huge announcement when he said it was he himself that caused cain to get burned in the fire all those years ago at the funeral home saying he did it because cain was weak and only the strong survive kane came out to the endurance way pushing a casket going on the challenge undertaker to a casket match later in the evening and telling the dead man that he will rest in peace the casket match ended with no winner undertaker and paul bear just walk away to the backstage area during the bite it was revealed the next week that stone cold steve austin had been re-hired thanks to shane mcmahon leading to sheen giving one of the absolute best promos of his career here with shane saying he's tired of seeing superstars come and go because of his father's ego we'll talk about shane in another video though all you need to know is steve austin was back and later that evening he had a match with ken shamrock vince mcmahon's stooges tried to make life difficult for stone cold but mick foley evened the odds by putting shamrock in the mandible claw steve austin got in the ring he smacked shamrock with a steel chair and stone cold won the match austin delivered stunners to patterson briscoe and sergeant slaughter and the show went off the air the next week vince mcmahon punished the stooges by locking them inside a steel cage with the big boss man the boss man destroyed briscoe patterson and slaughter but the beating stopped after stone cold steve austin and eventually she and mcmahon hit the ring when austin was left in the cage on his own the undertaker and paul bear came down the ramp taker locked himself inside the cage with austin and a fight broke out between the phenom and the texas rattlesnake when undertaker got the upper hand keon showed up and he set the cage on fire with his parrot the show went off the air with all three men brawling in the flaming steel cage and yes i totally missed this in my big blue steel cage video apologies for that undertaker and kane met at the survivor series deadly game tournament with both men getting buys into the quarter-finals undertaker got the win here thanks to paul bearer so the dead man went to the semi-finals to square off with the rock because keen came to the ring and choke slam the rock the undertaker got disqualified and eliminated from the tournament taker and kian fought through the audience and the rock went on to win the tournament and the wwf championship when he aligned himself with vince mcmahon the rock became the corporate champion as vince was now adding more wrestlers to his very own faction known as the corporation so the undertaker was then booked into a buried alive match with steve austin and this would occur at rock bottom in your house on the november 16th episode of raw undertaker had steve austin with a shovel which caused stone cold some problems the following week and storyline steve austin had blacked out during a live event the 23rd of november episode of wwf raw then showed us steve austin getting treated at a hospital and later in the show the undertaker and paul bearer infiltrated the hospital leading to austin getting knocked out and brought to a nearby open grave undertaker decided not to bury stone cold but instead he would and bomb austin alive taeger austin and bearer then went to the funeral home and the undertaker showed the first sides of his more satanic character when he began speaking in tongues anyway kane showed up to stop the festivities the feed was interrupted and we went back to the arena the following week steve austin was looking for the undertaker backstage and he bumped into this woman and asked her if she had seen the undertaker to which she replied no this young lady here is stephanie mcmahon and she'd be used in this storyline as time went on anyway stone cold continued his search for the dead man but he ended up getting locked in a freezer room by paul bearer and the taker undertaker went to the ring and said that his plague in the wwf was growing stronger and stronger his ministry of darkness also grows stronger but steve austin and kane are getting in his way taker said he will take care of austin at rock bottom and kane would be dealt with later on this evening kane came to the ring the two began brawling and a bunch of men and white coats came to the ring holding a straight jacket threatening to take ken away here to what we assume would be some sort of mental asylum keen escaped as paul bearer laughed on the rampway undertaker and bearer found kane later on an undertaker instructed paul bear to go get the white coats while taker put kane in a body bag with paul bearer gone steve austin showed up and took out the undertaker paul bear returned with the white coats and took the body bag away paul checked to see if kian was still in there and later we saw paul bear wave bye bye as the body bag was taken away what paul didn't know though was that he just waved goodbye to the undertaker taeger was in the bodybag not kane and now austin and the big red machine were coming after paul bear austin and kane dragged paul bear to the ring later in the evening to cut a promo and then they took paul outside and put him in the sewers of baltimore a great episode of raw hair this one was loads of fun to go back and watch the next week though on the december 7th 1998 edition of raw we would get treated to one of the undertaker's most well remembered moments not just of this hill run but of all time the undertaker took part in a star-studded tag team main event teaming up with the rock to fear stone cold steve austin and mankind but before this match took place steve austin had an in-ranked promo to kick off the second hour of raw the undertaker's voice interrupted stone cold the prince of darkness said that steve austin will be sacrificed to the ministry of darkness and a giant undertaker symbol would settle out on the entranceway later on during the tag man event the undertaker carried austin up the rampway where taker's druids were waiting to put austin on the undertaker's symbol austin was stropped up and the symbol began rising hanging over the undertaker and giving us this incredible visual right here truly unforgettable so we arrive at rock bottom undertaker vs steve austin and are buried alive match the wwf have done a fantastic job in building this one up and the match itself was good i feel it was much better than their summerslam 1998 encounter having a clear baby face and a clear heel here made things more enjoyable when it came to austin versus taker and also austin didn't get knocked out during this match so that obviously helps while taker had been a hill during his early days in the wwf this undertaker was way way different the prince of darkness was now established as a more aggressive and more evil version of the undertaker gimmick and it worked incredibly well however things were only really beginning for this new demonic undertaker austin and taker battled all around the arena here and towards the end of the match an explosion occurred from inside the grave kane appeared and he launched an attack on the undertaker undertaker got distracted when steve austin brought a digger to the gravesite and it seemed like the driver had some real problems trying to operate the machinery that would help bury the undertaker alive you need to watch this back you can hear stone cold getting frustrated with the whole ordeal and referee earl hebner just ended up raising stone cold's hand in victory and the show went off the air after the buried alive match we would not see the undertaker for a few weeks elsewhere on the world wrestling federation cards ron simmons and bradshaw had formed the acolytes a tag team that was managed by the jackal better known as don callus the jaggal had been on commentary talking about being a puppet master that controls everything from the shadows and so it's widely believed that the jackal would be revealed as the higher power behind the undertaker's ministry of darkness we would never find out though don calls left the wwf at the end of 1998 so on the december 28 1998 episode of raw we saw dennis knight backstage talking to axe park and dennis told axe park he was out raw because he said to be here not revealing who he was dennis had worked in the wwf previously as phineas godwin and backstage he was also good friends with the undertaker anyway later in the evening dennis was attacked and abducted by the acolytes no reason at all was given for bradshaw and ferg's actions here on the january 11th 1999 edition of raw dennis knight was placed on an altar with the acolytes beside him the undertaker's music played and the prince of darkness returned here alongside paul bear undertaker spoke to the audience saying people thought that burying him alive would be the end of the undertaker but instead people had noise sent the undertaker back to his place of origin taker said he had risen from the grave to slay the ones he once saved and the raggedy was not upon us undertaker said that he will share his power of darkness with a chosen few confirming here that the men sharing the stage with him were now part of the new ministry of darkness stable taker then approached dennis knight speaking in tongues as he took a knife from paul bearer undertaker made a cut and he renamed dennis knight as midian after carving the undertaker symbol on the midian undertaker told us all that we're going to learn why we are afraid of the dark as the undertaker's symbol went up in flames so yeah this was the official reveal of the ministry stable an undertaker had now gone 100 demonic this sort of thing was sure there is a few complaints from the more good living folk among us the segment worked wonders for wwf audiences however as the pop was insane the next week for the undertaker even though he was a heel here the whole ministry of darkness thing had really caught on in a huge way with bradshaw farouk paul bearer and the delirious midian beside him the undertaker sat on the stage and said that the sacrifices aren't over someone would join the ministry that sunday at the 1999 royal rumble during the rumble match itself then maple came out as the 11th entrant the lights went out the undertaker's steam music played in the arena and when the lights came back on we saw the acolytes and midian attacking mabel undertaker came out and the taker's gaze seemed to play with mabel's mind almost hypnotizing him the remaining members of the ministry then continued their attack all men disappeared back through the curtain and the royal rumble match continued we later saw mabel getting loaded into a hearse and the next night mabel was reintroduced as viscera so this was the core ministry team here the acolytes midian mabel paul bearer and the undertaker the faction was being used here to give maybe lesser stars something to sink their teeth into with the undertaker giving these guys credibility through your association taker midian and visceral were scheduled to take on the brood on the february 1st 1999 edition of raw but taker decided to sit it out and let his minions do his dirty work the match ended when the acolytes came down to help midian and viscera destroy the brood and strangely the brood pushed wwf officials away when they tried to help them after gangrel age and christian were annihilated by the ministry of darkness the undertaker came to the ring to get a better view of the carnage later in the evening the acolytes defeated al snow in the road dog and after the match the ministry and the druids came to the ring the undertaker stood at the entranceway and he ordered the druids to remove their hoods and it was revealed that edge gangrel and christian the brood were now also members of the ministry of darkness this explained why the brood pushed wwf officials away during the brawl with the ministry their beating in the ring was an initiation our next pay-per-view was this in valentine's day massacre show on february 14th 1999 and the undertaker had a meeting backstage with the ministry of darkness here undertaker said that midian would take the boss man's soul during his scheduled match and the taker also said that the power from beyond had spoken to him saying that the ministry's purpose and life begins on that very night bossman ended up defeating midian but after the match the ministry surrounded the ring leading to viscera splashing the boss man multiple times and the boss man getting carried away by the ministry of darkness fans assumed here that this meant the boss man would now be added to the ministry but no the ministry taking out the corporation's boss man meant the ministry now had a new enemy vince mcmahon himself michael cole said on commentary the next night that the boss man managed to escape the entire ministry came out then on the february 15th edition of raw as the undertaker had an announcement to make the ministry's mission was to now take over the entire world wrestling federation undertaker said that one by one everyone in the wwf would fall to the ministry and the bidding the boss man took was proof that there's nothing vince mcmahon can do about the upcoming destruction of the wwf undertaker then said that each soul that the ministry takes they take in the name of the higher power a power that is even greater than himself and through this greater power the undertaker will own the world wrestling federation taker also said that the ministry in the higher power owned the key to vince mcmahon's heart and soul but a little more on that later so the feud had been set up the ministry versus the corporation a bit of an odd setup here is both factions were heels but still it didn't matter if this was entertaining things would get more and more interesting though as the weeks went on corporation members ken shamrock test and the boss man took on midian and the acolytes later in the night the match got interrupted by the undertaker coming to the stage holding on to an abducted sheen mcmahon sheen played the part well here he was scared he was shaking he thought the undertaker was going to sacrifice him but instead the undertaker gave shian a ladder along with orders to give the latter to vince vince ended up booking the second ever inferno match in wwf history for the following week's raw undertaker vs kane would wrestle again in a ring surrounded by flames i should also note that keon had joined the corporation after vince mcmahon promised him that his membership also included the promise of never having to go to a mental asylum i thought the first inferno match was better here and i think that comes down to seeing the match for the very first time in the intrigue that comes with that and along with this this second infernal match here had a lot of other stuff going on around ringside to distract viewers but still it was good to see the undertaker wrestle again on tv he hadn't had a proper televised match since rock bottom back in december of 1998 at least one where he got in the ring anyway a few things happened before the inferno match though firstly the brood were disciplined by the other ministry members after gangrel and edge lost a tag team match against the public enemy and the undertaker delivered a backstage promo where he again spoke about the higher power and owning the key to vince's heart and soul during the inferno match vince mcmahon revealed on commentary that the letter she and mcmahon delivered to him was of a very personal nature and not something he wanted discussed on tv but things would get more cryptic when paul bearer delivered a box to mcmahon at the commentary table vince opened the box it contained a teddy bear and the side of the teddy seemed to upset vince mcmahon causing him to leave the commentary table as the infernal match continued anyway keane's fruit was set on fire this time and after the match undertaker grabbed the teddy bear from a distraught vince mcmahon setting at a light and bringing the owner of the wwf to his knees the next week on raw undertaker had a match with mankind and it was also announced that the phenom would face the boss man at wrestlemania inside hell on a cell during the mankind match the undertaker went after vince mcmahon which gave the boss man a chance to launch a snake attack the martian episode of raw saw undertaker once again putting someone up on the giant undertaker's symbol although this one isn't remembered as well as the steve austin segment this time undertaker's wrestlemania opponent the big boss man done the honors however bossman was able to break free from the symbol this led to the corporation running out to help the boss man and also the police got involved the cops wanted to arrest the undertaker and after taker instructed paul bearer to make a phone call the undertaker put his hands out and allowed the police to arrest him vince mcmahon gloated as the undertaker was put into a police car backstage but it looked like the undertaker had a few plans up his sleeve here the following week's raw then shane mcmahon and vince mcmahon walked back up the entranceway after shane's match with the stooges a video on the titantron appeared showing the ministry of darkness live at vince mcmahon's home vince went backstage and he attempted to call police but they thought it was a publicity stunt when we got back from commercial the undertaker phoned vince mcmahon saying it's nearly 10 o'clock and does vince mcmahon know where his family is later in the evening we saw the undertaker symbol burning outside vince's house and the taker said that he is waiting for her to come home triple h meanwhile was having some problems with kane and hunter called the big red machine out towards the end of the show kane came out to fight with triple h and during the brawl vince mcmahon came to ringside and he pleaded with cain to talk with his older brother kane then removed his mask and this wasn't kane this was the undertaker undertaker grabbed vince mcmahon the lights went out and when the lights came back on vince was left standing in the ring looking seriously shook up let's skip ahead then the wrestlemania 15 and yeah not one of the undertakers better wrestlemania matches here it was cool at the time to see a hell in a cell match at wrestlemania and there were enough elements here to make this memorable but i think it comes down to undertaker's opponent here the big boss man not being as high on the cards as what he once was bossman could still go here don't get me wrong but for a hell of a sale match at wrestlemania in 1999 i think there may have been better choices to face undertaker here adding the fact that expectations were ridiculously high thanks to the mankind versus undertaker cell match from the year prior and yeah this was maybe doomed before it even started i'll say this though a lot of people comment on these taker videos about the phenom's attires and his different looks over the years his entrance and ring guitar at wrestlemania 15 is definitely one of my favorites anyway undertaker gets the win with the tombstone in a pretty unremarkable match people remember the ending though the brood appeared from the rafters and they dropped a noose into the ring undertaker grabbed it he put it around boss man's neck and paul bearer made the sale rise and yeah the boss man was left hanging from the hell in a cell structure at wrestlemania steve austin won the wwf championship at wrestlemania 15 and the next night on raw austin said he would relinquish the belt stone cold handed the belt to vince mcmahon but afterwards austin revealed he wasn't giving up the title just the title belt stone cold wanted his custom-made smoking skull belt back from vince mcmahon which was apparently at vince's home later on stephanie mcmahon vince's daughter was backstage with vincent chan and vince told stephanie to ring home and get the championship belt back to the arena back in the ring the ministry called advanced threatening to hurt sable if he didn't hurry up when vince came out he quickly realized that stephanie could be in trouble backstage vince just ran back to his room and stephanie had vanished ken shamrock managed to find her a little later on after persuading brood member christian to reveal her location and stephanie was returned to vince mcmahon the smoking skull belt was delivered vince left the arena with stephanie but the rock and shane mcmahon would end up holding onto the smoking skull belt for a little while longer shayne was defying vince's orders here when vince told shane just to give it to steve austin the next week undertaker promised to capture stephanie once again only this time the undertaker would sacrifice stephanie for revealing stephanie's whereabouts the week before christian was punished by the undertaker and the rest of the ministry a little later on and ken shamrock was also thrown into a car and abducted by the ministry to end the show undertaker didn't sacrifice stephanie but instead the ministry sacrificed ryan shamrock undertaker sent the message here though he wasn't about to give up serving his higher power just yet the next week sheen mcmahon took charge of what he called the new corporation as it seemed vince was too busy protecting stephanie ken shamrock questioned shane about where the corporation was when he was abducted and where was the corporation when his sister got sacrificed the week prior but sheen promised to give ken an answer later on sheen also fired jerry briscoe and pat patterson during this segment getting out with the old and then with the new and to finally solidify himself as the leader of the corporation he slapped vince in the face while saying vince mcmahon had his priorities all out of order later in the evening ken shamrock was about to get sacrificed but undertaker attacked christian before the deed could be done the undertaker ordered gangrel and edge to sacrifice christian also but the brood members refused and a fight broke out within the ministry of darkness the undertaker disappeared as the fight went on and the brood had now officially left the ministry i think this was for the best the brood were already unique enough and had gotten pretty popular without the ministry still they were a nice addition but i also think they could just do fine on their own to end the show ken shamrock called out the undertaker and this led to the ministry laying a beating into the world's most dangerous man we thought triple h and bossman were about to save shamrock but instead the corporation members continued beating up shamrock as shane mcmahon looked on with a smile the april 19th edition of raw then the undertaker orders the acolytes to destroy the brood in their tag match ken shamrock interfered in the match so the acolytes were unable to complete their mission undertaker was annoyed backstage leading the viscera and taker beating up farook and bradshaw after the match later on midian spooked vincent stephanie while the mcmahons were conducting a sit-down interview leading to an all-out assault by vince mcmahon at the backlash pay-per-view then later that week the undertaker told the ministry that they must now prepare for the arrival of the higher power before the main event match that pitted the rock against steve austin vince mcmahon had stephanie wait in a limousine until the end of the pay-per-view after the main event the cameras went back to the limo and because the ministry of darkness just appeared the security guys ordered the limousine to drive away we got a view from inside stephanie's ride the undertaker was revealed as the driver the ministry of darkness had finally kidnapped stephanie mcmahon where to stephanie the next night the ministry got ready to sacrifice stephanie undertaker had requested that vince mcmahon hand over the paperwork that would ultimately give the dead man complete control of the word wrestling federation but when vince tried to get the papers delivered the undertaker was not there and so the sacrifice was scheduled to happen during the last segment of raw when stephanie got brought into the ring it was revealed that she would not get sacrificed after all but instead she was about to enter an unholy union with the undertaker when the two got wed ken shamrock tried to stop the marriage big show tried to stop the marriage but it was stone cold steve austin who ran in and put an end to the ceremony the commentator said austin isn't helping stephanie for vince mcmahon but austin was saving stephanie as it was the right thing to do three days after this episode of raw wwf smackdown was put on tv for the very first time this was the pilot episode meaning this broadcast was used to test the waters in terms of attracting viewers and possible advertisers it's an interesting show for sure but it's also mandatory viewing for those wanting to get the full story on the corporate ministry the team was actually formed on this very night the show kicked off with vince and stephanie coming down to the ring being escorted by a security team here to ensure no kidnappings would happen on this night vincent stephanie got in the ring the audience began chanting some main things at vinnie mac but vince was determined to try and swing the audience here he admitted to making mistakes but he also said he wanted to change vince said that in the past he has sometimes conducted business at the expense of his family and he wants to turn a page and thank people who have helped him and helped his family vince thanked kane shamrock the big show and stone cold steve austin for stepping up against the ministry of darkness stephanie took the mic and talked about how she felt violated by the undertaker how she felt stripped of her dignity and the audience cheered in approval if the creative team were expecting fans to sympathize with stephanie and vince well the creative team got it wrong here anyway shane mcmahon and the corporation came to the ring sheen asked what happened to the most ruthless business tycoon in the world and why was vince out here thanking stone cold steve austin after everything they had been through shane told vince and stephanie to get out of the ring and to avoid conflict with the corporation vincent stephanie left the arena sheen went on to say that the two men currently on the corporation's head list were stone cold steve austin and the rock and these two men stone cold in the rock would team up in the main event of the evening sheehan asked for volunteers to face the rock in austin in a tag team match triple h put his hand up and sheen said triple h is in the match she and then asked for one more volunteer and when he asked if there were any takers the knights in the arena went out the undertaker's theme music played taker appeared on the titantron and he had a message for steve austin undertaker said that stone cold ruined a special ceremony on raw he stopped stephanie mcmahon from becoming the undertaker's bride and servant the dead man said that he would be austin's judge jury and executioner in the main event of the first ever smackdown so we had an odd coupling here of the corporations triple h and the ministry's undertaker taking on another odd coupling steve austin and the rock a bit later in the broadcast the rock and stone cold steve austin came out for an in-ring promo it was evident that the rock and austin were going to have difficulties getting along in their tag team match judging by the comments that they had for each other so when shane mcmahon walked out to interrupt the promo he made sure to mention how great it was that the rock and austin couldn't get along shane said his plans have been getting bigger and better and at that very moment the lights again and the arena went out the undertaker's music played and the prince of darkness stood beside shane mcmahon sheehan asked the rock and stone cold if this was beginning to make sense and just to ensure that austin and rock got the message the rest of the corporation and the rest of the ministry of darkness came out and stood beside shane and the undertaker jim cornett on commentary said that this looks like the corporate merger from hell and indeed it was sheen introduced us to the corporate ministry and she and mcmahon told austin and the rock that they better rethink their strategy so this was it the birth of the corporate ministry the two biggest healed factions in the world wrestling federation at the time joining forces before the main event match on smackdown we saw shane giving the corporate ministry a pep talk it seemed like shin was going to be the leader here everyone was gathered around listening to him talk about how the group was created by him and how the team would be dominant the tag team match then felt like a pay-per-view main event this was a great fast pace bout that helped set the tone for smackdown this wasn't going to be a secondary b show smackdown would feature the wwf's best each and every week anyway the match broke down into a brawl towards the closing moments the corporate ministry ran down to give austin and rock a dq win and afterwards tess big show and ken shamrock hit the ring to help austin and the rock all three of these men were once part of the corporation but had either left or got ejected from the stable shane mcmahon felt this was a good opportunity to interfere with a steel chair but vince mcmahon came to the ring to stop his son sheen managed to pass the chair to the undertaker and vince got in the ring and took a sick chair shot from the dead man i mean this one looked pretty painful this gave stone cold steve austin an opportunity to hit stunners on both the undertaker and shane mcmahon and the show went off the air the may third episode of raw then was totally dominated by the corporate ministry storyline just so you know where we are at this point then the corporate ministry's main enemies were vince mcmahon stone cold and the rock shane mcmahon had merged the corporation and the ministry to become the most dominant faction in the world wrestling federation even though the undertaker had been stalking shane's sister and making life difficult for shane's father it was soon revealed too that sheen had orchestrated the kidnapping of stephanie mcmahon he was supposedly responsible for the whole thing a lot of people talk about how the corporate ministry didn't make any sense but you have to really consider shane mcmahon and all of this people jumped at a higher power reveal without considering how shane mcmahon was defying vince before the corporate ministry became a thing and how shane felt that vince had lost his nerve and had gone soft sheen was power hungry he didn't care about his family he wanted destruction and to do this he brought together the two biggest healed factions in the world wrestling federation yes the greater power reveal did leave people scratching their heads but we will get to that soon i will say this so she and mcmahon bragging about having money and having great looks while standing beside the prince of darkness did seem like a bad fit anyway triple h would mainly feud with the rock and the undertaker would mainly feud with wwf champion steve austin undertaker versus austin was booked for over the age 1999 with shane mcmahon as the special referee and the undertaker promised to win the wwf championship out of the pay-per-view taker also said that stone cold would get sacrificed to the higher power the night after over the edge but plans changed here due to owen hart's accident at the over the edge show during the opening segment of raw here while the corporate ministry were in the ring cutting promos on vince the rock and stone cold four men who were once in the corporation came to the stage forming yet another faction here is mick foley test ken shamrock and the big show became known as the union foley described the group as a bunch of disgruntled former employees of the corporation and the union decided to hit the ring to have a fight with the corporate ministry this attack here would shape the remainder of raw as corporate ministry members were booked into matches with the union throughout the night vince mcmahon showed up at the arena and he sent his wife and daughter back to their hotel vince promised to beat some respect in the shame and he didn't want the other family members seeing this things didn't start off very well as we saw vince getting thrown around his locker room by triple h and the undertaker but the sheen vs vince match still went on as planned it looked like shane would win this one thanks to vince getting softened up before the match but vince managed to hit a stone cold stunner on chien and vince got the win the audience too gave the reaction that the creative team had been looking for the crowd popped for vince hitting the stunner and it seemed like the audience were not accepting that vince was the lesser evil here for the main event shane mcmahon booked steve austin versus the rock in a lumberjack match the lumberjacks of course would be the corporate ministry the rock and austin didn't even touch each other straight away a fight broke out between rock and austin and the corporate ministry it all broke down in seconds vince mcmahon came out and he didn't just bring the union with him but he brought every other member of the wwf roster to the ring the brawl ended with rock and austin getting thrown off the stage by triple h and the undertaker the storyline would continue full force the next week on roth the may 10th 1999 episode we got to see the corporate ministry arrive at the arena and immediately afterwards we saw vince lead the union faction into the arena also led by a riot squad the union and vince mcmahon went to the ring and vince called shane out shane and the ministry came out and just as the two factions were about to go to war commissioner sean michaels appeared on the screen sean said that shane's matchbooking the previous week was okay but hbk could do better sean took a look at the over the edge match card and noticed shane was the special referee for the taker vs austin wwf championship match and he decided to add vince mcmahon as a second referee sean then made changes to the raw card he booked the match between farook and bradshaw with the union as lumberjacks he booked a night stick on a pole match between tess and the boss man he booked briscoe and paterson versus the main street posse the losers had to leave the wwf forever sean also announced that ken shamrock would face china the big show would take on paul bearer an announcement that made paul bearer faint viscera and midian would take on hardcore legend cactus jack in a handicapped match hbk booked sable versus deborah in an evening game match of course this was unrelated to the corporate ministry but anyway the main event match would be a six-man tag undertaker triple h and shane mcmahon versus the rock steve austin and vince mcmahon sean said that this main event needed a special referee and he teased on the screen that the referee would need to be a showstopper and an icon shane caught on and said sean was all the way over in san antonio so it couldn't be him which led sean that asking the riot squad guys to remove their helmets pat patterson and jerry briscoe took off their helmets and sean asked the third guy to reveal himself it was shawn michaels himself live and in living color hbk would referee the main event match the first match was the paul bearer versus big shoebag it didn't last long big show asked the undertaker to come to the ring after taking out bearer but undertaker brought the cavalry leading to the union coming down to help the big show the boss man defeated test and the night stick on a pole match and cactus jack won his handicap match against viscera and midian the acolyte said they wouldn't fight each other fruit said everyone knows who would win the fight anyway and this made bradshaw get a little snobby with his tag partner a fight broke out between the two the lumberjack match got underway but then midian viscera and the boss man came down to stop the match the bout ended with everyone bailing except viscera he was left to take a beating from the union the main street policy then took on briscoe and patterson the stooges got the win when briscoe locked in a figure four and this would mean per stipulation said by sean michaels that the main street posse now had to leave the world wrestling federation triple h escorted chyna to the ring for her match with ken shamrock shamrock was attacked by both triple h and china and the match didn't get underway shamrock had a belly-to-belly suplex on china and he left the ring shawn michaels then came to the ring to main event the six-man tag main event and this one was more of a wild brawl than anything else still very fun to watch though stone cold got the win for his team when he penned sheen mcmahon the next episode of raw also was a lot of fun something you'll notice about these 1999 episodes of the monday night show is that each episode had its own little story within a bigger storyline arc and it was always different every week something that we don't seem to have anymore on monday nights but anyway the hits kept coming here is the rock face the undertaker in a casket match and the main event featured triple h taking on steve austin at the start of the show shane announced that the union may have problems getting to the arena thanks to the corporate ministry doing a little work on their car and she went on to say that vince mcmahon steve austin and the rock are all on the corporate ministry's hit list this evening and the corporate ministry will systematically take out each and every one during the entire broadcast we would see the corporate ministry backstage planning snake attacks on their victims in order to get the upper hand before the over the edge pay-per-view the corporate ministry first took out vince mcmahon triple h china and the undertaker were waiting in vince's closet to launch their attack and we saw vince getting stretchered away to receive medical attention the corporate ministry were then seen backstage and we could hear undertaker saying that he would take care of austin stonecold went to the ring for a promo he was interrupted by the corporate ministry and just as the faction was about to attack austin the union showed up and a fight broke out stone cold grabbed paul bearer he threw him into the ring and in order to send a message to the undertaker paul bearer took a stone cold stunner the undertaker's casket match with the rock was up next this one really wasn't all that competitive and it was quite short but it did give us this excellent people's elbow that would get replayed over and over again during the match we saw the union and the corporate ministry brawling in the back and triple h shin and china came down to the ring to give undertaker an unfair advantage triple h hit the rock with his sledgehammer right on the rock's cafe an arm rock was put in the casket by triple h and undertaker gets the win the casket got locked and triple h went on a rampage with his sledgehammer completely destroying the casket with the rock inside the rock then was taken away in an ambulance so the corporate ministry had taken two of their enemies out all that was left was stone cold steve austin the hills were waiting for steve austin to appear backstage so they could jump the texas rattlesnake but the union showed up and put an end to those plans the austin versus triple h main event then would go ahead as planned and this was another good raw main event that's worth your time towards the end of the match we could see the undertaker's symbol coming down into the ring and it looked like we were going to see another sacrifice here as the undertaker's music played in the arena the corporate ministry though ended up getting cleaned out by the union the undertaker tried to handcuff austin to the symbol but austin was able to get the cuffs on the undertaker and so the undertaker himself was raised in the air on his own symbol to end this episode of raw the owen heart accident that the over the edge 1999 pay-per-view is what rightfully overshadows everything else that happened at this show there's arguments to be made here about how the wrestlers performances may have been different had the harrowing news of owens passing not spread around the locker room and there's also the fact that this show here should have been cancelled altogether after the accident but the show went on the rock faced triple h austin had a title defense against the undertaker in the main event and members of the corporate ministry took on the union in an 8-man elimination tag match on sunday night hate vince mcmahon suffered a damaged angle during an attack by the corporate ministry and so it was possible he wouldn't be able to referee the title match along with shane but more on that later in the 8-man tag the acolytes viscera and the boss man took on ken shamrock the big show test and mankind it wasn't a great match to be honest it came down to mankind versus the boss man and mick foley got the win with the help of mr sago the rock was attacked by triple h in china before their match and the story of the rock versus triple h here was all about rock's exposed broken arm this wasn't a bad match they've had better showdowns but it was hard to watch this at the time because of the owen heart announcement so you can only imagine how difficult it was to go out and perform on this night the rock ended up winning via dq triple h punched referee earl hebner to give rock the win and the two men continued to fight after the match mick foley came out to help rocky when triple h in china had a numbers advantage and yeah it was okay main event time stone cold versus the undertaker shane mcmanus is the special referee and the second referee vince mcmahon had seemingly been taken out of the equation earlier in the night shane mcmahon made his way to the ring first and everyone's surprised there would be a second referee after all pat patterson put on the stripes and it looked like he would be officiating the match alongside shane things got off to a wonderful start when the undertaker choke slammed pat patterson before steve austin even got to the ring you just knew then that the finish of this match would somehow include the referees it kind of took away from what was going on in the ring still it was decent austin versus taker had over the edge as weird as that pay-per-view was the match wasn't that bad jerry briscoe ran down to try and act as the second referee but he too got taken out vince would make a miraculous recovery but shane stopped him from counting undertaker's shoulders to the mat shane ended up pushing vince into austin austin fell into a rollup by the undertaker sheen performed a fast count and the undertaker won his third wwf championship it's so strange watching this back the undertaker winning any championship is always a monumental occasion for wwe fans but there's hardly any reaction from the audience here over the age 1999 and itself just shouldn't have happened after the owen heart accident and if you want proof just look at this reaction after the main event the next week's raw had a complete format change in order to pay tribute to owen heart it was business as usual on the may 31st 1999 episode however the show kicked off with the corporate ministry bringing the undertaker symbol to the ring as jim ross told us on commentary that the greater power would be revealed on this very night the higher power that the undertaker had been talking about for months undertaker confirmed in the ring that the greater power would indeed make an appearance on raw this evening vince mcmahon came out and vince said that the undertaker screwed steve austin it over the edge and therefore vince will screw the undertaker on this evening boy that doesn't sound right vince said that the undertaker would defend the wwf championship against stone cold steve austin in the main event live on raw shane said the belt wouldn't be on the line but yeah the match would still happen taker versus austin once again vince also announced that he himself would face the undertaker and because vince showed he still had big grapefruits sheen said that if vince wins the match then the undertaker would put his belt on the line later in the evening against austin if any union member interfered though austin wouldn't get a title shot ever again the vince vs undertaker match went down in the middle of raw then and the audience were very much in vince's corner here the referee tried to stop the undertaker from destroying vince in the corner but the undertaker shoved the referee twice causing mike kyoda to disqualify the undertaker and award the victory to vince mcmahon this means the main event would be a wwf title match austin vs undertaker before the match we saw the undertaker backstage where he said he would not fail his greater power main event time and the audience made all the difference here when you compare this match to the over the edge 1999 showdown not much of this match took place in the ring then the two men battled outside of the squared circle for most of the match when the action got moved into the ring austin hit a stone-cold stunner but paul bearer pulled the referee out of the ring the corporate ministry hit the ring and stone cold got tied up in the ropes it was time for the greater power to make an appearance out he or she walked jim ross and jerry lawler speculated that it was sheen the boy wonder wasn't in the ring after all so it was a good guess we wouldn't find out though the only person who found out who the greater power was was stone cold steve austin when austin saw under the hood he looked extremely extremely annoyed here we go then the june 7 99 episode of monday night raw it's time to find out who the greater power is raw starts off with vince mcmahon coming down to the ring talking about how he is just as intrigued as everyone else about this greater power thing vince talked about who the greater power could be saying that some people think it's the commissioner sean michaels some people think it's a mcmahon family member and some people even think it's jake the snake roberts regardless vince said he would go one on one with the greater power that evening vince said himself he believes the greater power is shane mcmahon and he has no problems fighting shane the corporate ministry came out for the next segment and shane mcmahon was absent during the entrance taker talked about how he had talked about the higher power for months how the corporate ministry had led the groundwork for his arrival and it was time for the higher power to reveal himself to the world someone more evil than the undertaker someone with more power than the corporate ministry it was time for months and months of build up to pay off when the greater power was in the ring sheen walked out onto the stage so all bets were off it wasn't channel mac shane got in the ring and explained that the greater power is a master thinker he knows what makes us all tick he knows how to exploit people for the benefit of the corporate ministry it was time for the big reveal vince mcmahon came on the titanfront he said the game was over and it was time for the greater power to hurry up and show his face and then it happened it's me austin oh son of a [ __ ] what it's me austin it was me all along austin damn i cannot believe it vince mcmahon it was vince mcmahon all along the whole thing for weeks months even it was all a ploy vince mcmahon wanted to teach steve austin a lesson he wanted to get the title from the rattlesnake and vince mcmahon was proving there was absolutely nothing he wouldn't do to make austin's life a living hell stephanie and linda mcmahon came out stephanie asked how could vince be so cruel to her vince said it's just business and love has nothing to do with business linda took the microphone and she said yeah then let's talk business linda revealed that the four mcmahons owned four equal shares in the wwf and that morning linda had called a meeting with the board directors changes were going to be made in wwf offices including a lighter dress code profanity would be welcomed and drinking on the job would also become part of daily wwf life what linda was getting at here was that she had stepped down as ceo of the wwf but she hand-picked her own successor the new ceo was introduced taking on stephanie and linda's shares within the company and it was none other than stone cold steve austin so in one segment the greater power angle was pretty much thrown away to basically continue the austin versus mcmahon rivalry remember undertaker had spoke about the greater power for months even when he wasn't involved in battles with austin but here we are the undertaker himself said that this was the lowest point of this evil era for him saying that the greater power stuff really diluted his evil character and i firmly agree with austin noye as the ceo he would have the ability to book matches that worked against the corporate ministry and admittedly austin's time as ceo had some quite funny moments the complete wwf ownership though was put up for grabs in a ladder match at the 1999 king of the ring shane and vince versus steve austin and the mcmahons won the match check this one out too i thought this one was very entertaining even considering the talent involved in the bite the rock also challenged the undertaker here for the wwf championship and the undertaker left king of the rings still the champion but before austin lost the ladder match he had booked himself to get a title shot at the wwf champion the very next night on raw austin faced the undertaker and austin became the champion once again on raw after the match the undertaker hit austin with the title belt making him bleed this then led to a first blood match between undertaker and austin it fully loaded 1999 if austin lost he would never compete for the wwf title again if austin won austin would never see vince mcmahon again and the wwf austin won the match and he gave vince mcmahon a goodbye stone cold stunner at the end of the show triple h was named the number one contender around this time it was now his time to shine and the evolution of triple h as the game had begun the night after fully loaded the undertaker's unholy alliance with the big show started when show helped take her fend off an attack from kane later in the broadcast tater and big show announced that they were going to take over the wwf and so this left everyone wondering what was going on with the corporate ministry triple h had a new attitude he was going after his first wwf championship and so his focus was on the main event and not so much being a team player vince mcmahon had to leave the wwf as per stipulated in the undertaker versus austin fully loaded match so yeah this was pretty much the end of the corporate ministry triple h was scheduled to win the wwf title at summerslam 1999 however stone cold steve austin wasn't comfortable dropping the title to him so instead mick foley was added to the match fully won the title and the night after summerslam triple h defeated mick foley to begin his first wwf title run the undertaker and big show formed this unholy alliance but that will be covered in a future video on the august 2nd 1999 edition of raw then shane mcmahon pretty much disbanded the corporate ministry and he ended up starting with triple h in china the acolytes would continue on as a tag team and the others split off and done their own thing the unholy alliance tag team featuring the undertaker in the big show is a topic that hasn't been covered very much here on youtube and i can definitely see why that is the undertaker had just had an incredible run with the ministry of darkness and while the corporate ministry stuff may have been seen as a bit of a let down for undertaker fans the dead man was still featured in the wwf's biggest angles at the time after the corporate ministry fizzled out the wwf creative team would need to come up with something for the undertaker to do and similar to how the undertaker was used to elevate lesser superstars via the ministry of darkness the phenom was used once again to try and help get talent over this time it was the big show the team of the undertaker in the big show known as the unholy alliance didn't garner half as much popularity as the ministry of darkness and even today a lot of wrestling fans like to pretend the tag team just didn't happen but there is a whole lot of interesting stuff to explore here from the undertaker showing the first signs of his american badass character to the rocky relationship backstage that the undertaker had with the big show let's not waste any more time then as we take a look at the unholy alliance to gain a full understanding then of this tag team we need to go back to the july 26 1999 episode of monday night raw the night after the fully loaded 99 pay-per-view at this show the undertaker was defeated by stone cold steve austin in a first blood match axe pock had run in during the bite to help austin secure the win so the undertaker was out for revenge the next night on raw he wanted to find axe puck the prince of darkness attacked axe pock and road dog backstage on raw but this wasn't enough he wanted to give axe pock a further baiting inside the ring during the beat down the undertaker's brother and xbox tag partner kane showed up and the big red machine went after the prince of darkness keep in mind that the undertaker had also attacked kane the previous knight had fully loaded also when it looked like kian was getting the upper hand the big show who had also defeated keanu fully loaded the night before came down to the ring and show helped the undertaker beat up kane in the middle of the squared circle the two men shook hands after they destroyed kian and just like that we have a new tag team just to get this out of the way also the tag team were never not once referred to as the unholy alliance during entrances they never had a tag team name the unholy alliance name came from jr referring to them as such on commentary so now kane was out for revenge later that night a handicapped match was booked featuring the big red machine taking on the undertaker and the big show show an undertaker had the upper hand until kane introduced a steel chair outside the ring while the referee was distracted the undertaker ended up getting his hands on the chair though and kane took a shot to the head ending the match in a disqualification win for the big red machine big show and undertaker continued to attack kian after the bell leading to the road dog coming down to the ring and also taking a baiting from this new intimidating tag team later in the evening the undertaker in the big show had a backstage interview where the undertaker said the days of scary music and scary entrances are over the show he knows what evil is and now the whole world will know what evil is the days of armageddon are upon us this is quite interesting when you consider that the american badass character would debut after this unholy alliance angle had finished up almost as if the undertaker wanted to move on from his scary dark character and try something else the big show had only been in the wwe for around five months at this point coming from wcw here and getting used to a more organized and structured wrestling company you'd think that getting paired up with the undertaker would have made big show a happy man i mean he was getting an incredible opportunity to team up with one of the all-time legends of the world wrestling federation big shoe was excited of course but he was also dealing with a serious amount of nerves in regards to the unholy alliance the big show admits that he was still green he had a great look of course but he also admits that he didn't have what it took to be in the main events just yet and on top of this the big show had walked into a competitive wwf locker room after working in wcw the land of guaranteed money a lot of wwf guys saw wcw talent as a threat to their spot on the cards so the big show felt he had to prove himself to the veterans of the locker room which in turn caused him a great deal of stress on steve austin's broken skull sessions on the wwe network the big show talked about this opportunity and he said after i fell on my face a few times the undertaker took me under his wing to see what kind of guy i was i was good friends with brian adams bran adams and the undertaker were real close so i think bran put in a good word for me i started working with the undertaker then and the undertaker was relentless on me he would blister me about bumping too much over selling not enough aggression and ring cardio i remember having matches and knowing i screwed up and instead of going back up the ramp through gorilla i would go up the side of the ramp because i knew he was waiting for me so this gives us great insight into the relationship the undertaker had with the big show and it definitely sounds like tough love undertaker wanted to help the big show but the undertaker was going to be a strict coach and the big show didn't really know how to deal with the feedback he was getting not only from his tag team partner but from the office as well i highly recommend checking out the broken skull sessions though on the wwe network this one here with the big show was a real eye-opener in regards to how newtown got treated in the wwf locker rooms during the attitude era it seemed like a case of kill or be killed the august second episode of raw featured taker and show taking on kane and the road dog and a tag team match new theme music had been put together for this hail tag time kind of mixing the slow plotting drum loop of the big show's theme along with the orchestra work usually found in the undertaker's music some people may have liked the unholy alliance theme but it wasn't for me personally especially after the undertaker had been using the excellent ministry of darkness music for so long up until this point you can also tell that the big show and the undertaker really weren't gelling that well during this match their timing was off on more than one occasion the undertaker seemingly had to improvise on a few spots and yeah it wasn't great to be honest tiger and show got the win after taker hit the tombstone pile driver later on in the evening wwf champion steve austin had an interview spot and he was interrupted by the undertaker and big show taker told austin that he wants a wwf title rematch against austin before he and show gave austin a beating in the ring what you should take away here though is that the undertaker talked in a very different manner gone were the cryptic messages about the dark side and resting in pace all that stuff undertaker was now more casual when he threatened stone cold steve austin anyway austin said he would give taker a title match a no-holds-barred match was booked for that evening but the bout never took place triple h came to the ring and told the undertaker that it was triple h's time not the undertakers and a brawl broke out between stone cold the big show the undertaker and triple h the ring filled up with more and more superstars wanting to fight each other and the show went off the air after the big show and the undertaker had a run-in with the rock on sunday night 8 the people's champion kicked off the august 9th edition of raw and the rock had some choice words for the big show this one was quite memorable many people will remember the rock imitating the big show during this promo a timeless classic anyway undertaker and big show came out they attacked rocky and this led to keon x-pop and the road dog all hitting the ring making show and taker retreat a little later on the rock came out and issued a challenge to the big show but he was interrupted by the millennium clock that had been counting down over the past month or so this of course was the chris jericho wwf debut here just thought i'd throw that in rock and big show did have a match on this evening but the match ended when chris jericho distracted the rock allowing rock summerslam opponent billy gunn to hit the ring and begin an attack on the great one the main event then on this episode of raw was a triple threat match triple h vs china versus the undertaker the winner would become the number one contender for the wwf championship getting their championship match at summerslam 99 with sean michaels refereeing the match and jesse ventura on commentary this one turned out to be a fun main event that saw china pin triple h china actually became the number one contender here and the wwf led us to believe that the ninth wonder of the world would mean event summerslam along with the texas rattlesnake china also beat triple h in a singles match the following week but this is a story for another time focusing back on the undertaker in the big show the august 16th episode of raw featured an in-ring interview segment with the unholy alliance undertaker again talked in a more casual manner telling fans to sit down and shut up and i point this out because this isn't the kind of verbiage the undertaker would have used previously it was quite out of character for the undertaker to address the audience like this but still let's continue on the undertaker announced here that the big show and himself were coming for the tag team titles at summerslam and afterwards the undertaker talked about how he and the big show went on a motorback journey through death valley the big show ran out of gas so he walked the rest of the journey with a motorbike on his back taker said this was all done to test the big show and the big show passed this test by showing how committed he was by walking for two days in 120 degree heat taker said that summerslam is now known as armageddon and the tag titles were coming to the unholy alliance even the most die-hard undertaker fans have to admit here that this one fell kind of flat we know the undertaker was trying new stuff here there was this mix of the evil undertaker and a more humanized motorback riding dead man that was putting guys to the test i get what they were trying to do but the execution just wasn't that good check this one out for yourself though you'll know what i mean after watching it chris jericho interrupted the promo most people remember y2j interrupting the rock during his debut but no one really talks about jericho's second wig here jericho ruffled the undertaker's feathers jericho talked about how the undertaker and the big show were boring and how people would be changing the channel when these two came to the ring and chris wrote in his second book that saying these things about a legend like the undertaker wasn't exactly the smartest move okay moving on to summerslam then the wwf tag titles were on the line when keane and axe pock defended the belts against the big show and the undertaker in terms of timing and working together as a team the undertaker and big show were much better here than what they had been a few weeks ago they still weren't the road warriors by any stretch of the imagination but they did look a lot better here so credit where it's due towards the end of the match the big show penned x puck with one foot x-pac kicked out and the undertaker got seriously annoyed taker tagged himself in he tuned stoned axe pog and he got the pinfall win after the belts were handed to the unholy alliance the undertaker screamed at the big show for his cocky pin attempt this is worth noting here remember that the big show was legitimately getting chewed out backstage by the undertaker and now the same thing was happening on tv screens or imitating life it seemed the big shoe and the undertaker had a tag title defense the next night on raw against the acolytes the undertaker was not keen on getting involved in this match he stood in his corner and watched as the acolytes double teamed the big show it seems like undertaker wanted to teach the big show a lesson here the match ended though when kane and axe pop got involved these two were at the commentary desk during the bite a brawl broke out between all the men the bell rung and the undertaker chewed out the big show once again at the entranceway later in the evening kane and x-pac had a match with viscera and miriam and the unholy alliance were on commentary for the bite this gives us more examples of the undertaker changing how he communicated with fans he was much more cocky no more telling people about the creatures of the night things like that taker wanted to come across as a badass and he was doing a good job here the acolytes came down to the ring during the match so he pretty much had the core ministry of darkness faction here either in the ring or surrounding it viscera and midian won the match by the way not much happening here except taker showing a new side to his character at summerslam or shortly after it the undertaker had suffered a groin injury that was going to take him out of action viewers who have been watching old undertaker matches as i post these videos will notice that he had a small yet noticeable limp when walking to the ring but he kept working things must have gotten bad around summerslam though because the undertaker's ring time would end up getting incredibly limited i assume he didn't want to take time off right away and instead try to work through the pain but he just couldn't do it smackdown went wiggly on august 26 99 the unholy alliance were scheduled to defend their tag titles in a triple threat match that also featured the acolytes and kane and xpoc but the undertaker didn't work the match he provided colour commentary as big show defended the gold all on his own further proof here that undertaker was in no shape to perform undertaker said on commentary that big show needs to realize that he's a killer his performance at summerslam was an embarrassment and the big show needs to prove himself taker even slapped the big show during the match saying if he wants the knowledge to be like the undertaker then he needs to get in the ring and win the match and this motivation seemed to work big show went on to win the bite the next week on raw the undertaker was booked into a match with the rock if the rock won he'd get a wwf title opportunity undertaker in the big show got in the ring undertaker grabbed the mic and the dead man announced that after some thought he would actually not wrestle the rock but instead he would allow the big show to do it taker again went on commentary saying that the rock doesn't deserve to be in the ring with the dead man and so the big show work that falls can't anywhere match here with the great one himself the big show once again got a pinfall victory here if the undertaker wanted the big show to prove himself then big show was doing a good job of it later that evening the rock and the big show would step into the ring once again this time in a tag match the unholy alliance versus the rock and mankind the wwf tag titles were on the line and while the undertaker did stand in his team's corner he didn't get tagged in during the entirety of the match paul bear showed the undertaker something at ringside something that was in his jacket we couldn't see what it was but it caused undertaker to abandon the match leaving the big show to lose the tag titles to the rock and mankind so why did the undertaker walk away and what did paul bearer just show the undertaker well we would never find out the big show called out the undertaker on smackdown that week the big show didn't immediately get the undertaker but instead he got paul bearer paul bear said the undertaker made the big show and the undertaker could destroy the big show the big show though wasn't listening to it he took out paul bearer and this led to the undertaker now coming to the ring the dead man whispered something to the big show big show looked a little surprised then taker grabbed the big show by the throat telling the big man to never disrespect him again show left with the undertaker and we were left scratching our heads no idea what was going on here everything was super secretive what did undertaker just whisper to the big show again we would never find out the september 6 episode of raw gave us our first real glimpse of the american badass character undertaker was backstage with the big show looking very different here the undertaker said that he and the big show were going to exercise their right to a tag title rematch on smackdown they wanted the rock and sock connection and a buried alive match on thursday night the rock gave us some more comedy gold when he and mankind accepted the challenge on smackdown then the undertaker was much more physical than what he had been over the past few weeks but still he wasn't taking any big bumps or high impact moves this match still comes recommended though there were some great spots during the match like when the big show threw mankind from the stage right into the grave great stuff here triple h attacked the rock when the fight spilled into the backstage area rock was able to come back and take out the undertaker but triple h then showed up at the gravesite the game took out the big show and then triple h himself buried mankind meaning the big show and undertaker had won the tag team titles once again on the september 13th edition of raw linda mcmahon announced that the wwf champion triple h had dug his own grave due to his actions on smackdown and a five-way match was booked for raw with the winner being named the number one contender the match featuring mick foley kane the rock the big show and the undertaker would be a no disqualification match the winner would go on the unforgiven to face the world wrestling federation champion taker and big show had another backstage interview during this episode of raw and the undertaker was back in his bagger gear also during the five-way match undertaker did get physical again but he still wasn't taking big bumps strangely viscera and midian were at ringside and they helped the undertaker in big show jerry lawler said that viscera and midian were learning from the undertaker the same way the big show was but nothing ended up coming of it more on that later the match never got an official winner a giant brawl broke out that included the entire wwf roster near enough so we would have to tune in the smackdown to see what was going on on smackdown that week it was announced that a six-pack challenge match would happen at unforgiven for the wwf championship and a five-man royal rumble took place to see who would get the first shot at the champion during the six-pack match the undertaker came out at number five again dressed in his bagger gear and the dead man went straight to the commentary desk the undertaker though would end up winning this royal rumble match while the rock and big show were busy trying to eliminate each other taker just left the commentary desk and got in the ring and he proceeded to toss both men over the top rope big shoe got pissed off but viscera and million were there to back up the undertaker the next week on raw big shoe and undertaker dropped their tag titles to mankind and the rock it must have been at this point where the undertaker realized that he needed to take time off it seemed like the wwf wanted to get the tag titles from the unholy alliance as soon as possible so rock and mankind once again became tag champions their match here on raw was a dark side ruse match a three on two match that included midian viscera and big show on one side and the rock and shot connection on the other undertaker once again provided commentary and yeah the unholy alliance lost the belt here on smackdown vince mcmahon ordered the undertaker to work a casket match with triple h the undertaker refused telling vince that nobody can tell the undertaker what to do vince said that if the undertaker doesn't compete in the casket match then he is out of the six-pack challenge at unforgiven taeger didn't seem to care the phenom said that maybe he won't be around to compete in any matches at all in the future and he walked away this was the undertaker's exit from the wwf for a while he needed to heal up and take a break davey boy smith ended up taking undertaker's spot and the unforgiven main event [Music] [Music] [Music] so you

Channel: Wrestling Bios

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Keywords: Wrestling lists, wwe lists, wrestling bios, wwf undertaker, wwe undertaker, undertaker last ride, undertaker career, undertaker wrestler, undertaker vs kane, wrestling bios undertaker, undertaker wwf debut, 90s wwe, 90s wwf, undertaker wrestling bios, wrestling stories, wrestling facts, wwe stories, wwe facts, wrestler documentary, wrestling documentary, wwe documentary, undertaker wwe documentary, undertaker documentary

Id: nXfr42ZAPGE

Length: 166min 27sec (9987 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020