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• The Undertaker's Ministry Of Darkness Era

• The Undertaker Begins Targeting Mr. McMahon And His Family

• Steve Austin Ended Up Helping Vince McMahon And Saving Stephanie

• The Aftermath Of The Undertaker Angle Got Even More Bizarre

Wedding segments are no stranger to WWE. Many of our favorite wrestling personalities have looked to tie the knot inside the square circle, with someone usually crashing the ceremony and ruining their special day. The “love story” of The Undertaker and Stephanie McMahon is way more twisted than the others we’ve witnessed, however. Their story would culminate in an infamous Attitude Era segment known as “The Black Wedding".

The Undertaker's Ministry Of Darkness Era

In early 1999, the Undertaker underwent a radical character transformation, becoming a more demonic version of himself and forming a cult-like stable known as the Ministry of Darkness, going as far as to carve his insignia into the chest of an unconscious Dennis Knight on the January 4, 1999 episode of Raw, cutting his own wrist and feeding the former pig farmer the blood of The Deadman as some sort of initiation. He gave him his new name Mideon in a segment that would raise the brow of parental organizations around the country.

This was a new shocking iteration of The Undertaker character that was both extremely provocative and insanely edgy, often catching flack for using what many considered religious iconography. He often “sacrificed” his opponents on a cross-like “symbol”, suspending them in air with their hands tied and his arms stretched wide. He even hung the Big Bossman after a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 15. It was truly a different time in WWE.

RELATED: 5 Reasons The Ministry Of Darkness Was The Best Attitude Era Stable (& 5 Better Alternatives)

The Undertaker Begins Targeting Mr. McMahon And His Family

The Phenom became obsessed with overtaking WWE and began to target the boss, hitting close to home by targeting Mr.McMahons loved ones, specifically his newly debuted daughter, Stephanie. It was a captivating storyline that would see the indomitable Mr.McMahon begin to break with the threat of his little girl being harmed. This is one of the only times the audience was made to see the boss in this light, adding a sympathetic element to his character.

On the night of Backlash 1999 The Undertaker and his ministry were able to successfully kidnap the future Mrs. McMahon-Helmsley with Vince briefly leaving her side to take care of business in the main event that night between The Rock and Steve Austin. The next night on Raw, Mr. McMahon would arrive to the arena with a breifcase containing documents that would grant “controlling interest” of WWE as part of a hostage negotiation. They would negotiate a rendezvous point, with the caveat that Austin, Mr. McMahon’s arch rival must be the one to deliver the goods to The Undertaker. McMahon would beg Austin to put their differences aside for the greater good of his family, proclaiming that he needed Austin, to which Austin replied he needed Mr.McMahon…to kiss his ass.

Steve Austin Ended Up Helping Vince McMahon And Saving Stephanie

With Austin not budging, McMahon took it upon himself to go meet with The Undertaker at the agreed upon exchange point, but Taker would not show up as he had actually been hiding out in the arena with his ministry and Stephanie in tow. It was time for the main event segment that night. The Undertaker’s badass attitude era remix of his theme would play and The Ministry would make their way to the ring with Stephanie tied to the aforementioned “symbol” in a black wedding dress, screaming for help the entire way to the ring. Taker would make his intentions clear with a quick pre-nuptial promo. He was going to marry the boss's daughter that night, beating Triple H to the punch by about four years. Paul Bearer would host the proceedings, naturally, with many members of McMahon’s allies from The Corporation running in to try and stop the ceremony but to no avail, being beat down by members of The Ministry.

At the last minute however, just as The Lord of Darkness as going to kiss his bride, the glass would break to a HUGE pop, with Austin running down to put an end to this crazy segment with stunners and chair shots for the whole Ministry. The ring would clear out and Austin would untie Stephanie from The Undertaker’s “symbol”, with Stephanie giving The Rattlesnake a great big hug that he was not sure how to react to. Vince would shortly run down to the ring, hugging his daughter and thanking Austin for saving her from having to marry The Undertaker. This storyline was extremely popular and would eventually lead to the highest rated RAW in history just two weeks later, drawing an 8.1, although running unopposed by Nitro.

The Aftermath Of The Undertaker Angle Got Even More Bizarre

This was undoubtedly the peak of this storyline, as shortly after WWE would make some puzzling decisions, such as merging The Ministry with Shane McMahon’s Corporation, forming The Corporate Ministry, taking a lot of the heat away from Taker. They would soon begin teasing the reveal of “The Higher Power”, the actual mastermind behind this evil plan. Internet speculation would run wild as to who The Higher Power would be, only leading to disappointment when it was revealed after all of this time to be…Mr. McMahon. What?