Backlash - April 25, 1999
As his music began playing throughout the arena, "The World's Most Dangerous Man," Ken Shamrock, made his way down the aisle to the ring, to what was to be the most important match of his career.
It wasn't about titles, it wasn't even about pride; it was about family, and reconnecting he and his baby sister, once and for all.
Kenny had made the horrible mistake of leaving his little sister, Ryan, in a nearby hotel room the Monday night prior, feeling she'd be safe away from the arena, as Kenny was scheduled for a match to face his former comrade and tag team partner, The Big Boss Man, in singles competition.
Little did he know, however, that the Undertaker, and more likely than not, his minions, the Acolytes, Mideon, Viscera, and their trusted spiritual advisor, Paul Bearer — collectively known as the Ministry of Darkness — would hunt his baby sister down and would abduct her once again.
It had been a whole six days since he had last seen Ryan, and Kenny knew that in order for him to get his little sister back, he had one mission and one mission only to accomplish: break the leg of the Undertaker.
It was that simple.
No one knew exactly what had happened to Mark.
Sure, he had always been a loner, more on the dark side than others, often leaning towards the shadows rather than being overtly noticing, however, in the past couple of weeks, Taker had changed, and to the views of many, changed for the absolute worst.
His entire look, his trademark long black hair, was more wavy now. His facial features, with that long, devilish looking beard, gave him an appearance of a Lucifer or Beelzebub. The way that he walked, the way he talked, the way his entire being now, centered around creating complete and utter chaos and destruction, and the look in his eyes as he was doing such, suggested that the Undertaker of previous years, the "Conscience of the WWF," was long gone.
This new Undertaker seemed to thrive on pure evil, and the fact that he had others believing in what he now believed in, made not only the entire locker room stand on notice, but also made Kenny even more aware of the fact that getting his little sister back would prove to be no easy task.
The look on Ryan's face after Kenny ran down to that boiler room to retrieve her after her initial abduction told the story of absolute horror.
During this time, after Ryan was heinously sacrificed in front of the entire world, strapped helplessly to the Undertaker's symbol, she had unfortunately been in the Ministry's domineering presence for an entire week.
Unfortunately, Kenny was powerless to stop what had happened to her, as the entire Ministry had descended upon and pummeled him during a match prior to her sacrificing on that exact same night, stuffing him in the trunk of some random sedan, then deserting him in a nearby town, miles away from the arena in Grand Rapids.
The next week, after learning of Ryan's whereabouts from Taker himself, Shamrock went on a seek and destroy mission in the hopes of finding his baby sister.
But once again, it was a set up for another vicious beating, courtesy of the Ministry, and what was worse: Ryan was right there, shrieking in horror, as she had a birds-eye view of her brother being utterly destroyed!
Then everything went dark.
The next thing Kenny knew, he was on top of the Raw stage in Detroit, strapped to Taker's symbol, as he himself was about to become Taker's next sacrificial victim.
Had it not been for his temper getting the better of him, with Taker taking his anger and frustration out on Christian, one of his former Ministry cronies, who was also the whistleblower to the whereabouts of Stephanie McMahon, after Taker abducted her only a week prior to his own sister being kidnapped, then Kenny might not have ever even seen the light of day again.
Kenny thought he had friends.
After freeing himself of a sacrifice, Kenny marched back to the ring and called out Taker, referring to him as "Mark," warning "Mark" that he needed to be "brought down to reality."
Suddenly, the lights went out through the arena, and out of thin air seemingly, there was Taker, attacking Shamrock from behind!
And although Kenny quickly gained the advantage, with his mixed martial arts background kicking into high gear, what was left of the Ministry, after the defection of the Brood, quickly stormed the ring, pulverizing Kenny once more.
That's when Corporation members, Triple H, Chyna, and the Big Boss Man all ran down to what many thought would be a save for Kenny.
After all, they were all members of the Corporation, even if Kenny had shown more allegiance to Vince than to his power hungry son Shane in the weeks leading up to that moment.
However, once again, it was a trap!
Triple H and Boss Man beat Shamrock down even more, with Kenny being so helpless that he couldn't even defend himself. The Ministry, up in the ring, of course, didn't bother to help, and Shamrock took the beating all by himself once again.
So ultimately, he had no one else other than himself to rely on, but even that could prove to be enough to possibly save Ryan… or so Kenny desperately hoped.
Ryan's initial abduction, her sacrificing, getting beat up in his little sister's presence, then the second abduction from her own hotel room, meant that Kenny had failed his little sister a total of four different times now, and it made him sick to the stomach with agony.
But the realization of all this just made Kenny just want to hurt Taker that much more!
Something had to be done about Mark, and Kenny knew that tonight would be the night to accomplish this. Otherwise…
As the bell tolled and the lights dimmed, a hushed silence fell over the arena, and the sound of the Taker's demonic chant over his entrance music meant only one thing: the Phenom had arrived.
Alongside Paul Bearer, Taker, and his six-foot, ten-inch frame walked menacingly down the aisle, never taking his eyes off of Shamrock.
Taker, as the leader of the Ministry, knew that with his impending victory over Kenny, he'd be only one step closer to the actual tragedy that he proclaimed would bestow someone during this evening.
Failure was not an option.
This was his destiny.
…And the match was nothing short of physical.
Shamrock, from the ultimate fighting world, attacked the vertical base of the Undertaker over and over again, with Taker making innumerable counters himself, even going technical for most of the match, to rival the mat-based style of the "World's Most Dangerous Man."
However, Kenny impressed all with how expertly he was able to manipulate Taker into several different submission holds, and to the surprise of all, actually made Taker scream out in pain, something Taker had never done for the entire length of his WWF career!
Regaining somewhat of a small advantage, Taker then went for his signature Tombstone Piledriver after whipping Shamrock into the ropes. However, Shamrock, forever resilient, desperately wanting his sister back, countered and went straight into high gear with his patented ankle lock!
Having never submitted in all of his professional wrestling career, Taker wretched in pain, but he was in the middle of the ring and couldn't reach the ropes for a break!
But then, Bradshaw, one-half of the Acolytes, ran down to the ring to aid his master, with surprisingly a baseball bat in hand!
Bradshaw, who wanted revenge, after Shamrock had previously attacked him with the exact same instrument six days prior, costing he and his tag-team partner, Farooq, a match against the Brood, ran up on the apron, but was quickly knocked down by Kenny.
As Shamrock turned back around to finally finish off his demonic foe, Taker grabbed him by the throat and was about to deliver a thunderous Chokeslam to his adversary, however, Shamrock countered the move into a Loose Drag Arm Bar, causing Taker to scream out in pain once again!
Suddenly, the crowd began to rise to their feet, everyone turning their attention down the aisle, attempting to figure out just who was the dark and mysterious figure making their way down to the ring was.
Even J.R. and King couldn't exactly figure out just who exactly was walking in their direction.
The person, as they drew closer to the ring, appeared to be a woman, dressed in a heavy black robe, similar to the robes that Taker's druids wore when accompanying him to the ring occasionally.
As Shamrock attempted to make Taker submit once and for all, Paul Bearer climbed onto the adjacent ring ropes, screaming, "Damn you! Damn you to hell," the nasty verbiage aimed directly at Shamrock.
Kenny, relinquishing the hold, climbed up from the mat, swinging wildly, but Paul ducked just at the right moment, right as the hooded figure stood up on the other side of the ring rope.
Just as Shamrock was turning his attention back to Taker, who was still down in the middle of the ring, the mystery woman's fingers peeled back the hood of her robe, revealing none other than Ryan Shamrock!
Kenny, dazed and confused as to what his sister was actually doing there, in the middle of his match no less, dressed as a druid of all things, simply stared back at her.
Not because of the shock of seeing his baby sister again, but because her looks had drastically changed!
Ryan, who was famous for her cover girl beauty, now looked just as demonic as the Deadman!
She wore heavy black eye shadow, that appeared to be smudged all the way down her usually rosy pink cheeks; her lipstick was a mixture of dark red and black, and her gorgeous blonde locks had also been dyed black, as well.
She even looked to be sporting a small black hoop nose ring now!
Shamrock, just as stunned as everyone else in attendance, finally took a few steps towards whom he thought was his baby sister. But as he reached out to her, Ryan simply stood on the apron, saying nothing.
Unbeknownst to Kenny, however, Taker was slowly making his way back onto his feet, right as Paul Bearer slid the baseball bat that Bradshaw had brought down to the ring underneath the bottom rope, just as Taker was vertical again.
Then, Ryan, who hadn't shown any emotion whatsoever up until that point, suddenly grabbed referee Earl Hebner by the collar of his shirt, distracting him.
Swinging for an attempted grand slam, Taker hit Kenny forcefully in the back of the head with the bat, causing it to crack on impact, the crowd in attendance gasping in shock, as J.R. swore heavily on commentary.
They had honestly never seen anything like this before!
There before them all, "The World's Most Dangerous Man" had been knocked unconscious by the hands of the Phenom!
Taker kicked the remnants of the bat out of the ring, and Shamrock, flat on his stomach and knocked out cold, was dragged to his feet by Taker, scooped up, and given the Tombstone Piledriver, finally finishing him off!
Bradshaw then grabbed Ryan down from the ring apron, as the referee suddenly returned his focus to the match, counting Shamrock out 1, 2, 3.
Taker was the victor!
Everyone, the crowd, Jim Ross, and the King, were all stunned as to exactly what had just happened. Taker was the winner, but Ryan, what happened to her? Why was she now dressed like a member of the Ministry? And most importantly, why had Ryan betrayed her own flesh and blood?
Taker, rolling out of the ring, exhausted, having battled in a hard fought war with a submission specialist, turned his attention towards Ryan, staring at her coldly, with Ryan returning Taker's look fanatically.
No one had ever seen this look in Ryan's eyes before, as if she was under some kind of spell or trance. As if she had no mind or soul of her own…
J.R. speculated on commentary as to what Ryan must have gone through while in Taker's possession, with King agreeing that this Ryan looked like a completely different person, especially versus the woman who once chased around the likes of Billy Gunn and Val Venis.
Bradshaw, regarding his master, then asked for permission to enter the ring; Taker nodded accordingly.
Entering the ring, Bradshaw pushed referee Hebner out of the way, climbed on top of the fallen and still unconscious Shamrock, and unmercifully hit Kenny over and over again!
While J.R. shouted "That's not right! By God, this is completely not right! Shamrock can't even defend himself," over his headset, Ryan smiled on gleefully from the outside before climbing into the ring herself, laughing hysterically at the sight of Bradshaw delivering blow after blow to her own flesh and blood!
Eventually, it took the efforts of three referees to remove Bradshaw from Shamrock, as Ryan continued to smile and laughed away maniacally, while everyone seemed to wonder in unison:
What had the Undertaker done to Ryan Shamrock?
And that wasn't even the tragedy.