As the Ministry all headed back into their locker room, quite proud of themselves for taking out Austin before the big Last Man Standing match later on in the night, Taker, literally dragging Stephanie behind him, made a detour, and instead of going back to his dressing room, he took Stephanie into the office that would usually be reserved for Vince instead, which was outfitted with comfortable leather couches, a fruit platter, plenty of bottled water, and even champagne on ice, however, Taker wasn't in the mood for any kind of romance.
Pulling Stephanie inside the room, Taker shoved Stephanie down onto one of the couches, absolutely frightening her! She could tell Mark was angry, and angry at her, but she had absolutely no idea why; she had done everything he had asked her to do!
Looking up at him from the couch, her eyes telling a story of fear and trepidation, Taker, putting his finger right into Stephanie's face, told her menacingly, "You've got some fucking nerve, woman."
Looking around for maybe a hidden camera, believing that she might be getting pranked, Stephanie couldn't believe that Mark was mad at her!
"Mark, I didn't do …"
Descending on her before she could even get the rest of her statement out, pinning her down to the couch with three hundred and twenty eight pounds of nothing but pure muscle, causing Stephanie to hyperventilate, Taker spoke to her dark and deeply.
"You wanna explain to me why you were looking at Austin like you wanted to help him a few minutes ago? And Stephanie, I want an answer."
Scrambling for the correct words to say, because in no way was she ever expecting this to happen, Stephanie, knowing how psychotic Mark could be when he was angry, said fearfully, "Baby, I just didn't know what was going on! I didn't know all that was going to happen! I've never had anything against Austin! I was just shocked, I didn't mean anything by it, please, I'm being honest…"
"So you care about Austin, is that it?" Taker chastised.
Confused as to why Mark was interrogating her like this, his paranoia beginning to sweat out of his pores, Stephanie continued to answer honestly. Maybe she could talk some sense into him and calm him down, because this wasn't the person she thought she had become to know.
"Baby, I promise you, I just didn't know what was going to happen, that's all, really, I promise! Please, I was just afraid you were going to hurt him with your temper, I didn't mean to …"
Pulling himself off of her, swatting his hair out his face, the eyes of a deranged soul staring back at her, Taker said, "You are not to move your ass out this room, not even off this couch. If you even so much take a peep outside," Taker threatened, rubbing his hand together, pulling down his black gloves. "You'll be sorry."
And with that, Taker left out the room, but not before completely obliterating Stephanie's self-worth!
She didn't even know what she had done to piss him off so badly, when it was her who should have been upset, not the other way around! Putting her hands in her face, drawing her legs up on the couch, Stephanie balled her eyes out. Her husband was mad with her, and she didn't know why!
As a replay of the recent events that has just unfolded played out on the Titantron, JR, who had replaced Michael Cole, and King began recapping Taker's encounter with Austin.
"Ladies and gentlemen if you're just joining us," JR welcomed back. "The Undertaker, as revealed last week as the new principal owner of the WWF, challenged Stone Cold Steve Austin to a Last Man Standing Match here tonight, King. Austin accepted, but watch what happens as Austin challenged the Phenom to a fight right then and there."
"Yeah, the Ministry cleared out the ring, we thought we were going to see a fight between the Phenom and the Rattlesnake, and we did, but the Undertaker used Stephanie McMahon as a shield! Now that was nothing short of cowardly!"
"I don't know what has come over the Undertaker as of recent weeks, but as you can see, as Austin was battling back from the Undertaker's assault, the Ministry began that seven on one gang-like attack, and King, listen, listen to the sound of Austin's head coming off that steel chair!"
"Yeah, watch this." And as Austin's head replayed bouncing off the chair, JR informed everyone, "And after the Ministry's assault to Austin, Austin was being helped to the back, bleeding profusely from the head, King, he was refused the help of our officials!"
"Right," King seconded. "Austin was out on his feet, struggling to even get back the ramp there, but the one good thing, JR, we saw that black limousine pull up to the arena, and with all that's going wrong already here tonight, that's just gotta be Vince! Vince, the Undertaker still has Stephanie!"
"We don't yet know the condition of Austin right now, and we also still don't know the condition of Vince and Shane McMahon."
As King shook his head visibly, JR recounted how Vince was attacked by the Ministry, right before Shane's street fight on Smackdown! against the Rock, subsequently getting Rock Bottom through the announce table, and afterwards, taken out of the arena on a stretcher, and transported to a local medical facility. "Hopefully, we'll get some sort of update as to the condition of Vince and Shane here tonight, King."
"Well, let me just this, JR. The Undertaker has singlehandedly taken out the entire McMahon family. First, he forcefully married the lovely Stephanie McMahon, and we all know how I personally feel about that, he stole the WWF from right under Vince's nose, and now he's personally taken out Vince, Shane, and Austin! I mean, who knows what next he's capable of."
The first match of the night consisted of the Stooges, Pat Paterson and Jerry Briscoe, slapping knots on Pete Gas and Rodney, also two members of the Corporation. After their match, with Pat and Jerry declared the winners, backstage, the Big Show, doing an interview with Kevin Kelly, was fired up, but not for the obvious reasons.
"Big Show, in an unusual match making form here tonight, you're going to be teaming up with someone equally as big as yourself, and that's the Big Red Machine, Kane, taking on his good buddy, and tag team partner, X-Pac."
Big Show, squeezing his Honey Baked sized ham fist together, let it be known that he wasn't particularly happy about Taker's match making.
"You know, Kevin Kelly, I really could give a damn about this match here tonight. Nothing against Kane, but he's not the seven foot monster I had in mind tonight. You see, I'm looking for retribution. I still haven't forgotten how the tattooed Deadman hit me across the head with that baseball bat last Monday night. Well, tonight, Deadman, if everything down there on you isn't dead, I'm issuing an open challenge. If you're the man you claim you are, after I get through with X-Pac, why don't you step up to the big time? Tonight, me and you, one on one, and let's make this Show Time!"
The purpose of tonight's matches were simple: make every superstar within the WWF turn on each other. Taker wanted pure destruction and utter chaos, and he'd start within his own family.
Since Taker had deemed Kane a weakling months prior, not being able to understand nor comprehend the pure evil that he soon wanted to implode the WWF, and since Kane apparently had grown a heart, Taker would rip it out, by forcing him to fight his good friend and tag team partner, X-Pac, in a handicap match.
First up, the Big Show's music was piped through the arena, and the seven foot tall, five hundred pound giant, walked to the ring with a purpose, stepping over the top rope, and rising his hand in the air, giving the crowd a show. After walking around the ring for a moment, performing calisthenics, Show anxiously awaited his tag team partner.
Suddenly, the lights to the arena went dark, an eery organ began to play, tons of fire went into the air, and the Big Red Machine's, Kane, with tag team gold in hand, made his way down to the ring. Stepping over the top ring rope himself, raising his arms, and bringing them back down with a vengeance, a blast of pyro from all four turnbuckles flew into the sky, and then X-Pac's entrance music hit, as well. The brash young stud was ready for competition, and although he clearly wasn't going to back down from a challenge, jumping into the ring and performing his schtick of making a green "X" appear from the pyro, Kane was.
As the referee called for the bell, Kane, looking back down at his friend, who was rocking back and forth on his feet from anticipation, placed his hands on his hips, lowered, then shook his head, with X-Pac clearly trying to egg him on.
Truth of the matter was, Kane really did think of X-Pac as not only his good friend, but his best friend, his only friend as a matter of fact, and after all what they had been through to get to that point, he wasn't going to fight him. Shaking his head again, with X-Pac holding out his hands, asking Kane what the problem was, Kane stepped over the top rope again, looked back at X-Pac, and walked back up the ramp way, heading for the back.
Big Show, sensing there wasn't going to be a fight, either, waved X-Pac off with his hand, but as soon as the seven footer stepped one leg back over the top rope, X-Pac, still wanting a fight, not letting his smaller stature compared to the other giants hold him back, delivered a spinning heel kick to the side of the Big Show's head!
Although the kick rocked the Big Show momentarily, Show stepped back over the top rope and back into the ring. X-Pac tried to deliver another spinning heel kick to him, but an irate Big Show grabbed X-Pac around the throat instead, picking him up easily with one arm, chokeslamming him headfirst onto the mat!
That's when Kane, who witnessed his best friend get assaulted by Show, ran back down to the ring, and got into a huge fist fight with the fellow giant, each man delivering blow after blow to each other, before Kane starting getting the better of the bigger man! After a few clubbing blows, the Big Show attempted to retaliate by whipping Kane into the ropes, but Kane ducked underneath Show's massive clothesline, and delivered a huge boot to the face, knocking the Show flat to the mat!
With the Big Show down, Kane began wailing on the Big Show for a few moments, until he had him momentarily immobilized. Walking over to the fallen X-Pac, Kane swooped up his fallen friend's body, placed him over his shoulder, and walked back up the ramp with him. The Big Show, getting to his feet now, furious that Kane had attacked him, roared with anger, shaking and kicking the ropes, but for the third time that night, the lights in the arena went out completely. After about five seconds of total darkness, both King and JR speculating why the arena had went dark, their questions were answered, because when the lights came back up, who should be standing behind the Big Show other than the Undertaker, baseball bat in hand!
Just as soon as the Big Show turned around, Taker leveled him with the bat, just as he did the week prior, but unlike then, the baseball cracked over Show's cranium as soon as it made impact, knocking him completely unconscious! Bleeding from the head, Taker stomped away at the Big Show, who was now lying motionless on the canvas, as JR screamed on commentary.
"For God's sake! The Big Show's been busted open! The Undertaker is just relentless! The evilness of the Undertaker!"
King, offering further insight into the situation, speculated that, "Well, obviously, the Undertaker is doing all this because the Big Show called him out! This must be revenge for Big Show almost rescuing Stephanie McMahon last week too, JR!"
Taker then mounted the Big Show, punching him over and over again in the open gash across his skull, clearly not admonishing to the referees call for Taker to stop. Instead, Taker only got angrier, and began seemingly choking the life out of the Big Show, screaming at his defenseless body, "This, this is my show! This is my show!"
Show, completely unable to defend himself, was pounded in the head a few more times by Taker's big right hands.
"The Undertaker's telling the Big Show that this is the Undertaker's show!" King repeated.
"The Big Show unconscious from that vile blow to the head from that baseball bat! He's been busted open here!" As Taker continued to stomp away at the Big Shows' head, JR remarked, "And the Undertaker continues to stomp away at a helpless human being."
As Taker tired of beating away at the giant, departing the ring to heavy boos, picking up the broken end of the baseball bat and taking it back up the ramp with him, his music followed him.
"Well, JR, we wondered how far the Undertaker would go, and we're seeing it. For the second week in a row, the Undertaker has left the Big Show lying motionless from that ball bat. He was willing to do anything, use anything, to take out the Big Show, and he did."
"The Undertaker who has prophesied that he will be the next WWF Champion live here tonight in San Diego, but the big story is here, it is now, the Big Show has completely been obliterated at the hands of the Phenom with a baseball bat, for God's sake!"
"Wow! Did you ever think you'll see, seven foot, four inches, five hundreds pounds of the Big Show lying flat on his back at the hands of the Undertaker?"
And as the referee tried to help up the motionless Big Show back in the ring, Taker brought the bat up to his neck, rolling his eyes into the back of his head, exiting the stage.
As the ref continued to help the Big Show back up, up on the Titantron again, the black limousine was once again shown, but only this time, the chauffeur was exiting out of the driver door now, walking to the back of the limo. As King shouted, "Who is it? Who is it? Is it Vince?" over the announcements, the door opened and a set of female feet found themselves planted on the concrete. When the camera panned up, the crowd in the arena began to cheer, as it was no one other than Linda McMahon!
"King, it's Mrs. McMahon! It's Vince's wife, Linda!"
"Wha — what she's doing here?" King asked, carried away with emotion.
"I don't know! I don't know!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, just a few moments ago, the Big Show and Kane were scheduled to face X-Pac in a handicap match, but Kane refused to fight X-Pac, his tag team partner, but X-Pac was looking for a fight, King."
"Yeah, and if brains were chocolate, X-Pac wouldn't have enough to fill an M & M, because he gave a spinning heel kick to the Big Show! And look, that's all what he got for his trouble," with a replay of the Big Show planting X-Pac on the canvas played out, JR said, "Yeah, and after Kane dropped Big Show in retaliation, the Undertaker, who had just been challenged by the Big Show prior to the match, appeared out of nowhere, King, leveling him with that baseball bat!"
"Leveled? That was a grand slam. Just listen, listen to the sound of that ball bat being cracked over the Big Show's head." With the replay of that showing, as well, JR finished, "And now, now, we've got Linda McMahon, Vince's wife, here in the arena!"
"I'm telling you, there's so much chaos going all around us, the 82nd Airborne probably couldn't help."
King was then suddenly cut off by the sight of Linda appearing on the Titantron once again, walking through the backstage area, asking a stagehand, "Excuse me. Could you please point me in the direction of Stephanie McMahon?"
The stagehand, pointing Linda in the right direction, told her nicely, "Her office is right down this hallway, first door to your left, ma'am."
As Linda thanked the gentleman and began walking down the hallway, back in the arena, the crowd began to boo again, as Paul Bearer, with his signature evil scowl wrapped all across his face, looking around at the crowd, as a referee ran past him and stood inside the ring, walked down the ramp without the accompaniment of entrance music.
"Well, here comes Paul Bearer, King, and it looks like he's coming out here by himself. What's the deal with this now?"
"Yeah, what does he want? Hey, there ain't no buffett out here," King mocked on commentary.
As Paul made his pudgy way into the ring, he asked for a microphone, and once he got it, stood in the middle of the ring, smiling wildly. "And there's a referee in the ring," noted JR, before going on to ask, "What the hell is all this about?"
"Well, well, well…" Paul started off familiarly, the crowd is San Diego jeering loudly.
"Well, I guess the idiots here in San Diego …" letting his insult sink in, while still smiling around to the crowd, continued saying, "…have learned that all of the things that my Undertaker has said, all of the things the Lord of Darkness has prophesied about, marrying his wife and servant, Stephanie McMahon, taking over the World Wrestling Federation, have come true!"
Earning even more boos from the crowd, Paul, walking around smugly, told the crowd, "That's ok. Because when the fat man speaks, you listen!"
The boos at a fever pitch now, Paul then directed his attention to Austin.
"Stone Cold Steve Austin," Paul called out, as the mere mention of his name rocking the crowd in the arena. "Tonight, you will also find out another one of the Lord of Darkness prophecies will come true, and that is, you will NOT walk out of this building here tonight, you will NOT walk out the World Federation Champion."
The boos boiling over now, Paul looked into the camera and said, "And somebody else that won't be walking out of this arena tonight," Paul started, looking all around the arena in disdain. Suddenly snapping his attention towards the announcer's booth, Paul pointed and exclaimed "Jerry "the King" Lawler!"
As the camera panned to King, who looked utterly confused, Paul said still pointing, "You have become nothing more than the proverbial puppet for Vince McMahon, and I want you to know that my Lord of Darkness has heard every word! Now, Lawler, now is the time to pay your dues! Get your butt into this ring, son, and get it into this ring, right now!"
As JR and King looked at each other perplexingly, with King getting up from his broadcast seat, and going into the ring, Paul stuck his finger back to the announcer's booth, issuing a warning to JR exclusively.
"And JR, let what is about to happen be a lesson to you, as well, because if your tongue ever gets carried away from you too, you're going to suffer the same fate!"
JR, holding his hands up, mumbling that he had only come back to the job and didn't know what was going on, looked back up at the ring, who had his own microphone now, regarded the still smiling Paul Bearer.
"Well, Mr. Lawler, before you meet your maker, what do you have to say for yourself?"
King, looking around at the crowd in the arena, told Paul nicely, "Paul, I honestly have no Earthly idea as to what you're talking about."
Paul, taking a stride around Lawler, said, "Oh, but I think you do, son. How many weeks now, how many weeks, have you sat upon your thrown at the announce table, and wished ill against my Undertaker? How many weeks have you sat there, with biased tongue, and filtered ill comments for and through Vince McMahon against my Undertaker? If I may recall, you even said that the Lord of Darkness was "living his gimmick", taking things too far between he and his now un-beloved wife, Stephanie. Is that not true, Jerry Lawler?"
"Oh, so this is what all this is about" JR surmised.
Lawler, who looked absolutely shocked that he was being called out, told Paul in a respectable tone, "Paul, you have to understand that I've known Stephanie McMahon for a very long time now, and all I am is just generally concerned about her well-being."
Paul, who still hadn't stopped smiling, put his microphone back up to his mouth and before Jerry knew what was coming, Paul slapped Jerry right in the face, his crown flying across the ring!
Holding his face and looking back up, Paul, who wasn't smiling anymore, his face contorted once again in that signature snarl, told Lawler, "Well, I hope you're concerned about your general health as much as you were Stephanie's, because you've got a match son, and you've got one, right now!"
"A match? King just got the taste slapped out of his mouth! Who's he got a match with?"
As soon as the question escaped JR's lips, the music of the 500 pound Viscera began to play throughout the arena, and the big man looked to be on a mission. As Paul Bearer exited the ring, instructing Viscera into in with Jerry,, before Viscera could even get in the ring properly, Lawler attacked him, and with the referee ringing the bell, the match was on!
Knowing that his life and livelihood was on the line, the crowd began chanting for Jerry loudly, with King striking Viscera in the back over and over again with big ax handle forearms.
Attempting to whip Viscera into the ropes, Viscera, who didn't even budge, literally slung Jerry back into his direction, delivering "the King" a clothesline that sent Jerry flying into the mat!
Going into the ropes himself now, Viscera jumped into the air and came right down into the sternum of Lawler with a Big Splash, crushing him underneath all 500 hundred pounds of him. But Viscera didn't immediately go for the pin. Paul Bearer, up on the ring apron now, then instructed Viscera to pick Jerry's prone body back up once agin, instructing him to deliver yet another Big Splash to Lawler. With Jerry flat on his back now, the crowd dead after the hit on Jerry, the referee counted 1,2,3, easily declaring Viscera the winner.
Once again re-entering the ring, Paul, standing over a semi-conscious King, talked trash to the announcer, warning him to never against Taker nor the Ministry again.
As the replay played back on the Titantron, JR, in complete shock that the Undertaker had ordered the King into a match with Viscera, said over his headphones, as Viscera and Paul walked back up the ramp, "Who's going to stop this? Who's going to stop the Undertaker and his evil campaign of terror here tonight?"
Suddenly, Linda McMahon appeared on the Titantron yet again, knocking on an unmarked door, as Raw went to another commercial break.