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 and into the ring, to what was to be the most important match of his entire 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 prior, feeling that 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 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, that 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, often leaning towards the shadows rather than being overtly noticing. However, over these past few weeks, Taker had changed, and to the views of many, changed for the worst.
His entire look, his trademark long black hair, was more wavy now. His facial features, with that long, devilish beard, gave him an appearance of a Lucifer or Beelzebub. The way that he walked, the way that he talked, the way his entire being now centered around creating utter and complete chaos, suggested that the Undertaker of previous years, the "Conscience of the WWF," was 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 be no easy feat.
The look on Ryan's face after Kenny ran down to that boiler room to save her after her initial abduction told a story of complete 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.
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 that exact same night, stuffing him in the trunk of some random sedan, before deserting him in a nearby town, hours 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 her.
But again, it was just another set up for a vicious beating, courtesy of the Ministry. And what was worse: Ryan had been right there, shrieking in horror, as she had a birds-eye view of her older brother being completely 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 the Deadman's next 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 — the whistleblower to the whereabouts of Stephanie McMahon, after Taker had abducted her only a week prior to his own sister being kidnapped — then Kenny might not have ever even seen the light of day ever again.
Kenny thought that he had friends.
After freeing himself of a sacrifice, Kenny marched back to the ring and called Taker out, referring to him as "Mark," warning him that he needed to be "brought down to reality."
Suddenly, the lights to the arena went dark, and out of thin air seemingly, there was the Undertaker, attacking Shamrock from behind!
And though 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, leading up to this moment.
But, once again, it was a trap!
Triple H and the Bossman 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 save Ryan… or so Kenny desperately hoped.
Ryan's initial abduction, her sacrificing, being beaten up in his little sister's presence, then the second abduction from her own hotel room, meant that Kenny had failed Ryan four different times now, and it made him sick to the stomach with agony.
But, the realization of this just made Kenny 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 across the arena.
The sounds 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 to the ring, his eyes never diverting from Shamrock.
Taker, as the leader of the Ministry, knew that with his impending victory over Kenny, that he'd be just 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, with the Phenom 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 him scream out in pain, something that the Phenom had never done for the entire length of his illustrious WWF career!
Regaining somewhat of a small advantage, Taker went for his signature Tombstone Piledriver. 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 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 the aid of his master, with surprisingly a baseball bat in hand!
Bradshaw, who wanted revenge, after Shamrock had attacked him previously with the same instrument only six days prior, 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 for what was supposed to be a thunderous Chokeslam.
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, with everyone turning their collective attentions to the center of the aisle, attempting to figure out just who was the dark and mysterious figure walking to the ring was.
Even J.R. and King couldn't exactly make 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 cloak, similar to the robes that Taker's druids would wear whenever they accompanied him to the ring.
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 and swung wildly, but Paul ducked just at the right moment, right as the hooded figure stood up on the other side of the ring apron.
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 herself to be none other than Ryan Shamrock!
Kenny, dazed and confused as to what his sister was even 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, as well!
Shamrock, just as stunned as everyone else in attendance, finally took a few steps towards the woman 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, as the Phenom was vertical once again.
Then, Ryan, who hadn't shown any emotion 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 completely unconscious by the hands of the Phenom!
Kicking the remnants of the baseball bat out of the ring, while Shamrock lay flat on his stomach unconscious, Taker quickly scooped him up from the mat, before delivering a thunderous Tombstone, 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 even 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?
Rolling out of the ring, exhausted, having battled in a hard fought war with a submission specialist, Taker turned his attention towards Ryan, staring at her coldly, while she returned her master's look fanatically.
No one had ever seen this look in Ryan's eyes before, as if she was under some kind of trance. As if she had no mind of her own…
J.R. speculated as to what Ryan must have gone through while in Taker's command, with King agreeing that this new Ryan Shamrock looked like a completely different person.
She looked far more sinister than the woman who once chased the likes of Billy Gunn and Val Venis around.
Bradshaw, regarding his master, then asked for permission in order 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 laugh uncontrollably, while everyone else seemed to wonder in unison:
What had the Undertaker done to Ryan Shamrock?
And that wasn't even the tragedy.