Original subtitles

- If you want to see Stone Cold versus The Undertaker,

give me a "hell yeah."

[crowd yells "Hell yeah"]

- You've got the Undertaker who's been there for a while,

and now you have Stone Cold.

His trajectory is heading straight up.

When the opportunity presented itself, man, he seized it.

This is the guy,

then I'm going to do the best that I can to make him look like

the star that he's going to be.

You see, Austin now, you already have one foot in the grave.

- Competing against The Undertaker,

you cannot fail,

you cannot falter,

and you must perform because he's a war horse.

- Oh my gosh, I've just knocked Steve out.

- I let the Undertaker down that night.

- Two superstars trying to one up one another.

It's exactly what "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Undertaker did.

- The rivalry between these two is unparalleled.

- The Undertaker, Stone Cold rivalry,

it was the best of the best.

- A night that we will never forget.

- I am coming to end your career.

- I don't know how much more personal it can get

- When legends two collide,

their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the

greatest rivalries of all time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias

and this is

WWE Rivals.

- Undertaker, you can expect no mercy

from "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- Undertaker versus the greatest superstar of all time,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

But I might just be biased.

- The shirt gave it away.

- Oh, this thing?

Oh.

[laughing]

- Both Steve Austin and Undertaker, they were really,

I mean, so iconic in their own right as individuals,

but like, the moments that they were able to create,

they're like bookmarks on the industry.

- They had a long history.

Steve and Taker both started in Texas together.

At least got one of their breaks

at the Sportatorium.

- I had maybe a year

head start on my career than Steve.

They were getting ready to make me the

Texas Heavyweight Champion

and they gave me Steve.

- The six foot eight Punisher of Devastation Incorporated against

the new find of the USWA wrestling school,

Steve Williams.

- Big, blond headed, good looking guy.

So you figured if he stuck with it,

he was going to have a nice career.

- When you meet Mark Galloway,

dude's about six ten, 300 pounds.

He just had this air about him.

You knew as soon as you met him he was going to be somebody.

I didn't know that WWE would have the ultimate.

character for him.

- From Death Valley, I give you The Undertaker.

- Those slow, methodical movements,

the way he carried himself, the composure,

everything was by design.

- Oh, he just got nailed with a tombstone.

- He had this aura that as a kid, I was just intrigued.

- Look at his eyes.

Look at his eyes.

The man is possessed.

- I'll never forget when he stuffed

the Ultimate Warrior in the coffin.

- They're burying him.

- Undertaker did that.

The Undertaker was just completely unique.

Someone that was so big,

but you believed in him.

- Unbelievable.

The Undertaker, ladies and gentlemen.

- I was intrigued by the character, but by no means did I

want to meet him in person or in a dark alley or anywhere else.

- The Undertaker sending chills up and down the spine.

- Truely a work of art.

And there's nobody that could have pulled off that character,

like Mark Calaway at all.

- 24/7, I was The Undertaker.

During appearances, walking through the airport,

I lived the gimmick.

You have to have your audience invested in that character.

- Taker was our guy, like he was our Iron Man.

He worked hurt.

He worked with a crush orbital bone, cracked ribs-

- The Undertaker was some sort of adhesion on his face.

- -because we needed him.

- He would be the guy that had to carry the company

in times when we didn't have anything.

- We were struggling.

We had lost all of our big talent.

- I told you Hulkamania was going to run wild

in the WCW brother.

- WCW had opened up their checkbook,

everybody's taking the money and running.

- What in the hell is he doing here?

- We're trying to keep afloat

with the talent that we had left.

And then Steve come along.

Little did we know he would become

the biggest star probably ever.

- I give you The Ringmaster.

- I was one of the few who loved The Ringmaster.

- You did?

- I love The Ringmaster the second he showed up.

I was like, sounds cool, Ringmaster.

- The Ringmaster has all the tools to go right to the top.

- There was something about him that drew me right away.

- This ain't your ring.

This is my ring.

Yeah, this is my ring.

- He was so different than everybody else

because at that time, too, everybody had a gimmick.

Everybody had some sort of of character

that's kind of outlandish.

And he was just boots, trunks, very simple, which I thought,

"Well, that's different."

That was always appealing to me.

But yeah, The Ringmaster thing went away pretty quick.

- His peers dubbed him The Ringmaster.

I would suggest you, from the look on his face

and his attitude,

knowing him a bit better now, he's Stone Cold, if anything.

- Steve wasn't content

when he was The Ringmaster.

He knew that there was more for him to give.

- Steve Austin wasn't really a star.

King of the ring happens.

- Talk about your Psalms.

Talk about John 3:16

Austin 3:16 says, I just whipped your ass.

[crowd cheers]

- The next day was Austin's moment.

This was his moment to elevate himself and get himself

where he needed to be,

but he needed the right opponent.

He needed the right rivalry.

He needed The Undertaker.

- We are live ladies and gentlemen,

from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Monday Night Raw.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin,

won it all just last night.

- First time I wrestled The Undertaker.

It was very powerful.

I'm always thinking about what I want to do in my matches.

And so, you know, I'm about to work with Mark,

and I've already hit the ring.

They hit Mark's music.

[The Undertaker's music]

The lights go down.

Everybody throws their lighters in the air.

They smoke up the entrance.

He starts coming in.

- The greatest phenom

in the history of the World Wrestling --

The Undertaker.

- And he's doing that slow motion walk that only he can do.

And it was so awe inspiring and- and just dramatic.

Like that, I forgot every single thing

that I wanted to accomplish in that match.

It's powerful.

- Even a man who has ice water in his veins

like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin must be feeling a little antsy.

- The Undertaker was the barometer

for everything back then.

- Right.

- You know so you want to push a guy like Stone Cold,

and you want to get him to that level.

Undertaker still is the gatekeeper

because they know that he's going to do his job.

The question is, can you do yours?

And so this is a real important thing for Stone Cold.

- You can tell that he's getting this push.

You can slow that down if you want,

or you can say,

"Okay, this guy's got a rocket strapped to his ass.

How can I help him

even excel faster?"

[bell rings]

That's the way that I looked at it.

This is the guy,

then I'm going to do the best that I can

to make him look like the star that he's going to be.

- The Undertaker with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

really taking it to the limit.

An unbelievable battle.

- You can go in there with The Undertaker,

and you can fight him and you can give him hell,

and at the end of the day,

whether you win or whether you lose,

you have the respect of that audience.

You're going to be a success.

I think Austin knew how good he was

once he got in the ring with someone like The Undertaker.

I think everyone else found that out too.

- Now, Goldust and Marlena on their way.

No.

Ah did you see that?

[bell rings]

Right in the eye.

The Undertaker as a result of a disqualification,

victorious.

- To have Undertaker not definitively win a match

that says, one, the company believes in this talent,

and two, it says to the crowd like,

"Wow, Undertaker didn't hit the tombstone, and beat this guy.

I want to see more."

[bell rings]

- It was huge in helping Steve get to the next level.

Make people notice that this guy is going to be a star.

- I didn't get beat.

I would have beat him had not Goldust come,

but that's just the way it goes, isn't it?

I'll beat him on down the line anyway.

- From that point forward, you knew this could be the guy,

but you don't know for sure if he is the guy.

You see guys all the time, you don't know if once they get

to that level, is that going to transcend and go more?

Are they going to get engulfed by that main event?

- His trajectory is heading straight up,

and it's important for me to give him that rub.

When the opportunity presented itself,

man he seized it like nobody.

- For some reason, people started caring about me.

The office said, "Hey, let's come up with a t shirt for you."

So I said, "Okay, let's do the Austin 3:16 and let's put a

skull on the back and carve in Stone Cold."

Well, hold off on a skull.

That might be Undertaker's property.

I walked over to Mark and said, "Hey man," I said.

"Office finally wants to do a t-shirt of me.

I wanted to put a skull on the back,

but they kind of feel like that's in your territory.

And if you clear it, I can use the shirt,

but if you shoot it down, I understand."

He goes, "Yeah, man, go for it."

He didn't have to do that, and he did.

- Here he comes,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- It took him a while to get to the point of being seen

by the masses as a main event superstar.

Facing Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13,

and the way in which Steve lost that match.

- Austin will not surrender.

He will not submit.

- Didn't get pinned, didn't give up.

passed out due to the loss of blood.

You always want to prove yourself against the best.

- I've never seen anyone so gutsy,

that he wouldn't submit.

- It was very important and necessary for the journey that

Stone Cold was about to go on, and for The Undertaker

to get his hands on the WWE Championship.

You know, he's the guy now and he was crowned that night.

- The dark days of the WWE have begun.

- Undertaker at WrestleMania 13, becoming the WWE champion.

Here is the star that is going to lead us

into the next generation.

- You're looking at the next WWE champion,

and that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so.

- The audience wanted Steve to take those next steps, and if

that meant going through someone as popular as The Undertaker,

that's what the audience wanted.

- Oh.

What will happen when Austin beats The Undertaker?

- I am the World Wrestling -- champion.

And as far as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin goes,

it'll be a cold day in hell

before you become champion.

- Steve Austin is in the ring with The Undertaker.

That's his championship belt.

- They're polar opposite, right?

You've got this one outspoken, beer drinking son of a gun,

and then you've got a man of very few words.

And I loved watching both of them.

- You didn't need to have a major angle.

You just had the two toughest badasses

fighting for the grandest prize of them all.

- Following WrestleMania 13, Taker and Steve faced off in

their first pay per view match.

Cold Day in Hell.

- Tonight the WWE title will be decided when The Undertaker

takes on the toughest SOB,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- It's such a test to go with The Undertaker.

So I was almost concerned as a fan that this would

kind of send Stone Cold the other way.

What's going to happen out of it?

- Austin has said many times, he's not afraid of the dark,

but you better respect the dark side.

- This is a big moment.

Is Steve Austin the guy we need to know,

in a main event pay per view

against The Undertaker for the championship

is the way to find that out.

- This is going to be, I think, one of the more intense

WWE Championship matches that maybe any of us have ever seen.

- Competing against The Undertaker

in the ring was very, very tough.

- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin attacking The Undertaker

and this match is officially underway.

- You're going to get his best.

He always wants to have the best match on the card.

You're going to work your ass off

because he's a war horse,

- Both of them want to win the WWE title.

The Phenom is being challenged

as we have never seen him challenged.

- He did whatever it took at any given occasion to win a match.

That dynamic really made it interesting.

- What a grueling match up.

Very intense.

Very physical.

- Either one of them will do whatever it takes to come out of

this match with their hand in the air.

- Oh, no.

Tombstone.

No.

It's countered.

It's countered.

Boom.

Oh.

My God.

Tombstone.

[bell rings]

[crowd cheers]

- Sometimes it's not about winning or losing.

It's about how you made the audience feel.

And that's exactly what "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

was able to do with The Undertaker.

He didn't win that match.

He didn't have to win that match.

He had to win the crowd.

And that's exactly what he did

because the crowd wanted him to win.

- Austin.

[The Undertaker's music]

- Oh the stunner.

- You look at The Undertaker

right now and ask him,

"Who should be the World Wrestling -- champion?"

He'll say "Stone Cold" Steve Austin because it's the truth.

The championship should be mine.

It's not.

Will I cry about it?

No.

I'll just drink another beer today.

- I think it meant an awful lot for Steve Austin to

have that opportunity, and for him to feel the confidence

that we as a company had in him.

The audience was really starting to get into

what "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was delivering.

- This arena has erupted

with a mere sight of the Texas rattlesnake.

- You think Attitude Era,

Attitude,

that was Austin.

- Let me tell you this.

Some boy's gonna get their ass whipped.

- Here's a guy,

I don't give a damn,

double fingers in the air,

you don't like it-

- You turn the damn channel.

I got no problem with that.

- He knew what his character was, and

you didn't get much outside of that.

- He's always Stone Cold.

- Steve Austin was the everyman-

blue collar,

drinks beer,

badass.

And I think that resonated with a lot of fans.

- You look out in the audience and 75% of the merch

was Austin 3:16.

Probably could have donated the money from the wrestling

and just live very comfortably on the sale of his merch.

- Stone Cold's time has come in the dark or in the lights.

You're looking at the next WWE champion,

whether anybody likes it or not.

- The Austin Era has begun.

- 1998 Steve wins the WWE title at WrestleMania 14.

- You know, at that point, Steve has become the hottest guy

probably in the history of the business.

You put his name on any building in the world-

it can be an armory in Melbourne, Australia,

and we sold that building out.

He was that hot.

I've never seen anything like it.

I haven't seen anything like it since.

- Steve's climb helped everybody.

Everybody wanted a piece of that.

That was the competitive nature that made us so good.

- No one was bigger than "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in the 90's.

He was everywhere.

- Please welcome "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- News.

MTV.

Any type of pop culture event that was happening,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin was there.

- Steve was super dialed in

on his position and maintaining his spot.

And the rest of us, we were always trying to move up that

ladder to either be in that spot or be in that spot

working against Steve.

That was the golden ticket.

- They were firing on all cylinders.

How do we keep that momentum going?

Well, the next biggest thing they could do

was Austin and Taker.

- Mancow's Morning Madhouse.

We are here with, uh, certainly the wrestler

for the next millennium, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- Yeah.

- It's going to happen.

It is destiny.

You versus The Undertaker.

What's your prediction?

- Mhm.

Well hell anytime you go into anything you got

to believe in yourself,

so I believe I'm going to beat his ass.

But, you know, I'm sure he would like to think otherwise.

Anyways, you know, that's a pay per view match.

- It was incredible from how business was

to where he took it.

That's what made the product so great.

- Yeah.

- Stone Cold's the top tough guy,

but I think I can be the top guy.

- There's The Undertaker

on his way to the ring.

- The Attitude Era grew out of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

Now, it was all about being as cutting edge as possible.

A lot of the characters grew out of

trying to fit in with that shifted paradigm.

Undertaker is a great example of that.

- Around this time, The Undertaker's persona

on screen started evolving.

Like, he started cutting promos, in-ring promos on Austin.

- Shortly after my arrival here in the World Wrestling --,

I became the Slayer of Dragons.

As I've been taking care of family business,

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

Right to the top.

I demand my shot

at The World Wrestling -- title.

[crowd cheers]

- Stone Cold and Undertaker

work well together because stars are stars.

If you are a fan of a college football team,

you're going to want to watch that college football team

play against another elite team.

Everybody can have their fans.

- Austin,

now I came at you like a man,

just like I'm going to do at SummerSlam.

But you see Austin,

now, you already have one foot in the grave

because you see now, boy,

you've done the wrong thing.

You [bleep] me off.

- They were two guys you always wanted to see,

and you're going to see them against each other.

I'm clearing the night out to watch that.

- The Undertaker says that I pissed him off.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin was born pissed off.

I'm going to beat his ass in this ring

to let you know exactly what SummerSlam

is going to be like.

- What the hell is this about?

The highway to Hell will see Austin burn.

- It's not rocket science when you put the two biggest

stars in the company against each other.

We had gotten past the idea

that it had to be good guys and bad guys.

We were dealing in shades of gray and the Attitude Era.

We didn't care who the fans cheered for or booed for

as long as they were making noise.

And when you put those two together,

the fans always made that noise.

- It was a bit of an obvious choice.

I don't think it was a traditional choice because both

guys were extremely popular,

but at the same time, it was the best of the best.

- They had this magnetic electric energy

that the audience wanted to see.

They drew money.

People wanted to watch them.

- Man, I remember the build up to SummerSlam in 1998,

Madison Square Garden, and they were looking for a name

to that pay per view.

And I said, "Hey man, what about Highway to Hell?"

- Let's roll camera verybody.

And action.

- I'll never forget doing those videos

where I yank a guy out of a taxi cab, and

there's people out there partying and dancing.

- We're going down these dark alleys

just tearing up everything.

- It's Taker, looking at the camera,

it's me walking through a lake of fire,

and just hyping up that highway to hell.

- I mean, I remember it's one of the first times that they had

put the wraps on the busses in New York City.

To me, with the Empire State Building in my hand,

and it was a really cool build to that match.

- I was in New York when this happened.

The electricity in New York,

special time.

- Austin.

- The Garden, New York.

You think about all the big events and the big fights

and all the things that have happened in The Garden.

And now here you are, main eventing,

one of our biggest pay per views,

biggest star in the business.

You want everything clicking,

and so obviously there's a lot of pressure.

- Anytime you get a chance to work in Madison Square Garden,

one of the most special buildings that you can work

and go out there and be the main event

is one of those things that you strive for.

- It's a hot summer night in New York City.

Madison Square Garden has been sold out for months.

- Here we go.

Austin, Taker Highway to Hell

Right here, baby.

Right here, baby.

- It was the top two WWE superstars.

It was the biggest match they could do.

I didn't have cable.

I had to find a way to watch that match live.

So I bothered my friend's parents to let me watch

it at their house, you know?

Just because I had to see it.

It was such a big deal.

[bell rings]

- The following contest it is for the World Wrestling

-- championship.

- He is a prideful man.

He is the conscience of the WWE.

He is ready for war.

No WWE champion has ever entered Madison Square Garden

with that kind of ovation.

I literally felt this building shake.

- Every single soul is on their feet with anticipation.

They love "Stone Cold" Steve Austin,

but a lot of them love The Undertaker, too.

- There's nothing better than this matchup right now.

You've got the hottest guy in the business

against one of the greats of all time in this business,

It's the only two that are big enough

to hold this main event.

It's a perfect matchup.

-Austin starting off very aggressively here.

I don't think Austin wants to get into a slugfest

with a man that outweighs him about 70 pounds.

- Whoa, look at this.

- Oh what shots.

- I like to move on the fly.

I like to work on the feel of our audience.

- Trying to put one or the other out early.

Look at this.

- The Rattlesnake strikes back.

- Didn't know where we were going.

I just kind of like to flow with it.

- Oh, what a reversal at the last minute and a knockdown.

- In the course of the match,

I shoot Steve off into the ropes and I go for a backdrop.

As I'm bent over, he gives me a boot and I snap up so fast.

The back of my head hits him right in the chin.

- Oh, I think they headbutted each other.

- Yeah, I did too.

I think Austin got cracked right in the head by The Undertaker.

- Oh my gosh.

I just knocked Steve out.

- Summerslam 1998.

Highway to hell.

I don't remember too much about the match.

Towards the end of the match,

I get knocked out for the first time in my life.

- Austin got dinged I think,

their heads collided.

- Austin got hit.

- I remember watching it and seeing it happen.

He was probably in the ring with the best person to be in

in that case, considering Undertaker could

probably bring anything back.

- We didn't have a lot of these protocols in place.

- Yeah, it was a different world.

Now, it's-

this happens.

We just stop the match.

Doesn't matter if it's live on TV.

- It's a testament to what level they're at.

- We had to ad lib there for a second until Steve got his

bearings back around.

- Undertaker left his feet.

Austin able to move out of the way.

- I remember building in a spot.

I said, if anything happens,

if this isn't going like we want it to,

I'm going to put you on the table

and I'm going to climb up to the top rope

and I'm going to drop a leg on you

from the top rope to the announce table.

I never practiced it.

I never went up to the top rope.

- Look at this.

- Oh, no.

Oh, no.

- And now here we are at SummerSlam,

Madison Square Garden.

I've got Steve on the table, and now finally, I'm up on the top

rope and I'm like, "Holy hell, that's a long way."

- He's seven feet.

He's 325.

The champion.

Austin is helpless here.

- I remember thinking, because I got knocked out,

I figured, "Okay, maybe he won't go through that."

We'll just kind of put something in its place.

And sure enough, I'm laying there.

And as I'm looking out, I'm thinking to myself,

"Yep, he's coming.

He's going to drop that leg.

- I land, Steve's fine.

I cracked my tailbone.

[laughing]

- Good God.

My God, they're- they're broken in half.

- But Steve was good.

What's the old saying?

At all costs, protect your quarterback.

- My deal was to lay there and be his target.

His deal was to drop that leg off that top turnbuckle.

We both did our parts.

It was a crash landing, and we continued the match.

- There is no intimidation.

There is no fear in either man.

- Undertaker said he was going to take what's rightfully his.

He feels he should be the WWE champion.

Patented Undertaker.

- One minute they're cheering for him.

- Oh my.

- The next minute now they're cheering for me.

- Undertaker inviting Austin in.

The WWE title hangs in the balance here.

Chokeslam Undertaker back on top.

This didn't work earlier.

- Oh, no.

Did you see that?

- Austin with a low blow.

- Stunner.

- He got the stunner.

One.

Two.

- No.

- Yes.

Yes.

The Rattlesnake.

The Rattlesnake.

Austin wins.

Austin wins.

The Undertaker is up.

He's got the WWE title.

What's going to happen here?

- What?

- Undertaker didn't do that.

He didn't do things where he was humanized.

He didn't need to raise his hand.

He didn't need to shake his hand.

That was like, "You're the guy."

- We'd had this war.

He got the upper hand,

and, you know, I acknowledged it.

- It's a match that I always wish would have been better.

I let The Undertaker down that night because I didn't pull

my end of that match.

Getting knocked out and not being able to deliver the goods

with one of the all time greats in the history of the business

still haunts me to this day.

- A guy like him goes out there and gets concussed,

and then you can't think clearly out there,

and he's a thinking man's wrestler out there.

- You can't help but wonder what could have been

if Steve hadn't gotten hurt.

- Right

- You know, considering what they were able to pull off.

But I still remember that being a really good match.

- My hat's off to you.

You won a major battle tonight.

But, Austin, by no means did you win the war.

You will look into the eyes of the reaper,

and the results will be much different.

- There is only one "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- Stone Cold had been so dominating as a top star,

but Undertaker was really giving him a run for his money.

And even at SummerSlam, they were still relatively

both fan favorites.

Once The Undertaker took sharp turn,

it just kicked the rivalry to a new level.

- You got to stack the deck against your babyface, you know?

And that's tough to do when that babyface is

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- I can't believe it.

Kane and The Undertaker arm in arm.

- Undertaker and Kane were always adversaries.

- The heated rivalry between two brothers with a fiery past.

- But then all of a sudden, they kind of start working together.

You put Kane and Undertaker together as a team,

who can survive that?

- The WWE audience had always wanted us to get together.

That's what the audience really wanted to see.

- Let me break it down for you, Austin.

You're going to defend the WWE Championship against both

The Undertaker and Kane in a triple threat match.

- That's not fair.

- You put both those two guys essentially against one guy.

It just sets the perfect scenario that you need

as a babyface that finally he's fighting that uphill battle.

- Yeah, two on one,

and the two have to be the fricking monsters.

Yeah.

- The two are seven foot tall monsters.

- Fighting hell.

He's literally fighting hell.

- That's what you do when you have such a strong hero.

You give him dragons to slay.

- In my view, no WWE champion has ever had the deck

stacked against him

as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin has.

The Rattlesnake struck first.

The Rattlesnake struck first.

- These two guys that are both six ten, 300.

Two guys like that with that mystique about each one of them.

That's something that's just straight out of a comic book.

There was these two larger than life guys because they are

larger than life.

It was awesome.

- Can you imagine the exhaustion

that Austin must be experiencing?

- He was on this incredible run, so it was always hard to

figure out, ooh, what might happen here?

- Here we go.

- Double chokeslam.

The Undertaker and Kane.

That's gotta be-

- They got him.

- Austin has lost the title.

[bell rings]

Austin has lost the title.

Austin has lost the title.

But who is the champion?

Is it The Undertaker or is it Kane?

- Coming off of the double pin controversy,

we're now at Monday Night Raw

and Vince McMahon is in the ring.

- Undertaker, both you and Kane,

deserve to be the WWE champion.

- And who comes to the ring-

- There's Austin.

There's Austin.

Austin's in a Zamboni.

- There's some things that you can predict,

and that's definitely not one of them.

My God, he's going to run right into the titantron.

- Get out.

He'll run us over.

- The craziest part is when he drives up the Zamboni right up

to the ring and he hits the ring, you see the ring shift,

which, knowing what we know,

could have just sent everything crashing.

- Oh, yeah.

Austin got McMahon.

Austin's got McMahon.

- Get him.

- Business was so strong and so good,

there was no stunt that was completely out of the question.

And the people just absolutely ate it up.

- Boy, this crowd on their feet.

Everybody standing for the one and only Rattlesnake.

- It was the Attitude Era

Everything went.

It allowed me to expand my character.

- What the hell are you doing?

Oh, God almighty.

The Undertaker hit Austin right in the head with a shovel.

[bell rings]

The Undertaker hit Austin in the head with a shovel,

and Austin is out.

- You really saw a-

different side of The Undertaker,

and you got to see

just how evil and how sadistic he actually could be.

- I think you had to kick it up to the next gear,

because that's what we were all doing.

Taker was never afraid to try something different.

We were pushing the envelope.

Many edges.

- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, was hit in the head with a

shovel by The Undertaker last Monday night,

and sustained a concussion.

- Who remembers Undertaker kidnaping Stone Cold?

Anybody?

Just me?

- You ready?

- Yep.

- This was the Attitude Era,

and all the crazy stuff was going on.

And this was still, like, really over the top.

- Yeah.

- Hey, wait.

My God, that's The Undertaker.

The Undertaker is smothering Austin.

- What?

- Paul Bearer and The Undertaker are in Austin's-

his hospital room, for God's sakes.

What is going on here?

- We did some crazy, crazy stuff back then,

and this was part of it.

With Undertaker, all of a sudden turns to a-

a side that is past demonic.

- This is where you get off.

This is your last ride.

- There's "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and by God, you know

that he's got some payback on his mind

does The Rattlesnake.

- Outside of the arena,

how many crimes do you think were committed in this rivalry?

- You got all this crazy stuff going on.

It completely blows any common sense away,

but it was entertaining.

- Right.

- And people loved every bit of it,

and they suspended belief because they wanted to

because the characters were that good.

- Undertaker, you talk about sacrificing me,

about wanting my soul.

At Rock Bottom in a Buried Alive match,

the stakes are stacked up higher than they've ever been

for "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

- Someone, either The Undertaker or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

will be buried alive tonight.

- If you're an Undertaker, you want to bury people.

If you have an opportunity to bury someone alive, why not?

So a buried alive match is a match in which

the only way to win

is to take your opponent from the ring

to a cemetery plot

that happens to be constructed in the arena.

All you have to do is get your opponent into that hole,

then you put the dirt on your opponent,

hence burying them alive.

- This match not for careers, but for lives.

- It's hard for your audience to figure out what's going to

happen here, right?

This is a Buried alive match, which is The Undertaker's match.

But now this is Stone Cold and he's the baddest dude here.

It really added a lot of intrigue.

- Here we go.

- It was another one of those physical matches.

- This rivalry between these two is unparalleled,

unmatched,

but never, ever a match like this between these two men.

- Undertaker takes a lot of pride in being able to

go to the nth degree,

so you got to grind away at this guy.

You've got to chase him down,

and when you get on him,

you better stay on him.

- Here is Austin again.

Oh, look out.

- Now it may be.

There it is.

- Chokeslam.

- Those are tough matches.

You had to work your ass off to try to get that crowd

where you wanted 'em.

- Now Austin climbs that mound of dirt some ten feet high.

- Oh, no.

- Undertaker's in the grave.

- It is a very physical endeavor.

- Can you imagine fighting in your own grave?

- It was like something out of a monster movie.

A really good monster movie.

- And Stone Cold is in the grave.

That should be it.

Stone Cold, desperately, desperately trying

to make his way out.

Austin.

Stunner, stunner.

And Stone Cold with a wheelbarrow full of dirt.

- What?

- The Undertaker is out cold in the grave.

- One thing we learned in the first Buried Alive match,

is that six guys with a shovel

cannot fill a grave before the pay per view ends, so-

so we figured we'd got to do something else.

- And there's a backhoe being backed into the arena.

- It's Stone Cold.

Oh my God.

- Look at this.

The Undertaker is being buried alive.

- For being my match,

I didn't win a lot of those.

Those matches didn't turn out well for me.

[Stone Cold's music]

- Stone Cold has buried The Undertaker alive.

- It's kind of a way to put that exclamation point

on the end of a rivalry.

- This rivalry, which has been built for months.

It had to come to this.

It had to end somewhere.

- In the Attitude Era, where a lot of it was throwing

stuff at the wall, seeing what would stick.

The reason I think Austin and Undertaker can hold up is

because of those dynamic personalities and how great they

both were in the ring.

- When you take Stone Cold and Undertaker,

the two top guys that everybody wanted to see go head to head,

no matter what their personas

were at the time,

that was a show

you were not going to miss.

- They always find a way to get back to each other.

They were nonstop, creating memories and moments

for fans forever.

- A night that we will never forget.

- As a fan, all I remember now isn't the matches,

it's the moments.

And that's all that matters in our industry

is those moments.

- Wait a minute, it's The Undertaker.

- Undertaker caught Austin in mid-air.

Chokeslam.

- Breathing down their necks.

Their breathing down-

- You do that again,

You're going to pull back a nub.

We're much friendlier now.

We were friendly, but now we're in completely different places.

- It just seems like everything passed by so fast.

- I swear I said that earlier today.

You get to look back at the times and you talk about things,

and now we can sit back and, you know, we can laugh at ourselves.

- Next thing I know, I'm laying on the announce table and you're

coming off with the big leg.

And I'm thinking, I guess he's still going to do the spot.

[laughing]

- I just thought,

"Yeah, I can make that."

And I never went up.

I just said, I can make that.

And I got up there and I was like, "Oh, [bleep]"

- And once you once you go up there,

- There ain't no coming down.

- You can't come down.

You can't change your mind like, "Nah, [bleep] that.

- I think they always hit it off.

They're two Texas boys who love huntin', love fishin',

love the outdoors,

and they just clicked on that level.

- You know, just it had to be.

- It's good to reminisce,

and, uh, being two good ol' boys from Texas,

it just makes it that much better.

- They both brought out the best in each other.

Decades later, we're still talking about their relevance

and the way that they were able to elevate each other,

elevate themselves, and elevate the entire industry.

- When you talk about the greatest professional wrestlers

of all time, throw out world championships,

it doesn't even matter.

He is up there with the best of the best.

I look at him as one of my peers

and I consider him to be one of the GOATs.

- I watched Steve take a horrible gimmick and turn it

into the biggest name in the world of professional wrestling.

He's still incredibly relevant.

It was always fun to work with Steve.

I'm very grateful for it.