The Undertaker is no stranger to championship gold and he defeated Steve Austin to win the WWE Championship at the Over The Edge pay-per-view in 1999. Unfortunately for Taker his reign didn’t last very long as he dropped the belt back to Steve Austin a few weeks later.
Recently The Undertaker talked about the title change on Six Feet Under and he explained that Vince McMahon got heated during a backstage meeting. According to Taker, Vince felt something wasn’t working after Undertaker won the title, so he decided it was better to give it back to Austin.
“Vince [Vince McMahon] pulls Stone Cold, Triple H, Kane, and me into a room. He’s livid, beside himself. ‘Something is not working. Something is not working right. We have to change some things. Steve, you’re going over Taker tonight. We’re switching the title back on TV.’ I think we did it live on TV, if I’m not mistaken, maybe a pay-per-view, I’m a little foggy. I put Steve back over, he takes the belt. I’m not sure what else changed for the other guys. One of them was the Intercontinental Champion, one may have been the US Champion. Nothing changed for them, the only thing that was changing was me dropping this title back to Steve.
“[Vince] always liked a babyface champion. I’m thinking, ‘These are guys that I respect the absolute most and now we’re in a room together and it’s basically all falling on me.’ ‘Dude, you’re not getting it done as champ, you’re dropping the strap tonight. You two, get your s**t together too or you’re next.’ That’s how it went down and that’s how I left that room. I remember Triple H coming up to me and he goes, ‘You didn’t deserve that.’ ‘You know what, I don’t think I did deserve that.'”
Although The Undertaker’s WWE Championship reign was cut short it seems that everything worked out in the end as Taker went on to have a Hall of Fame level career which included several more title wins.
H/T Fightful
