‘He was gone’ – The Undertaker broke bone taking insane emergency action after knocking out Stone Cold Steve Austin in WWE title match
Stone Cold Steve Austin was WWE’s golden goose in 1998 and The Undertaker once went above and beyond to protect him. At that year’s SummerSlam, Austin was riding high as WWE Champion with the Attitude Era arguably at its peak. Austin and Undertaker main evented SummerSlam in New York but things didn’t go to planWWE He was feuding with Undertaker at the megashow, their battle for Austin’s championship serving as the main event at the hallowed ground of the wrestling world that is Madison Square Garden. WWE had two of their big hitters going at it in battle for the ages, and things unfortunately went awry early in the match. Taker and Austin have both spoken publicly about the freakish mishap that saw their heads collide at full speed. The Texas Rattlesnake took the impact of the Deadman’s head against his chin in the middle of the ring in a frightening moment that saw Austin fall to the ground clutching his head before appearing to momentarily lose consciousness altogether. In a new instalment of his podcast Six Feet Under, the legendary Phenom has revealed the lengths he went to ensure Austin was taken care of – at great pains to himself. He admitted that, prior to the match, he’d warned Austin of an emergency failsafe he was putting in place in the event the pair needed a moment to reset in case of emergency – he’d give the champ time to compose himself while he dished out a bonkers top rope leg drop. The plan was needed in the end, of course, when disaster struck in front of a sold out crowd and a pay-per-view audience of millions. Recalling the moment of panic when Austin became hurt, Taker said: “His eyes rolled back like a slot machine. I was like: ‘Uh oh!’ “That’s how that whole leg drop happened. I told Steve: ‘If anything goes wrong in this match, I’m gonna put you on the table and I’m gonna climb up to the top [rope] and I’m gonna drop the leg on to you from the table. “Sure enough, man, I rung his bell. He was gone, man. He didn’t know where he was at for a while, so we danced around until he started getting his faculties. The iconic leg drop from the SummerSlam match was only used after Austin was knocked outWWE “I [thought:] ‘I’ve got to do something, this is The Garden. It’s SummerSlam. Crap!’ “I put him on the table, and I’d never even been up to the top rope, I just looked at the distance from the table… I said: ‘I can do that.’ “I had no question [about doing it] until I got up there, then I was like: ‘Oh no! This is gonna hurt!” The sight of The Undertaker, standing almost seven feet tall and weighing over 320lbs (almost 23 stone) flying from the top rope and crashing through an announce table with Austin on it was quite something to behold. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, it came at a cost for the future leader of the Ministry of Darkness – though he accepts it was the price he needed to pay to keep Austin, as WWE champ, on an even keel. He added: “I knew I had to protect him. I can’t hurt him. “That was a long way, man. I cracked my coccyx when I landed, but Steve was fine! The Undertaker was beaten in New York but remained a major player in WWE until 2020WWE “I went down and it was one of those ‘Holly s***!’ kinda things. I wish I hadn’t had to pull that out of the bag.” Austin had, a year before that meeting with The Undertaker, suffered a broken neck in another SummerSlam match that went horribly wrong.
Stone Cold Steve Austin was WWE’s golden goose in 1998 and The Undertaker once went above and beyond to protect him.
At that year’s SummerSlam, Austin was riding high as WWE Champion with the Attitude Era arguably at its peak.
He was feuding with Undertaker at the megashow, their battle for Austin’s championship serving as the main event at the hallowed ground of the wrestling world that is Madison Square Garden.
WWE had two of their big hitters going at it in battle for the ages, and things unfortunately went awry early in the match.
Taker and Austin have both spoken publicly about the freakish mishap that saw their heads collide at full speed.
The Texas Rattlesnake took the impact of the Deadman’s head against his chin in the middle of the ring in a frightening moment that saw Austin fall to the ground clutching his head before appearing to momentarily lose consciousness altogether.
In a new instalment of his podcast Six Feet Under, the legendary Phenom has revealed the lengths he went to ensure Austin was taken care of – at great pains to himself.
He admitted that, prior to the match, he’d warned Austin of an emergency failsafe he was putting in place in the event the pair needed a moment to reset in case of emergency – he’d give the champ time to compose himself while he dished out a bonkers top rope leg drop.
The plan was needed in the end, of course, when disaster struck in front of a sold out crowd and a pay-per-view audience of millions.
Recalling the moment of panic when Austin became hurt, Taker said: “His eyes rolled back like a slot machine. I was like: ‘Uh oh!’
“That’s how that whole leg drop happened. I told Steve: ‘If anything goes wrong in this match, I’m gonna put you on the table and I’m gonna climb up to the top [rope] and I’m gonna drop the leg on to you from the table.
“Sure enough, man, I rung his bell. He was gone, man. He didn’t know where he was at for a while, so we danced around until he started getting his faculties.
“I [thought:] ‘I’ve got to do something, this is The Garden. It’s SummerSlam. Crap!’
“I put him on the table, and I’d never even been up to the top rope, I just looked at the distance from the table… I said: ‘I can do that.’
“I had no question [about doing it] until I got up there, then I was like: ‘Oh no! This is gonna hurt!”
The sight of The Undertaker, standing almost seven feet tall and weighing over 320lbs (almost 23 stone) flying from the top rope and crashing through an announce table with Austin on it was quite something to behold.
Sadly, but not unexpectedly, it came at a cost for the future leader of the Ministry of Darkness – though he accepts it was the price he needed to pay to keep Austin, as WWE champ, on an even keel.
He added: “I knew I had to protect him. I can’t hurt him.
“That was a long way, man. I cracked my coccyx when I landed, but Steve was fine!
“I went down and it was one of those ‘Holly s***!’ kinda things. I wish I hadn’t had to pull that out of the bag.”
Austin had, a year before that meeting with The Undertaker, suffered a broken neck in another SummerSlam match that went horribly wrong.
