The WORST Wrestling Story Every Year (1989-2025)

1998 - The Undertaker Vs. Kane Vs. Steve Austin

Where to start?

Rarely has the word “Worst” opened itself up to so many definitions. 1998, while electrifying and dangerous-feeling, was quite literally all kinds of bad. The transparent attempt to exploit death when the person involved wasn’t even dead yet (Hawk); the bizarre decision to reboot the Midnight Express via an ‘NWA invasion’, which wasn’t going to work on any WWF fan, much less the nu-metal teen breast enthusiasts that attached themselves to Raw that year; the Kaientia genital dismemberment angle that portrayed abuser John Wayne Bobbitt as a babyface: all terrible.

There was much in the way of midcard experimentation with these examples, memorable low-stakes awfulness, but nothing was as oppressively bad as the abject state of the WWF title in the autumn. McMahon was still desperate to get it off Steve Austin, and turned to the Undertaker and Kane, who had forgotten all about that silly bother with the parricide to team up with one another.

This resulted in two consecutive awful pay-per-view matches. The drop in quality from the Dude Love series was staggering, but by that point, the WWF was too hot for most people to care.

At Breakdown, the belt was held in abeyance after the brothers both pinned Austin. At Judgment Day, Austin pinned both Kane and ‘Taker himself, in his capacity as Special Guest Referee.

People insist Steve Austin was the best babyface of his era, but what a pr*ck. He took 18 minutes to do it, lumbering fans with another long, tedious Kane Vs. Undertaker match, when he could have just called for the disqualification immediately.