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Ministry of Darkness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ministry of Darkness | |
|---|---|
 The Ministry of Darkness (Paul Bearer and The Brood not pictured) |
|
| Statistics | |
| Members | Undertaker, Paul Bearer, Mideon, Viscera, The Brood, The Acolytes |
| Debuted | 1999 |
| Disbanded | early 2000 |
| Promotions | WWF |
The Ministry of Darkness was a professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) during the Attitude Era of the late 1990s. Led by the Undertaker, this Ministry was a controversial group with a Satanic theme that performed evil rituals and human sacrifice.
Contents |
In the last weeks of 1998, long-professed cowboy Justin Hawk Bradshaw formed a tag-team with Faarooq from NOD (Nation of Domination) to form Hell's Henchmen, a dark and brooding tag team briefly managed by The Jackyl. Shortly after their debut, the Jackyl left WWF and the team, after which they changed their name to The Acolytes. Bradshaw and Faarooq ended up as the henchmen of a then-unknown new leader. And as one of their first orders of business, they abducted Dennis Knight (formerly known as Phineas I. Godwinn), and took him to "He." Weeks later, "He" turned out to be a new, druid-like Undertaker, who proceeded to initiate Knight as his servant via a ritual, rechristening him as Mideon.
At the Royal Rumble 1999, the group of Undertaker, Mideon, and The Acolytes abducted the 500-pound Mabel, who was renamed Viscera the next night on Raw Is War and turned him to the Undertaker's side. Another faction, The Brood (Edge, Christian & Gangrel), was recruited to The Undertaker's service as well.
Vince McMahon turned face during this time, claiming that Mark Calaway (Undertaker) was taking his gimmick too far, and he actually believed that he WAS The Undertaker and that he was the second coming of The Lord of Darkness. This statement could be received as a breaking of the fourth wall of kayfabe, due to the references of Calaway's name, the word "gimmick", and the wording of "believing that he was the Undertaker". It was actually used as storyline buildup disguised as such to turn McMahon face. McMahon, shook up, put Undertaker in the second-ever Inferno match, a rematch of the first as Undertaker faced off against his brother Kane. Undertaker defeated Kane again, and reduced the WWF owner to tears at the sight of a burning teddy bear. The significance of the bear had not yet been revealed.
For weeks, Undertaker revealed that his Ministry actually took orders from a "higher power", and kept talking about a woman who apparently owned the key to McMahon's heart and soul. After leaving a burning symbol resembling a crucifix in McMahon's yard, the Corporate leader ordered his enforcer, The Big Bossman, to face Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell Match at WrestleMania XV. Undertaker claimed victory without much difficulty. After the match, The Brood lowered themselves from the ceiling onto the top of the cell and then lowered a noose to the Undertaker. He sent McMahon another message by hanging Big Bossman from the cell (the stunt was carried out using a body harness that supported Bossman's weight so as not to endanger him).
After WrestleMania, the mysterious woman was revealed to be McMahon's own daughter, Stephanie. (By extension, the teddy bear was revealed to be hers.) The Ministry took Stephanie captive that night, and Corporation member Ken Shamrock found Stephanie, crying and with the Undertaker's symbol on her forehead, in a boiler room. As revenge on Shamrock for ruining his plans, Taker ordered The Ministry to abduct Ken's "sister", Ryan, and "sacrifice" her on one of his symbols. The next week, Shamrock found his sister crying in the boiler room. In addition, Shamrock had attained the information as to Stephanie's whereabouts by forcing it out of Christian after beating him down; as a result, Taker ordered Christian to be punished by fellow Brood members Edge and Gangrel. However, they refused, and turned against Undertaker instead. This defection of the Brood was the only voluntary defection from the Ministry during its entire tenure.
At the WWF Backlash 1999 pay-per-view, Vince McMahon had a crazed Shamrock face Undertaker in the hopes that Shamrock would break Taker's ankle with his Ankle lock toehold submission. His plan backfired, and Shamrock was attacked by Bradshaw after the match. Later, The Undertaker commandeered Stephanie McMahon's limo and drove off into the night with a screaming Stephanie in tow as Backlash went off the air.
The next night, Undertaker held a "Black Wedding" for himself and Stephanie because if he married the WWF owner's daughter, he would control the entire Federation. Undertaker never got his wish, as the ceremony was disrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, the WWF Champion, after attempts by Ken Shamrock and The Big Show failed. The Undertaker proceeded to join forces with Vince McMahon's son, Shane McMahon. And in turn, he gained control of The Corporation, and merged his Ministry with it to form the even more powerful Corporate Ministry. The members of both factions seemingly forgot their past conflicts and worked together as a massive stable.
As the Corporate Ministry's first act, Shane ordered a WWF Title match at Over the Edge 1999, pitting The Undertaker against Steve Austin with Shane McMahon as Undertaker's referee and Vince McMahon as Austin's referee. That night, Shane gave Undertaker a quick 3-count for his third WWF Championship reign, but the feud continued. Undertaker decided to "serve" Austin up to his greater power, who revealed his identity to Austin while dressed in a black robe and a hood that hid his face from the live audience. The next week, after four months of suspense, Undertaker revealed the identity of The Corporate Ministry's Higher Power to be Vince McMahon.
McMahon's involvement in The Corporate Ministry was merely a front to destroy Austin, but Undertaker had his own problems in new challenger The Rock. After Rock beat Undertaker and fellow Corporate Ministry member Triple H in a handicap match, Undertaker faced The Rock at King of the Ring 1999 for the title. However, Undertaker was saved by Triple H, who made a run-in to help Taker seal his victory.
The next night, Austin challenged the Undertaker for the WWF Title again, and to everyone's surprise, won the match. Undertaker, still reeling from the loss, got a rematch at Fully Loaded 1999 in a First Blood Match. Austin retained after an unlikely assist from X-Pac.
The Ministry was somewhat disbanded by this time, with the exception of Mideon and Viscera, who stuck around to help the Undertaker in his new tag-team with the Big Show (The Unholy Alliance). The duo captured the World Tag Team Titles twice, until Undertaker suffered a groin injury, and left to rehabilitate. By the time he returned at Judgment Day 2000, the Ministry was completely disbanded. Subsequently, the Undertaker character was changed to a biker gimmick for the next four years.
In the final three SmackDown! shows prior to the Undertaker and Bradshaw (now under the rich Texan gimmick of John "Bradshaw" Layfield) face-off at No Mercy 2004 for the WWE Championship in a last ride match, a series of Ministry-reminiscent events occurred between the Undertaker and his former servant:
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- On the September 16, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, JBL called out the Undertaker. When Undertaker came out and had JBL cornered, Gangrel and Viscera appeared and took out Undertaker from behind, commencing an assault by the foursome of Gangrel, Viscera, JBL, and Orlando Jordan.
- The September 23 edition saw Gangrel and Viscera, introduced as the Ministry, face Undertaker in a handicap match. Undertaker defeated them single handedly without much trouble at all.
- The third and final episode of this series, on the September 30 edition, saw JBL face Hardcore Holly in a match. Taker had a vignette with the hearse telling Bradshaw to prepare to take his last ride and rest in peace at No Mercy. In an interview after that and prior to the match, JBL had asked where was Orlando, who for once was not with him. Following a preemptive assault by Holly, JBL came out for the match. During the match, he assaulted Holly with a weapon, getting disqualified, after which yet another Undertaker vignette interrupted him. In this one, Taker revealed Orlando hung high in the stands, crucified on his symbol. JBL beat the Undertaker at No Mercy with interference, however, to retain the WWE Title.
During this series, the SmackDown! announcers mentioned Gangrel and Viscera's former Ministry status, but never once during the entire Taker/JBL feud was it brought up that Bradshaw used to be a part of the Ministry. Instead, the excuse given for Gangrel and Viscera's insert was that "JBL paid them off." However at the Great American Bash 2006 as JBL was calling the match between Undertaker and Big Show, JBL mentioned that he had fought the Undertaker for the world title and had been on his side in the Ministry of Darkness.
- Managers
- Members
-
- WWE Championship (1 time, Undertaker)
- WWE World Tag Team Title (4 times)
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- Acolytes (2 times)
- Undertaker and Big Show (2 times)
- WWE Hardcore Championship (1 time, Viscera)
- WWE European Championship (1 time, Mideon)
- There are five former Ministry of Darkness members who have all won a world championship once or more at some point:
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- The Undertaker is a 5-time world champion (current first-time World Heavyweight Champion, 3-time WWE Champion, and one of the six former Undisputed Champions).
- Faarooq is a 1-time WCW Champion (became the first African American world champion in the process).
- Bradshaw is a 1-time WWE Champion (tied with John Cena's subsequent first title reign for the longest in ten years).
- Edge is a 2-time WWE Champion (his first reign was the first championship reign ever received from winning the Money in the Bank ladder match).
- Christian is a 2-time NWA World Champion (never pinned or forced to submit in TNA before either title reign or after the first).
- The Acolytes Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw) and Edge and Christian were both tag teams that came out of the Ministry to be a prominent force in the Attitude era.
- In the 2001 WWE-released home video entitled This Is My Yard, The Undertaker admitted he considered the Corporate Ministry stable to be the low-point of his "dark" era, mainly because it led to a diluting of power — the focus shifted from the Undertaker to Vince McMahon.
- http://www.gerweck.net
- http://www.phenomforever.com
- http://www.taker-online.net
- http://www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/wwf/wwfstab.htm