The Undertaker competed in dozens of legendary fighting during his 30 -year career at WWE's ring. Jim Ross, the main commentator of many of those meetings, recently recalled how the dead man lacked chemistry with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Austin defeated The Undertaker at the main event of Summerslam 1998 to retain the WWE championship. Although both men were among the main stars of the company, the fight was widely considered as disappointing.
In his podcast Grilling JRRoss told host Conrad Thompson that Austin was disappointed after the event. He also acknowledged that WWE icons had difficulty producing good performances in their other fighting with each other.
“Yes, it was quite evident, he (Steve Austin) was not happy with how the fight came out,” Ross said. “And you are right, no matter how I love The Undertaker, and I do it, Mark Calaway is a friend, he has always been a friend, he is a friend today. I am a big fan of Mark Calaway, without a word game. I would like it to have worked better. They simply did not have chemistry, as you mentioned, that one would like to see. (1:26:28 – 1:27:02)
Friends in real life faced several WWE events between 1996 and 2002. In their latest televised individual combat among them, the dead man defeated Austin in Backlash 2002.
Jim Ross says that Steve Austin and The Undertaker never had a “great fight”
The 1998 Summerslam star event ended with Steve Austin defeating The Undertaker by Pinfall after a Stone Cold Stunner. The phenomenon quickly got up and moved away before he and Kane observed the celebration of the Texas rattle snake from the hall.
More than two decades later, Jim Ross is not sure why two of the greats of all WWE's time did not work well together:
“They surpassed him the best they could and I remember it well. One would think that this would have been a spectacular closure due to the status of both boys, but Undertaker and Austin never had the great fight that they both wanted to have, and I think that was because they did not have the chemistry among them that we all wanted to see.” (1:27:09 – 1:27:35)
Ross also approached if Austin's real life problem with Owen Hart prevented them from confronting each other.
