Taker130 ~ Ministry of Darkness

The Ministry of Darkness was a professional wrestling stable in the WWF (now WWE) during the Attitude Era of the late 1990s. It was a very controversial group with a Satanic theme, that performed evil rituals and human sacrifice.

The Ministry of Darkness/ Corporate Ministry

In the year 1999, the World Wrestling Federation was gripped with terror by the evil and sadistic new faction led by The Undertaker, who had turned heel following a hiatus. Now referring to himself as the "Lord of Darkness", Undertaker sported a demonic goatee (previously, he had a beard) and wore a black robe with a hood. He soon built himself a formidable faction by bringing in several new members.

But as if that was not bad enough, The Ministry was eventually made even more of an unholy alliance when Vince McMahon merged his faction, The Corporation, with The Ministry into a truly unstoppable force, The Corporate Ministry.

This is the history of this storied group of evil...

Formation

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 The Acolytes, a dark and brooding tag team briefly managed by The Jackyl, who left them shortly after their debut. 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.

Then, at the 1999 Royal Rumble, the group of Undertaker, Mideon and The Acolytes abducted the 400-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. Then, Undertaker made his mission clear.

He wanted the WWF, and Vince McMahon's Corporation, to fall. And they did.

First Strike

McMahon, shook up, put Undertaker in the second-ever Inferno match, which was 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 was not yet 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, and sent McMahon another message by hanging Big Bossman by a noose 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. 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. Shamrock then found his sister crying in the boiler room.

Birth of the Corporate Ministry

At the 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 devastated after the match with an attack from Bradshaw. Many thought that was all The Undertaker would do, but unfortunately, he did not stop there. 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 he and Stephanie for if he married the WWF owner's daughter, he would control the entire Federation. Thankfully, Undertaker never got his wish, as the ceremony was disrupted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, the WWF Champion. But Austin's interference still bore fruit for The Undertaker, as he 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 the Over The Edge 99 pay-per-view, 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 did not end there. 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. And the next week, finally, after four months of suspense, Undertaker revealed the identity of The Corporate Ministry's Higher Power to be the one being no one ever suspected...Vince McMahon.

Death Of The Ministry

McMahon's involvement in The Corporate Ministry was merely a front to destroy Austin, but Undertaker had his own worries, in new challenger The Rock. After beating him and Triple H in a handicap match, Undertaker faced The Rock at King Of The Ring '99 for the title. However, Undertaker was saved by fellow Corporate Ministry member Triple H, who made a run-in to help Taker seal his victory.

However, 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 '99 in a First Blood Match, but Austin retained after an unlikely assist from X-Pac.

The Ministry was somewhat disbanded by this time, except for Mideon and Viscera, who stuck around and helped 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.

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.

The Only Thing Close to a Comeback

In the final three SmackDown! shows prior to the Undertaker and Bradshaw (now under the rich Texan JBL gimmick) would go on to 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 kayfabe servant.

On the September 16, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, JBL called out the Undertaker, much to everyone’s surprise. When Undertaker came out and had JBL cornered, Gangrel and Viscera surprisingly 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 handily.

The third and final episode of this series, on the September 30 edition, saw JBL face Hardcore Holly in a hardcore rules match. Taker had a vignette with the hearst 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 hardcore match, JBL had asked where was Orlando, who for once was not with him. Following a preemptive assault by Holly, JBL won the hardcore match, then got interrupted by yet another Undertaker vignette, in which Taker revealed Orlando hung high in the stands 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 MoD. Instead, the excuse given for Gangrel and Viscera's insert was that "JBL paid them off."

Members

    * Undertaker
    * Paul Bearer
    * Acolytes: Bradshaw & Faarooq
    * Mideon
    * Viscera
    * The Brood: Gangrel, Christian, and Edge
    * Big Bossman

Accomplishments(while in Ministry/Corporate Ministry)

    * Undertaker:

WWF Championship (1)

WWF World Tag Team Title (2)

    * Acolytes:

WWF World Tag Team Title (1)

    * Mideon:

WWF European Championship (1)

    * Big Bossman:

WWF Hardcore Championship (1)