The Corporate Ministry

Background

Throughout early 1999, The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness had been feuding with WWF owner Mr. McMahon, trying to gain control of the Federation. To break Vince's spirits they began targeting his daughter Stephanie. Worried about his daughter, Vince shifted focus from his Corporation stable to Stephanie. With Vince occupied, his son Shane gradually took over the leadership of the Corporation. On April 12, Shane kicked Vince, Pat Patterson, and Gerald Brisco out of the Corporation. His rationale was that there was no room in the Corporation for the old and that Vince no longer had his priorities straight. Shane then slapped his father, saying that the strong, ruthless man he knew was gone.

Heading into WrestleMania XV, Vince McMahon had been feuding with Stone Cold Steve Austin for an entire year.^[1] By this point, the Corporation was involved in the feud as well. The Rock, Vince's handpicked champion, lost his WWF Championship to Austin at WrestleMania XV^[1] and also lost a rematch at Backlash. Rock blamed the loss on Shane, who had been guest referee and accidentally hit Rock with the championship belt near the end of the match.^[2] The following night on Raw Is War, Rock insulted Shane and hit him Rock Bottom and was in turn fired from the Corporation.

At Backlash, the Ministry kidnapped Stephanie.^[2] The Undertaker attempted to wed and sacrifice her the following night, but was ruined successfully by Stone Cold Steve Austin after two failed attempts by Ken Shamrock and the Big Show.^[3] Members of The Corporation had wanted to help Stephanie, but Shane held them back.^[4]

Formation

Stone Cold Steve Austin was the main target of this stable

On April 27, the pilot episode of SmackDown!, The Undertaker merged his Ministry of Darkness with Shane's Corporation to form the Corporate Ministry. The two groups united in order to fight their common foes Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Mr. McMahon.^[5] The members of both factions seemingly forgot their past conflicts and worked together as a massive stable.

On the following episode of Raw Is War, a new faction formed to oppose the Corporate Ministry. Former Corporation members Ken Shamrock, Big Show, and Test joined together with Mankind to form The Union. The Union members felt that they were being screwed over by the Corporation ever since Shane had taken control of it from his father. Wanting revenge on his son, Vince soon united with the Union as they fought with the Corporate Ministry.

The Corporate Ministry

As the Corporate Ministry's first act, Shane ordered a WWF Championship match at Over the Edge between Austin and Undertaker with himself as a special guest referee. However, WWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels countered by adding Vince as another guest referee. That night, an altercation between the feuding McMahons collected Undertaker and Austin, and Shane fast-counted the pin to give the match and the title to Undertaker.^[6] That same night, The Rock defeated Triple H via disqualification and The Union defeated The Acolytes, Viscera, and Big Bossman in an elimination match.^[7] A week later, The Acolytes defeated X-Pac and Kane to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.^[8]

Meanwhile, The Undertaker's claim that he served a higher power was expanded upon. Eventually, The Undertaker decided to offer Austin to this greater power, who revealed his identity to Austin while dressed in a black robe and a hood that hid his face from the audience. On June 7, the identity of the higher power was revealed as Vince McMahon^[9] and the entire exercise had been a ruse designed to fool everyone and destroy Austin as revenge. After the unveiling Linda and Stephanie McMahon, who were also victims of the ruse, used their combined 50% share in the WWF to punish Vince.^[9] Linda stepped down as CEO of the company and made Austin as her replacement. Further, she and Stephanie were signing over their shares of the WWF to Austin. The Undertaker has stated that he considers the Corporate Ministry stable to be the low point of his "dark" era due to the diluting of power from himself to the McMahons.^[10]

With Austin now feuding with the McMahons, The Undertaker faced a new challenger, The Rock. After Rock beat The Undertaker and Triple H in a handicap match, The Undertaker faced The Rock at King of the Ring for the title. Undertaker won the match and retained the title thanks to a sealing run-in by Triple H.^[11] That same night, Vince and Shane defeated Austin in a ladder match to win his 50% share of the company and regain full control of the WWF.^[11] The following week, The Acolytes lost their tag team titles to the Hardy Boyz.^[12]

As far as Austin was concerned, he reinserted himself into a feud with The Undertaker by announcing the night after losing to the McMahons that (according to Austin, which includes in his Five-Year Contract which states that as CEO, at anytime and place determined by Austin himself) he booked himself a title rematch with Undertaker for the next week's Raw Is War, which he won.^[13]

At Fully Loaded, a First Blood match was signed with two stipulations. If Undertaker regained the title, Austin could never challenge for it again. If Austin was to retain, Vince McMahon would be forced to leave the WWF. Austin won by hitting The Undertaker with a television camera after an assist from X-Pac, thus retaining the title and forcing Vince out of the company.^[14][14] Meanwhile, The Acolytes defeated The Hardy Boyz and their manager Michael Hayes to regain the tag team titles^[15] and Triple H defeated The Rock in a leather strap match to become the number one contender for the WWF Championship.^[14][16] Two weeks later, the Acolytes would lose the tag team titles to X-Pac and Kane.^[17]

Dissolution

By the end of July, The Undertaker's relationship with the McMahons had dissolved and the Corporate Ministry was effectively disbanded by Shane McMahon on August 2, 1999. Shane continued to align himself with Triple H and Chyna, and on the Raw Is War following SummerSlam he helped Triple H defeat Mankind to win his first WWF Championship. The Acolytes stayed together and continued to wrestle under that name with no connection to anyone, eventually becoming the APA.

The Undertaker, in the meantime, formed a new tag team with Big Show called the "Unholy Alliance", which eventually grew into a stable that included former Ministry members Mideon and Viscera.^[18] They defeated X-Pac and Kane at SummerSlam for the WWF Tag Team Championship, only to lose them a week later to the makeshift tag team of Mankind and The Rock, which became better known as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection.^[19] The following week, they regained the tag team titles in a Buried Alive match after Triple H buried Mankind following an attack on Big Show.^[20]

Shortly after this, it was found that Undertaker suffered a torn groin and would require surgery, which necessitated a change in storyline. The team's scheduled defense against the former champions on Raw Is War two weeks later was turned into a Dark Side Rules match where any of the members of the Unholy Alliance could wrestle. This enabled Undertaker to avoid aggravating his injury, although the group lost the tag team titles back to the Rock 'n' Sock Connection.^[21]

After Austin who told McMahon that according to the previous contract (which includes the "fine print" also according to Austin) the following night on RAW, he would reinstate him, provided that Austin granted him his title shot. McMahon agreed and considered himself reinstated and granted him the title shot, but told him that he will meet the winner of the match at Unforgiven. During that time, Undertaker was also set to compete in a Six-Pack Challenge WWF Championship match at Unforgiven against The Rock, Mankind, Kane, Big Show, and Triple H, requiring a change in those plans as well. One week after the group lost the tag team titles for the final time, Mr. McMahon forced Triple H to take part in a gauntlet match to keep his spot in the Unforgiven main event, with each match being considered the "specialty" match of the competitors. Undertaker was originally set to face Triple H in a casket match as part of the gauntlet, but Undertaker refused to compete and walked out on Mr. McMahon.^[22][23] Mideon and Viscera, who earlier had interfered in Triple H's inferno match against Kane, were forced to take Undertaker's place and won the match after Triple H was unable to put both men in a casket.

After that, the remaining members of what was left of the Ministry went their separate ways. Big Show became the WWF Champion at that year's Survivor Series, while Viscera won the WWF Hardcore Championship and was eventually let go from the company. Mideon disappeared for some time after Unforgiven, returning first as an impostor version of Mankind and then as "Naked Mideon" before leaving the company himself. Joey Abs made his debut by joining The Mean Street Posse; he wasn't a member of the Corporate Ministry, but debuted under the Corporate Ministry banner.