The Undertaker had no chemistry with WWE legend, Jim Ross says

The Undertaker competed in dozens of legendary matches during his 30-year WWE in-ring career. Jim Ross, the lead commentator for many of those bouts, recently recalled how The Deadman lacked chemistry with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Austin defeated The Undertaker in the SummerSlam 1998 main event to retain the WWE Championship. Although both men were among the company's top stars, the match was widely viewed as underwhelming.

On his Grilling JR podcast, Ross told host Conrad Thompson that Austin was disappointed after the event. He also acknowledged that the WWE icons struggled to produce good performances in their other matches against each other.

"Yeah, it was pretty apparent, he [Steve Austin] wasn't happy with how the match went," Ross said. "And you're right, as much as I love The Undertaker, and I do, Mark Calaway's a friend, he's always been a friend, he's a friend today. I'm a big Mark Calaway mark, no pun intended. I wish it had worked out better. They just didn't have the chemistry, as you mentioned, that you wanna see. I don't know why that was." [1:26:28 – 1:27:02]

The real-life friends faced off at several WWE events between 1996 and 2002. In their final televised singles match against each other, The Deadman defeated Austin at Backlash 2002.

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Jim Ross says Steve Austin and The Undertaker never had a "great match"

The SummerSlam 1998 main event ended with Steve Austin defeating The Undertaker via pinfall after a Stone Cold Stunner. The Phenom quickly sat up and walked away before he and Kane watched The Texas Rattlesnake's celebration from the aisleway.

Over two decades later, Jim Ross is unsure why two of WWE's all-time greats did not work well together:

"They got through it the best they could and I remember it well. You'd think that that thing would have been a show-topper because of the status of both guys, but Undertaker and Austin never had the great match they both wanted to have, and I think that was because they didn't have the chemistry between each other that we all wanted to see." [1:27:09 – 1:27:35]

Ross also addressed whether Austin's real-life problem with Owen Hart prevented them from feuding with each other again.

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Please credit Grilling JR and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.