WWE history: Undertaker wrestles Stone Cold in a mask in rare footage 

The backstory

At WWE SummerSlam 1998, The Undertaker took on Stone Cold Steve Austin in a match for the ages. The two megastars wrestled a hard-fought match, which ended with Austin pinning Taker after hitting him with a Stunner.

After the match, The Deadman took the title belt, and handed it to Austin as a sign of respect. He left the ring and joined his brother Kane on the ramp, as Austin celebrated to end the show. Around a decade before this huge PPV main event, the Undertaker and Stone Cold met inside the squared circle as two completely different characters (It should be noted though, that these two men had also wrestled on the July 29th, 1996 episode of Raw).

The rare encounter

The USWA Challenge in 1989 saw The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin wrestle an incredibly rare match. They didn't carry these names at the time though. Mark Calaway, at the time, was a spooky character named The Punisher, who actually came out to the ring wearing a mask! Stone Cold was Steve Williams at the time, and was sporting long, blonde hair.

Surprisingly, The Punisher used Hulk Hogan's famous finishing move The Legdrop as his own finisher, and hit Williams with it to win the whole thing. Take a look at the match yourself. This rare contest makes one wonder how far these two Superstars came in the near future.

The aftermath

Austin went on to practically save Vince McMahon from going out of business during the Monday Night Wars, while Taker remained a WWE faithful for the entirety of his career, once he joined the promotion. These two men are widely regarded as being two of the biggest Superstars in WWE history.

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