3. The Undertaker
Steve Austin and The Undertaker is one of the pairings that will forever go down in wrestling history. Austin-McMahon was the real draw of the Attitude Era, and Austin-Rock contained the most epic battles, but there was something about Austin-Undertaker that captured The Rattlesnake himself on a greater level than any of the others. When Austin infamously walked out of WWE in 2002, one of his biggest complaints was the caliber of his opponents. Austin was working programs with The Big Show and Brock Lesnar, but he wanted to stay paired with his friend, The Undertaker. It may have been a smaller grievance in his long list, but it said a lot about the relationship between the two.
Outside of wanting to work with him, Austin will always be indebted to The Undertaker for his role in Austin’s initial WWE Championship victory. Shawn Michaels was still in his prima donna phase and had been talking about refusing to lose to Austin, causing Undertaker to step in and threaten to legitimately attack HBK should he do so. Michaels eventually acquiesced and lost the belt, kicking off the Attitude Era and ironically leading to an epic feud between Austin and The Dead Man. Backstage, Austin never forgot what Undertaker did for him, and their friendship lasted for decades as a result.
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