Christopher Daniels Almost Debuted As The Undertaker's Master In WWE's Attitude Era
Elijah King
Published Mar 28, 2026
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In 1999, the Attitude Era was well under way, and WWE, who had once fallen behind to WCW in the Monday Night Wars, had now taken over in the ratings. It seemed that the company could do little wrong. Every character was on fire, every storyline hit. Then came the angle involving a Higher Power for The Undertaker’s Corporate Ministry, a sinister and mysterious person who had been running the faction from the start.
It was fun at first simply out of curiosity of who would be revealed to be the Corporate Ministry’s driving force. It ended with the most predictable letdown imaginable, but it was almost something completely different, because before Vince McMahon was the one who took off his black hood, it was supposed to be Christopher Daniels.
The Corporate Ministry Dominated WWE In 1999
Everything that led to the reveal of the Higher Power was a storyline with confusing twists and turns. In 1999, The Undertaker formed his Ministry of Darkness faction with Bradshaw, Farooq, The Brood, Viscera, and Mideon. They were a dark group of villains who soon began to feud with Vince McMahon’s Corporation, which was strange since both factions were made of heels.
The Ministry of Darkness took things too far when The Undertaker kidnapped Stephanie McMahon, with the intent of sacrificing her in the middle of the ring on Raw, which was stopped in a great moment by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The feud also saw Shane McMahon joining forces with The Undertaker to form The Corporate Ministry. The Undertaker spoke of a higher power who controlled the group, a mysterious presence behind the scenes who pulled all the strings.
RELATED: How WWE Should Have Booked The Higher Power Storyline
Vince McMahon Was Revealed As The Higher Power In A Huge Letdown
Going into the reveal of the Higher Power, WWE fans were excited by the possibilities. With WWE on fire like never before, anything seemed possible. Would it be someone jumping ship from WCW? Would it be a WWE name from the past? Whatever it was, it was sure to be shocking as all WWE storylines were.
Instead, WWE went with the laziest and most obvious route, with The Higher Power appearing in the ring on Raw, clad in a black cloak and hood. When the hood came off, the crazed face of Vince McMahon was revealed. The company’s top villain was shown to be the villain yet again.
Worse, it made no sense, and neither did the explanation. McMahon revealed that it was all a ploy to get the WWE Championship off of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Fans had to ignore the fact that The Rock was champion when the group and the Higher Power talk started.
RELATED: 10 Things About The Higher Power Storyline That Made No Sense
Christopher Daniels Was Almost Brought In To Be The Higher Power
Now, Christopher Daniels is known to wrestling fans for his stellar career, especially his stops in TNA Wrestling and AEW. In 1999, however, he was an indie wrestler that many weren’t familiar with. Someone who was familiar with him though was Vince Russo. He was a fan of Daniels and had the out-of-the-box idea to pitch bring him into WWE to be revealed as the Higher Power.
Russo has acknowledged this, saying,“It was supposed to be Christopher Daniels. What happened was, Chris Daniels was very, very hot on the independent scene back then, and you know, he was the Fallen Angel. I pitched the idea that it be Chris Daniels. And bro, what happened was Vince had no idea who Chris Daniels was. So, Chris Daniels shows up at TV to do this, and Vince goes to me, 'Who is that?' I'm like, 'Vince, that's Chris Daniels.' Vince took one look at him and said, 'That's not the hype. We're not doing that.' That's when, at the last minute, 'It was me all along.' It was supposed to be the Fallen Angel… Nothing against Chris. It was a size thing. You know Vince could not get past the fact that he was small.”
In 2017, on the Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, Daniels gave his thoughts on the angle. “If you had brought Christopher Daniels out and said, ‘Well, this person’s the superior of the Undertaker,’ I think it would have been a real big disconnect. So, I feel like it makes sense that got shut down. You want a reveal of that nature to have sort of a powerful punch and to fill it with an unknown commodity, I think, would have been a bad choice. So, yeah, I mean it would have been great to be a supporting character to the Undertaker at that point, but to be the superior wasn’t the right choice, I think, and I think they made the right decision.”
As great as Christopher Daniels is, he and McMahon were right. The Vince McMahon reveal was disappointing, but so would have been a reveal that introduced WWE fans to someone they’d never seen before. There would be no excitement in that surprise, and the believability of The Undertaker taking orders from some nobody at the time who was much smaller than him wouldn’t be there. Still, anything would have been better than what we got.
