The Eternal WWE Rivalry Of The Rock Vs Triple H | Feud Forever

CHAPTER 1: WWF DEBUTS

There, he played the same character, just without the Frenchness. JJ Dillon gave him the name Reginald DuPont Helmsley – a play on the DuPonts, one of the richest families in America – but Levesque asked if he could go full alliteration.

Management agreed, and on the 30th April 1995, Hunter Hearst Helmsley wrestled his first match on WWF TV.

He started making his way up the midcard, despite being absolutely buried by the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 12, and was planned to win the 1996 King of the Ring tournament – where he would go onto feud with Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship.

In just over a year, Hunter Hearst Helmsley had gone from a WCW nobody, to about to enter WWF’s main event scene.

This might have been helped, in some part, with the crowd he fell in with behind-the-scenes. 

The Kliq was started by real-life friends Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels and Sean Waltman in 1994.

They would travel and room together on tour, and use their collective bargaining to wield more influence over management’s creative decisions. And people say wrestling doesn’t have unions!

Levesque revealed on his 2013 DVD that Nash recruited him to the group as soon as he joined the WWF because Hunter didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol – meaning he could be the Kliq’s designated driver after events. 

But just several months later, Nash and Hall left the promotion for WCW. Their last night came on the 19th May 1996 show in Madison Square Garden with Michaels, a babyface, wrestling Nash, a heel, in a steel cage match.

But in a very rare breaking of kayfabe for the time, they were joined by Helmsley (a heel) and Hall (a good guy) in the ring, who had also wrestled against each other earlier that night. They then all embraced, despite their feuds, to wish Nash and Hall farewell.

It was called the Curtain Call incident, and was considered an outrage by many in the business.

Click the next page button below for more

• Triple H
• The Rock
• wwe

Share this article with friends