D-Generation X

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D-Generation X
D-Generation X logo in the 1990s
Stable
Leader(s)	Shawn Michaels Triple H
Members	X-Pac Road Dogg
Name(s)	D-Generation X DX Degeneration X DX Army
Former member(s)	Billy Gunn Rick Rude Chyna Mike Tyson Stephanie McMahon Tori Hornswoggle
Debut	August 11, 1997
Years active	1997–2000 2006–2010 2010–present (non-wrestling reunions) 2018[1]

D-Generation X (DX) is an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team, that consisted of various members, most notably Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, X-Pac, and the New Age Outlaws.

The group originated in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) shortly before the "Attitude Era" in 1997 as a foil to another prominent faction, The Hart Foundation and became one of the main driving forces behind the WWF competing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the Monday Night War. In addition to two other founding members, Chyna and Rick Rude, the group later expanded with new additions X-Pac, The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), and Tori until the group officially disbanded in August 2000. After a teased reunion in 2002, DX reformed in June 2006 as the duo of Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the remainder of the year^[2] and again in August 2009 until March 2010, shortly before Michaels' retirement. This incarnation was voted the greatest WWE Tag Team Champions of all time in a 2013 WWE viewer poll.^[3]

On October 8, 2018, it was announced that DX would face The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) at the Crown Jewel pay-per view. At the event, Triple H and Michaels were victorious against Undertaker and Kane. On February 18, 2019, it was announced that the group would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame later that year, with Triple H, Michaels, Chyna, The New Age Outlaws, and X-Pac as the inducted members.

Concept[edit]

The group's gimmick was best known as a gang of rebels who broke the rules, acted and spoke as they pleased, and wrestled whomever they wanted no matter how provocative and insulting. Noted for their crude, profane humor and sophomoric pranks, the stable has been dubbed multiple times as the "most controversial group in WWF/E history". Michaels' autobiography suggests that it was WWF head writer Vince Russo who first conceived the moniker for the faction, while Bret Hart claims it originated from New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick, a frequent critic of the WWF.^[4] Triple H also claims that Shane McMahon coined the name of D-Generation X when responding to Bret Hart's characterization of younger wrestlers as degenerates.^[5]

DX was one of the three main contributing factors,^{[6][better source needed]} along with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, to the onset of the WWF's Attitude Era. WWF/E Chairman Vince McMahon has repeatedly denied that DX was inspired or heavily influenced by World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) New World Order (nWo), though the core members of both on-screen factions included members of The Kliq; (Sean Waltman even served as a member of both groups; as did Michaels, briefly, during the nWo's short-lived revival in the WWF/E in 2002). On October 6, 1997, in one of the earliest DX promos, Michaels alluded to this off-screen connection. After Bret Hart claimed to have destroyed the Kliq and to have "run [Scott Hall and Kevin Nash] outta town" (referring to Hall and Nash leaving the WWF and signing with WCW), Michaels declared, "The Kliq owns this [professional wrestling] business", and said that the group had simply undergone "expansion" rather than "destruction".

History[edit]

Formation and early rivalries (1997–1998)[edit]

According to Triple H, WWF management wanted to keep The Kliq apart on-screen, so they were hesitant to pair he and Michaels together at first.^[7] Despite this, the group began to form during the August 11, 1997 main event of Raw Is War. During Michaels' match with Mankind, Triple H (then wrestling under the ring name of Hunter Hearst Helmsley) and Chyna both interfered as Helmsley had been recently feuding with Mankind; towards the end of the match also saw Rick Rude return to the WWF revealing himself as Michaels' "insurance policy" and helped him win the match by attacking Mankind with a chair.^[8][9] The following week on Raw, Michaels and Helmsley teamed up to take on Mankind and The Undertaker in the main event, only to lose the match by disqualification after Michaels used a chair on Undertaker.^[8][10] Michaels would eventually face the Undertaker at Ground Zero: In Your House on September 7 with Helmsley, Chyna and Rude all interfering on Michaels' behalf to force the match to end in a no contest.^[11] During this time, the group (Michaels and Helmsley in particular) were regularly shown on television practicing sophomoric/crude humor and rebelling against authority figures in the company, primarily Vince McMahon (then primarily presented as an on-screen commentator) and then-Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, the latter of which DX made a recurring habit of humiliating by giving him the nickname "Sgt. Slobber".

D-Generation X's first major feud was against the Hart Foundation, which was led by Michaels' nemesis Bret Hart. At WWF One Night Only, the rest of DX helped Michaels defeat Foundation member British Bulldog for the WWF European Championship, officially making Michaels the WWF's first Grand Slam Champion.^[12][13][14] On-screen, the name was taken from comments by Hart, who on several occasions, particularly including the October 6, 1997 episode of Raw Is War, had labeled Michaels "nothing more than a degenerate".^[15] The following week, on October 13, 1997, Michaels made "D-Generation X" the group's official name,^[16] mockingly citing Hart's insults as his inspiration and how Generation X (with both members being part of Generation X) is always stereotyped as apathetic and cynical.

Although DX and the members of the Hart Foundation continued to battle on-screen in one fashion or another through the end of 1997, the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels feud ended abruptly at Survivor Series when Michaels won his third WWF Championship via the Montreal Screwjob, whereby Hart was lied to about the match's pre-determined outcome after Hart had signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and refused to drop the WWF Championship to Michaels in Canada and instead agreed to drop the title one month later in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[17][18][19] Rick Rude was also legitimately upset over the events of the screwjob, and subsequently left the WWF to return to WCW. On the November 24 episode of Raw Is War, DX invited Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart to join the group which he accepted prior to a match later that night between Vader and Michaels. Michaels, Chyna and Helmsley assaulted Neidhart at the end of the show after Michaels defeated Vader showing that Neidhart's invitation to the group was nothing more than a ruse.^[20] The following week on the December 1 episode of Raw Is War, Helmsley defeated Neidhart.^[21] After the match, DX assaulted Neidhart once again, before Michaels spray-painted "WCW" on Neidhart's back, and signifying him following Bret Hart and The British Bulldog to WCW.^[21] Sgt. Slaughter and Ken Shamrock saved Neidhart, before Slaughter and Shamrock attacked DX at the end of the show.^[21]

D-Generation X was used as the title for a WWF D-Generation X: In Your House pay-per-view telecast on December 7, 1997.^[22] By this point, with Michaels holding both the WWF and WWF European Championships, and DX's victory in the feud with the Hart Foundation, their status as the lead stable in the company was solidified. Michaels headlined the event and was disqualified in a WWF Championship title defense against Ken Shamrock when Owen Hart interfered, having not been seen on WWF television since Survivor Series.^[22] Earlier in the night, Helmsley (now primarily wrestling under the ring name of Triple H) defeated Sgt. Slaughter with the help of Chyna in a Boot Camp match.^[22][23] On the December 22 episode of Raw is War however, Michaels and Triple H were forced by Slaughter to wrestle each other for the European Championship.^[24] In a mock match, Michaels laid down in the middle of the ring while Triple H constantly ran the ropes.^[24] Triple H would then pin Michaels and win the European Championship.^[24][25]

Triple H lost the European Championship to Owen Hart in January 1998 only to regain it two months later.^[26][27][28] Going into WrestleMania XIV that March, Shawn Michaels was the reigning WWF Champion and Triple H was the reigning WWF European Champion. Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was also involved as the "special enforcer" in the main event of the night featuring Michaels against Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the weeks leading up to the event, Tyson was revealed to have joined D-Generation X and looked as if he was going to help Michaels retain the championship.^[29] However, at the end of the match, Tyson turned on DX and cost Michaels the match and the WWF Championship, allowing Austin to win the title.^[30][31]

Michaels' departure and "DX Army" (1998–1999)[edit]

The night after WrestleMania, Triple H officially ejected Michaels from DX for "dropping the ball" over the Tyson incident and subsequently losing the WWF Championship.^[32] In reality, Michaels had suffered a severe back injury during his Casket Match with The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, and started what would become a four-year hiatus from wrestling to recuperate.^[7] Triple H would assume full leadership of DX and recruited X-Pac, who had been recently fired from WCW, and the current WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws ("Bad Ass" Billy Gunn and "The Road Dogg" Jesse James) into the stable. Triple H would dub this his new "DX Army".^[32][7] While the intent was for the stable to remain heels, they quickly became popular with audiences and were eventually pushed as faces. During this time, they feuded with The Rock and his group the Nation of Domination and then later, Vince McMahon's Corporation.^[7][33] The group remained united throughout 1998 and into early 1999.^{[vague][citation needed]}

On episodes of Raw Is War in April and May^[vague] DX "went to war" with WCW, with whom the WWF were in direct competition at the time, through a series of legitimate visits to WCW headquarters and live events. On April 27, 1998, Raw Is War and Nitro both took place in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, a mere 19 miles apart. DX traveled from the WWF show in Hampton Coliseum, in Hampton to The Scope in Norfolk and shouted insults against WCW through a bullhorn, as well as accusing WCW of giving out free tickets to fill up arenas for television while sporting black armbands with the acronym "POWCW" (Prisoner of WCW), which referenced fellow Kliq members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. They then tried to enter the arena via a loading dock in their army jeep before being stopped by someone closing the door.^[34] They also attempted to forcibly secure meetings with Nitro's executive producer Eric Bischoff and WCW owner Ted Turner at WCW headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Another segment used computer graphics to make it appear as if Triple H had flown over the Roberts Municipal Stadium in Evansville, Indiana where WCW Nitro was taking place and wrote "WCW Sucks" and "DX Says Suck It" in the sky.^[33]

The group also feuded with the new Corporate Commissioner, former DX leader Shawn Michaels, who had turned heel and betrayed the group after costing X-Pac a WWF Championship match against The Rock.^[35] The faction would continue to feud with Michaels and The Corporation throughout late 1998, with Michaels reversing Billy Gunn's Intercontinental Championship victory against Ken Shamrock,^[35] costing The Outlaws the Tag Team Titles and even managing to seemingly lure the New Age Outlaws to The Corporation on the December 7 episode of Raw Is War. However, the Outlaws quickly revealed this to have been a ruse, turning on The Corporation that same night.^[35] When The Corporation turned on Michaels in January 1999^[vague], he was taken in by DX once more. This too was short lived, as later that night DX were instrumental in Michaels being ambushed by The Corporation, with X-Pac commenting "What goes around, comes around".

Some of the group's most memorable promos were their parodies of their rivals. On July 6, 1998, DX carried out the first of these segments, where they mocked and parodied The Nation, with Triple H mocking The Rock as "The Crock"; Road Dogg playing the part of D'Lo Brown as "B'Lo"; Billy Gunn as The Godfather; X-Pac as a parody of Mark Henry, going by "Mizark"; and comedian Jason Sensation as Owen Hart. On December 14, 1998, they would turn their attention to The Corporation with Triple H again appearing as "The Crock"; Road Dogg playing Mr. McMahon (with two midgets representing Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson kissing his behind throughout); Billy Gunn, playing Shane McMahon wearing an adult diaper; X-Pac playing Ken Shamrock; Chyna as The Big Boss Man; and Sensation returning to play Michaels.^[36] These parodies would also be resurrected during the fourth incarnation. X-Pac's parody of Mark Henry was seen as highly controversial due to him being in blackface (unlike the rest of DX); X-Pac would admit on his podcast in 2018 that it was one of his biggest career regrets despite having Henry's blessing to be in blackface.^[37]

Throughout 1999, the members would gradually turn on one another, leading to the group officially disbanding for the first time. Initially, Chyna turned on Triple H and X-Pac and joined the Corporation on January 25.^[7] At WrestleMania XV, Chyna turned on then fellow Corporation member Kane, helping Triple H to defeat him, and seemingly rejoining DX. Later that night, however, Triple H and Chyna interfered in X-Pac's European Championship match with Shane McMahon. Initially, it appeared that they were there to help X-Pac, but Triple H quickly turned on him, delivering a Pedigree to his stablemate, costing him the match. Chyna and Triple H would then join The Corporation, with Kane subsequently being ousted.^[7] As a result, X-Pac began to share a bond with Kane, which resulted in Kane becoming associated with the faction and the duo holding the WWF Tag Team Championship on two occasions.^[38][39][40]

Though the group maintained a united front against The Corporation, Billy Gunn would become frustrated at Kane's presence as well as The New Age Outlaws' inability to win the Tag Team Championships from X-Pac and Kane. Following one such defeat on the April 29 episode of SmackDown!, Gunn became angry at X-Pac.^[41] The following week on Sunday Night Heat, he apologized to X-Pac, but attacked him when X-Pac's back was turned, citing his frustration at being "held back" and departing from D-Generation X, therefore reducing the remaining members to just Road Dogg and X-Pac.^[33] Over the following weeks, Gunn would continue to attack X-Pac and Road Dogg, often being chased away by Kane.^[41] In July^[vague], Triple H and Chyna told Billy Gunn that Road Dogg and X-Pac were making a lot more money from DX's royalties than the other three (due to them still using the name as a tag team). This would lead to a tag match at Fully Loaded in which the winners would get the rights to use the DX name, which Road Dogg and X-Pac won. Though not officially a member, upon winning the Tag Team titles from The Acolytes on August 9, Kane, under encouragement from partner X-Pac, uttered his first on-screen words without help from a voice box, saying "suck it".^[41]

Reformation and McMahon-Helmsley Era (1999–2000)[edit]

On October 25, the group reformed as villains when Triple H and X-Pac helped the New Age Outlaws – who had reunited the previous month^[41] – defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.^[33][42] Later that week on SmackDown!, X-Pac suggested that DX would get "bigger", hinting that Kane would finally become an official member. However, later that night, he turned on Kane following a match with The Dudley Boyz, stating there would be no additional members and starting a feud between the two.^[43] That same night, D-X were "hunted" by Austin, with Stone Cold catching Road Dogg in a bear trap, Billy Gunn in a snare trap, having a portion of the backstage ceiling fall on X-Pac and finally catching the whole group in a net.^[43] Despite this, The Outlaws won their fifth Tag Team Championship soon afterward, defeating Mankind and Al Snow on the November 8 edition of Raw.^[44] Not participating in the reunited DX were Chyna who was in a feud with Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship, Shawn Michaels who was in the middle of a four-year hiatus from wrestling, and Rick Rude who died back in April of a drug overdose.

Triple H, meanwhile, would escalate an ongoing feud with Vince McMahon on the November 29 episode of Raw, when he interrupted the wedding of Stephanie McMahon and Test to reveal that he had already married Stephanie at a Las Vegas drive-through wedding chapel while she was supposedly drugged unconscious. Triple H would then defeat Vince in a street fight at Armageddon after Stephanie turned on her father and embraced her then-storyline husband, with the two revealing the next night on Raw that the ceremony, as well as Stephanie being under the influence, was a ruse as part of a revenge plot for Vince orchestrating Stephanie's abduction by the Ministry. This officially marked the beginning of the McMahon-Helmsley Era, with Stephanie becoming an official member of DX through her ties to Triple H.^[45]

When Kane's storyline girlfriend Tori began to get involved in the feud between Kane and X-Pac, Triple H and Stephanie punished her by scheduling her in a match with X-Pac on the December 16 episode of SmackDown!, after which they would grant Kane a WWF Championship match against The Big Show on the December 20 episode of Raw where if he lost, Tori would have to spend Christmas with X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws distracted Kane, costing him the match, and when Tori returned, she insisted the X-Pac had been a perfect gentleman.

By January 2000, Triple H had dubbed himself "The Game", after stating he was above the top of the wrestling world (as in not merely the "best in the game", but in fact "the game" itself) and was nicknamed "The Cerebral Assassin" by Jim Ross. On the January 3 episode of Raw Is War, Triple H defeated Big Show to win his third WWF Championship.^[46] Meanwhile, storylines implied that X-Pac had truly done something harmful to Tori when she started appearing as neurotic and paranoid, with many WWF superstars using Tori's mental state to provoke Kane into attacking their enemies over the ensuing month. X-Pac also gave Tori an apparently forced kiss during his match with Kane on the January 24 episode of Raw. This storyline culminated on the January 27 episode of SmackDown!, when DX jumped Kane during another match against Big Show, leading to a promo where X-Pac recounted his Christmas rendez-vous with Tori; Tori then passionately kissed X-Pac, turning on Kane and joining D-X in the process.^[47] Throughout this period, D-X would feud with the likes of The Rock, Mankind/Cactus Jack, Chris Jericho, Kane and the other McMahons,^[41] primarily securing and protecting Triple H's WWF Championship^[48] as well as The Outlaws' WWF Tag Team Championship. They would also arrive at arenas in a tour bus called "The D-X Express".^[49]

During a match at No Way Out where The Outlaws lost the Tag Team Championship to The Dudley Boyz, Gunn suffered a torn rotator cuff which would place him out of action for several months.^[50] On-screen, to explain his impending absence to recover from his injury, Gunn's storyline involved him getting thrown out of D-X because "he lost his cool" when Triple H had X-Pac take his place in the rematch.^[33] X-Pac teamed with Road Dogg once again but the two never reached the heights the New Age Outlaws had. On March 30, X-Pac and Tori assisted Stephanie McMahon in winning the Women's Championship from Jacqueline.^[51] At WrestleMania 2000, Triple H defended his title in a fatal four-way match against The Rock, Mick Foley, and Big Show, with a separate McMahon appearing in every superstar's corner. Vince McMahon turned on The Rock and aided Triple H in retaining his title.^[52] D-X would then unite with Vince and Shane's Corporation stable, and the resulting group was officially dubbed The McMahon-Helmsley Regime. On April 27, Stone Cold Steve Austin used a crane to drop a steel beam on the DX Express tour bus, causing the bus to explode in the parking lot.^[53]

The Rock defeated Triple H for the WWF Championship at Backlash in a match which featured Stone Cold Steve Austin's brief return to the WWF.^[54] Though Triple H regained the title the following month at Judgment Day,^[55] the group gradually broke apart. Road Dogg and X-Pac became frustrated by their lack of success as a tag team and turned on each other, culminating in a match at SummerSlam, which X-Pac won.^[56] By late 2000, Triple H had become a solo star, and even briefly turned face during a love triangle storyline involving Stephanie and Kurt Angle. Billy Gunn, meanwhile, had returned to action and struck a partnership with Chyna following the dissolution of her storyline relationship with Eddie Guerrero.

On the November 6, 2000 episode of Raw Is War, Chyna, Dogg, Gunn, and Triple H reunited to take on The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn) in an eight-person tag team match, which they won.^[57] The match included the group doing their old D-X entrance, as well as telling the crowd to "suck it!" This reunion would be short-lived however, as on that very same episode, Triple H turned heel when he attacked Stone Cold Steve Austin and revealed himself as the mastermind behind Austin's hit and run assault at the Survivor Series the year before. Chyna and Gunn, along with Road Dogg and his new tag team partner K-Kwik, continued to feud with The Radicalz that month, leading to a match at