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| Kingdom Come |
Matt Barnes |
Anybody who has followed the career of the sledgehammer-swinging Triple H in recent years will know not only of his in-ring abilities and his competence as an established ring general, but also of his incredible sway behind the scenes in World Wrestling Entertainment – formerly through his association with The Clique and now thanks to his relationship with Stephanie McMahon. Indeed, the position he has married into has given him almost unlimited power at the helm of the biggest wrestling company in the world.
But of course, Hunter didn’t just join WWE one minute and become “The King Of Kings” with the keys to the city the next. It took time, ass-kissing, lessons learned, bunking up with the boss’ daughter, a little more time and then a huge gap being created by the departures of the likes of Stone Cold, The Rock and Chris Jericho, which allowed him to bathe in the limelight completely. During this time Hunter has shown passion, commitment and a real love of the business – but he has also proved to be one of the most dominating and self-centred figures that the sport has ever seen.
Many “smart” fans don’t know whether to wave the self-crowned king into town with palm leaves or just burn him at the stake alongside Vince Russo and Kevin Nash. But it hasn’t always been this way.
BLAME IT ON THE BAG BOY
Paul Levesque was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in July 1969. Having trained (alongside Perry Saturn) under the watchful eye of the legendary Killer Kowalski, he made his WCW debut in 1993 as the uninventive Terra Ryzin. That gimmick was soon dropped, paving the way for the French aristocrat Jean-Paul Levesque to rear his ugly head and, following a programme that saw him paired with fellow blueblood Lord Steven Regal, Paul packed his bags and left the then-lame WCW for WWE in 1995.
Although he was still playing the two-dimensional aristocrat (and was also much skinnier than today), he made a promising start in Connecticut. The ramped-up Hunter Hearst Helmsley gimmick seemed to make him all the more hateable and he was progressing as an in-ring performer, too. Hunter worked the gimmick well and seemed happy enough to play the long-term game, plying his trade in the midcard and slowly working his way up the bill. But, behind the scenes, matters were developing at an alarming rate.
Having worked his way into the affections of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (having ostensibly started off as a glorified bag boy for Nash), Helmsley quickly became an integral part of the political pain in the ass known as The Clique. Depending on which shoot interview you listen to, The Clique either had all the power in WWE (as everyone from Bret Hart to Shane Douglas opines) or they had none (as the guys themselves generally claim).
Regardless of which opinion you take as gospel, it is clear that group thought of themselves as above the established rules of the industry. In 1996 when the wet-behind-the-ears Helmsley and WWE Champion Michaels broke character, joining the WCW-bound Hall and Nash in the ring for a kayfabe-obliterating post-match farewell at Madison Square Garden, somebody had to be punished. Despite Vince’s affection for Shawn and Hunter, the seasoned pros were baying for blood after the ‘Curtain Call’ incident and WWE Politics™ demanded satisfaction.
Vince couldn’t punish his temperamental champion without potentially dire consequences (particularly given where Hall and Nash had just gone) so it was Hunter’s head on the chopping block. Thus, his scheduled victory at that year’s King Of The Ring and subsequent high-profile push (which instead went to some guy called Steve Austin) was scrapped, replaced by humiliating job duty and a messy feud with Henry Godwinn that lead to many comical sloppings. Helmsley was so far away from his throne that he may as well have been in WCW.
START GAME
It took about a year for Paul to repay his political dues and, in all credit to him, he took the punishment like a man, got his head down and did the job to whomever the company saw fit. By 1997 his stock had risen again and he was given a second bite of the cherry when he won that year’s KOTR tournament, beating Mankind in the finals. Soon afterwards, the Attitude-adjusting D-Generation X was formed and Hunter Heart Helmsley was no more, replaced by the snappier "Triple H".
The faction originally consisted of Shawn, Hunter, Chyna and Rick Rude, and made its name by going against the grain and appealing to the 18-35-year-olds in the crowd, who were becoming an increasingly important part of the WWE demographic. By 1998, when HBK retired, Hunter was left in charge of a new-look, babyface D-X, which included the returning X-Pac (Sean Waltman) and wild cards Road Dogg (BG James) and Billy Gunn (Kip James). The retooled group was unfathomably popular and stood at the forefront of WWE’s massively successful Attitude Era.
Riding the crest of popularity with the fans and subsequent increased political clout behind the scenes, Helmsley was soon on his way to his first WWE Title, breaking away from D-X to align himself with the McMahon family stable, The Corporation. In 1999, Triple H finally got his mitts on the gold, infamously ending Mankind’s one-day World Title run. Feuding with the established main event stars like Austin, The Rock and Foley, Hunter became an integral part of a three-year period that saw WWE put its foot down and squish WCW into the ground.
It was also during this period that he adopted the nickname “The Game” – a tag handed to him by Vince McMahon, who proudly stated that Helmsley was the brightest student of the game he had ever known (which, in hindsight, rang more true and in more ways than Vince could possible have imagined). There could have been no higher compliment, but the increasingly political Helmsley – constantly at creative odds with Austin and The Rock, and character assassinating spot-threatening stars like Chris Jericho – would have to work hard to justify the tag in the eyes of his peers.
To give Hunter his due, his position became truly untenable the second that he successfully campaigned to get together on-screen with Stephanie, who was hungry for more television time following her angles with The Undertaker and Test. When Triple H gatecrashed Test and Stephanie’s wedding on Raw to reveal that he had already drugged and wed her in Las Vegas, his main event fortunes were matrimonially bound to hers – and WWE was damn sure going to push Vince's little girl all the way to the moon.
ZBYSZKOWNED
It was a stroke of genius because, prior to that point, Hunter was either a wisecracking midcard tweener or a dry-as-toast heel that nobody cared about; the Stephanie angle absolutely legitimised him as a main eventer. But what people forget is that, just like the Benoit-Sullivan situation before it, the on-screen “McMahon-Helmsley Era” actually took place before their real-life relationship. So Hunter shagging his way to the top of the tree isn’t quite as black and white as “Met Steph, nailed Steph, became The Game”. The affair actually came to fruition while he was shacked up with Chyna and, let’s face it, Steph must have really, really loved him to have been prepared to lock horns with Chyna.
Come May 2001, however, all the political influence in the world couldn’t have helped him. During a tag match with Steve Austin against Chrises Benoit and Jericho, Hunter’s quad muscle completely tore away from the bone. But despite excruciating pain, The Game soldiered on and finished the match – even taking a Walls Of Jericho on the announce table, which can only have worsened the horrific injury.
Hunter was sidelined until January 2002, when his connections ensured an unstoppable, high profile comeback trail. After winning The Royal Rumble he went on to WrestleMania X-8 and snatched the Undisputed Championship from Jericho, who had been booked as a lame duck champion for the covetous Helmsley. (Also interesting is that Hunter ensured, despite the real main event being The Rock’s dream match with Hulk Hogan, that his big win over Jericho was the show-closer).
Despite magnanimously dropping the title to the red-hot Hogan at Backlash just a few weeks later, Hunter’s selfish, title-cradling behaviour nonetheless continued as the year progressed. After the brand extension, it was decided to split the Undisputed Championship into two separate titles (one for Raw and one for SmackDown). Thus, Hunter was simply awarded the new World Heavyweight Title in September – and not only was he just casually given a World Title, but it just so happened to take the form of the old NWA/WCW belt that all his wrestling heroes had held before him and that he had always dreamed of wearing.
Fittingly, Hunter dropped the belt to his recently returned Cliquemate, HBK, at the Survivor Series, but he had the gold back around his waist just a month later when he toppled Shawn at Armageddon. Clearly, the break had done his ego no good at all and he now seemed bent on racking up as many title reigns as he could to catch up to his idol, Ric Flair. Having crushed all his WWE competition, in 2003 and 2004 he laid waste to every former WCW headliner on the roster (including Scott Steiner, whose career he derailed by completely and unnecessarily exposing his weaknesses) and he even beat Kane and forced him to remove his mask.
After such a self-serving period, Hunter finally showed some real class in 2005 when he tapped out clean to Chris Benoit at WrestleMania XX, allowing Benoit to fulfil his dream on the grandest stage of all. But by 2006, people’s heads were in their hands once more as Hunter arrived at Mania 22 dressed like Conan The Barbarian, wearing a crown and sitting proudly atop of a throne as King Of Kings – yet another brand new song commissioned specially for Helmsley from his favourite band, Motörhead – roared over the sound system. Okay, he lost to Cena by tapout, but did his entrance achieve anything other than making him look like a complete, egomaniacal pillock? Of course not. But then came the return that had been teased for months and all, it seemed, was forgiven.
DEFECATION X
It was the comeback that should never have happened. At times there was nothing on TV as bad as the D-X revival – Hunter and Shawn looked old, weary and nothing like the hip young duo that once shook up the wrestling world. But that didn’t stop The Chuckle Brothers from decimating the entire tag division as well as one of the company’s hottest acts, The Spirit Squad – a stable of five young studs that had been the backbone of Raw. How ironic, then, that D-X’s deeds preceded injuries that put them both on the bench and left the company totally bereft of name talent at a time when it needed it more than ever.
It really speaks volumes that Edge was gagging to go to SmackDown because he’d heard that Hunter wanted to feud with him upon his return from his latest quad tear. This wasn’t some paranoid delusion from an inferior athlete; Edge had spent years working his tail off to get to the top of the company and he was terrified of throwing that all away just to be the job boy bitch in Hunter’s glorious, all-conquering comeback. Though Edge was able to dodge that particular bullet (by moving into the firing line of another one entirely), his attitude proves that Hunter’s influence is both infinite and terrifying.
Don’t worry about Helmsley, though – he has plenty of other stepping stones to squash on Raw before crowning himself champion yet again. But now that he’s in the twilight of his career, it’s time to look beyond the undeserving title reigns and the polishing of the glass ceiling; now we have to ask what will become of World Wrestling Entertainment when he and Steph have the keys to Titan Towers and the sport truly does become governed by the whims of the McMahon-Helmsley Regime.
Inside the ring, most predict that what will follow will be wrestling’s traditional ‘jobs for the boys’ debacle that will see the Flairs and Batistas treated like franchise players, while the CM Punks and the Hardys are jobbed out in the undercard. And Hunter will undoubtedly book himself to surpass Flair’s (WWE-recognised) record of 16 World Championships and go down as the “greatest” of all time. Outside the ring, however, there are already power struggles between Shane and Stephanie McMahon – and Vince isn’t even gone yet, so the inevitable implosion when they do have to run the company together will be fascinating to watch.
Steph is already the chosen one in her father’s eyes and, with Helmsley on her side, Vince no doubt sees the pair as the perfect combination of brains and brawn. If Triple H weren’t in the picture then Shane may well have attempted a complete power grab, so in a roundabout way The Game may actually be the factor that saves WWE from sibling self-destruction. After all, if Shane has any delusions of grandeur and decides to get full of himself, we’re fairly sure that Hunter would be quick to put him back in line.
The once and future “Connecticut Blueblood” must be feeling pretty content at the moment, sat on top of a wrestling goldmine, awaiting the day when he can call all the shots and wrestling can return to the glorious, slow-build, punch-kick days of his beloved Harley Race and Ric Flair era. There’s no doubt that, when the time comes, all WWE programming will be booked exactly the way that Triple H wants it – and his track record of holding back certain individuals and campaigning for his friends and own ends indicates just where this may lead. In so many ways, the new era will spell the end of WWE as we know it…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 18 of FSM – available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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