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Paul Michael Levesque was trained in wrestling by the legendary Killer
Kowalski along with Perry Saturn and Joanie Laurer, who he would later
become engaged to. Levesque joined World Championship Wrestling in 1993
as a generic heel, drawing from the Lex Luger and Ric Flair characters,
known as Terra Ryzin. He would eventually switch gimmicks and become known
as Jean Paul Levesque, a snobby Frenchman and would take on Lord Steven
Regal as his manager. He didn't make much of a splash in WCW and found
his way out in 1995 after losing a match to Alex Wright.
Levesque signed with the WWF, using a similar gimmick sans the accent,
known as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who was an American aristocrat hailing
from Connecticut. His first major feud came against Henry O. Godwinn and
climaxed at WWF In Your House in December of 1995 in an Arkansas Hog Pen
Match that he won. After the match, though, Godwinn grabbed Helmsley and
threw him into the sludge in a comedic event. Helmsley would go on to Wrestlemania
XII to face the returning Ultimate Warrior and lost to the Warrior in what
was nothing short of a squash match. Helmsley, who would bring models to
the ring with him as escorts, brought Sable to the ring at Wrestlemania
XII and later blamed her for his loss, which was his first in the WWF.
This brought out new WWF signee Marc Mero to defend her honour and a feud
developed with Sable and Mero joining against Helmsley through 1996.
Helmsley's career would stall after he, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, Scott
Hall and Kevin Nash, who were collectively known backstage as the Clique,
joined in the middle of the ring in Madison Square Garden in a group hug.
This controversial event lead to Helmsley being punished through demotion.
He would eventually rise above it, however, and become the WWF Intercontinental
Champion in October by defeating Marc Mero, when Mr. Perfect turned on
Mero to become the manager of Helmsley. Perfect left the WWF and Helmsley
took on Mr. Hughes as his bodyguard as he began to feud with Goldust over
Marlana, who Helmsley made a pass at. Helmsley dropped Hughes rapidly and
lost the title to Rocky Maivia in February of 1997. He would debut the
enormous Chyna as his female bodyguard leading up to Wrestlemania and the
two would continue to feud with Goldust and Marlana.
Helmsley, with Chyna's help, defeating Mankind in the finals of the WWF
King of the Ring Tournament to become the new King of the WWF in June of
1997, which spawned a huge feud with Mick Foley who reprised his Cactus
Jack personna. Helmsley quickly dropped his blueblood gimmick to join with
Shawn Michaels, Rick Rude and Chyna to forge DeGeneration-X which was one
of the most impactful groups in WWF history and ushered in the Attitude
Era that would come. When Shawn Michaels' went into retirement due to a
back injury, Helmsley was able to take the reigns of DeGeneration-X and
added the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac to his alliance with Chyna. Initially
a heel faction, the group quickly turned face and feuded with the Nation
of Domination, leading to some classic bouts between the Rock and Triple-H
including one at Summer Slam 1998 where Triple-H beat the Rock for the
Intercontinental Title in a ladder match. During the summer, DX staged
the WCW Invasion where they stood in front of an arena hosting a WCW event
and partied with the fans. As Vince McMahon's heel faction, the Corporation,
grew to prominance, DX began to feud with them as well. When Chyna turned
on Helmsley to join the Corporation, Helmsley entered a feud with Chyna
and her closest allies Kane and SHane McMahon. Helmsley defeated Kane when
Chyna rejoined Helmsley at Wrestlemania XV and the crowd gave them a huge
ovation, but later in the night they pulled a swerve by joining Vince McMahon's
Corporation by helping Shane defeat X-Pac, thus breaking up DX.

Triple-H was on his way to main event status and changed his look away
from the juvenile DX colours to grey, black and white. He headlined Summer
Slam 1999 against WWF Champion Steve Austin and Mankind in a triple threat
match that was refereed by the sitting Governor of Minnesota and WWF legend
Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Mankind won the title that night, pinning Austin,
but the next night Triple-H made history on RAW by winning his first WWF
Title.
He dubbed himself the Game and Chyna began moving away from his side as
Helmsley began feuding with Vince McMahon, who beat Helmsley for the title
on Smackdown with major help from Steve Austin, who had been feuding with
Helmsley as well. On an edition of RAW, Triple-H interupted the in-ring
wedding of Stephanie McMahon and Test to reveal that he had married Stephanie
the night before. Stephanie was heart-broken as she didn't remember marrying
Triple-H as she was drugged. This set the stage for Helmsley versus Vince
McMahon on pay per view in December with Stephanie at ringside. Stephanie
turned heel during the bout to turn to Helmsley and thus began the McMahon/Helmsley
Era of WWF programming. They feuded with Mick Foley in 2000, climaxing
in a career match where Mick Foley was retired in Hell in the CEll at No
Way Out. Helmsley moved on to Wrestlemania XVI to defeat the Rock in the
main event, which made history as Helmsley was the first heel champion
to ever leave Wrestlemania with the WWF Title. Helmsley lost the title
to the Rock at Backlash but won it back one month later, lost it the next
month and finally won it back before the King of the RIng. At the King
of the Ring, the Rock, Kane and the Undertaker defeated Triple-H, Vince
and Shane McMahon and a match stipulation allowed the Rock to win the WWF
Title this way. Triple-H went on to defeat Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and
Chris Benoit in pay per view bouts before losing to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania
XVII.
One night after Wrestlemania XVII, Triple-H, Steve Austin and Austin's
shocking new ally Vince McMahon came to an understanding and together,
Austin and Helmsley became known as "The Two Man Power Trip" and worked
together to become the WWF World Tag Team Champions, defeating the Undertaker
and Kane, but first Triple-H defeated Chris Jericho to win another Intercontinental
Title. During the May 21st broadcast of RAW, Triple-H suffered a torn left
quadricep during the bout where he and Austin dropped the World Tag Team
Titles to Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. The injury kept Triple-H out
of action until January of 2002 when he came back as a face, receiving
a huge ovation. He and Stephanie, his on-air wife, began to have difficulties
as Stephanie took Chris Jericho's side and a "divorce" went forward. He
went on to win the 2002 Royal Rumble and defeated Chris Jericho to become
the Undisputed WWF World Heavyweight CHampion. He lost that title one month
later to Hulk Hogan at Backlash 2002, showing he was willing to work with
anyone.
A storyline developed where Triple-H, who was exclusive to Smackdown, was
being courted by Shawn Michaels, who had returned to the WWF to join Kevin
Nash in the New World Order, which was exclusive to the RAW brand during
the brand split. The NWO angle suddenly stopped and shortly afterwards,
Eric Bischoff joined the WWE as Raw's General Manager while Triple-H's
former bride Stephanie was the GM of Smackdown. He continued the plan to
bring Triple-H to RAW and it was successful, with Triple-H screwing over
Stephanie, allowing a reunion with Michaels. Triple-H, though, turned heel
and attacked Michaels to squash what was thought to be a DX reunion. This
lead to a very violent feud that saw Shawn Michaels make his return to
the ring at Summer SLam 2002 in a Street Fight, which Michaels won. Helmsley,
though, attacked Michaels with a sledge hammer after the bout and proved
he was as sadistic as ever. One night after Summer Slam, with Brock Lesnar
taking the WWE World Title exclusively to Smackdown, RAW General Manager
Eric Bischoff brought out a briefcase containing the old WCW World Title
and presented it to Triple-H, calling it the World Heavyweight Championship.
Helmsley defended against Ric Flair, Rob VanDam, and Kane in singles bouts
before losing it to Shawn Michaels as part of the first ever Elimination
Chamber Match at Survivor Series 2002. He regained it one month later,
defeating Michaels at Armageddons in a 3 Stages of Hell Match.
Triple-H made history in January of 2003, forging Evolution with the Nature
Boy Ric Flair, Randy Orton and Batista in a group that many compared to
the 4-Horsemen. Triple-H unified the World Heavyweight Title with the WWE
Intercontinental Title, retiring the Intercontinental Title, by defeating
Kane on RAW. He would lose the World Heavyweight Title to Bill Goldberg
in September but won it back in December. Helmsley would hold on to the
title until Wrestlemania XX in March of 2004 when Chris Benoit defeated
him and Shawn Michaels in a triple threat match. Following Wrestlemania,
the draft lottery broke up Evolution as Triple-H went to Smackdown to challenge
WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero, unsuccessfully, for the title. The next week
on RAW, Eric Bischoff announced that he had traded Booker T and the Dudleys
to bring Triple-H back to RAW and Evolution was reunited. Triple-H suffered
a series of upset losses against Shelton Benjamin before teaming with Evolution
to lose to Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin
on an April edition of RAW. He would continue to feud with Shawn Michaels
throughout the year and beat him in a nearly 1 hour long Hell in a Cell
Match at Bad Blood 2004. Shawn Michaels suffered a kayfabe injury, allowing
Triple-H and Evolution to feud with Chris Benoit, Eugene, Edge and William
Regal. He would defeat Eugene at Summer Slam 2004. The same night saw Randy
Orton upset Chris Benoit to become the World Heavyweight Champion.
The next night on RAW, Triple-H demanded that Randy Orton give up the World
Title but Orton spat in his face, leading to an attack by Evolution on
Orton. He would go on to defeat Orton for the World Title in September
at Unforgiven before continuing to feud with Orton, Benoit, Eugene, Shelton
Benjamin and Chris Jericho. He retained the title at Taboo Tuesday by defeating
Shawn Michaels. Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Maven defeated
World Champion Triple-H, Batista, Edge and Gene Snitsky at Survivor SEries.
The World Title was held up after Chris Benoit and Edge co-won a Triple
Threat match against Triple-H for the World Title. The World Title was
decided at New Years Revolution 2005 where Triple-H won his second Elimination
Chamber Match, defeating Randy Orton, Batista, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho
and Edge with Shawn Michaels as guest referee. He would successfully defend
against Orton at the Royal Rumble, as well. That night was important, though,
in that Batista won the 2005 Royal Rumble Match to earn a shot at whatever
World Title he wanted at Wrestlemania XXI. Triple-H tried to convince Batista
to go after Smackdown's WWE World Title and worked with Ric Flair to cause
trouble between Batista and Smackdown's WWE Champion JBL. Batista found
out and promptly turned on his former mentors and challenged Triple-H for
the title at Wrestlemania and won. Triple-H began to feud with the Hurricane,
Rosey and Jim Ross and lost a rematch to Batista in May at Backlash. Triple-H
took some time away from RAW but returned to see Ric Flair helping Batista.
Flair's teased face turn would not come to pass as he and Triple-H renewed
their efforts against Batista and Shawn Michaels. Batista, though, defeated
Triple-H at Vengeance 2005 in a Hell in the Cell match to retain the gold.
Triple-H took some time off.
Ric Flair had begun to wrestle much more and was gaining a lot of fan support
and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship from Carlito. On October
3rd, 2005, during WWE's return to the USA Network with RAW in a show called
"WWE Homecoming", Flair and Triple-H defeated Chris Masters and Carlito,
working the match as fan favourites. After the match, Helmsley brutalized
Flair with the sledge hammer. The next week he said Flair was simply a
shell of his former self and that Flair was nothing without him. Flair
went on to defeat Triple-H at Taboo Tuesday in a Steel Cage to retain the
Intercontinental Title, but the feud continued into Survivor Series where
Triple-H beat Flair in a non-title, Last Man Standing Match. Triple-H would
continue to feud with Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels, before defeating the
Big Show at New Years Revolution. Triple-H failed to win the 2006 Royal
Rumble, being eliminated by Rey Mysterio, but won a tournament on RAW to
earn a shot at John Cena's WWE World Title at Wrestlemania. Triple-H lost
that match, as well, proving that he was willing to take a loss admist
many criticisms that he was hogging the spotlight and abusing his influence
with real-life wife Stephanie McMahon and her father Vince. Leading into
Backlash 2006, Triple-H, Cena and Edge wrestled a series of Handicap Matches
where two of the three would face one. At Backlash, Cena defeated both
Triple-H and Edge in a Triple THreat to regain the title.
Triple-H began to tease a reunion with Shawn Michaels, giving crotch chops
on RAW and costing Shane McMahon a match against Shawn Michaels. Vince
McMahon returned to WWE programming to demand an apology from Triple-H
but instead, Triple-H took out the McMahons and the Spirit Squad and reformed
DeGeneration-X with Shawn Michaels. Triple-H would feud with the McMahons,
Spirit Squad, Edge and others throughout the rest of 2006 with Shawn MIchaels
at his side.
Triple-H is a young man
and now an heir to the WWE Empire alongside his wife Stephanie McMahon.
There is little doubt that this UWOW Hall of Famer is going to continue
to reign as a major player in the WWE and the wrestling industry as a whole.
He started with nothing and has become one of the greatest wrestlers of
all time, long before he married Stephanie. He deserves his place here
in the UWOW Hall of Fame. |