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"Triple-H" Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Hall of Fame, Class of 2005
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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.

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