So, yeah. It's 1996, and WCW is ramping up to start really kicking the WWF's ass in the Monday Night Wars. They've just signed Diesel and Razor Ramon, and eight days from May 19th, Razor's going to debut using his government name as Scott Hall on WCW's Monday Nitro. Diesel's debuting two weeks later on June 10th as Kevin Nash (also his birth-given name). Thus, it only made sense that in the last time that Diesel and Razor Ramon are in a WWF ring (on May 19th), that their real-life friends Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Shawn Michaels would want to pay them tribute in some small way before they departed the company. Well, instead of buying them nice parting gifts and calling it a day, after their hard-fought cage match, Diesel and Michaels were joined by Razor and Hunter (who themselves had wrestled earlier in the evening) and the four hugged mid-ring. Yes, this is pro-wrestling and yes, that act certainly breaks every single idea of kayfabe ever. At that time, "The Kliq" (as the foursome that included at times the artists later known as Justin Credible and X-Pac) had heat on them behind the curtain for literally being a "clique" and ultimately pushing themselves up the card on the backs of each other (like this stellar 1994 Tag Team Championship match between champions Michaels and Diesel vs. challengers Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid, or say Shawn and Razor's ladder match at Wrestlemania X for the Intercontinental Championship, or any great number of Diesel versus Michaels matches for the WWF Championship). Thus, the idea of the four so obviously flouting rules of kayfabe was the final straw. Hunter Hearst Helmsley was of course punished and buried (no literally, in mud in a "hog pen match" with Henry Godwinn, or figuratively, at Wrestlemania 12 in getting squashed by the returning Ultimate Warrior). Once not-so buried, the re-christened "Triple H" joined with Shawn Michaels in Degeneration X and of course, lampooned the "Curtain Call," along with leading the adoption of the Attitude Era, and now, Triple H basically runs the entire damned company.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
