Today, Triple H is Vince McMahon's son-in-law and the heir to the WWE empire, but two decades ago, he was an employee who got in deep trouble with his boss. Triple H was part of The Kliq, a backstage affiliation also consisting of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman. At a Madison Square Garden house show on May 19, 1996, Triple H wrestled Hall and Michaels wrestled Nash in separate matches. Hall and Nash, though, were about to leave WWE for WCW, so after the Michaels-Nash main event, Hall came to the ring and hugged Michaels. Triple H - a heel - followed suit and joined in and Diesel - also a heel - completed the group hug and celebration. McMahon was angry, but he couldn't punish Hall and Nash, who were leaving, and Michaels, who was WWE Champion (at least not without screwing up his booking plans). He had to take his frustrations out on Triple H, who soon saw his win/loss record suffer. Nevertheless, Triple H weathered his punishment - earning respect in the process - and soon achieved the success for which he had been slated. With HHH out of the picture in the summer of 1996, though, McMahon was forced to give his push to a WWE newcomer named "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. We think everybody ended up happy.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
