10 Wrestlers WWE Wished They’d Debuted Differently
2. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
There might be a few of today’s generation of WWE fans who don’t realise where the Triple H moniker originally came from. In spring 1995, taped vignettes heralded a new midcard pretender to the throne: Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a Connecticut ‘blue blood’ heel.
Essentially a version of the arrogant Jean-Paul Levesque character he’d played in WCW, Helmsley was a do-nothing midcard character. The real life Paul Levesque was a different proposition, a wrestling lifer brimming with frustrated talent and ambition: a big guy with a big upside, just the way Vince McMahon liked ‘em.
But Levesque took all of the heat when his Kliq cronies chose to break kayfabe by hugging in the middle of the ring in May 2016. Less than two weeks later Marty Garner would suffer serious neck damage in the ring with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and end up suing the company.
It wasn’t his fault, but that didn’t matter. Levesque had been due to win the prestigious King Of The Ring, which at the time was an elevator ride to the main event: that honour fell to ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
Saddled with a midcard gimmick, the subject of a lawsuit and in the doghouse for exposing the business, it’s a miracle that Paul Levesque bounced back like he did. Although he’d win the Intercontinental Championship a few months later, that title hadn’t been a kingmaking belt for years.
It took patience, hard work - oh, and losing that godawful gimmick in favour of some D-Generation X swagger - to be given the win at the 1997 King Of The Ring tournament and finally earn his first WWF Championship reign just over four years after his WWF debut.