12 Wrestlers Whose Ring Names Outlasted Their Gimmicks

Hunter Hearst Helmsley is not the kind of name you would give a garbage man or hog farmer, or for that matter, a degenerate rebel or the end-all, be-all of professional wrestling.

But it is precisely the kind of pompous, grandiose name you would give to a snooty, snuck-up snob, especially if you’re trying to stick it to your rich neighbors in Greenwich, Connecticut who look down their noses at you and your sports-entertainment empire.

Named for newspaper heiress-turned-bank robber Patty Hearst and tyrannical hotel mogul Leona Helmsley (both of whom, unlike McMahon, actually served time in prison), the haughty Hunter Hearst Helmsley loaded his promos and matches with overly-refined, somewhat effeminate verbiage and mannerisms. Through feuds over Sable and Marlena, Helmsley’s snobbish attitude gradually gave way to a much more crude and crass style, culminating in a lengthy run with D-Generation X that saw the former blue blood moon the audience, urinate on motorcycles, and encourage women to flash him.

This rebellious phase would have been an ideal time to abandon his kayfabe name for something less foppish, but instead Helmsley merely hid his old, embarrassing name under the edgier moniker, Triple H. Even after piling on self-aggrandizing nickname after nickname (The Game, The Cerebral Assassin, The King of Kings), marrying the boss’s daughter, and climbing to the position of COO of the company, when Paul “Triple H” Levesque is on television, his name is still, ultimately, Hunter Hearst Helmsley.