The Kliq was a backstage group in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) during the mid-1990s, composed of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H. Michaels, Nash, and Hall wielded a considerable amount of power within the company at the time, which they reportedly used to positively influence one another's careers and occasionally negatively influence the careers of others.
In May 1996, The Kliq broke character at a live event at Madison Square Garden in an unscripted incident referred to as the "Curtain Call", which had far-reaching ramifications for the WWF specifically and the wrestling world as a whole. At a time when professional wrestling organizations worked to maintain the illusion of storylines and characters, the Curtain Call marked the first time that such high-profile performers had so publicly broken character, forcing the WWF and other wrestling organizations to begin acknowledging the scripted elements of their programming.
The Kliq was also the primary catalyst for two of the most well-known stables in wrestling history: the New World Order (nWo) in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later the WWF/E, and D-Generation X (DX) in the WWF/E. Michaels and Waltman would serve in both groups; Triple H was a member of DX, while Nash and Hall performed with the nWo. Waltman, who wrestled for both WCW and the WWF during the mid-to-late 1990s, is recognized by WWE as the only wrestler to have been "an active member of both the nWo and DX during their heydays", as Michaels only joined the nWo during their WWF/E reunion in June 2002, becoming the leader before the group disbanded in July.
History Formation and early history The Kliq was formed in 1994 by real-life friends Scott Hall (then known as Razor Ramon), Kevin Nash (Diesel), Shawn Michaels, and Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid). In January 1995, Paul Levesque left WCW and arrived in the WWF as Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and became the next member of The Kliq. Each man enjoyed a tremendous amount of popularity with fans, which allotted them a particular degree of control over their own careers. Nash, Hall, and Michaels, then among the company's most popular performers, came up with the idea of forming a backstage alliance, which would potentially allow them to consolidate even more power within the company. Bret Hart, another of the company's top performers at the time, claims in his autobiography Hitman that he was also asked if he wanted to be part of The Kliq, but declined the offer: "The thing I remember most about that tour was Shawn, Razor, and Nash talking to me in Hamburg about the idea of forming a clique of top guys who strictly took care of their own". Levesque mentioned on the 2013 Triple H – Thy Kingdom Come DVD that he was recruited to the Kliq by Kevin Nash because he didn't do drugs or alcohol, and thus could serve as the group's designated driver after events.
Michaels claims that the name "The Kliq" was originally coined by Lex Luger, due to the closeness of the five friends backstage, while Lex Luger had suggested that Davey Boy Smith created the name, because the five kept "clicking", referring to how often they talked. In a shoot interview, Scott Hall said that Bam Bam Bigelow coined the name. At the suggestion of Vince Russo, Michaels began referring to his fans as his "Kliq". Michaels wrote in his 2006 autobiography that he disliked the idea, and that it "was not a huge hit" with the fans.
In 1995, the men's growing popularity as performers led to the group developing a heavy influence on the power to schedule matches and decide match outcomes, write storylines, and largely determine the trajectory of other performers' careers. The group used this power to give one another preferential treatment, usually scheduling each other in heavily promoted, high-profile matches, often against one another: during the period of 1994 through 1996 particularly, Ramon had high-profile feuds with 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel, and Michaels, while Diesel and Michaels formed a championship-winning tag-team called Two Dudes with Attitudes.
The group's perceived abuse of power led to animosity amongst other wrestlers, particularly lower-ranking members of the company. In one instance, performer Carl Ouellet, then performing as Jean-Pierre Lafitte, claimed that his scheduled defeat of Diesel was vetoed by Michaels, leading to a backstage confrontation between Ouellet and Michaels. The match between the two ended in a double-countout because Lafitte refused to be pinned by Nash. In retaliation, the group effectively ended Ouellet's career with the company by scheduling him to repeatedly lose low-profile matches. In his autobiography, Michaels admitted that "we buried him." Lafitte left the company soon after the incident; contrary to rumors, Michaels says that WWF Chairman Vince McMahon did not fire Lafitte.
The MSG "Curtain Call" In April 1996, Nash and Hall signed contracts with WCW, the WWF's top competitor, with whom the company was embroiled in a bitter rivalry. Accounts have differed as to what led to the men's departure. Wrestling commentators have speculated that their contracts were allowed to expire in order to cripple The Kliq's influence in the company, while official WWE media asserts that Nash and Hall were simply offered more money by WCW than the WWF was able to promise them at the time.The Monday Night War. WWE Home Video. 2004. Hall himself claimed he left because he felt his pay in the WWF had plateaued, while Nash has stated he left because WCW offered a guaranteed contract, something the WWF had been unwilling to do for any wrestler at that point.
Nash and Hall's last contracted match for the WWF took place on May 19, 1996, at Madison Square Garden. At the time, Levesque and Nash were wrestling as villains, while Michaels and Hall were fan favorites. At the end of the night, Michaels wrestled Nash in a steel cage match. Immediately after the match, Hall entered the ring and hugged Michaels; this was not seen as unusual in-story, as both wrestlers were babyfaces. However, Levesque then entered the ring and hugged Hall, followed by Nash. The four wrestlers then group hugged for several seconds before they turned to face the crowd with their arms raised together. Waltman, who himself would leave for WCW shortly after the incident, was in drug rehab at the time and thus didn't participate.Monday Night War: WWE vs. WCW The Kliq
Their actions – dubbed the "Curtain Call" – scandalized WWF management. At the time, most major wrestling promotions, the WWF included, prided themselves on maintaining kayfabe – the illusion that all of the events which transpired in-ring were real and unscripted, and that wrestlers' on-screen rivalries extended outside of the ring. The company had a strict policy of onscreen rivals not breaking character by associating with one another on WWF programming, as a means of maintaining storylines and feuds between wrestlers, which sometimes lasted for years and could unravel in seconds if the two feuding wrestlers were seen associating as friends in public. WWF Chairman Vince McMahon was reported to have initially given his tacit approval for a "farewell" ceremony, but did not realize that it would become so elaborate. The severity of the incident was further compounded by the revelation that the event—which was not broadcast on television—had been filmed by two fans, Mani Mohtadi and Jason Cosmides, who had smuggled a camcorder past security. Stills from the footage were widely disseminated online and in wrestling magazines at the time, bringing the Curtain Call to a wider audience than if it had not been recorded.
Because Hall and Nash had already confirmed their departure for WCW, because Waltman was absent, and because Michaels was the WWF Champion and one of the promotion's biggest drawing performers, these four wrestlers escaped accountability. Instead, the punishment fell solely on Levesque, who was demoted from being a championship contender to wrestling inexperienced or lesser experienced wrestlers for the next several months. He did, however, win the WWF Intercontinental Championship five months later. Levesque's unquestioning acceptance of his punishment had the unintended side effect of rehabilitating his image in the eyes of other performers who held a grudge against him for his time with the Kliq: according to The Undertaker in the HHH: The Game DVD, when Levesque first arrived in the WWF he was perceived as being arrogant and self-centered, but by accepting his punishment he earned legitimate respect.
The incident turned out to have a major impact on the WWF's future. For the first time in modern pro-wrestling history, a major company was forced to acknowledge that its events were scripted; McMahon would later use this to his advantage in the development of several meta-storylines, including a skit on the October 6, 1997, episode of Raw Is War in which Michaels and Levesque, both in character, played footage of the Curtain Call incident. Before the Curtain Call, Levesque had been booked into the finals of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament during the following summer, but his place – and the push that usually went with it – would instead go to Stone Cold Steve Austin, igniting his rise toward superstardom, an event which ultimately helped the WWF defeat WCW in the Monday Night War. Levesque's acceptance of his punishment and the respect it earned him resulted in him only suffering short-term repercussions. He would go on to win the following year's King of the Ring tournament and later went on to become a 14-time world champion, beginning with his WWF Championship victory over Mankind the night after SummerSlam in 1999.
The nWo and D-Generation X
When Hall and Nash went to WCW, they formed the tag team The Outsiders, as well as the New World Order (nWo) stable alongside Hulk Hogan. Rather than see the breaking of kayfabe as a crisis moment for professional wrestling, WCW decided to exploit it by introducing their own meta-storyline that incorporated fans' growing awareness of the backstage politics of pro-wrestling: Upon Nash and Hall's arrival, they were implied to still be working for the WWF, staging an "invasion" of WCW.
When Waltman later jumped to WCW, he also joined the nWo as Syxx, often working closely with the Outsiders and forming the trio known as the Wolfpac. Many fans criticized Kevin Nash for his booking tenure in WCW since it displayed the same self-promoting behavior associated with The Kliq on an even larger scale. Fans often pointed to Nash booking himself to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from the then-undefeated Goldberg and the subsequent match with Hogan as the most grievous of his "offenses". Nash, however, claims that he did not have booking power at the time of the incident. Nash's innocence claim is disputed in several shoot interviews by various WCW wrestlers from the time who claimed that he, Hogan and several others often refused to put other wrestlers over in order to keep themselves as the main stars.
Meanwhile, Michaels and Levesque began to persuade WWF management to let them pair up on screen, but management was hesitant and wanted to keep them separated on-screen. They eventually aligned together in the faction D-Generation X (DX), with Levesque's "Hunter Hearst Helmsley" fictional persona gradually transformed and re-dubbed Triple H or HHH, and alongside Levesque's then-girlfriend and on-screen female "bodyguard" Chyna. Rick Rude also temporarily joined the group (as a sort of on-screen bodyguard for Michaels), though his membership ended when he signed with WCW after his WWF contract expired in early November 1997.