D-Generation X (DX) was an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team. DX consisted of various members, mostly Generation X wrestlers. The most notable members were Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, X-Pac, and the New Age Outlaws, a tag team consisting of Road Dogg and Billy Gunn.
The group originated in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) at the dawn of the "Attitude Era" in 1997 as a foil to another prominent faction, The Hart Foundation, and became one of the main driving forces behind the WWF competing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the Monday Night War. In addition to two other founding members, Chyna and Rick Rude, the group later expanded with new additions X-Pac, The New Age Outlaws, and Tori until the group officially disbanded in August 2000. After a teased reunion in 2002, DX reformed in June 2006 as the duo of Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the remainder of the year and again in August 2009 until March 2010, shortly before Michaels' retirement. This incarnation was voted the greatest WWE Tag Team Champions of all time in a 2013 WWE viewer poll.The WWE Universe's picks for best champions ever. WWE. September 15, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013. Today, most of its members are active in the day-to-day operations of the WWE, such as Paul Levesque, who serves as the chief content officer and head of creative, while Michaels serves as Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative overseeing the NXT brand and Brian James formerly held the role of Senior Vice President of Live Events.
On October 8, 2018, it was announced that DX would face The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) at the Crown Jewel pay-per view. At Crown Jewel, Triple H and Michaels were victorious against The Undertaker and Kane. On February 18, 2019, it was announced that the group would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame later that year, with Triple H, Michaels, Chyna, The New Age Outlaws, and X-Pac as the inducted members.
Concept The group's gimmick was best known as a gang of rebels who broke the rules, acted and spoke as they pleased, and wrestled whomever they wanted no matter how provocative and insulting. Noted for their crude, profane humor and sophomoric pranks, the stable has been dubbed multiple times as the "most controversial group in WWF/E history". Michaels' autobiography suggests that it was WWF head writer Vince Russo who first conceived the moniker for the faction, while Bret Hart claims it originated from New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick, a frequent critic of the WWF."New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick was the one who coined the phrase, in an article that was actually critical of the drift of the WWF into sex, sleaze and soap opera, and away from wrestling." ch. 40 – Triple H also claims that Shane McMahon coined the name of D-Generation X when responding to Bret Hart's characterization of younger wrestlers as degenerates.
DX was one of the three main contributing factors, along with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, to the onset of the WWF's Attitude Era. WWF/E Chairman Vince McMahon has repeatedly denied that DX was inspired or heavily influenced by World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) New World Order (nWo), though the core members of both on-screen factions included members of The Kliq; (Sean Waltman even served as a member of both groups; as did Michaels, briefly, during the nWo's short-lived revival in the WWF/E in 2002). On October 6, 1997, in one of the earliest DX promos, Michaels alluded to this off-screen connection. After Bret Hart claimed to have destroyed the Kliq and to have "run Scott Hall and Kevin Nash outta town" (referring to Hall and Nash leaving the WWF and signing with WCW), Michaels declared, "The Kliq owns this professional wrestling business", and said that the group had simply undergone "expansion" rather than "destruction".
History
Formation and early rivalries (1997–1998)
According to Triple H, WWF management wanted to keep The Kliq apart on-screen, so they were hesitant to pair he and Michaels together at first. Despite this, the group began to form during the August 11, 1997 main event of Raw Is War. During Michaels' match with Mankind, Triple H (then wrestling under the ring name of Hunter Hearst Helmsley) and Chyna both interfered, as Helmsley had been recently feuding with Mankind; the end of the match also saw Rick Rude return to the WWF revealing himself as Michaels' "insurance policy", helping Michaels win the match by attacking Mankind with a chair. The following week on Raw, Michaels and Helmsley teamed up to take on Mankind and The Undertaker in the main event, only to lose the match by disqualification after Michaels used a chair on Undertaker. Michaels would eventually face the Undertaker at Ground Zero: In Your House on September 7 with Helmsley, Chyna and Rude all interfering on Michaels' behalf to force the match to end in a no contest. During this time, the group (Michaels and Helmsley in particular) were regularly shown on television practicing sophomoric/crude humor and rebelling against authority figures in the company, primarily Vince McMahon (then primarily presented as an on-screen commentator) and then-Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, the latter of which DX made a recurring habit of humiliating by giving him the nickname "Sgt. Slobber".
D-Generation X's first major feud was against the Hart Foundation, which was led by Michaels' nemesis Bret Hart. At WWF One Night Only, the rest of DX helped Michaels defeat Foundation member British Bulldog for the WWF European Championship, officially making Michaels the WWF's first Grand Slam Champion. On-screen, the name was taken from comments by Hart, who on several occasions, particularly including the October 6, 1997 episode of Raw Is War, had labeled Michaels "nothing more than a degenerate". The following week, on October 13, 1997, Michaels made "D-Generation X" the group's official name, mockingly citing Hart's insults as his inspiration and how Generation X (with both members being part of Generation X) is always stereotyped as apathetic and cynical.
Although DX and the members of The Hart Foundation continued to battle on-screen in one fashion or another through the end of 1997, the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels feud ended abruptly at Survivor Series when Michaels won his third WWF Championship via the Montreal Screwjob, whereby Hart was lied to about the match's pre-determined outcome after Hart had signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and refused to drop the WWF Championship to Michaels in Canada and instead agreed to drop the title one month later in Springfield, Massachusetts. Rick Rude was also legitimately upset over the events of the screwjob, and subsequently left the WWF to return to WCW. On the November 24 episode of Raw Is War, DX invited Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart to join the group, which he accepted prior to a match later that night between Vader and Michaels. Michaels, Chyna and Helmsley assaulted Neidhart at the end of the show after Michaels defeated Vader, showing that Neidhart's invitation to the group was nothing more than a ruse. The following week on the December 1 episode of Raw Is War, Helmsley defeated Neidhart. After the match, DX assaulted Neidhart once again, before Michaels spray-painted "WCW" on Neidhart's back, signifying him following Bret Hart and The British Bulldog to WCW. Sgt. Slaughter and Ken Shamrock saved Neidhart, before Slaughter and Shamrock attacked DX at the end of the show.
D-Generation X was used as the title for a WWF D-Generation X: In Your House pay-per-view telecast on December 7, 1997. By this point, with Michaels holding both the WWF and WWF European Championships, and DX's victory in the feud with the Hart Foundation, their status as the lead stable in the company was solidified. Michaels headlined the event and was disqualified in a WWF Championship title defense against Ken Shamrock after interference from Helmsley and Chyna. After the match, Owen Hart interfered, having not been seen on WWF television since Survivor Series, starting a feud between Owen and DX. Earlier in the night, Helmsley (now primarily wrestling under the ring name of Triple H) defeated Sgt. Slaughter with the help of Chyna in a Boot Camp match. On the December 22 episode of Raw is War, however, Michaels and Triple H were forced by Slaughter to wrestle each other for the European Championship. In a mock match, Michaels laid down in the middle of the ring while Triple H constantly ran the ropes. Triple H would then pin Michaels and win the European Championship.
Triple H lost the European Championship to Owen Hart in January 1998 only to regain it two months later. Going into WrestleMania XIV that March, Shawn Michaels was the reigning WWF Champion and Triple H was the reigning WWF European Champion. Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was also involved as the "special enforcer" in the main event of the night featuring Michaels against Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the weeks leading up to the event, Tyson was revealed to have joined D-Generation X, and looked as if he was going to help Michaels retain the championship. However, at the end of the match, Tyson turned on DX and cost Michaels the match and the WWF Championship, allowing Austin to win the title.
Michaels' departure and "DX Army" (1998–1999) The night after WrestleMania, Triple H officially ejected Michaels from DX for "dropping the ball" over the Tyson incident and subsequently losing the WWF Championship. In reality, Michaels had suffered a severe back injury during his Casket Match with The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, and started what would become a four-year hiatus from the WWE to recuperate. Triple H would assume full leadership of DX and recruited X-Pac, who had been recently fired from WCW, and the current WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws ("Bad Ass" Billy Gunn and "The Road Dogg" Jesse James) into the stable. Triple H would dub this iteration as his new "DX Army". While the intent was for the stable to remain heels, they quickly became popular with audiences and were eventually pushed as faces. During this time, they feuded with The Rock and his group The Nation and then later, Vince McMahon's Corporation. The group remained united throughout 1998 and into early 1999.
On episodes of Raw Is War in April and May DX "went to war" with WCW, with whom the WWF were in direct competition at the time, through a series of legitimate visits to WCW headquarters and live events. On April 27, 1998, Raw Is War and Nitro both took place in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, a mere 19 miles apart. DX traveled from the WWF show in Hampton Coliseum in Hampton to The Scope in Norfolk and shouted insults against WCW through a bullhorn, as well as accusing WCW of giving out free tickets to fill up arenas for television while sporting black armbands with the acronym "POWCW" (Prisoner of WCW), which referenced fellow Kliq members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. DX then tried to enter the arena via a loading dock in their army jeep before being stopped by someone closing the door. They also attempted to forcibly secure meetings with Nitro's executive producer Eric Bischoff and WCW owner Ted Turner at WCW headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Another segment used computer graphics to make it appear as if Triple H had flown over the Roberts Municipal Stadium in Evansville, Indiana where WCW Nitro was taking place and wrote "WCW Sucks" and "DX Says Suck It" in the sky.