D-Generation X

The most controversial group in WWF/E history.

D-Generation X (DX) was an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team. DX consisted of various members, most notably Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, X-Pac, and the New Age Outlaws, a tag team consisting of Road Dogg and Billy Gunn.

Lore & Background

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, the group later expanded with new additions Rick Rude (who joined later in 1997 as a manager/enforcer), X-Pac, The New Age Outlaws, and Tori until the group officially disbanded in late 2000, often cited as after the October 2000 No Mercy pay-per-view. 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. 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.

Reader's Guide

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. 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'.