The Kliq

Formation and early history

The Kliq was formed in 1994 by real-life best friends Scott Hall (then known as Razor Ramon), Kevin Nash (Diesel), Michael Hickenbottom (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".^[1] 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.^[2] Although, Lex Luger had suggested that Davey Boy Smith created the name, because the five kept "clicking", referring to how often they talked. At the suggestion of Vince Russo, Michaels began referring to his fans as his "Kliq".^[3] Michaels wrote in his 2006 autobiography that he disliked the idea, and that it "was not a huge hit" with the fans.^[3]

In 1995, the men's growing popularity as performers led to the group developing a heavy influence on booking– the power to schedule matches and decide match outcomes, write storylines, and largely determine the trajectory of other performers' careers.^[4] 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-- an event which would have marked an upturn in his own popularity and proven to be a turning point in his career-- was vetoed by Michaels, leading to a backstage confrontation between Ouellet and Michaels.^[5] The match between the two ended in a double-countout because Lafitte refused to be pinned by Nash.^[6] 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 said that "we (The Kliq) buried him (Ouellet)." Lafitte left the company soon after the incident; contrary to rumors, Michaels says that WWF Chairman Vince McMahon did not fire Lafitte.^[2]

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,^[7] 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.^[8]

Nash and Hall's last contracted match for the WWF took place on May 19, 1996 at Madison Square Garden.^[9][10] At the time, Levesque and Nash were wrestling as villains, while Michaels and Hall were fan favorites.^[9] At the end of the night, Michaels wrestled Nash in a steel cage match. Immediately after the match, Ramon entered the ring and hugged Michaels; this was not seen as unusual in-story, as both wrestlers were fan favorites. 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.^[9][10] Waltman, who himself would leave for WCW shortly after the incident, was in drug rehab at the time and thus didn't participate.^[11]

Triple H was the sole member of The Kliq punished for the "Curtain Call"

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.^[12] 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.^[10] 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, they escaped punishment.^[12] Michaels, who was the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at the time and one of the promotion's biggest drawing performers, could not be punished.^[10] 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.^[13] He did, however, win the WWF Intercontinental Championship five months later.^[14] 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 HHH: The Game DVD that when Levesque first arrived in the WWF, he was perceived of as arrogant and self-centered, but that 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.^[15] 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 Wars.^[10][12] 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.^[16] Unrelated to the Curtain Call aftermath, Levesque would later go on to marry McMahon's daughter, Stephanie, and take a significant role in the day-to-day business dealings of the company.

The nWo and D-Generation X

When Hall and Nash went to WCW, they formed The Outsiders tag team, as well as the New World Order (nWo) stable alongside Hulk Hogan.^[17] Rather than see the breaking of kayfabe as a crisis moment for professional wrestling, the 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 the 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.^[18] 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.

Sean Waltman was a member of both the nWo and D-Generation X

Meanwhile, Michaels and Levesque began to persuade WWF management to let them pair up on screen, but management was hesitant and wanted to keep The Kliq separated on-screen.^[13] 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.^[13] 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.

DX eventually became as influential to the Monday Night Wars as the nWo. DX's antics also went on to help spark The Attitude Era in the WWF.^[19] After Sean Waltman was fired from WCW, he was hired by WWF and joined DX, replacing the injured Michaels.^[13] The nWo's hand sign, often referred to as the "Wolf Head", was originally used by the Kliq members in the WWF.^[20] Waltman introduced the hand symbol to the nWo, Hall and Nash brought the hand sign with them, and it became widely used by the nWo members and fans worldwide.^[20]

On the October 6, 1997 Raw Is War, Shawn 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", Michaels declared, "The Kliq owns this [professional wrestling] business", and said that it had really undergone "expansion" rather than "destruction". During a brief period in 1998, after Waltman's return to the WWF as X-Pac, in promos the members of D-Generation X made numerous references to their "friends" in the WCW. On the April 27, 1998 Raw (recorded live in Hampton, Virginia), DX (by now composed of Triple H, Waltman, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and Chyna) staged a mock "invasion" protest/paramilitary take-over of the nearby Norfolk Scope, where Nitro was being held. Triple H, riding in a M38, chanted "Let our people go!" through a megaphone during the incident. Waltman called out, "We just wanted to say 'what's up' to our boys Kevin Nash and Scott Hall". DX also led a chant of "WCW sucks" by fans outside the arena who had tickets to the show (some of whom, Triple H alleged, had been given free tickets to Nitro by WCW in order to boost crowd numbers).

In 2002, after WCW had gone out of business, The nWo was reformed in the WWF with Hall, Nash and Hogan, the group's initial members. Hogan soon left the group after being attacked by Nash and Hall as a result of his turning into a fan favorite at WrestleMania X8. Other former members, including Big Show and Waltman, joined the group. Later, Shawn Michaels – after years away from the ring –was introduced by Kevin Nash as the newest member of the nWo, and Michaels promised the rest of the group that he would soon deliver Triple H. After weeks of lobbying for Triple H's services, a backstage promo of The nWo wishing Triple H luck before the match aired. This included 4 members of The Kliq (Shawn, Kevin, Pac and Triple H), as Big Show appeared wishing Triple H good luck as well. The nWo told Triple H to "throw up the hand signal" if he needed any help out there. Shortly thereafter, Nash suffered a torn quadriceps (after returning the same night after time off due to a biceps injury) during a ten-man tag-team match, and the following week Vince McMahon disbanded The nWo. Eric Bischoff (acting as the Raw brand General Manager) later tried to make Michaels Triple H's manager. This led to a short-lived reformation of DX, as Triple H turned on him the same night, setting off a long and heated feud that took approximately two years to resolve.^[21] The year after, Nash returned from injury as a fan favorite and sided with Michaels against Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton).

Later formations

Michaels and Triple H have reformed D-Generation X, first returning together for a six-month stint on the June 12, 2006 edition of Monday Night Raw. They would feud against The Spirit Squad (Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey), Big Show and Vince McMahon, and later the team of Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton), until Triple H's legitimate knee injury in the beginning of 2007. They would reform again on August 2009 during Shawn Michaels' last year in the WWE. During this year, D-Generation X would capture the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs against Jericho and Big Show, which would become the start of the first and only title reign for Triple H and Shawn Michaels as a tag team. D-Generation X would later go on to disband in March 2010 (after losing the tag Team titles to Big Show and The Miz). Michaels would then focus heavily on ending the winning streak of The Undertaker at WrestleMania, having failed to do so at WrestleMania XXV, and he would put his career on the line for their second WrestleMania encounter at WrestleMania XXVI which he would go on to lose and therefore end his career.

Hall, Nash and Waltman (then working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) would reform the nWo in a stable called The Band, where Hall and Nash won the TNA World Tag Team Championship, but Hall and Waltman were released shortly after (and Nash's contract would expire later on in the year).

On April 2, 2011, The Kliq, consisting of Nash, Waltman, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, made a special appearance as Shawn Michaels was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame 2011. Scott Hall decided not to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony or other WrestleMania XXVII festivities due to concerns of remaining sober. Hall has battled many drug and alcohol problems and suffered from various health problems in the past years and credits his friends in The Kliq for helping him through his battles. In 2014, at the conclusion of Scott Hall's Hall of Fame induction, the members of The Kliq joined him onstage and reunited for the 1st time since the curtain call incident. They reunited again in 2015 on an episode of Raw, and then again at Nash's Hall Of Fame induction.

A December 2014 episode of WWE Network show The Monday Night War: WWE vs. WCW focused on The Kliq.^[22]

Other associates

Although the core group of The Kliq has long been known there have always been rumours, suggestions and unofficial members either within the group or on the fringes looking in. The most consistently mentioned name is that of Peter Polaco who at the time of The Kliq's formation was working for WWF as Aldo Montoya and would later go on to gain fame as Justin Credible in Extreme Championship Wrestling. He apparently became friends with Scott Hall who offered to mentor him and from there he ended up travelling with the rest of the group until he negotiated his WWF release in 1997. Polaco's association with the group is also lent weight by the fact that upon his return to WWF after the closure of ECW in 2001 he instantly aligned himself on TV with X-Pac with the two going on to form a short lived stable under the name of X-Factor along with Albert as the group's enforcer.

Another name that has had a long association with The Kliq is that of Louie Spicolli, who was wrestling for the WWF in the early 90's under the name of Rad Radford. Spicolli's friendship with the group, much like Polaco's, descends from Scott Hall taking the youngster under his wing and having him travel with the rest of them on the road. Spicolli left the WWF after only a few months when he was released to deal with issues that he was having with substance abuse at the time. During this time, Spicolli worked for ECW for a number of months, during which time he could be seen using the now infamous "Wolf Head" signal during tapings and matches. In a later interview he denied the association, and asserted that the "Wolf Head" symbol was originally Bret Hart's gesture and The Wolfpac stole it. He said he used the symbol in ECW in order to "take it back."^[23] In late 1997, Spicolli returned to the spotlight by signing with WCW and was soon placed on screen as the lackey of Scott Hall, with the two engaging in a feud with Larry Zbyszko. However, the feud was never able to finish due to Spicolli's untimely death from a drug overdose at the age of 27. His death was never publicly acknowledged by any member of the group at the time, with only Zbyszko mentioning it on screen.

Prior to her death in 2016, Chyna had association to the group, not only as an original member of D-Generation X, but also through her relationship with Triple H, along with another long-term relationship with Sean Waltman. Her link to The Kliq was unclear, with the details of her split from Triple H in 2000 never made public. Her relationship to Waltman was notorious for the release of a sextape in 2004 and Chyna being arrested for domestic assault in 2005 after a drug-fueled fight. It was thought the pair were no longer on speaking terms after going their separate ways to deal with a number of personal issues, including drug and alcohol addictions, as well as issues with depression. When Triple H was asked in 2015 about inducting Chyna into the WWE Hall of Fame, he cited the conflict between her work in the adult industry and WWE's current target audience as a reason it would not happen. However, when both Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon were asked the same question after Chyna died, they were both in favor of inducting her.

The "Turkish Wolf" hand gesture used by members of The Kliq

Other people in the business have often had their names dropped into the hat but have never said either way whether they consider themselves to be a part of the group. The highest profile of these is probably Sid Eudy, better known as Sycho Sid or Sid Vicious. Another high-profile name is Rick Rude, who was both a member of the original D-Generation X and the nWo. Rude was involved in an incident in which he appeared on both Nitro and Raw in the same night, protesting on Nitro about the treatment of Bret Hart during the Montreal Screwjob (Rude actually appeared on the live Nitro show clean shaven and with a mustache an hour before appearing on Raw (which was taped a week earlier) with a full beard). How this affected his standing in the group is unclear, however it has gone on record that prior to his death Rude was one of the most respected people in the business by members of The Kliq.

Konnan is said to have enjoyed a very close friendship with both Nash and Hall during his run in WCW and was a member of both the nWo and the Wolfpac. Konnan was also influential in bringing in Sean Waltman to AAA for his run with the company throughout 2007 and 2008, with the two aligning on screen for a while as a part of La Legión Extranjera. Curt Hennig, who was once a tag team partner of Hall during their days in the AWA,^[24] is also said to have had a long-running friendship with the group, and spent large amounts of his career working either with or against members of the group in various promotions.

The Bullet Club stable seen in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor pay homage to The Kliq by using the Wolfpac hand symbol, as well as the use of the "2 Sweet" catchphrase and the DX-style crotch chops. Its WWE offshoot, The Club, also uses the Wolfpac hand symbol. Bullet Club members Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) also created a subgroup named Superkliq.