D-Generation X

D-Generation X formed in the latter half of 1997 and became one of the most influential stables in WWF history, operating as one of the two central forces behind the company’s Attitude Era alongside Stone Cold Steve Austin. The group was built around real-life friendship and a shared willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable on television, and at their peak, they were equal parts sports entertainment and cultural phenomenon.

The name itself came indirectly from Bret Hart, who had taken to calling Shawn Michaels and Triple H degenerates during their escalating feud in 1997. The two took the insult and built a brand around it.

DX officially formed at the UK pay-per-view One Night Only in September 1997, with Michaels and Triple H as the core, and Chyna serving as the group’s physically imposing enforcer, a role that had never been filled by a woman in the WWF before. Rick Rude was also an early associate before departing for WCW later that year.

Their first major feud was with Bret Hart and the Hart Foundation, which concluded at Survivor Series 1997 in the Montreal Screwjob. With Hart gone, DX turned their attention to The Undertaker, feuding through some of the most notable matches of that era, including the first-ever Hell in a Cell between Michaels and the Deadman at Badd Blood in October 1997.

The group spent the remainder of Michaels’ WWF Championship reign testing the limits of television standards and mocking authority figures in segments that helped define the tone of the era.

At WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the original DX chapter effectively ended. Michaels lost the WWF Championship to Austin after Mike Tyson, who had been presented as an honorary DX member, turned on Michaels and counted the pin. Michaels disappeared from WWF programming shortly afterward with a severe back injury that would keep him out for four years.

The night after WrestleMania XIV, Triple H rebuilt DX around his own vision. He welcomed X-Pac, who had just re-signed with WWF after his run in WCW as Syxx, and aligned with tag team The New Age Outlaws, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, who won the WWF Tag Team Championships that same night.

After Shawn Michaels’ exit, the second DX became a popular babyface group in 1998. They feuded first with acts like The Nation and later with McMahon’s Corporation, while also pulling off famous anti-WCW stunts.

On April 27, 1998, they drove a military-style vehicle from Raw in Hampton to WCW’s live Nitro in Norfolk. On May 11, they went to the CNN Center in Atlanta to confront WCW at its headquarters, where security and police stopped them from getting any farther. Both segments aired on WWF television and became defining moments of the Monday Night Wars.

The group began to fracture in early 1999 when Triple H and Chyna aligned with Vince McMahon’s Corporation, leaving X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws to continue under the DX name alongside an unlikely ally in Kane, who had been pushed out of the Corporation himself.

The two factions of former DX members feuded with each other for much of 1999. By the end of the year, the group had reformed under Triple H’s leadership again, though his subsequent forced marriage to Stephanie McMahon and the formation of the McMahon-Helmsley faction effectively ended DX as an independent identity. The group made a final symbolic appearance together in November 2000 before disbanding.

DX reunited in June 2006 as a tag team pairing of Triple H and Shawn Michaels, both by then veterans in the middle of separate feuds with the McMahon family. The reunion was well-received and ran through the end of the year. They came back again in August 2009 and won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship in December of that year by defeating Chris Jericho and Big Show at TLC. That run ended in early 2010 when Michaels retired from in-ring competition following his loss to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI.

The six core members, Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, X-Pac, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame together as a group in 2019. DX was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a group in 2019, with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna, X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn recognized collectively for both the original and expanded incarnations of the stable.