All language subtitles for EP-06 - D-Generation X

- We interrupt your regularly
scheduled program

For this special report.

- I've never seen
a more controversial entity

Than d-generation x.

- Here we go.
- And three, two--

- Good evening,
my fellow americans.

This past week,
d-generation x was--

Oh, [bleep] a.
[laughter]

- This past week,
d-generation x

Completed a full sentence.
- [laughs]

- If you took a group
of great athletes,

Stuck them in a frat house,

Mix that up
with a bunch of

"I don't give a [bleep]"
attitudes...

All: Let's go!
- And stir vigorously,

You get dx to come out of it.

[laughter]

- D-generation x
was the counterculture,

Anti-establishment crew
inside wwe.

All: [chanting]
dx! Dx! Dx!

- They were rat pack
for a new millennium.

- We're total bad asses.

- We're gangstas.

- You had triple h,
shawn michaels,

X-pac, billy gunn,
road dogg,

And of course,
you had chyna.

- Oh, my!

- Uh!
- Their entire purpose

Was to push the boundaries
and make you uncomfortable

And entertain the hell
out of you in the process.

- We were just six degenerates
having a great time,

And you were welcome
to come aboard

And have a good time with us.

And if you didn't,
we had two words for ya.

- Suck it!
- Suck it!

- Suck it!
- It became a battle cry.

- We got two words for ya!

All: Suck it!

- Let's get ready to suck it!
[cheering]

- D-generation x was cocky,
arrogant, egotistical,

And they were cool.

- Dx was as much a part
of 90s american pop culture

Than anything else.

- It was like the beatles...
[laughs]

No matter where they went.

- When you're
in the midst of it,

It's like you're in
a drug-addled violent tornado

That's just
carrying you along.

I got caught up.
I got lost in the limelight.

Cut.
My wife's gonna watch this.

- For a guy that didn't need
many excuses

To spiral down
to a bad place, that was it.

- We were unfireable,

So I pushed the limits
of everything

As far as I possibly could.

Then you fall
into a dark spot.

We all have our...Demons.

- It robs you of your soul.

[pensive music]

- We've all
gotten through that.

Man, we are blessed
to be alive.

- Did there used to be

More of us?

- They defined maybe the most
memorable time ever in wwe.

[rock music]

- Some of it felt
a little childish,

A little crass,

But it was
a necessary revolution.

It was a transformation

Of what we're allowed to do
on tv.

- Should we be doing that now?
No.

There's no real place
for d-generation x today,

As far as I'm concerned.

But it is fun
to look back on it.

- You will never forget
d-generation x.

- Try not to take
any of it too serious.

♪ ♪

All: [chanting]
dx! Dx! Dx!

- We are back with more
"Monday night raw."

- Everything has
an expiration date,

And in the early '90s,
wwe was just sort of

Plugging along, trying to use
a lot of the same tricks

That had gotten them
to that point

Without really
reading the tea leaves

And seeing where culture
was going.

- What was traditionally hip
in wrestling

Is no longer hip.

- And dx were the ones
that came out and said,

"if you think wrestling is
gonna stay the same as it was,

"you're wrong,
and we are the people who are

Going to come out here
and shake things up."

- Before you come out here

And get the crap
kicked completely out of you...

[laughs]

D-generation x
has got two words for ya...

All: Suck it!

- When you look at dx,

What comes to mind is,

Well, kind of exactly

What it is--degenerates.

Degenerates within
the sports entertainment world

That were the anti-authority,

And didn't care
about the rules of society

Or the rules of the business,

And did everything that you
weren't supposed to do.

Dx was triple h and shawn,

The new age outlaws,
chyna, x-pac.

But dx, to me, will always be
triple h and shawn.

It was the brain child
of that friendship

That started dx.

- We are the business today.

- [chuckles] there's a bit
of discrepancy

On shawn and I's
first meeting,

And I'll stick with
my version of it,

Because shawn was...

Had issues at the time.

And I remember it distinctly
because shawn,

He's a fashion assassin.

Shawn came in
wearing no shirt,

Bandanas all over him,

He had cowboy boots with his
jeans tucked into the pants,

And--like, that was
his street clothes.

And, like, he just completely
walked in front of me

And just started talking
to kevin nash.

Kevin said,
"hey, have you met paul yet?"

And he shook my hand,
and then he said,

"anyway, kev,
I'll see you later."

And he walked away.
Right? [laughs]

- Well, I--
that is something--

And again,
that's what, you know,

I'm not sure if it was
the drugs, or, you know.

That's why hunter's always
better at telling the stories.

[light music]

- I was born July 27, 1969,
nashua, new hampshire.

It was a roaring metropolis.

Normal childhood,
middle class,

Parents are still married
to this day.

I don't know,
I just always had this interest

In things that were
larger than life.

I was five or six years old,

My dad got up and was changing
the channel, and...

- Chief jay strongbow.

- Stopped on
chief jay strongbow.

I remember specifically
who it was.

I had a plastic
football helmet

That I remember putting
the football in the helmet,

Putting it on the floor,
climbing up on my dad's lap,

And just sitting
and being fascinated by it.

- Yes, there he goes.

- There's something about it
that was just

Incredibly entertaining,
action-packed,

But these larger-than-life
superheroes,

But that were real and on tv,
sitting right in front of you.

And it sucked me in,
and from that point forward,

I was fascinated with it.

When I was 14, I went to
the gym for the first time,

And I started lifting weights.

And I started to see that path

To get to being
a wwe superstar.

As I got to that size, got to
that level of development,

And becoming larger than life

Like the athletes
that I saw on tv,

It started to become a reality

That maybe this was something
that I could do,

And I started to search
high and low

For a way to make that happen.

- The world's strongest man.
- I met a powerlifter

Named ted arcidi,

Who had also broken into
the wrestling business.

And over time,
I developed the courage

To ask him, "hey, how can I get
in the wrestling business, man?

I'd love to do that."

And he discouraged me in every
conceivable way possible.

But I stayed on him,
stayed on him,

Stayed on him,
stayed on him--

Probably just to get me
to stop asking him,

He gave me the number
for walter "killer" kowalski.

I went in the ring
and took a couple of bumps,

And it was the most natural
thing I'd ever done,

First time in my life.

And it took off from there.

Lock up your doors.
I'm comin' to your town.

They better pray
when I'm around.

- What a future.
Young, big man, aggressive,

He's got everything
going for him.

- Pat patterson and I,
we had been invited

To a show that was run
by walter kowalski.

And walter had a student,
paul levesque.

His name was terra ryzing.

Great name.

By the time that his show
came around,

Paul levesque had signed
a contract with wcw in atlanta.

We met, we watched his match,

And told him that night,

"when your contract comes up
with wcw,

Please give us a call."

- Hunter hearst helmsley.

- Paul came in and became
hunter hearst helmsley.

Hunter was
the quintessential snob.

- Hello, hunter hearst
helmsley here.

- When hunter arrived in wwe,

I was happy we got him
because I saw a bright future.

- What an aggressive athlete

This hunter hearst helmsley
is.

- He looked good,
student of the game.

The gathering of the minds
between shawn and hunter

Was pretty quick.

[light music]

- I was born in
williams air force base,

And shortly after that,
my father got transferred

To randolph air force base
in san antonio, texas,

And for the most part,
that's where I spent

The rest of my youth
and growing up.

I never had sat down
and, like,

"what do you wanna be
when you grow up?"

But I can just recall I made
the comment to my mother

Like, "I'm gonna be
a professional wrestler."

"that's nice, honey."

[laughs]
you know?

And I was saying that at 12,

And by the time
I was graduating high school,

I was still saying it,

And then get trained
for three months.

- He is sean michaels.

- When he's in the ring,
it's nothing short

Of an aerial circus.

- Bill watts got me booked
in kansas city.

- Ohh!

- And that's where
I met marty.

- Marty jannetty!

- We walked into

The dressing room,

And it was this guy,
had real short hair

And he had green tights

Pulled up to under his chest.

[laughs]

It was like, oh, damn.
We got some work to do.

[laughs]

- Marty was cool.
I mean, he was the cool guy.

And he said, "you got something
inside you

"that looks like it's dying
to come out,

And we're gonna get it out
of you."

And I'm sure, you know,
myself and many people

In the wrestling business
are sorry

That he ever
let that person out.

- The midnight rockers!

- We became
the midnight rockers.

Turned into a fantastic team.

But, yeah, we lived with
the gimmick, as they say.

- They love to party!

- We were out every night,

And nothing was off the table,

Whether it was women,
drugs, um--

[laughs]
so all of that stuff

Was on the table,
and we partook in that

On an extremely regular basis.

- If we was on the road
300 days a year,

We partied 290 of 'em.
[laughs]

- And marty and I
were just hell... [laughs]

To deal with, but inside
the ring, we were really good.

[upbeat rock music playing]
- the rockers!

- Shawn michaels,
him and his partner,

Marty jannetty,
they came from the awa

In the late '80s to the wwe,

And they were

Popular immediately.

- The fans right behind
the rockers. Oh!

- Shawn's reputation early on

Was always one
of a top notch performer.

I think shawn always
saw himself as the star,

And the biggest star.

So being in a tag team,

Shawn, in my opinion,
looked at that

As a stepping stone
to his singles stardom.

- Recently, there's been

A lot of controversy,
a lot of rumors

That maybe you guys
are gonna break up.

- From the time I got in,
I never pictured myself

In a tag team.

Not in any of the
theater of my mind or dreams

Was it ever me
and this other guy.

- Oh!

- I would argue
the barbershop window

Is the greatest tag team
breakup of all time.

- Oh, my god!

- He literally smashed

The version of shawn michaels
as we knew it.

- Is there a problem
with the rockers?

I'd been a rocker forever,
and I had no idea

Who my character
was gonna be.

- Ladies and gentlemen...

- Then, all of a sudden,
one day,

I'm just sort of out there--
[blows]

It comes out.

- Here is shawn michaels!

["I'm a sexy boy" playing]

- Talk about being in love
with yourself.

- The heartbreak kid
was a mix of elvis

Meets freddie mercury
and the lead singer

For judas priest.

All of 'em were so secure
in their entertainment.

- Talk about showboating--
- and in their sexuality.

It is fact that I am
the sexiest man alive.

- It was a grown man
shaking his ass

And he's got the chaps and
the song is just so obnoxious.

- Shawn michaels
has got that certain something

That everybody's looking for.

It was all that kind of stuff,

Allowing me a vehicle
to let this other person out.

- Your girlfriend wants him.

You're gonna go up
and kick his ass

But maybe he's gonna kick yours

And take her anyway.

I mean, there was
a lot to dislike.

- The world wrestling
entertainment

Reeks of jealousy
for the heartbreak kid.

- When he first turned into
the heartbreak kid,

He was becoming sort of this
cocky kinda character.

- I want you to take
a good look

At the wrestler of the '90s.

- And I think there was
eventually a time where

He did morph
into that character.

- The heartbreak kid
was cocky, arrogant,

Full of himself,

Not the biggest guy
in the room,

But definitely the biggest
attitude in the room...

- Shawn michaels
is leaving the building.

- And dx just
accentuated that.

[cheering]

- If you ask anybody
to describe shawn michaels

In those days, one of the first
two words out of their mouth

Is gonna be [bleep].

I mean, self-described.

Triple h was the other end
of the spectrum.

Both literally
and sort of metaphorically,

The designated driver.

- It wasn't always easy

Being shawn's friend.

He was the little guy
with the chip on his shoulder.

- You will not ever
see a man more charismatic,

More flamboyant,
or more talented

Than the heartbreak kid
shawn michaels.

- For the longest period
of time,

I didn't care for shawn at all.

He was hard to deal with,
and I didn't appreciate it.

[announcers shouting]
but there was no one that I'd

Rather work with in the ring.

- Shawn was doing things
nobody else was

And working on a level

From a in-ring performer
standpoint

But wasn't getting
the accolade of it

And was just--he was angry
and bitter about it.

Drugs and alcohol
didn't help that.

- From high above!

- They're not gonna give me
a pat on the back,

So I'm gonna be
obnoxious about it.

And it just started
to turn to anger.

Another day at the office.

After a while,
it just got to be--

[laughs]

I at least need to have that.

That, and the only guys
I got real with

Were my buddies, the kliq.

Hunter and kev,
and scott and kid.

- The kliq was a bunch of guys
that hung out together

And went to the bars together,
ate together,

I mean, the whole nine yards.

Had very strong opinions

On the business.

- These five guys looked
at professional wrestling

In the early '90s and said,
"this is kinda lame."

These guys, who were
kinda too cool for school

Started telling vince that
his product wasn't up to date.

It's hard to argue with that
looking back.

- Oh!

- Safe to say that the '90s

Became the decade

Of the antihero.

- Music, tv, even movies--

And people started
pushing boundaries

In a way that just seemed
really edgy at the time.

- Here is repo man!

- As pop culture in america
was getting darker,

Wwe is, like,
the complete opposite.

- The mantaur!

- A lot of cartoon characters,

Everyone in wwe had a job.

- The home improvement--
- the plumber,

The racecar driver,
the dentist--

Wrestling must really be doing
bad if every wrestler

Has, like, a second occupation.

What is that, even, you know?

Not making enough money
wrestling?

What the [bleep]?

We wanted
to make wrestling better.

At least, to where, like,

And adult wasn't
embarrassed to say

"I'm a wrestling fan."

- The business
needs to change.

We were in indianapolis,
and kevin and scott

Had reached a boiling point.

Shawn had reached
a boiling point.

- It was just the five of us
sitting around

Bsing with each other,

And you sorta couldn't
get yourself worked up.

- They snapped, and said,
"I can't take it anymore.

I'm calling vince."

- We just talked.

It was us not knowing
we're kind of describing

The attitude era,
but doing that

And just saying
this needs to be a shift.

Yeah, some of the tradition
is respectful,

But too much of it
is just kind of like, ugh!

Vince said, "I've no doubt
you guys believe this

"deep down in your heart.

Now's not the time."

- He was reluctant.

He feels like he has a good
idea of what people want.

And it just
wasn't working out.

And like, you know,
we had to leave

For vince to go,
"okay, okay."

I mean, it shouldn't
have to get to that point.

- As we got into 1996,

Wcw, our competitor,
was being very aggressive

In their quest for new talent.

And new talent to wcw
was established stars from wwe.

- The macho man randy savage
and hulk hogan together!

- It was a tumultuous time

In our company.

- On may 19, 1996,

We went to a house show,

Which was not televised.

We would sneak in
a camera past security.

- It was the last night in wwe
for diesel and razor ramon.

They both accepted offers
for the rival company, wcw,

And this is their swan song.

- That night, shawn and diesel
had a cage match,

Which was the culmination
of their rivalry.

- At the time,
diesel was a bad guy,

Shawn michaels
was a good guy.

The ending shows
shawn michaels

Giving diesel a superkick.

- And diesel was laid out
in the middle of the cage,

And here comes triple h,

And here comes razor,

Who had a match
earlier in the night.

Like, what the hell is this?

[dramatic chord]

Your champion, your hero,

Shawn michaels,
is now hugging and kissing

The guy that he just spent
20 minutes

Beating the hell out of.

- The garden just erupted.

[crowd cheering]

I'm screaming
like a little girl.

Oh, my god!
- People were going ballistic.

They're seeing something
they've never seen before

At a moment in time.

- It's breaking
the fourth wall,

Just telling people everything
that you had just done

In this match--beat the hell
out of each other--

Is bull[bleep].

Taboo in
the wrestling business.

- It's breaking
the handshake agreement

That wrestling is real or not.

In pro wrestling logic,

They're not treating this
like it's real.

- The kliq was an insult
to our business.

If they had done that

In the '70s, early '80s, yeah,

All four of 'em would've got

The [bleep] beat out of 'em.

- We watched right up
until the point, I think,

That the four of 'em
raised their hands,

And doing their little
curtain call,

And vince said,
"let's go."

[crowd roaring]

- Ooh.

You know, everybody's pissed.

Everybody's taking it as

They're crapping
on the business,

Not expressing a friendship.

- Nothing you can do
to razor,

Nothing you can do to diesel.

They're gone.
They're wcw's problem now.

Okay, shawn's the champion.

There's only so much,
you know,

"shawn, don't you ever
do that again."

Hunter, man, we can't go
any further with him

Based on the decision
that he made on that night.

- One of vince's famous quotes:

"you're gonna have
to learn to eat [bleep]

And like the taste of it."

I was supposed to win
king of the ring,

And he said, "obviously,
that's not gonna happen now."

I said, "okay."

As I was leaving,
I turned back to him,

And I said, "this goes back
to what we were talking about

"in indianapolis.

"it was the loudest reaction
in madison square garden.

"I don't understand
how that's wrong.

The business is changing.
We gotta change with it."

[crowd cheering]

- The curtain call--
that moment,

That sort of wink at reality,

It sets the stage for dx.

Shawn michaels and triple h,

At that point,
they were bound together.

- After kev and scott left,
we just had each other.

That bond,
which was already strong,

Was instantly made stronger.

And I think hunter
really began to understand

How much more dependent on him
I was going to become.

♪ ♪

- We're back,
ladies and gentlemen.

"Monday night raw."

And here he comes!

- After the curtain call,
shawn michaels

Was still on top
of everything.

But for triple h, it was,
you know, back to square one.

- Hunter hearst helmsley,
getting

Jake "the snake" roberts,
first round,

King of the ring tournament.

- He was supposed to win the
king of the ring tournament.

- Two, yes! Yes!
- I can't believe it!

- It ended up being
stone cold steve austin,

Which changed the course
of history in its own way.

- Austin 3:16 says
I just whipped your ass.

- He was gonna have to
start back over on the bottom.

- He took a good hit,
no doubt--creative hit.

- Nice looking cover by--oh!

Two, and three!

Three count is total--

- The power of this bomb!
Three count--

- And that was just
a way of punishing triple h.

He lost some money because his
position on the cards lowered.

He wasn't looked at as

Exaltingly as he once was.

- Oh, my!

- And I said this to him,
I mean,

"you just gotta let the water
go under the bridge,

"and you gotta
get past this somehow.

Maybe you wanna reinvent
yourself a little bit."

- No, wait a minute. Oh!

Helmsley, and the drive
to dumpster.

- It's over.

- I can't believe--
hooks the leg, one, two,

And he got him.
[bell dings]

I must say, I'm impressed
with the resilience

Of hunter hearst helmsley.

- As my punishment
came to an end,

I was told,
"hey, you know what,

We're gonna start you
back up."

The business was
slightly changing,

So vince had offered me

To slowly transition out

Of being the blue blood
character

To more what I see myself as.

And they also felt like
if they put a heater with me,

It would give me
a fresh coat of paint.

Shawn and I at that point
had met joanie.

- She was
an extremely impressive

And jacked young lady.

You could not help

But notice her.

Right away, we were like,
oh, my goodness.

- Shawn and I both
looked at each other

At the same time
and were like,

That's my heater.

No one's ever done that
in the business before.

- To have a woman bodyguard,
which was such a heat getter,

But have one that was
so unbelievably impressive

That it could be
taken realistically.

- [grunting]
- we brought it to vince

And he hated it.

Didn't see it at all.

Like, thought it was
the dumbest idea of all time.

- I believe we were in tampa,

And we had breakfast
with shane,

And he thought it was
a fantastic idea.

- Vince said, "if that girl
hasn't signed with wcw yet,

"tell her she can be
your heater.

"but if she's a screw up,
if she's a headcase,

It's on you, it's your fault."

- Live for "Monday night raw."

- His lights have been dimmed.

Oh, that--what a slap.
[crowd cheering]

- My initial memory of chyna

Was when she snatched
terri runnels...

[crowd cheering]
and was flinging her around

Like a rag doll.

Terri looked like
she had not a bone in her body.

- Who the hell's that?
Is that a woman?

- My reaction was like,
"oh, my god.

I've never seen
anything like this."

- We don't condone this,
ladies and gentlemen,

- Everyone--jim ross,

Jerry lawler,

And us as the audience at home,

Everybody is going...

- I have no idea
what this is about.

- Who is this lady?

- That is a huge woman!
An amazon-like woman!

- These are newborn--
look how tiny she is--

These are newborn pictures
of her.

It's kinda hard to believe
that this

6 pound, 10 ounce thing
would grow up to be

The ninth wonder of the world.

I mean, that's just,
like, kinda awesome. [laughs]

[light music]

Joanie was born
in rochester, new york,

At 4:14 in the afternoon,
I remember it.

She had strawberry blonde
hair.

Joan was kind of
the entertainer.

She could always
liven up the crowd.

At some point,
her father and I divorced,

And we kinda flitted

From one apartment
to another apartment.

The kids switched schools.

I'm sure that was
unsettling for them.

I know it would be
unsettling for me.

I always say,
when joanie turned 15,

The devil came down
and snatched her

And took her away.

She got involved
with a bad crowd at school.

And I went through her room
and found some little baggies

Of what looked like
some kinda drug.

And so we called her down,
and we confronted her.

And, uh, that was kinda
the beginning of the end.

When she was 16, she left
and went with her father.

♪ ♪

And I didn't see her
or talk to her for 27 years.

♪ ♪

- Ready? Three, two, one.
- Speech.

- Chyna definitely
broke the mold

Of what a female was
supposed to look

And act like
in sports entertainment.

I mean, we had women before

Who might get involved
in a little

Extracurricular activity.

But nobody who had that
sheer force of will and power

That joanie
brought to the table.

- Unbelievable!

- Wow!
- Bart gunn weighs 270 pounds!

- To see a woman as the muscle
for a man--

You're not able to place why

Something is different
at first,

But you know when you're
seeing something

For the first time,
and that's what chyna was.

- You might be the world's
most dangerous man.

But I'm bringing something with
me even deadlier than that.

- The world's
most dangerous woman.

- The emergence of chyna
was something

No one had ever seen.

That's the kinda stuff
you're waiting for as a fan.

[crowd cheering]

- After hall and nash leave,
business is not great.

Crowds are much smaller.

Sometimes they're
playing smaller venues.

Wwe is not trending
in the right direction.

- Shawn's in a cascade
at this point in time.

He's downward spiraling.

Business is not great.

There's a lot of banter
about shawn's

Not working as champion.

He's collapsing
under the pressure.

I can see him falling apart.

- Shawn came to work impaired
on more than one occasion.

His mood swings
became very drastic.

- If I want to come
out here and look like

A blithering idiot
on live tv, believe me,

I'm gonna do it.

Why? Because I can.

- We get to lowell,
massachusetts,

And this is the night that
shawn loses his smile.

- Here, ladies and gentlemen,
to surrender

The world wrestling
entertainment championship.

- I wasn't in a great place.

The reality is,
when you're a drug addict,

You don't think well.

Your judgment isn't great.

Over the last couple months,
there's been a lot of talk,

A lot revolving
around this belt.

One thing that's not gonna
revolve around this belt

Is going to be shawn michaels.

In my mind, it's not me,
it's the place.

Asking for my release
and believing

That I would be happier
going to wcw,

And just being with my friends.

The last several months,
I've lost a lot of things,

And one of 'em
has been my smile.

I just thought it was better
for everything and everyone

That you let me move on,

And whatever happens, happens.

Vince just said "no."

And he understood that,
look, what you enjoy

About this job
is the creativity

And the chance to go out there

And do what you believe
is your art,

And they won't allow you to do
what it is you want to do.

So whether it was
from a business standpoint

Or a personal standpoint,

He wasn't gonna release me.

- [bleep] unraveling
for shawn.

So the losing the smile thing
is,

"I gotta step away
for a minute or I'm gonna die."

And I'm all he's got now.

They had nothing else.

Like, nothing.

- Wwe's fighting battles
on two fronts--

Fighting for viewers
against wcw on Monday nights,

But they're also fighting
internally with relevancy.

♪ ♪

- It was the first time that

Anybody had ever challenged us

And taken it to the point

Of actually doing

Perceivably better than us.

It was tough.
It was really, really tough.

It was demoralizing,

And people
felt a little bit defeated.

Every penny that we spent
was analyzed.

What do we need?
What can we get by without?

And what are we going to do
to turn this around?

- This was a moment where
things needed to change.

Business was bad.

Bad. Dying.

- And the world
wrestling entertainment

Kept pushing shawn michaels.

I told you time and time again,
don't push me!

- At that point in time,
he's bitter and angry.

- But you pushed and you
pushed and you pushed.

And what happens when you
push the heartbreak kid?

You get a reaction!

- I'm a little bit
at a point, like, listen,

I gotta do what I wanna do.

What's the worst
that can happen?

Dx is born.

- You no longer know
what's hip.

Traditionally hip
in wrestling

Is no longer hip.

- Vince always said
that shawn michaels

Reminded vince of
a young vince mcmahon--

Defiant, attitudinal.

- We are what is cool.

- Vince is gonna acquiesce
to pretty much anything shawn

Wanted to do--
within reason.

So dx--shawn was
the catalyst for that.

- We are the business today.

- It was filling a need
for me personally,

With the friendship
that hunter and I had.

And joanie was coming with us.

And it goes back
to seeing society--

The sort of rebellious
atmosphere that was going on.

- D-generation x
was the counterculture,

Antiestablishment crew.

And for the survival
of the company,

Dx was sort of
a necessary irritant.

- I'm using this vehicle
against you.

- I saw it as inmates had
taken over the asylum.

You're a disgrace
to professional wrestling.

You're nothing
but a degenerate.

The show was gonna be
all about them.

And they minimized everyone
else to entertain themselves.

- We said what
we wanted to say.

I got two words for
"the hitman" bret hart.

We went places you
weren't supposed to go.

Suck it!

Yeah, I mean, it pissed off
everybody.

[laughs]

[tense music]

- Here he comes,
ladies and gentlemen.

Hbk, along with chyna,
along with triple h.

- There are a lot of people,
they look at the '95

Through '97 and go, "oh, man,
that's the best hbk,

Because he didn't give two--"

The heartbreak kid
is in this business

'cause this business
needs the heartbreak kid.

I wasn't scared of anything.

I didn't care about my life.

I didn't care about money.

I didn't care about anything.

And when you are like that
in a creative line of work

Where it is wild, wild west,

You are freaking unbeatable.

- Who knows what's
gonna happen?

[bell dings]
- the juvenile michaels

And even more juvenile
hunter hearst helmsley.

- People had said
to me my whole career,

"you haven't lived enough life
to hate [bleep] yet.

"when you learn to have hate,

"you're gonna make
a fortune in this business.

[grunting]

"that anger, that hatred
inside of you will burn,

And you'll be able to
put that out there real."

- And triple h,
I want you to unload.

'cause this is what you've
been waiting for, buddy.

Get 'em.
- The promos

That we were doing
in the beginning,

There's a lot of anger
in those.

That was a new world for me.

Whether by my own hand or not,
like the curtain call--

"you can't do this,
you can't do that,"

Like, always having these
handcuffs and restraints.

I've been sitting back
for a couple of years.

And anger coming out of that to
know I can do more than this.

I wanna be more than this.

While you and the world
wrestling entertainment

Have spread your legs
like some cheap whore.

- You go back
and you watch the promo

That he cut on vince,

When he finally
got to unload on him,

That was real.
[laughs]

- I can distinctly remember
cutting that promo

And seeing vince's eyes change
while I was saying it,

And thinking to myself,
I might have just went

To the other side of the line.

I am now taking it in my hands.

And there is no
stopping us now.

- There was nobody
really like dx before,

In the sense that they
were established stars

Who decided they'd had enough.

- We've had enough
of this crap.

- What? What?
- Let's go to break.

- Oh, here we go.
- Go to break.

- He might fire us.

- They were trying to shake
things up from within.

- He went to a break.
How convenient.

- They were getting
away with murder.

They were, like,
pushing every boundary.

- They'll do anything
to humiliate anyone.

- Every week, we're going on
tv and we're crossing a line.

We're coming back,
and vince is going,

"you can't say that, guys.
You can't do that."

We might have to change our
name to double d-generation x.

- Ohh!

- I remember looking around
at the other guys.

We're watching the monitor.

On a weekly basis, we're
looking at each other, going,

"can they say that?
Like, I don't think

We're allowed to say that.

They might as well
just say, 'suck it.'"

- D-generation x
wants you to [bleep] it!

- Disgusting! And you've got
a smile on your face.

- It became a battle cry.

- I remember in high school,
my friends would be doing this

To each other all day.

That was just
something that everyone

Knew exactly what it was.

- We couldn't flip people off.

And you couldn't
curse at people.

One of the things that
all of us used to do

Would be this crotch
pointing thing.

And you could get away
with it, 'cause nobody could--

"did--what did he do? Did he
just point at his crotch?"

- I don't think
it was over the line.

We were getting our tails
kicked in the ratings.

Dx took it to the very tipping
point of going too far.

- How dare you!
- But that's what we needed.

- Ratings are going up.

Okay, this shock stuff

Is creating controversy
that's working.

- Bret hart, obviously,
you're not in a very good mood

Considering the antics
of shawn michaels

And hunter hearst helmsley.

- You know,
there's the bret side,

Complaining about the stuff
we're doing on tv,

And they think it's
disrespectful to the business.

But I'll be honest,
we didn't give a [bleep].

- Bret hart did have

A problem with dx.

- You're a guy
that has degraded

The championship belt.

- I'll give bret hart credit
for basically naming dx,

Because bret, in a promo,
talked about,

"you know what you are?
You're just degenerates."

- Why don't you two degenerates
come down here right now?

- And that's where--I remember
sitting there with vince,

And he's like, "they are.
They're degenerates.

They're d-generation x."

Dx was born.

- We are d-generation x.
- D-generation.

- You make the rules,
and we will break 'em!

- Yeah, I can't say I liked it.

That whole direction
into the smut era.

You're looking at somebody
that's got no respect

For anything or anybody.

They're so problematic,
and they don't

Get along with anybody else.

- Dx did well in the ratings.

They were valuable
in a lot of areas.

But you had to take the good
with the bad with those guys.

- You talked enough.

- I can say that most of the
guys in the dressing room

Were kind of disgusted
with it.

- There's not a day went by,

Tv or someplace, where I didn't
have to sit

And talk to somebody
about how dx was perceived.

They did not endear themselves
to the rest of the roster.

♪ ♪

You know, they're gonna
eat at the same restaurants,

They're gonna go
to the same gym.

They did it with themselves.

They didn't have an entourage.
The three of 'em.

It's like a married couple.

- Yeah, it became
a little family group.

You got, like, two
dip[bleep] guys on the road.

Joanie brings in a different
environment all of a sudden.

- Chyna's role, from
a television standpoint,

She was bodyguard/babysitter.

Behind the scenes,
look, she was babysitter

And kinda mama.

She took care of us.

You know, I was not always
in the best of shape.

And everybody always sees
hunter's role in that.

What they don't see is that
she was in the car

Or in the hotel or not
very far from that situation.

- When shawn would
be miserable,

Like, she was somebody that
could talk him out of it

And could keep him
on a positive.

I couldn't talk him out of it.

I could just make sure
he didn't kill himself.

It definitely became
a family bond there.

- Triple threat, right here.

- In the mid-'90s, dx was the
turning point in many ways.

We pushed the edge,
we walked across the line.

And we stayed there
for a while.

- You wanna raise the bar?

Ooh, here's a ratings clip.

- Dx was the guys
dragging the line

As far as they possibly could.

This became
the must-see television.

- Shawn and I both
got jumbo weenies.

- "can you believe that this
is what they're doing?"

- But chyna...
- "how dare they!"

- Show us what you're bringing
to the barbecue, girl.

- "they're ruining
our children."

- That is the big stick.

- But the world
was getting edgier.

Everything around
was getting edgier.

So you either kept up with
the times or you fell behind.

- Oh, no.
- Wait a minute.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Oh, my--

- Oh, the crowd here loves it!

- So we're junkies
for the crowd.

And the crowd is going nuts.

So we're out there
just letting it all swing and,

Like, we're coming back,

And everybody's going,
"you can't do that."

And we're going like,
"they were going nuts.

Sorry."

"got a call from usa network
yesterday.

"you guys are gonna get us
taken off the air.

They're gonna go to black."
[words echoing]

♪ ♪

- We interrupt your
regularly scheduled program

For this special report.

- The usa network
had sent vince a letter

Not being happy
with some of the things

That we had done
on television.

- And he came to us
and threw it down.

Said, "what am I supposed
to do with this?"

Right?
Both shawn and were like,

"can we use it?"

- Vince mcmahon now

Was sort of at a point where

He's kinda getting into this
rebellious thing,

So he's wanting to push back
a little bit with usa.

- I'm gonna say this again.
- And this was right at

The time clinton had just cut
the monica lewinsky,

"I did not have sex
with that young intern,"

And everybody
knew he was lying.

Why don't you write it up top
here, shawn, in big letters?

- And we were like,
"let's do that."

- Good evening,
my fellow americans.

- To reference bill clinton
and monica lewinsky

Was really smart
because it took it

From just being a
"we'll do whatever we wanna do"

Sort of statement to a
"we are what this culture

Has made us into."

- Dx was not the reason
the late '90s

Were sort of edgy
and at some times gross.

They were a reflection of it.

- Less [bleep] references.
- Aw, [bleep]!

- Hey, watch your
[bleep] mouth.

- "we're not the worst part
of culture.

We're reflecting
what american culture is."

- I did not sleep
with that young intern.

As a matter of fact,

I was up all night.
[laughter]

- But I remember
getting a call.

"hey, just heard from usa."

And I was like, "uh, okay."

And then, like,
"they loved it."

[the dx band's
"break it down"]

- ♪ are you ready? ♪

- Ratings are going up.

Your segments are hot.

So now--
we were emboldened before.

The gloves are off now.

We are doing whatever we want.

- ♪ break it down ♪

- Wrestlemania
is now x-rated!

- ♪ d-generation x ♪

- We were like the howard
sterns of the wrestling world.

- Some of it felt a little
childish, a little crass.

But it was the
necessary revolution.

It was a transformation of
what we're allowed to do on tv.

- So parents, get your
children's permission to watch.

- "iron" mike tyson is here!

- Discretion is advised

But will be completely ignored.

- ♪ d-generation x ♪

- Mike tyson is the hottest
thing in sports.

Many members of
the media really

Don't understand,
where do we belong?

Do we belong on
the entertainment page?

Do we belong
on the sports page?

So mike involved with the
world wrestling entertainment

Brings the attention
and the focal point to the wwe.

- So wrestlemania xiv
is a crazy time.

Shawn michaels, steve austin,
and mike tyson in the middle.

Shawn's a star.

Steve austin is
becoming a big star.

Mike tyson's the biggest
star in the world.

All in the main event

Of wrestlemania xiv.

- The one, the only,
mike tyson!

[crowd cheering]

- No one was as big as mike
tyson was in the late '90s.

People were scared
of mike at that time.

All you thought about
with mike tyson

Was him knocking people out

And, in one case,
biting off your ear.

- He was a little bit of a,
you know, persona non grata

In mainstream pop culture.

But to wwe,
that was an opportunity.

- I'm telling you, you're
perfect for d-generation x.

I'm not saying you have
to make a decision now.

- I can remember first
getting involved with the wwe,

The whole ordeal with
the ear biting situation,

And I was just
pretty much a pariah.

[crowd booing]
- the baddest man

On the planet,
"iron" mike tyson!

- I was just so happy to be
involved with d-generation x.

I'm a fan.
- Good god!

Don't tell me that mike tyson
has joined d-generation x!

- Who had more attitude

Than mike tyson?

Nobody.

Dx, they're a perfect fit.

- They shared this common
identity as the people who

Push the boundaries too far.

- Somehow, dx managed
to also bring

The 12-year-old kid
out of mike tyson.

- Look at this!

- We got to see a lot more
from mike tyson

Than we'd ever seen before.

- Wrestlemania xiv, baby!
- Yeah!

- Getting shawn to wrestlemania

Was a battle.

He had a bad back.

He was heavily medicated.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
the following contest

Is a casket match for the...

- I had done
the casket match with taker.

- I threw him
over the top rope,

Over this giant coffin.

And I think
he clipped his back.

- I just didn't
quite get far enough.

Bam, I just hit the corner
on my low back.

Wake up the next day,
and I can't move.

I blew the disc
and all that kinda stuff.

And he said,
"you can't wrestle,"

And I said, "nobody tells me
what to do,

"so I'll dope myself up

"and we'll make it
to wrestlemania.

Then, I'll let
my career be over."

[crowd exclaiming]

- So you had shawn,
who was injured,

Who was self-medicating,

And really overdoing it.

- There was also just a lot
going on up here with shawn.

His drug use
was out of control.

- He knew that he became
addicted to the painkillers,

The muscle relaxers,
and so forth.

He was completely wasted.

And it was sad to see.

- I'd go get a luggage cart

And put shawn
on the luggage cart,

Roll him up to his room,
and get him undressed,

Take the dip out of his mouth,

And put him on his side,
put a pillow behind him

So he wouldn't roll over and
choke to death in his sleep.

Are you enabling, or are you
trying to save his life?

That was my dilemma a lot.

- Wrestlemania,
I'm always involved.

It's always big.

Big news and big things
tend to follow me.

- Every day closer
we got to that day,

I think shawn became
a little more irrational.

- You don't just do this stuff
for the jollies, pal.

You do it because
you're a jock.

- He knew,
"when this is over,

I'm gonna go away for a while."

- At 50%, on my worst day,

With the flu, hung over,

I could slap the taste
out of your mouth.

- Shawn was in a lot of pain.
Shawn needed to get fixed.

Hunter was the guy
that you could depend on.

If shawn was unable
to do something,

You can plug hunter in
to do it.

And I think that paul
saw that as,

"this is my opportunity to
step up once shawn goes away."

[tense music]

- There were
conversations with me

About going forward
with dx from there.

There was also
conversations that I knew

That were happening of, like,

"can he do that on his own?"

And at that point, I'm still
seen as secondary to shawn,

And can I handle that?

Am I a main event player?

- Remember, you're
replacing shawn michaels.

You just don't
walk off the street

And pick out
the next shawn michaels.

The audience aren't dumb.

[crowd cheering]

♪ ♪

- Ohh!

- Look out!
- Oh, my--oh!

He got it in!
The stunner!

Mike tyson, and...

[crowd cheering]
austin is the champion!

[bell dings]
stone cold!

- There's only one
shawn michaels.

For many at that time,
dx was shawn and hunter.

And how do you replace
abbott and costello?

Hello again,
ladies and gentlemen,

And welcome to "raw"!

Triple h of dx is gonna make

A major announcement
here tonight.

- The next night, half
the people coming up to me

Were saying, "dude, you gotta
knock this out of the park

Or it's dead in the water."

And the other half
were telling me that,

Thinking, "there's no way
you're gonna do this.

It's gonna suck.
So good luck."

When you set out to do
what no one else can do,

You look to your friends.

You look to the kliq.

["break it down" playing]

- Well, look who's back.

♪ ♪

- When scott and kev left
for wcw,

I was gonna leave too.

Long story short, I had,
like, a overdose

In a production meeting
before tv.

And so vince puts me in rehab.

And so I was in rehab when
the curtain call happened.

[crowd cheering]

Vince has a meeting with me
telling me, like,

"yeah, if you wanna go to wcw,
I'll give you a week.

"if you stay here, you're
gonna be in the doghouse,

Basically, like hunter was."

Yeah, no. No, thanks.

Whoo!

So I went to wcw.

- And you--
- welcome aboard.

You're nwo...
All: For life!

- I ended up getting
fired from there.

As soon as I got fired, hunter
found out and he called me,

And he told me shawn was
getting ready to take time off,

And he wanted
to keep doing the dx thing.

And hunter was like, "we can
be coleaders and, like--of dx."

And, you know, that's how--
that's kinda

How he pitched it.

One of my best friends in
my entire life, triple h,

He says, "dx needs your help."

And it starts tonight!

I was so nervous that
I was gonna screw that up.

I was just happy it turned out
as good as it did, man.

- He shows up,
crowd goes insane.

So now you have triple h,
chyna, and x-pac.

That's not all
for that night, though.

- The title is on the line
in the cage.

- So later that night,
the new age outlaws

Have a tag match against

Cactus jack and
chainsaw charlie, terry funk.

And all of a sudden,
in that match,

Dx shows up and interferes.

- That's dx!

Dx is here!

- Cactus and terry
get beaten savagely.

It's ugly.

And then, out of that,
what we're left with

Is this shot of the cage

With the new dx--

The new age outlaws,
triple h, x-pac,

And chyna in the middle.

- My god,
they're stronger than ever!

- I think that was, like, the
first time I got to do this.

For some reason, I really
wanted to do that on tv.

And I finally got to do it.

- We had no idea
what we would do next.

But that opening salvo
sure got everybody's attention.

- Who would have guessed that
you take away

The greatest worker of our
generation, shawn michaels,

And instead of dx dying,
it becomes stronger than ever?

- This is my dx.
My army.

♪ ♪

- I was born in marietta,
georgia, the summer of '69.

I grew up there until
I was in the fifth grade.

Then we moved down into
the panhandle of florida.

My father was "bullet"
bob armstrong,

Also a wwe hall of famer.

- Armstrong, he gets
a victory over--

- I always wanted to be
a professional wrestler.

My father actually
tried to persuade me

Not to get into it at all.

Like, it is a rough life.

You sacrifice a great deal
to chase this dream.

- Heavyweight wrestling
champion bob armstrong.

[light music]

- Now, when I
graduated high school,

I was, like, 6'4",

And I was about 165 pounds,

So I was not gonna join
a sports entertainment

Community anytime soon.

So I went into the military.

I had a six-year stint
in the marine corps.

- He's a marine,
as you can tell here.

How you doing, brian?

- We went to desert storm.

I lived in a sand hole
for six months of my life.

Ate more sand with every meal
than I'd like to remember.

That was a really
scary time of my life.

But on the flipside
of that coin,

Like, it's the most proud I am
of anything in my life.

- I figure someday, when you
get out of the marines,

You're liable to be right there
in that ring with 'em.

- Yes, I will, mr. Fuller.

I'm really proud of my service.

Would have done more,
but wrestling came calling.

♪ ♪

- From music city, usa,
jesse james!

- I got a tryout in wwe.

I was gonna be
the singing cowboy.

♪ you know my baby's got me
wrapped her little finger ♪

Times were changing, man,

And that singing cowboy gimmick
wasn't quite as cool

As they once thought it was.

I would say probably '96,
that's when

The real double j
and rockabilly

Were first match every night,
me versus billy.

- Rockabilly!

- [sighs]

[quietly] rockabilly.
Rockabilly.

I don't really
say that out loud.

[laughs]

[acoustic guitar music]

I was born and raised
in florida.

I trained horses.
I rode horses all the time.

I was really into
the western thing.

I actually went to college
on a rodeo scholarship,

Which I know people
don't think that's a thing,

But it is a thing,
and I did that.

Wrestling was never
in the cards for me.

I didn't even know
what wrestling was.

- Rolling into the ring,
and you see 'em holding--

- Ron and don harris,
they're two twins

Who actually got me started.

A buddy of mine owned
a gym in orlando.

Ron and don harris came
in there one day.

Like, "hey, what are you guys
doing? How you been?

What's going on?"
and they go, "we're wrestling."

And I go, "you're what?"

So, I finally gave in and went,
"okay,

"let me give this a shot.

Let me try it, see what
this is all about."

So the early part of '92,

Went and had a tryout
with wwe.

Vince looks, he goes, "hey,

"we'd like to offer you
a contract.

We'd like you
to look it over."

So I looked at vince and
said, "hey, I have a job.

Can I just do this
on the weekend?"

He literally laughs,
the old vince--

"heh, heh, heh."

Laughs the vince laugh,
and goes, "no,

I think you'll be all right."

♪ ♪

- Hey, I'm bart,
and this here is billy.

[gunfire]

♪ ♪

- If you watch
"Monday night raw"

In the mid-'90s, you will
see a lot of billy gunn.

The smoking gunns
were a significant part

Part of a relatively
diminished wwe roster.

But he's a member of a tag team
of fake brother cowboys.

♪ ♪

When they tried to push him
as a singles competitor,

It didn't work.

[crowd jeering]

- I was doing
the rockabilly thing,

Which was going
absolutely nowhere.

Nowhere.
- For the ride--

- They were gonna fire me.

They were gonna
fire brian--road dogg.

Then, all of a sudden,
they said, "hey,

"these guys are going nowhere.

Let's stick 'em together and
let 'em go nowhere together."

And this, people, is where
we form the new age outlaws.

- Oh, you didn't know?

♪ ♪

Your ass better call somebody!

- The new age outlaws are a
fascinating wrestling story.

They're one of those
examples of sometimes

One plus one equals three.

- Those guys have both
been around the block

In different incarnations.

But we haven't found the role
for them to fit in.

- And it was shawn.

I remember shawn coming

To us and going, "hey, man,

"you get these guys
out of these silly gimmicks.

Put them together
as a tag team."

- The road dogg
and rockabilly?

- "they'll be
a hell of a team."

- I don't know who did it,

But I'm glad somebody
had mentioned it.

- Why don't you shut your hole
and allow me to do

The announcing around here?

- The best talents
are natural extensions

Of their own personality.

- You do not deserve it.

- The closer you can be
to being yourself

In this environment...

- But you about to get--

- The better off
you're gonna be.

And those guys were spot on.

- The original badass
billy gunn.

- Billy was such
a great athlete

And such a motivated
competitor.

One of the most competitive
people I've ever met.

- Allow me to introduce
myself.

- And then we get brian
armstrong, road dogg.

We get to see
his sense of humor.

- I am not an [bleep].

[crowd cheering]
- every time we would go out

Of the curtain,
he'd look at me and go,

"oh, my god, I'm so lost.
I don't know what to say."

And our music would play,
and I'd just kick him out,

And he'd just start
rattling it off.

- You maple leaf
loving freaks.

- [laughs] yeah.
We were put together as a team.

And so they didn't
have any time

To come up with the music.

So I just thought, well,
man, who needs music?

Give me a microphone,
and I'll get us to the ring.

♪ ♪

Whoa! What a flush!

- When the road dogg and
billy gunn first teamed up,

There was a sort of ease
in their shoulders.

There was a feeling that
this was cool and right.

It just felt more fun
and more interesting than

Just about everything else
on the screen.

- Shawn and I, we liked
both of them a lot.

They were both
really good workers.

And kind of organically
put this relationship on tv

And let them build.

And when the time comes...
- Wait a minute!

I can't believe it!
[bell dings]

- We'll pull them
into the group.

We'll make a larger faction.

Eventually,
it would work out great,

'cause once shawn was hurt
and had to leave,

It gave me a giant shoe
to drop.

It just gave life
to something that

Was probably dead at that point
if that didn't happen.

- We got two words for ya!

- They added what
that dish needed.

The seasoning
it was waiting for.

I don't think the second
version of dx

Would have been successful
whatsoever

If it hadn't been
for road dogg and billy.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls,

Children of all ages,

D-generation x proudly brings
to you

Its tag team champions
of the world,

The road dogg jesse james,

The badass billy gunn,

The new age outlaws!

[crowd cheering]
- I had chased my dream

And caught it by the tail,

And I was living it.

[rock music playing]
- oh, you didn't know?

♪ ♪

Your ass better call somebody!

- The second you hear

The beginning of their song,

It's over.

- It was just three notes.

♪ dun dun dun dun ♪

And the audience erupts.

"you better call somebody."

- Whenever you hear
the dx music,

People lose their minds, legit.

- It's instantly recognizable,

And it's like a trumpet

Heralding the arrival
of major stars.

- We got two words for ya!

All: Suck it!

Crowd:
Suck it! Suck it!

- Let's get ready to suck it!

- The second version of dx

Had no business being
as vital as the first version.

And yet, with the road dogg,
with billy gunn, with x-pac,

And with triple h sort
of reinventing himself,

In some ways, the
quintessential version of dx

Was the second try at it.

- I feel like dx had
two different versions.

The first version was shawn
and hunter against authority.

The other version
was the more hip.

They're cooler.

Everybody wants to have
a dx on their shirt,

And everybody wants
to say, "suck it."

Everybody was invested
in dx because

You never knew what
you were gonna get.

- What are we doing today?

What's cool stuff
that we're doing?

- We're gonna go
to wcw's offices.

- One of the most memorable
things that dx did

Was the invasion.

- By the spring of '98,

Wcw had been winning
in the ratings for 83 weeks.

Wwe is finally neck-and-neck.

Wcw, like, competing for
viewers on a Monday night

I guess isn't enough,
because they decide

To start running
the same towns as wwe

Was running at the same time.

- If we were going
into a marketplace,

They would try to go in there
a few weeks before us,

Put tickets on sale,
try to kill our business.

I was on a creative call
maybe couple of weeks earlier,

And we were all just
bull[bleep] about what they

Were doing, and man, these guys
are running the scope,

It's just down the street.

A joke was made on that call
about freakin' just,

Let's get a tank and roll it
down there, and you know--

And then that slowly became a,

"what if we did something
on that?"

- Attention!

- Wcw, goodbye.

[laughs]
you are--you are done.

All: Let's go!

- "you guys are goin' over.

"you're gonna drive a tank.

"you're gonna have
a loudspeaker.

You're gonna try
to get into the building."

And we all looked
at each other and went,

"oh, hell yes!"

- Ladies and gentlemen,
d-generation x

Spits in the face of wcw.

All: Bischoff sucks!
Bischoff sucks!

- When you do
something like that,

There's major heat on you.

There's, like, two buyers
in the industry,

And you're burning your bridge
with one of 'em.

- This is d-generation x!

- They asked us, "hey,
you okay with doing this?"

And, like, every one of us
was like,

"hell--like, absolutely."

- D-generation x
knocks at your door!

Get a shot of them
closing the gate!

Wcw is a bunch of cowards!

- We start
banging on the door.

"hey, eric bischoff,
open the door!

We just wanna say hello."

- We need to talk
to mr. Bischoff.

- All we wanna do is talk.

- Now, you look back,
and you go, how dumb was it

Not to open the door?

You could've had
the hottest thing at the time

On your show,
for god's sakes.

- Pisses me off.

Just pisses me off.

Because, had I known,
had I been aware,

In the moment--because
I was doing live television.

I was in the freaking ring
with a microphone in my hand.

Had I had the time to process
this and react quickly enough,

I would have told 'em to open
the doors and let 'em in.

We're gonna have the greatest
television show of all time.

It would've been awesome.

I just didn't get
that opportunity.

- It was a--
beyond a "holy [bleep]"

That we would do something
like that.

And it couldn't have
worked out any better for us.

- Who rules
professional wrestling?

- Dx.
All: Yeah!

- As soon as we went
and knocked on wcw's door,

Our ratings overtook wcw,
and we never looked back.

- The invasion really
sounded the alarm

That something special
was taking place.

- In the mid-'90s,
when everything was exploding,

It was like the beatles,

No matter where they went.

You had the new age outlaws,
megastars.

You had x-pac, megastar.

Chyna, megastar.

And you had hunter,
and he sat on top of the heap.

- We were just happy
to come to work.

We were happy to hang out
with each other.

And we had chyna.

[grunting]
she was the piece

Of the puzzle
that stuck it all together.

- Chyna was sort of the glue,
I think, in the group.

- She was legit, like,
the magic ingredient

Of that whole thing.

- If anybody's gonna initiate
a dx split, it's gonna be me.

[crowd cheering]

- What I remember most about
dx, in terms of regular life,

It's the chop.

I mean, come on.

- There's just
this bad boy edge to it

That was so much fun.

- Now the crotch chop
is just everywhere.

A lot of people
would see people

Doing the crotch chop
different places

And not have any idea
where it came from.

It was just part of culture.

- Oh, yeah!
[crowd cheering]

- If you're from
my generation, you've seen

So many kids go
across the graduation stage

Doing a crotch chop.

- Doing the "suck it" probably
caused more suspensions

Than any other thing, like,
in the history

Of school in america.

- I'm at disneyland in 1999,

And my wife says,
"mick, this sounds crazy,

"but I believe pooh bear

Is trying to say something
to you."

And I look over,
and pooh bear gives me the--

Pooh bear!

Pooh bear's doing
the crotch chop.

- Suck it!
- People who aren't

Wrestling fans,
even they knew d-generation x.

♪ ♪

[coughs]

- Once you become somebody

In this industry,

Everybody wants a piece.

Great problem to have.

But you don't realize
how much sacrifice

You have to make
to carry on that way.

- It was just everywhere
you went, man.

Like, grown-ass adults
couldn't help themselves.

Like, they would just say,
"I don't care

If you're with your family.
Can I have a picture?"

Or, "sign this for me?"

- You gotta
understand something.

If you came out
of the attitude era,

You were a [bleep] rock star.

That's intoxicating
to a lot of people.

- I got caught up.
I got lost in the limelight.

You know, as I got
more successful,

It got more out of hand
and out of hand,

And I had enough money
to buy anything I wanted,

And so that was a--that was
a curse, not a blessing.

- We were unfireable.

So I pushed the limits
of everything

As far as I possibly could,

Because I was unfireable.

And when that happens...

Then, you fall
into a dark spot.

I got caught up in it.

I started buying into
the rock star lifestyle,

The script stuff
and the drugs,

And then it caught up with me,

And things got really bad.

I mean, really bad.

- You're young,
making a lot of money,

Surrounded by people
that just wanna be around you,

And I think that,
out of everyone in dx,

The one that it hit hardest
at the time

Was probably brian james.

[laughter]

- My drinking and drugging
had gotten bad,

And I was separated from
my wife for a little while,

And I couldn't see my kids,

And I had wrecked a couple
of cars on pills.

And at one point, I was
messed up in a hotel lobby,

And bruce prichard
kinda walked up on me

And caught me there,
all screwed up,

And I kinda just broke down
and told him everything

That was going on in my life.

And I--he mentioned
I should go home.

My downward spiral
didn't stop there.

It continued.

I thought that was
my rock bottom.

I had a little further
to fall.

- This is my dx.
My army.

When I'm hanging out with dx,
yeah, we're doing

A lot of fun stuff,
having a good time,

But what am I doing?

[crowd cheering]

Is it getting me any closer
to where I wanna be?

Nobody wants to see me fight
steve austin for the belt.

We're a bunch of good guys
people like,

But because I'm a fan favorite
and he's a fan favorite,

Nobody wants to see us
go at it,

So they're not gonna
push that.

So you know, you have to
take things in your own hands.

- Hunter always
wanted to be the guy.

Everyone should wanna

Have that desire.

Anybody that gets in this
business that doesn't

Wanna be the top dog,

I don't know
why you're in the business.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?

[cheering]

If you look at that sweep
through the attitude era,

Austin is white hot.

- Gimme a "hell yeah."

All: Hell yeah!

- Rock, they put him in
the nation of domination.

I take over dx.

As a group, we're sort
of opposed to each other.

We're fighting over
the intercontinental title.

Rock branches out
of the nation.

Dx continues to move on, but
I'm watching this environment

And saying to myself,
we need a darth vader here.

So I go to vince and pitch

Dx needs to come to an end.

That did not sit well
with the rest of dx.

- Do we all want it to happen?
No.

Because we're all
perfectly happy

In the positions
that we're at.

[together]
dx!

- We're getting
six-figure quarterly

Merchandising checks, man.

We were all like, "hey, man,
we don't wanna quit this.

Go turn heel or whatever,
but don't affect our money."

[crowd cheering]
- here comes triple h!

- Wait a minute!
Wait a minute!

No! No!
- What?

- Triple h has turned
his back on x-pac!

- Ambition in this business
is a dangerous thing.

- Triple h laid out x-pac!

- I've turned my back
on my friends.

My friends have turned
their backs on me.

- Pedigree!

- We all do it because
we all have one goal in mind,

And that's to be the best
in this business.

[cheering]

- Dx as we know it is dead.

And triple h now
would go on to become

Honestly, one of the best

Bad guys of all time.

- I don't need
anybody else, jr.

This is about me.

- The villain's sort of
the straws that stirs

The drink in pro wrestling.

They're the number one
thing you gotta have.

- Four years ago,
madison square garden,

I walked to the ring
to say goodbye to my friends,

Kevin nash, scott hall,
shawn michaels.

Who got punished for that, jr?

Me.

- You can smoke and mirror

A top babyface, top hero,
to some degree.

But the villains, boy, people
gotta feel that villain.

- It's about me
getting what I deserve,

And that is becoming
the wwe champion.

You guys talk about being
students of the game.

I am the [bleep] game, jr.

- We needed a great heel.

We needed a great
heat-getting heel.

Hunter was looking
forward to it.

He relished that opportunity.

[crowd cheering]

- There's a moment
when you win that title

For the first time
where it's all real.

- Triple h!
Triple h!

- If you're a kid
dreaming about football,

You win the super bowl.

If you're a kid dreaming
about being in the wwe,

You're winning the wwe title.

It means something.
It means that the company

Is putting its faith
behind you.

- It was inevitable.

Hunter's got
the brightest future

Of anybody in the group.

He's the guy
you wanna invest in.

♪ ♪

- Once you have triple h
kind of emerge

Into the championship picture,

Without that leadership,

I don't think that
you have a dx.

It just kinda splintered off.

- It's really wild
to think about how long

Or short the real run of dx
at the top was.

The whole thing was

Essentially
less than two years.

You talk about
a meteoric rise.

I mean, dx--
[snaps fingers]

Shows up, instantly has
their presence felt,

Affects pop culture,

Has the whole world
crotch chopping,

And by the time you blink--
you went from being

14 to 16 years old--
it's over.

♪ ♪

- I think everyone wants
to spread their wings

And show that they're
capable of more.

- Please welcome
the one and only, chyna.

- Chyna comes out
of the dx situation

And is a bona fide star.

- It's like an onion.
You peel that back,

It makes a grown man cry.

- She was the most
ground-breaking thing

They had at that time.

She could be in the ring
wrestling one minute

And then do the cover
of "playboy" the next.

♪ ♪

- I have fought the odds.

And for that, I believe
that I'm a pioneer.

[crowd cheering]
and I believe

That that's why
my guys named me

The ninth wonder of the world.

♪ ♪

- I mean, she was
larger than life,

In, like, a superhero
sort of way.

Her impact to a generation
of wrestling fans,

Especially female
wrestling fans,

Is just impossible to describe.

[bell dings]

- The intercontinental title
on the line.

- Jeff jarrett wrestles chyna
in this housekeeping match.

- Will she be the first woman
to wear intercontinental gold?

- All of these
antiquated items were meant

To indicate that a woman
should remain in the household

And cleaning,
and chyna was obviously

The antithesis of all of that.

And I'm watching it with
my mom and my grandmother,

Three generations of women,
and it really

Did resonate with us.
All: Two, three!

[bell dings]
- chyna has made history!

Chyna, the first woman
to become

The intercontinental champion!

- Joanie thought,
based on what she had done

For the company,
that she wanted to be paid

On a par with the top
male superstars.

- I remember one day
she came to my office

And said, "I know I deserve to
make as much as stone cold."

"excuse me?"

She wanted to be
the highest-paid talent

On the roster.

- She, I think, believed
that she was going

To be the biggest star
in hollywood,

And that she didn't
need this place anymore,

So she demanded stuff
that vince was like,

"I just can't even get close
to any of that."

- I get the fact that
you gotta have confidence

In yourself in such
a crazy-ass business.

She was the first woman
that I ever managed

In my close
to 50 years of the business

To make a million a year.

But I could not meet
her contractual demands--

And they were demands--

To prevent her from leaving.

[crowd cheering]

- The attitude era was by far
the craziest time in my life.

[engine rumbling]

When you're in
the midst of it, it's like

You're in a drug-addled,
violent tornado

That's just carrying you along.

[pensive music]

When I got off the drugs,
I started looking inward.

I started working on myself
and trying to figure out

Why I was the way I was.

It was the first time
I realized,

Like, I have a choice in this.

♪ ♪

I learned to control me
and dig down deep

And find serenity, a peace.

I can take a deep breath
and walk around here

And not have a worry
in the world.

It's what life's all about.

♪ ♪

- After triple h leaves dx,
dx breaks up.

Triple h's star just continues
to rise and rise and rise.

- Please welcome the one,
we hope the only, triple h.

- And the same is definitely
not true for everybody else.

X-pac, well, he teamed up
with kane for a while,

And then he was in this group
called the x-factor.

The trajectory was going down.

Road dogg got released.

Then chyna got released.

Billy gunn, you know,
they tried.

They gave him
the king of the ring.

[bell dings]
- we've got a new

King of the ring,
and he's billy gunn!

- Remember, he feuded with the
rock for, like, a hot second.

It really seemed like

They were gonna make something
of him.

- An elbow,
hook of the leg.

- Yeah!
- For a crew that was

So, so popular together,

You know, it's sad to watch
the trajectory.

And eventually,
triple h was just sort of

The last man standing.

- I get hurt in a match
with the dudleys.

I put bub on a table
and jump higher

Than I've ever jumped before
in my life.

- Look out! No!
A famouser!

A famouser through the table!

- I caught the table,
and it slung me sideways,

And when it did,
my elbow hit and blew

My entire shoulder in half.

By the time '04 comes around,
on my birthday,

I get a phone call that says
I'm no longer needed.

♪ ♪

- So I had been fired
for a couple of months now,

And then I heard wcw was
coming to panama city.

And I thought, "oh, well,
I'll just go down there,

See some old friends, and
maybe put my name in the hat,"

You know?
- Shane mcmahon is on "nitro."

- What in the hell
is he doing?

- It's the night that
shane mcmahon shows up,

And they buy wcw.

- That's right. I own wcw.

- There went my plans.

And so I got drunk
and got in a fight at a bar

And went to jail
in panama city.

♪ ♪

- I had an incident
at the airport.

I was taking muscle relaxers.

They hit me--they hit me hard.

I get home, and I get a call
from jr, and he's like,

"yeah, vince is hot.
He wants you to go to rehab."

I'm like, "no.
I didn't fail a drug test.

I didn't--like, I was fully
transparent with you guys."

I said, "so, no.
I think I quit."

♪ ♪

And that was it.

Whew. Yeah.

The start of over a decade
of darkness, so--

♪ ♪

- We all have our moments
of when things went bad.

Mine, more or less, went bad
after I'd left the company.

Um...

[sighs]
um...

♪ ♪

We all have our demons.

♪ ♪

But luckily for me,
I'd done enough stuff

And had enough value in my name

That I could
go do the indie stuff,

And then I went
to another company for a while,

And then things just went
screamin' downhill.

- Billy and I
joined forces in tna

To be a tag team
called the voodoo kin mafia,

Which stands for vkm.

Crowd: [chanting]
screw you, vince!

Screw you, vince!
Screw you, vince!

- I'm completely off the rails,

Me and brian, and we just
talk crap about everybody,

Try to bury everybody.

- People would come up
to me and go, like,

"oh, did you see the interview
brian and billy did?

They buried you," or whatever.

And I'm like, dude,
the guys, they're on drugs.

- Every week, you are chopping
at the very foundation

Of the dynasty of the legacy

That we were damn sure
a major part of.

- It was just
a complete disaster.

- No angles. No spots.
No finish.

Just men versus
you two [bleep].

[cheering]

- [clicking tongue]

♪ ♪

Yeah, I just found myself
in a really bad spot.

Like, on my floor,

My house wrecked,
everybody gone.

Literally crashed two cars.

And I'm not trying
to make this sound bad.

I'm just saying what happens.

My wife and everybody
was over it.

They didn't want
that phone call.

I don't want that phone call
sitting there going,

"your husband died because
he took a bunch of stuff

And ran into something."

- Look, I was 42 years old.

I'm a father of three.

I'm doing these indie shows

Where I'm getting $300 a night.

And it didn't matter,
because if I could

Get some drugs while
I was there, too, awesome.

But it was--
it just gotten where

My life was miserable, where--

Literally
contemplating suicide.

Me and my brother
were driving back

From alabama,
from a little town,

And I was screwed up.

And, like, I was crying,
and I was--and he was like,

"you know, you don't
have to live like this."

- I got caught up.
I ended up doing meth.

And, like, it might not
kill you like--like, you know,

Shooting heroin or something,

But it robs you of your soul,
you're just--

Just about--you're just
like a walking zombie, man.

- Kid and I wouldn't talk
for long periods of time.

Every now and then,
we'd touch base,

And it was usually miserable.

- Eventually, I ended up
down in mexico,

And I hung myself.

I was--I was in a coma
for three days

There in mexico city.

♪ ♪

- The one thing I've learned
in the process

Is you can't help
somebody until

They wanna help themself.

Like, there's just no--
you just can't.

As much as you try, as much
as it breaks your heart,

You can't make it happen.

- It's like, we knew.
Like, kevin nash was--

He flew down there
to pick me up and brought me

To me third and final rehab.

I went from mexico to orlando

And never went back
to mexico again.

I left all my [bleep]
in mexico.

And just never came back.

♪ ♪

- The only person
that could fix

What was going on with me
was me.

You do something
about it or you die.

Like, the later part
of 2011, 2012,

I go to rehab and clean up

And get everything straight
in my life,

And then it took some work.

And then my wife came back,
my kids came back,

My dogs came back,
my job came back.

Everything came back.

- I got clean and sober.

I had to go back
and make some amends.

I had to go back
and right some wrongs,

Or try to, anyway, and humbly
ask them to forgive me.

Hunter went to vince
three different times,

And vince said no twice.

And he literally,
the third time,

Said, "he's a drug addict,
hunter.

When he screws up,
it's your ass."

That's what he told hunter.

And so hunter gave me
an opportunity

After I'd been sober
about a year,

And I became
lead writer of "smackdown!"

For three or four years.

Hunter still believed in me,
and for that,

I'm forever grateful.

♪ ♪