Damien Barling: 20 Years Of D-Generation X
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of the original Degeneration X.
Triple H and Shawn Michaels teamed together for the first time on an August 97 episode of Raw but the actual name Degeneration X wasn't used for the first time until October.
The two started as a reluctant tag team following the SummerSlam 1997. When Shawn Michaels promised an insurance police in his match versus Mankind, Triple H and Chyna made there way to the ring mid match. It turns out, the insurance policy was the returning Ravishing Rick Rude, who is the forgotten member of the original D-X as he was only around until November.
Since then D-Generation X has gone through several incarnations starting with the very edgy and often very vulgar original trio. Following Wrestlemania XIV, and what appeared to be the retirement of Shawn Michaels, D-X was reborn with Triple H at the helm, the upcoming New Age Outlaws, and the returning from WCW X-Pac.
This group quickly become babyfaces and took on a very class clown type persona. It was these guys that may, or may not have, but almost certainly probably did, dress in blackface to impersonate The Rock and the Nation of Domination.
We've seen them break up, reform, be bad guys, be good guys. We've seen them be vulgar and childishly hilarious. We've seen them be grown men in their 40's yet still act like guys in their 20's. The impact of D-Generation X is measurable alongside such stables as the NWO and The 4 Horsemen. No group created a snapshot of the era the way those guys did. D-X wouldn't have worked in the 80's. They probably wouldn't work today. It worked then and, at times, it was brilliant.