Gregory Helms
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Gregory Shane Helms (born July 12, 1974 in Smithfield, North Carolina, performing for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on it's SmackDown! brand where he is the current reigning and defending WWE Cruiserweight Champion, and as of July 11, 2006, Helms became the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in WWE history by surpassing Tajiri's reign of 162 days.
Career
World Championship Wrestling
After wrestling in many independent promotions, including the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA) promotion founded by Matt and Jeff Hardy, Helms and his friend Shannon Moore signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2000.In WCW, Helms's first break came as a member of the heel team 3 Count with Moore and Evan Karagias. The trio was a parody of the popular boy bands of the time and their gimmick involved making music videos and performing before their matches, during which their opponents tended to attack them before the match started. Helms later split from the group, started using the name "Sugar" Shane Helms, and found success as WCW Cruiserweight Champion. He was the reigning Cruiserweight Champion immediately before WCW was bought out by the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Helms, after a name change from Shane to his first name of Gregory due to stem confusion that WWF staff thought would be caused from having him and Shane McMahon as active members in the organization, was brought in a part of the Invasion storyline as member of the The Alliance. Along the way, he had another name change to Hurricane Helms, but found little success until he began using The Hurricane character.Helms's superhero character was loosely based on The Green Lantern; he sports a tattoo of the hero's logo on his right biceps. His real-life fixation of the character was parlayed into The Hurricane gimmick, and Helms gradually evolved into a full superhero character to the point of wearing a costume to the ring. During his time in the locker room he would dress as a 1950s reporter with glasses, using his real name, as a homage to Clark Kent (Superman), right down to the similarity in the name of the newspaper he reported for, the Daily Globe.
Originally a heel, Helms believed himself to have superhuman powers. He would, for example, wrestle heavyweights and attempt to chokeslam them, but given his comparatively small size comically couldn't even pick the other wrestlers up. Over time, his character increasingly received positive fan reaction. Helms became a face and was able to chokeslam some of his opponents, often acting surprised at his own strength. Royal Rumble 2002 was one of the Hurricane's more memorable moments of "superhuman strength", as he stormed the ring during the Royal Rumble match and attempted (and failed) to double chokeslam that year's megastars Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
During The Hurricane's stint as a heel, he stole Spike Dudley's girlfriend, Molly Holly. She later emerged as Mighty Molly, his first superhero sidekick. The duo went their separate ways at WrestleMania X8 when Molly turned on Hurricane and won the Hardcore Title from him.
Helms would later be drafted to SmackDown!, winning the Cruiserweight Title from Taijri and Kidman in a triple threat match. Later in 2002, he was traded to RAW and won the World Tag Team Titles with Kane. Early in 2003, Hurricane was involved in a feud with The Rock. The two would engage in backstage segments, with The Rock referring to The Hurricane as "The Hamburglar" (in part because his mask is similar to the Hamburglar's). This comic feud culminated in a match on RAW, in which The Rock clearly dominated. However, in a shock turn of events (and in part of Stone Cold Steve Austin's distractings of The Rock), The Hurricane emerged victorious, giving him arguably the biggest win of his career.
In 2003, Hurricane "discovered" Rosey's potential as a superhero, and christened him "Rosey, the Super Hero in Training" (or the S.H.I.T.). On the July 19, 2004 episode of RAW, Rosey appeared with a new costume, seemingly graduated to a full superhero and teaming with his mentor.
On May 1, 2005, at Backlash, Hurricane and Rosey defeated La Resistance in the finals of a Tag Team Turmoil match to win the World Tag Team Championship.
Not long after winning the titles, Stacy Keibler joined Rosey and The Hurricane as their sidekick, Super Stacy, but in August 2005, Rosey and The Hurricane lost Keibler as their sidekick when she and Christy Hemme were traded to SmackDown!
On September 5, 2005 Hurricane and Rosey were defeated by Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, during their debut match on RAW. Though this was a non-title match, the pair earned themselves a title match at Unforgiven. During the title match, Murdoch delivered an elevated DDT on The Hurricane to the outside. The DDT caused Hurricane to suffer a "stinger" (in kayfabe) and allowed Cade & Murdoch to beat the injured Hurricane later in the match to win the World Tag Team Titles from him, and Rosey.
Gimmick Change
The loss of the titles began a sliding path that brought the team to an end, for weeks after the pair would begin a losing streak, mainly caused by Hurricane's injuries. During the October 17, 2005 episode of RAW, The Hurricane was assaulted by Kurt Angle at the request of Vince McMahon. After the beating, footage was shown of Hurricane ripping off his mask and striking Rosey because he did not help him fend off Angle. The next week, The Hurricane no showed a World Tag Team Title match leaving Rosey to face the champions alone. During the match, The Hurricane (out of costume) appeared at the top of the entrance ramp; reverting back to his real name, Gregory Helms he watched as Rosey was double teamed and defeated. After the match, Helms announced that he was fed up of being funny for the crowd, and that he had been carrying Rosey as a tag team partner. This started the first heel turn for Helms since his debut in WWE with the WCW/ECW Alliance.
On the November 7, 2005 edition of RAW, Helms and Rosey finally faced off in singles action. This was Rosey's last match in WWE. Helms won the match after hitting the Shining Wizard. On WWE.com's Unlimited, Helms talked about his frustrations with not only not being on RAW in recent weeks, but also regarding Jerry "The King" Lawler making comments about him on the December 26, 2005 edition of RAW. During RAW on January 2, 2006, Helms confronted Lawler face to face about the comments, to which Lawler responded that when Helms was The Hurricane he was at least half-entertaining, but now he was just a guy that sucked. Helms responded by slapping Lawler, who responded back in kind by punching Helms and sending him out of the ring. This confrontation led to Lawler challenging Helms to a match at New Year's Revolution. Helms would go on to lose the match after a Fist Drop.
At the 2006 Royal Rumble, Helms would win SmackDown!'s WWE Cruiserweight Championship (even though he was, at the time, a superstar on RAW ) in an Open Invitational to all former Cruiserweight Champions. The participants were Helms, the reigning champion Kid Kash, Funaki, Paul London, Jamie Noble, and Nunzio. Helms won after hitting the Shining Wizard on Funaki.
He would make his return to the SmackDown! brand in February 2006, to start a feud with Nunzio, Kid Kash and the other cruiserweights. During this time, Helms defeated Nunzio in a one-on-one match. The week afterwards, he was supposed to defend against Kid Kash but Kash was away on a family emergency so Scotty 2 Hotty took his place. Helms defeated Scotty 2 Hotty and cut a promo about being better than all of the cruiserweights. At this point all the cruiserweights at the show (who were in contention for the belt) invaded the ring and beat down Helms using all of their signature moves. It was later announced by SmackDown! General Manager, Teddy Long, at No Way Out, Helms would be set to face all these cruiserweights in a match for the title. Helms was able to retain the championship. Later, Long mandated that Helms has to defend his title against a cruiserweight each week on SmackDown! to prove that he is better than all the cruiserweights. Helm's first defense under this new rule was against Psicosis of the Mexicools; Helms once again retained with help from the ropes.
On the March 10, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Teddy Long told Helms that he didn't have to defend his title due to the fact that he had a broken nose. Instead, Long put Helms in a champion vs. champion match against United States Champion Chris Benoit. During the match, Helms narrowly escaped a Sharpshooter and left the ring. However, his escape was blocked by four other cruiserweights - Kid Kash, Jamie Noble, Paul London, and Brian Kendrick - who grabbed Helms and threw him back into the ring, where Benoit locked in the Crossface for the win.
Helms went on to undergo successful surgery on his nose was expected to miss five to six weeks. During this time SmackDown! announcers would state that Helms had a no-compete clause in his contract allowing him to miss ring time due to any injury. Helms returned to the ring during the April 28, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, teaming with MNM to face Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Super Crazy in a six-man tag team competition. Helms continued on with defending his belt during PPV's but made more regular appearances on SmackDown!'s sister show, WWE Velocity.
Helms would continue on defending his title against other cruiserweights while on occasion facing off against SmackDown!'s other title holders in champion vs. champion matches. Helms would face World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio on June 16, 2006 and the United States Champion Bobby Lashley on July 7, losing both matches.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- *Shining Wizard / Shining Black (Running enzuigiri to a kneeling opponent)
- *Nightmare on Helms Street / Eye of the Hurricane (Spinning headlock elbow drop)
- *Vertebreaker (Back to back double underhook piledriver)
- Signature moves
- Previous managers
- Nicknames
Championships and accomplishments
- Carolina Championship Wrestling
- *2-Time CCW Light Heavyweight Champion
- Carolina Championship Wrestling Alliance
- Exodus Wrestling Alliance
- Southeast Championship Wrestling
- South Eastern Wrestling Alliance
- Southern Wrestling Alliance
- Texas Championship Wrestling
- World Wrestling Organization
Championship succession
| colspan = 3 align = center | (WWE) World Tag Team Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Lance Storm and Christian
| width = 40% align = center | First, with Kane
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Chris Jericho and Christian
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Tajiri and William Regal
| width = 40% align = center | Second, with Rosey
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Cade & Murdoch
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE European Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Matt Hardy
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Bradshaw
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WCW/WWE Cruiserweight Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Chavo Guerrero, Jr.
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Billy Kidman
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Tajiri
| width = 40% align = center | Second
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Jamie Noble
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Kid Kash
| width = 40% align = center | Third
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Current
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE Hardcore Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Spike Dudley
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Molly Holly
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | WCW Hardcore Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Brian Knobbs
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Brian Knobbs
Trivia
- In The Squid and the Whale, a poster of The Hurricane is seen, even though the film is set in the 1980s ([IMDB]).
- Gregory Helms has had a different gimmick in each of his three Cruiserweight Championship reigns.
- Helms is a comic book fan, one of his favorites is The Green Lantern. He has a tattoo on his bicep which is the Lantern's logo and his orginal WWE character The Hurricane was inspired by The Green Lantern.
- Helms is a fan of MMA.
- Is the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion of all time.
- Helms perfomed as the stunt double of actor David Arquette in the movie 'Ready to Rumble'
- Is currently in a relationship with Indy women's wrestler Talia.
External links
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