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*Helms performed as the stunt double of actor [[David Arquette]] in the movie [[Ready to Rumble]].
*Helms performed as the stunt double of actor [[David Arquette]] in the movie [[Ready to Rumble]].
*Helms is the only wrestler to have held both [[WWE]] and [[WCW]] Hardcore & Cruiserweight Titles .
*Helms is the only wrestler to have held both [[WWE]] and [[WCW]] Hardcore & Cruiserweight Titles .
*Helms has his navel pierced which he removes while wrestling.
*Helms was not only the longest reigning [[WWE Cruiserweight Championship|Cruiserweight Champion]] in history, but also was the longest champion in SmackDown! history.
*Helms was not only the longest reigning [[WWE Cruiserweight Championship|Cruiserweight Champion]] in history, but also was the longest champion in SmackDown! history.


Revision as of 16:32, 5 April 2007

Gregory Helms United States
File:Gregory helms 2.jpg
BornJuly 12, 1974
North Carolina Smithfield, North Carolina
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Gregory Helms
Shane Helms
Hurricane Helms
The Hurricane
Billed height6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Billed weight213 lb (97 kg)
Billed fromRaleigh, North Carolina
Trained bySelf Trained
DebutJuly 6, 1991

Gregory Shane Helms (born July 12, 1974) is an American professional wrestler, performing for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its SmackDown! brand. During his last title reign he became the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history and the longest reigning champion of any kind in SmackDown! history (longer than JBL's 10 months as WWE Champion).

Career

World Championship Wrestling (WCW)

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' 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, and was dubbed "Sugar" Shane Helms by the fans, 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). Helms' contract with WCW was one of twenty-five that were included in WWF's purchase of WCW.

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 as a part of the Invasion storyline as member of 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' 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 (Daily Planet).

Originally a heel (via his membership in The Alliance), 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. As "The Hurricane", Helms would defeat Matt Hardy for the WWF European Championship on August 21, 2001. He would eventually lose the title to Bradshaw a couple of months later. He later picked up a sidekick, as the former Molly Holly would soon become "Mighty Molly", and the two would come to the ring in a custom "Hurri-Cycle" (with Molly in the sidecar). 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 Steve Austin.

During 2002, The Hurricane would win the WWE Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania X8. It was there when Molly turned on Hurricane (clocking him in the back of the head with a frying pan), and winning the Hardcore Title from him. After that, they went their separate ways.

Helms would later be drafted to SmackDown! following the brand extension, winning the Cruiserweight Title from Taijri and Kidman in a triple threat match. Later in 2002, he was traded to RAW and would win the World Tag Team Titles with Kane, and hold them for around a month.

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, The Hurricane was able to roll up The Rock from behind after Rock was distracted by Stone Cold Steve Austin's appearance on the ramp. In a funny spot during the match, The Rock grabbed Hurricane in order to set him up for the Rock Bottom; however, Hurricane gave Rock a low blow and hit the Chokeslam for a nearfall.

In 2004, 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.

Gregory Helms using his "hurricane" gimmick

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.

The loss of the titles would be the beginning of the end of the team as during the next few weeks the pair would begin a losing streak, mainly caused by Hurricane's kayfabe 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 was sick of carrying Rosey as a tag team partner.

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. From here Helms wrestled mostly on Raw's sister show, WWE Heat. 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 defeating Helms in a match at New Year's Revolution.

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, Theodore 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 (Which he suffered during a Smackdown! trip to Brisbane, Australia). 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 waive the 30 day title defense rule 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 then World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio on June 16, 2006 and then United States Champion Bobby Lashley on July 7, 2006, losing both matches. During this time, Helms also faced off against The Undertaker; in a losing effort. Eventually, Helms became the longest cruiserweight champion in WWE history, as well as the longest reigning champion in SmackDown history and for much of late 2006 would feud with Matt Hardy who Helms exchanged victories with in several matches on SmackDown! and it was in ther hometown of cameron north carolina at no mercy matt hardy beat gregory helms. The feud would also see the two rivals join opposing Survivor Series teams at that years event, where Helms was a part of Team Rated-RKO and Hardy in Team DX.

Helms went on to feud with Jimmy Wang Yang over the Cruiserweight Title, defeating him to retain the title at Armageddon 2006. He has held the Cruiserweight Title Belt for a record of over 365 days now, more than doubling the former record set by Tajiri who held the WCW (then carried over into WWF) Cruiserweight Title for 162 days during and after the Invasion Angle.

On January 29, 2007, Helms became the first person to hold the Cruiserweight Championship for one full calendar year. The last male wrestler to have held a WWE title for a full year was Gillberg who held their now defunct WWF Light Heavyweight Championship from November 17, 1998-February 8, 2000.

Following Armageddon and into 2007, Helms would begin a short-lived feud with The Boogeyman before once again feuding with the entire Cruiserweight division on Smackdown. During this feud with the Cruiserweights at No Way Out, Helms' reign as Cruiserweight Champion finally came to an end when he was unable to win a Cruiserweight open invitational which saw Chavo Guerrero walk out champion.

In wrestling

File:Helms vs Rosey.jpg
Gregory Helms performing his Shining Wizard on Rosey
  • Finishing moves
  • Signature moves
  • Nicknames
  • "The Suicide Bomb"
  • "The Serial Thriller"
  • "The Show"
  • "Gauge"
  • "Sugar" Shane Helms
  • "The Sensation of Innovation"
  • "IBM — Insane Bump Machine"
  • "The Nice Package"
  • "Smackdown's Best Kept Secret"
  • Entrance music
  • "Doin' the Joint" from the Extreme Music production library - July 2001
  • "Eye Of The Hurricane" (WWE Anthology) - 2001-2005
  • "Fire Storm" from the Sonoton production library - November 2005-February 2007
  • "It's Time" WWE Production - February 2007-Present

Championships and accomplishments

  • Carolina Championship Wrestling
  • CCW Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • Carolina Championship Wrestling Alliance
  • CCWA Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • Exodus Wrestling Alliance
  • EWA Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
  • New Dimension Wrestling
  • NDW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • NDW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Mike Maverick
  • OMEGA Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Mike Maverick
  • Southeast Championship Wrestling
  • SCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • SCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Mike Maverick
  • South Eastern Wrestling Alliance
  • SEWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • Southern Wrestling Alliance
  • SWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • Texas Championship Wrestling
  • TCW Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Lenny Lane
  • World Wrestling Organization
  • WWO Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • NAPW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • PWI ranked him #21 in the top 500 of 2003

Personal life

On March 19, 2007, Sports Illustrated posted on its website an article in its continuing series investigating a steroid and HGH ring used by a number of professional athletes in several sports. That article mentioned several current and former WWE wrestlers, including Helms who was alleged to have obtained HGH. [1] WWE has since made a statement on this situation, mentioning that the alegations preceded the Talent Wellness program WWE launched in February 2006. [2]

Trivia

References

  1. ^ "Wrestlers allegedly tied to drug ring". Retrieved March 22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "A Statement From World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc". Retrieved March 22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Gregory Helms.
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