10 shocking moments from WWF (WWE) 1998

#5 D-Generation X gets a facelift

Shawn who?

Arguably the biggest turning point in the career of Triple H came the night after Wrestlemania 14. His onscreen tag partner and DX brother Shawn Michaels was forced off of TV due to a back injury and other personal demons. The fans were eager to know whether this would also mark the death of DX, a team they had strongly gotten behind throughout much of 1997.

To his credit, Triple H immediately fitted into the role of leader in Michaels' absence. He recruited some new members to the team and made sure DX would not just live on, but become bigger and better than before.

In shocking scenes that marked the start of the new DX, Hunter announced the return of Sean Waltman who had previously jumped ship to WCW a few years before to join the NWO. This was a massive symbolic response from the WWF who had seen so many of their top level talent leave in order to prop up their biggest rival. Waltman, who now referred to himself as X-Pac, might not have had the prestige and notoriety of a Scott Hall or Kevin Nash, but his arrival meant that WWF was not willing to give up the fight when it came to offering favourable contracts to the wrestlers.

Later on that night, Triple H turned DX from a three-person team into a five-person faction when he recruited the New Age Outlaws. Over the next weeks and months, DX would become an exaggerated version of their former selves, eventually becoming the very backbone of the new WWF, a company finally ready to pose a real threat to their Southern rivals.

For anyone concerned about how the WWF would fare without Shawn Michaels, Triple H managed to settle a lot of those worries in the space of two RAW segments.