DX 4 Lyfe: Why D-Generation X Wasn’t Just WWE’s Answer to the nWo… It Was Better

By Mara

Disclaimer: Before anyone reaches for the keyboard… yes, I’m biased.

I’m a WWE girl.

Always have been.

Always will be.

So if you’re expecting me to tell you the nWo was the greatest faction in wrestling history, you’re probably going to leave this article disappointed.

I respect what the nWo accomplished.

I just think D-Generation X accomplished something even more important.

DX 4 Lyfe.

Let’s Get One Thing Straight

One of the biggest myths in wrestling history is that WWE simply copied WCW.

No.

WWE adapted.

There’s a difference.

When Scott Hall walked onto Monday Nitro in May 1996, and Kevin Nash followed shortly afterward, WCW didn’t just start a storyline.

They changed wrestling forever.

For the first time in years, fans genuinely questioned what was real and what wasn’t.

Were Hall and Nash invading from WWE?

Were they working for Vince McMahon?

Was this planned?

That uncertainty made the nWo appointment television.

Give Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan their flowers.

Without the nWo, the Monday Night War never reached the level it eventually did.

But Here’s Where I Think Wrestling Fans Miss the Point

People love saying…

“DX was WWE’s version of the nWo.”

I don’t buy it.

The nWo was about taking over WCW.

DX was about embarrassing WWE.

That’s a completely different philosophy.

The nWo wanted to control the company.

DX wanted everyone — including the company itself — to look ridiculous.

They weren’t trying to invade.

They were trying to get thrown out.

Bret Hart Accidentally Created Wrestling History

Here’s one of my favorite wrestling ironies.

The name D-Generation X didn’t appear because Vince McMahon woke up one morning and thought it sounded cool.

It grew out of Bret Hart repeatedly calling Shawn Michaels and Triple H “degenerates” during one of wrestling’s greatest rivalries.

On the October 13, 1997 episode of Raw Is War, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, and Rick Rude officially embraced the insult.

If you’re going to call us degenerates…

We’ll become D-Generation X.

That’s wrestling storytelling at its best.

Take your opponent’s insult.

Turn it into a T-shirt.

Sell millions.

They Didn’t Feel Dangerous… They Felt Cool

That’s the difference.

The nWo felt dangerous.

DX felt like the group your parents hoped you wouldn’t hang around.

Every promo felt like it could go completely off the rails.

Every backstage segment looked like somebody had forgotten to tell Shawn Michaels and Triple H there was a script.

Were they immature?

Absolutely.

Were they offensive?

Sometimes.

Were they hilarious?

Almost always.

That’s why people still yell “Suck it!” nearly three decades later.

Then Wrestling Changed Forever

Only a few weeks after DX officially formed, Montreal happened.

The Montreal Screwjob didn’t just end Bret Hart’s WWE run.

It accelerated the Attitude Era.

Shawn Michaels left Survivor Series 1997 with the WWE Championship.

Bret Hart left for WCW.

Rick Rude left WWE shortly afterward and famously appeared on Raw, Nitro, and ECW Hardcore TV during the same week — an almost unbelievable moment in wrestling history.

Real life had officially become part of the storyline.

Triple H Doesn’t Get Enough Credit

Here’s my hottest take.

Shawn Michaels created DX.

Triple H made it legendary.

When Shawn’s back injury forced him away after WrestleMania XIV, most people assumed DX was finished.

Instead, Triple H added X-Pac.

The New Age Outlaws.

The army grew.

The infamous invasion of WCW headquarters.

The crotch chops.

The tank.

The juvenile humor.

The feeling that WWE had completely stopped caring about being the family-friendly company it once was.

That wasn’t a copy.

That was evolution.

My Two Cents

Do I respect the nWo?

Absolutely.

Without Scott Hall and Kevin Nash showing up in WCW, maybe DX never became what it became.

History deserves to remember the nWo as revolutionary.

But history should also remember that WWE didn’t beat WCW by copying them.

WWE beat WCW by discovering its own identity.

Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Rock.

Mick Foley.

And yes…

D-Generation X.

The nWo made wrestling cooler.

DX made WWE fearless.

That’s why, if you ask me which faction I’d rather watch on a random Friday night…

Honey…

I’m grabbing the green and black jersey every single time.

DX 4 Lyfe.