Gregory Shane Helms (July 12, 1974) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he wrestled as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms and also for his time with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he wrestled as "Sugar" Shane Helms.
Career[]
Early career (1991-1999)[]
Helms began wrestling at the age of 16 in 1991. He won his first championship shortly afterwards, by defeating "Playboy" T.C. Cruise to become the SWA Light Heavyweight Champion. Helms spent the majority of his early career in his home state of North Carolina, winning numerous Light Heavyweight championships.
Helms began calling himself "The Show" Shane Helms, and teamed with "Big Daddy" Mike Maverick, initially using the team name "Assault and Battery". They later dubbed themselves "The Serial Thrillaz", and won several independent tag championships. The pair also began wrestling in the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA), which was founded by the Hardy Boyz, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy. The Serial Thrillaz won the SCW Heavyweight Championship. SCW would mark the end of the Serial Thrillaz, as Helms vacated both titles before moving on to NWA Worldwide. Once there, Helms joined the "Bad Street Boys" with Shannon Moore, Christian York and Joey Matthews.
World Championship Wrestling (1999-2001)[]
Helms and his friend Shannon Moore signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in May 1999. In WCW, Helms, along with Moore and Evan Karagias, formed the stable 3 Count and the trio debuted on the December 23 episode of WCW Thunder. The trio was a parody of the boy bands "'N Sync" and the "Backstreet Boys", and their gimmick involved making music videos and performing songs before their matches.
3 Count together won the WCW Hardcore Championship on WCW Monday Nitro in February 2000. This win made 3 Count the first trio to win the Hardcore Championship. At "Uncensored 2000", Brian Knobbs defeated all members of 3 Count for the Hardcore Championship. During a match, Helms suffered a broken nose, and was sidelined while he recovered. Upon his return, Tank Abbott has been added to the group, as a fan, and was utilized in an enforcer role. 3 Count had a long-running feud with The Jung Dragons with the Dragons attempting to steal 3 Count's recording contract. This led to a ladder match between the two teams at New Blood Rising, which 3 Count won due to Abbott's interference. As a result, Abbott claimed that he should be the lead singer of 3 Count, and was kicked out by the other three members, leading to a feud.
3 Count later disbanded as Moore and Helms kicked Karagias out of the group for attempting to steal the spotlight. At the same time, the Jung Dragons turned on Jamie Noble, who formed a team with Evan Karagias. The three teams met in a "Triangle match" at Mayhem, which 3 Count won. They also wrestled each other in a number one contender ladder match at Starrcade 2000, in which both Moore and Helms grabbed the contract at the same time. As a result, they later wrestled for the opportunity to wrestle for the championship, which Helms won, although he lost the subsequent championship match to Chavo Guerrero at the pay-per-view.
Moore and Helms would leave WCW briefly in 2001 to wrestle in NWA Wildside where they held the Wildside Tag Team Championship for one day. Helms became the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship after winning a match at SuperBrawl Revenge, but was attacked by Evan Karagias and Shannon Moore afterwards. Despite the attack, Helms would go on to defeat Guerrero for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship at Greed and was the reigning Cruiserweight Champion immediately before WCW was bought out by 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 (2001–2010)[]
2001-2002[]
Helms made his WWF debut on the July 5, 2001 edition of SmackDown!, using the name "Hollywood" Gregory Helms. He was part of the "Invasion" storyline as a member of The Alliance losing his Cruiserweight Championship in a one-on-one match to another Alliance member, Billy Kidman.
Helms began wrestling as The Hurricane on August 27, and also began wearing a superhero costume. That night, he won the European Championship from Matt Hardy with help from Ivory, but lost it to JBL on October 22, 2001. In September 2001, Helms formed a tag team with Lance Storm who was now managed by Ivory and Helms later picked up a sidekick, in Molly Holly who began to call herself "Mighty Molly", and the two came to the arena in a custom "Hurri-Cycle" (with Molly in the sidecar). The team of Helms and Storm began feuds with teams like The Hardy Boyz and Big Show and Spike Dudley. Helms and Storm got a shot at the WCW Tag Team Championship against the Hardy Boyz at No Mercy 2001 in a losing effort.
During 2002, The Hurricane won the WWE Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania X8, but Molly betrayed him, hitting him in the back of the head with a frying pan, defeating him for the championship. Helms was later drafted to the SmackDown! brand following the brand extension, and he won the Cruiserweight Championship from Tajiri and Billy Kidman in a Triple Threat match. He lost it to Jamie Noble at King of the Ring. Later in 2002, he was traded to Raw, won the World Tag Team Champions with Kane.
The Hurricane and Rosey (2003-2005)[]
In 2003, Hurricane feuded with The Rock. In backstage segments the Rock referred to the Hurricane as "The Hamburglar" (in part because, his mask was similar to the Hamburglar's). The feud culminated in a match on Raw, in which The Rock dominated. Hurricane, however, was able to perform a schoolboy on The Rock from behind after The Rock was distracted by Stone Cold Steve Austin's appearance on the ramp. Earlier in that same match, The Rock took The Hurricane's cape (which Hurricane lays on a corner turnbuckle after his entrance) from the corner turnbuckle and put it on and continued the match whilst wearing the cape, later, tossing it out the ring, which afterwards The Hurricane was left enraged throughout the rest of the match.
In late 2003, Hurricane "discovered" Rosey's potential as a superhero and christened him "Rosey, the Super Hero in Training". On May 1, at Backlash, Rosey and Hurricane defeated La Résistance in the finals of a Tag Team Turmoil match to win the World Tag Team Championship. Not long after winning the championship, Stacy Keibler joined Rosey and The Hurricane as their sidekick, "Super Stacy". In August 2005, Rosey and The Hurricane lost Keibler as their sidekick when she and Christy Hemme were traded to the SmackDown! brand. On September 5, 2005 Hurricane and Rosey were defeated by Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch during Cade and Murdoch's debut match on Raw. As a result, Cade and Murdoch earned a title match at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. During the title match, Murdoch delivered an elevated DDT on The Hurricane to outside the ring. The DDT caused Hurricane to suffer a storyline "stinger" and allowed Cade and Murdoch to beat the injured Hurricane later in the match to win the World Tag Team Titles.
During the next few weeks, the pair began a losing streak, mainly caused by Hurricane's on-screen injuries. During the October 17 episode of Raw, The Hurricane was assaulted by Kurt Angle at the request of Vince McMahon. After the beating, footage was shown of The Hurricane ripping of 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 to his real name, Gregory Helms, and watched as Rosey was double teamed and defeated. After the match, Helms announced that he was fed up with being funny for the crowd, and that he was sick of carrying Rosey as a tag team partner. This turned him into a heel in the process. Thereafter, in most of his matches, Helms used "Dirty" moves in most of his matches. On the November 7 Episode of Raw, Helms and Rosey faced off in a singles match, which Helms won. Subsequently, Helms wrestled mostly on Raw's sister show, Heat. On the January 2, 2006 episode of Raw Helms confronted Jerry Lawler over jokes that Lawler had been making at Helms' expense, and Lawler said that when Helms was The Hurricane, he was entertaining and called Helms a joke. Helms responded by slapping Lawler, who hit Helms back. The confrontation led to Lawler defeating Helms in a match at New Year's Revolution.
Cruiserweight Champion and injury (2006-2007)[]
Helms entered an open invitational match for the Cruiserweight Championship at the 2006 Royal Rumble which he won even though he was a Raw superstar and the championship was defended solely on SmackDown!. He made 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 next week, 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 him and declared that he was better than all the cruiserweights. As a result, all the cruiserweights at the show invaded the ring and attacked Helms. It was later announced by SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long that at the No Way Out pay-per-view event, Helms would face all the cruiserweights in a match for the title. Helms was able to retain the championship. Later, Long mandated that Helms had to defend his title against a cruiserweight each week on SmackDown! to prove that he truly was better than all the cruiserweights. Helms' first defense under this new rule was against Psicosis of The Mexicools Helms retained by cheating.
In early Mach 2006, Helms suffered a broken nose. After complaining to Long having to wrestle on the March 10 episode of SmackDown!, Long told Helms that he did not have to defend his title, but put Helms in a champion versus champion match against the United States Champion, Chris Benoit. During the match, Helms attempted to leave, but was blocked by other cruiserweights who threw Helms back into the ring, resulting in Helms losing the match. Helms underwent successful surgery on his nose and was expected to miss five to six weeks. During this time SmackDown! announcers stated that Helms had a no-compete clause in his contract allowing him to waive the thirty day title defense rule due to any injury. Helms returned to the ring on the April 28 edition of SmackDown!, teaming with MNM to face Super Crazy, Paul London, and Brian Kendrick in a Six-man Tag Team match. Helms continued to defend his belt during pay-per-views, but he made more regular appearances on SmackDown!'s sister show, Velocity.
Helms continued defending his title against other cruiserweights, while on occasion facing off against SmackDown!'s other title holders in champion versus champion matches. Helms faced Rey Mysterio on June 16 and United States Champion Bobby Lashley on July 7 but lost both matches. Eventually, Helms became the longest cruiserweight champion in WWE history, as well as the longest reigning champion of any kind in SmackDown! history. For much of late 2006, he feuded with Matt Hardy, with whom Helms exchanged several victories in matches on SmackDown!. In both Helms' and Hardy's hometown of "Raleigh, North Carolina", at the 2006 No Mercy pay-per-view, Hardy beat Helms. The two rivals also joined opposing teams at Survivor Series, where Helms was in Team Rated-RKO, and Hardy was a member of DX; Team Rated-RKO lost the match.
Helms went on to feud with Jimmy Wang Yang over the Cruiserweight Title, after a tag team match where Hardy and Yang defeated Helms and Sylvain Grenier. The feud ended after Helms defeated him to retain the title at Armageddon in December 2006.
In 2007, Helms once again feuded with the entire Cruiserweight division on SmackDown!. During this feud, Helms' reign as Cruiserweight Champion came to an end at No Way Out, when he was unable to win a Cruiserweight open invitational, which saw Chavo Guerrero win the championship. Shortly after losing the championship, Helms formed a tag team with Guerrero, but they didn't win any matches as a team.
On May 18, 2007, WWE reported that Helms had broken two vertebrae in his neck, one of which was pressing on his spinal cord. He underwent surgery with Dr. Lloyd Youngblood to repair them approximately one week later. A few weeks later Helms was announced to be out for a year due to his neck injury.
Interviewer and The Hurricane's return (2008-2010)[]
Helms returned on the September 19, 2008, episode of SmackDown! in a non-wrestling role. Throughout the show, he appeared in short video promos, called "Hurrapops", referring to himself as "Hurricane Helms", a modified version of his old ring name "The Hurricane", and mocked heel superstars including Shelton Benjamin, Curt Hawkins, Zack Ryder, and The Miz and John Morrison. On following weeks, he mocked several other superstars in the "Hurrapops", ending each promo with the phrase, "I'm just sayin'!". On the November 28 episode of SmackDown!, a "Hurrapop" appeared in which Helms announced that he would make his return to the ring on the next episode of SmackDown!. On the December 5 episode of SmackDown!, Hurricane Helms defeated Montel Vontavious Porter, who wanted to "Teach Helms a lesson" for mocking him on several occasions in "Hurrapops", all referring to MVP's losing streak. In his ring return, he appeared in a combination of his "The Hurricane" outfit, and his "Gregory Helms" outfit, also using the ring name "Hurricane Helms", in which in his ring return he began using his new signature move: "Underdog Drop". Afterwards, Helms was quickly placed in a feud with the United States Champion Shelton Benjamin, defeating him in two non-title matches on SmackDown!, one being a Tag Team match where Helms teamed up with R-Truth to defeat the tag team of Shelton Benjamin and MVP, whereas Benjamin and MVP were not a very cooperative tag team, leading to an easy win for R-Truth and Helms. Although Helms had failed to win the United States Championship Title match against Shelton Benjamin on December 26.
On April 15, 2009, Helms was drafted to the ECW brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. Helms made his ECW debut as a backstage interviewer on April 28, 2009, reverting to his "Gregory Helms" ring name, interviewing Evan Bourne. He started a storyline where, while he was interviewing Mark Henry, one of the ECW staff members was being crushed by a large shelf, whereas while Henry was distracted and looked back at Helms, who was gone, The Hurricane was shown saving the distressed person, then running off, and out of nowhere Gregory Helms once again tries to interview the confused Mark Henry. One the August 11, 2009 episode of ECW, Helms was attacked by Paul Burchill, while Helms was trying to interview him and had denied being The Hurricane. The Hurricane later attacked Burchill in the ring dressed in his Hurricane attire, to save Yoshi Tatsu. The next week on ECW, he made his in-ring debut for the brand as The Hurricane, and defeated Burchill. Helms, a few weeks later was attacked by Burchill, while he was trying to interview his sister, then Burchill scolded his sister afterwards. As a result, he continued to feud with Burchill, who had attempted to expose The Hurricane's true identity, until the November 17, 2009 episode of ECW when The Hurricane defeated Burchill in a mask versus career match after executing Eye of the Hurricane to Burchill, who was sitting on the turnbuckle, who had attempted a Superplex. The Hurricane then began a rivalry with Zack Ryder on the January 12, 2010 episode of ECW after Ryder proclaimed he was the new 'Heart and Soul' of ECW. Ryder defeated the Hurricane on the January 14 edition of WWE Superstars. On February 26, 2010. Helms was released of his WWE contract.
Independent circuit (2010–2018)[]
Following his WWE release, Helms began wrestling on the independent circuit, including for the Canadian Wrestling's Elite as Hurricane Helms. On October 23, 2010, Helms made his debut for Jersey All Pro Wrestling, where he, under his Hurricane gimmick, defeated Azrieal. On January 10, 2011, Helms signed a contract with Lucha Libre USA. In the promotion, Helms allied himself with Marco Corleone, and in his debut for the promotion at the January 22 tapings, he defeated Corleone's rival and Lucha Libre USA Champion Lizmark Jr. via disqualification.
On January 29, 2011 Helms made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, in a match, where he was defeated by Joey Ryan. He also took part in 20-Man Legends Battle Royale, making his second appearance of the night. He eliminated Cruel Connection, but later was thrown out by Shane Douglas and Terry Funk.
In April 2011, Helms wrestled in Carolina Wrestling Federation Mid-Atlantic where he defeated Ric Converse and won the vacant PWI International Heavyweight Championship. In 2013, Helms returned to the revived OMEGA, now called OMEGA Championship Wrestling, and on October 12, he defeated Shane Williams to advance in a tournament for the OMEGA Championship. On November 16, 2013, Helms was defeated by Chris Hero at a Pro Wrestling Syndicate event.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / Impact Wrestling (2015-2017)[]
In 2015 Helms was hired as a backstage agent for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He later made his debut on screen as the leader/manager of The Helms Dynasty. They feuded with the Broken Hardyz (Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy) along with other teams in the promotion. In June 2017 Helms announced his departure from the promotion.
Ring of Honor (2018-2019)[]
Helms debuted in Ring of Honor in mid 2018 reprising his character of The Hurricane. He entered into a feud with Marty Scurll referred to as "Hero vs. Villain".
Return to WWE (2018, 2019–present)[]
Helms appeared at Royal Rumble 2018 apart of the Royal Rumble match as entrant #21 but was quickly eliminated by John Cena. On January 28, 2019, WWE announced that Helms would return to WWE as a backstage producer.
Wrestling facts[]
- Finishing moves
- Eye Of The Hurricane (as The Hurricane) / Nightmare On Helms Street (as Gregory Helms and Hurricane Helms) / Ultimate Shagger (Spinning Inverted facelock elbow drop), sometimes to an opponent sitting on the top turnbuckle
- Hurrachokeslam - 2002–2005, used rarely from 2005-2009, 2009-2010
- Shining Wizard
- Super Swinging Neckbreaker - 2007
- Vertebreaker (Back to back sitout double underhook piledriver)- 2000-2002
- Signature moves
- Back Snap (Modified Double Knee Backbreaker)
- CrossFace Halo (Straight jacket sitout sleeper slam) - used when using his "The Hurricane" gimmick
- European Uppercut from out of the corner, as a counter to an oncoming opponent. - 2008-present
- Flying clothesline, sometimes to an oncoming opponent
- Frankensteiner
- diving crossbody, sometimes to the outside
- Front dropkick, sometimes from the top rope
- Hurricane Press (Lou Thesz press followed by multiple punches to the opponent's face) - as The Hurricane
- Inverted Side Suplex (Inverted side slam)
- Jumping neckbreaker
- Northern lights suplex
- Rope aided twisting headscissors takedown
- Rope-rebound Leaping Lariat Takedown.
- Russian Legsweep, sometimes while applying a hammerlock
- Snap suplex, sometimes with theatrics
- Somersault plancha
- StrangeHold Legsweep (Straight jacket Russian Legsweep)
- Sugarsmack / Hurrikick (Superkick) - 2000-2001
- Super sunset flip, sometimes as a counter to a Running turnbuckle thrust
- The Best Kept Finish / The Helms Buster (WWE) (Single knee facebreaker)- 2006-2007, 2009; used rarely thereafter
- The Overcast (Diving neckbreaker)
- The Shoulder Wrecker (Inverted facelock shoulderbreaker)
- Tilt-a-whirl Facebuster
- Triple Facebuster / Trifecta Facebuster (Triple repeated sitout facebuster)
- Top Spin Facebuster (Spinning Fireman's Carry dropped into a facebreaker knee smash)
- Swinging side slam backbreaker
- Underdog Drop / The Calm Before The Storm / Death Wish(Double Underhook Mat Slam)
- X-Plex - 2000-2001
- Eye Poke, with theatrics
- Mortifyer (Hammerlock Reverse STO)
- With Shannon Moore
- Count Down (Samoan drop (Moore) / Nightmare on Helms Street (Helms) combination)
- With Rosey
- Simultaneous Samoan drop (Rosey) / The Overcast (The Hurricane) combination
- Super Hero Splash / Falling Star Bomb (Elevated splash)
- With Kane
- Nicknames
- "IBM: Insane Bump Machine"
- "Serial Thriller"
- "Soul Thriller"
- "Sugar"
- "Suicide Bomb"
- "The Show"
- Tag teams and stables
- 3 Count
- The Alliance
- Serial Thrillaz
- The Hurricane & Kane
- Rosey and The Hurricane
- The Helms Dynasty
- Managers
- Mighty Molly (WWF)
- Hurrigirl/SupaSarah (Sarah Bradley)
- Wrestlers trained
- Mikael Yamaha
Championships and accomplishments[]
- NWA Wildside
- NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shannon Moore
- Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts
- OMEGA Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Mike Maverick
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Kane (1), and Rosey (1)
- WWE European Championship (1 time)
- WWF/E Hardcore Championship (1 time)
- WWE Cruiserweight Championship (3 times)
- Pro Wrestling International
- PWI International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Quotes[]
- "Stand back, there's a hurricane comin' through!"
- "Whazzup wit dat?" (What's up with that?)
- "I've got Hurri-powers, beeyatch!"
- "Quick, to the Hurri-cave!"
- "You've got a cool costume, you've got a cool mask, you're 7 feet tall, and you don't fight crime?! Whazzup with dat?!" (addressed to Kane)
- "Whooooosh!"
- "You don't like Chicken Fries? Whazzup wit dat?"
- "I'm just saying!"
Trivia[]
- In The Squid and the Whale, a poster of The Hurricane is seen, even though the film is set in the 1980s
- 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 original WWE character The Hurricane was based on The Green Lantern.
- Helms is a fan of the band Pearl Jam, Eminem, Linkin Park, Insane Clown Posse, Everlast, and Rob Zombie.
- Helms is friends with The Hardy Boyz, Shannon Moore, Joey Mercury and Christian Cage in real life.
- The Hurricane’s entrance motion is in WWE 2K18, under the name “Super Hero”.
