The Hurricane

Gregory Shane Helms (July 12, 1974) is an American professional wrestler, who is currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment. 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.

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.

2001-2002
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 on the July 5 2001 edition of SmackDown! losing his Cruiserweight Championship in a one-on-one match to another Alliance Member Billy Kidman. At the end of July 2001, Helms had another name change to Hurricane Helms, and was a regular on then WWF's sister shows WWF Jakked and WWF Heat. Helms briefly aligned himself with Ivory and on August 27 2001 the night The Hurricane character was born, and also the night Helms began wearing his Superhero Costume and won the European Championship from Matt Hardy with help from Ivory, but eventually lost the title to Bradshaw 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 would come 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 The Big Show & Spike Dudley. Helms and Storm got a shot at the WCW World Tag Team Championship against The Hardy Boyz at No Mercy 2001 in a losing effort.

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, he would dress as a 1950s reporter in the locker room, 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.

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. At the Royal Rumble 2002, The Hurricane had a one of his more memorable moments of "superhuman strength" when 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 won the WWE Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania X8. It was during this match that Molly turned on Hurricane (clocking him in the back of the head with a frying pan) and won the Hardcore Title from him. After that, they went their separate ways.

Helms was later drafted to SmackDown! following the brand extension, and he won the Cruiserweight Title from Taijri and Kidman in a triple threat match. Later in 2002, he was traded to RAW, won the World Tag Team Titles with Kane, and held them for around a month in an alliance known as Hurri-Kane.

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 is similar to the Hamburglar's). This comic feud culminated in a match on RAW, where 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, but The 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.

On May 1, at Backlash 2005, Hurricane and Rosey defeated La Résistance 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. 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 2005. 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 signaled the end of the team. During the next few weeks, the pair began 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 The 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, and 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 faced off in singles action, in what was Rosey's last match in WWE. Helms won the match after hitting the Shining Wizard. Subsequently, 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.

2006-2007
During RAW on January 2, 2006, Helms confronted Lawler about the comments, and 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 won 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 included Helms, the reigning champion Kid Kash, Funaki, Paul London, Jamie Noble, and Nunzio. Helms won after hitting the Shining Wizard on Funaki.

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 Scotty 2 Hotty and cut a promo saying he was 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 that at No Way Out, Helms would face all the 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 truly was 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 did not 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 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 30 day title defense rule due to any injury. Helms returned to the ring on 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 to defend his belt during PPV's but made more regular appearances on SmackDown!'s sister show, WWE Velocity.

Helms would continue defending his title against other cruiserweights, while on occasion facing off against SmackDown!'s other title holders in champion vs. champion matches. Helms faced then World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio on June 16, 2006 and then United States Champion Bobby Lashley on July 7, 2006, but lost 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. For much of late 2006, he feuded with Matt Hardy, who Helms exchanged several victories with in matches on SmackDown!. It was in Helms' hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina at No Mercy that Matt Hardy beat Gregory Helms. The feud would also see the two rivals join opposing teams at Survivor Series, where Helms was in Team Rated-RKO, and Hardy was in Team DX.

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 Sylvan. The feud ended after Helms defeated him to retain the title at Armageddon 2006. At this point, he had held the Cruiserweight Title Belt for a record of over 365 days, 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. 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 until 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. Ironically, shortly before WrestleMania 23, Helms formed a tag team with Chavo Guerrero, but they have not yet won any matches as a team. Helms and Guerrero have also teamed in the past. throughout July, 2001 during the Invasion angle and on the October 6, 2006 edition of SmackDown losing to Rey Mysterio and Matt Hardy. 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.

In wrestling
As Gregory Helms
 * Finishing moves
 * Helms Buster (Double knee facebreaker)
 * Nightmare on Helms street  (High speed spinning headlock elbow drop)
 * Shining Wizard (Running enzuigiri to a kneeling opponent) 2005-2007


 * Signature moves
 * Crossface Halo (Cross-arm sitout sleeper slam)
 * Shoulder Wrecker (Inverted front facelock to shoulderbreaker on the knee)
 * Top Spin Facebuster (Spinning fireman's carry into a facebreaker knee smash)
 * Underdog (Inverted double underhook mat slam)
 * Diving crossbody
 * Knee drop
 * Missile Dropkick

As Hurricane Helms / The Hurricane
 * Finisher moves
 * Hurri-Chokeslam (Chokeslam) - 2002-2003
 * Diving crossbody
 * Eye of the Hurricane (High speed spinning headlock elbow drop)


 * Signature moves
 * Crossface Halo (Cross-arm sitout sleeper slam)
 * Hurrikick (Superkick) - 2001-2002
 * Overcast (Flying neckbreaker)
 * Shining Wizard (Running enzuigiri to a kneeling opponent)
 * Underdog (Inverted double underhook mat slam)
 * Vertebreaker (Back to back double underhook piledriver)

As "Sugar" Shane Helms
 * Finisher moves
 * Nightmare on Helms Street (High speed spinning headlock elbow drop)
 * Vertebreaker (Back to back double underhook piledriver)


 * Signature moves
 * Crossface Halo (Cross-arm sitout sleeper slam)
 * Hammerlock Russian legsweep
 * Strangehold Legsweep (Cross-arm Russian legsweep)
 * Sugarsmack (Superkick)
 * Top Spin Facebuster (Spinning fireman's carry into a facebreaker knee smash)
 * Trifecta Facebuster (Triple repeated sitout facebusters)
 * X-Plex - 2000-2001


 * Previous managers
 * Ivory
 * "Mighty" Molly
 * Super Stacy
 * Mike Maverick


 * Nicknames
 * "The Suicide Bomb"
 * "The Serial Thriller"
 * "The Show"
 * "Gauge"
 * "Sugar" Shane Helms
 * "The Sensation of Innovation"
 * "IBM &mdash; 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 The Music, Vol. 7 - February 2007-Present

Championships and accomplishments

 * World Wrestling Entertainment
 * WWE Cruiserweight Championship (3 times)
 * World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Kane (1), and Rosey (1)
 * WWE European Championship (1 time)
 * WWE Hardcore Championship (1 time)


 * World Championship Wrestling
 * WCW Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
 * WCW Hardcore Championship (1 time) - with Evan Karagias and Shannon Moore


 * NWA Wildside
 * NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Shannon Moore


 * 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


 * Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts
 * 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)


 * Other Titles
 * NAPW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)


 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * 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. WWE has since made a statement on this situation, mentioning that the alegations preceded the Talent Wellness program WWE launched in February 2006.

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 3 Cruiserweight Championship reigns.
 * Helms is a comic book fan, one of his favorites is The Green Lantern. He has a tattoo on his biceps which is the Lantern's logo and his original WWE character The Hurricane was inspired by The Green Lantern.
 * 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 WWF and WCW Hardcore & Cruiserweight Titles.
 * Helms was not only the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history, but also was the longest champion in SmackDown! history.
 * Helms said that he had planned to read for the part of Gambit in the 3rd X-Men movie, before the change of producers and director.
 * Helms added the "Overcast" transitional maneuver/finisher to his arsenal after his real-life skirmish with Buff Bagwell when they first became WWE employees after the buyout of WCW. The "Overcast" is the same move as Bagwell's "Blockbuster" finisher
 * On an episode of The Andy Milonakis Show, a Hurricane action figure is seen in one of Andy's bookcases.