Gregory Helms

Gregory Helms
Statistics
Ring name(s)	"Sugar" Shane Helms[1] Gregory Helms[1] The Hurricane[1] Hurricane Helms[1]
Weight	191 lb (87 kg)[1]
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1][2]
Billed weight	215 lb (98 kg)[2]
Born	July 12, 1974 (1974-07-12) (age 35)[1][3] Smithfield, North Carolina[1][3]
Resides	Smithfield, North Carolina[4]
Billed from	Raleigh, North Carolina[2]
Trained by	WCW Power Plant Hardy Boyz[1]
Debut	1991[5]

Gregory Shane Helms^[1][3] (born July 12, 1974)^[1][3] is an American professional wrestler, working for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown brand as Hurricane Helms.^[2]

He began his career in Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, alongside Matt and Jeff Hardy, and moved to World Championship Wrestling in 2000. There he gained fame as "Sugar" Shane Helms, a member of 3 Count, and won the WCW Hardcore Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight title. When WCW was bought by the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Helms' contract was kept by WWF. Helms renamed himself "The Hurricane" and won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. He later picked up a sidekick, Rosey, and they won the World Tag Team Championship together. He dropped the superhero gimmick in 2005, and began wrestling under his real name. He once again won the Cruiserweight Championship in early 2006, and held it for over a year, becoming the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history and the longest reigning champion of any kind in SmackDown! history.^[6] After being out of action for over a year after neck fusion surgery Helms returned to SmackDown in September 2008, referring to himself once again as Hurricane Helms.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 World Championship Wrestling (2000–2001) 1.2 World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (2001–present) 1.2.1 2001–2002 1.2.2 The Hurricane and Rosey (2003–2005) 1.2.3 Cruiserweight Champion and injury (2006–2007) 1.2.4 Return from injury (2008) 2 Personal life 3 In wrestling 4 Championships and accomplishments 5 References 6 External links

Career

World Championship Wrestling (2000–2001)

After wrestling in many independent promotions, including the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts 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 stable 3 Count with Moore and Evan Karagias.^[7] The trio was a parody of the boy bands the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.^[5] Their gimmick involved making music videos and performing songs before their matches, during which their opponents would attack them before the match started. The trio had a long standing feud with the Jung Dragons.^[7] Tank Abbott was later added to the group as an enforcer, but was fired, leading to a feud.^[7]

Helms later split from the group, was dubbed "Sugar" Shane Helms by the fans, and found success as WCW Cruiserweight Champion. He had a long standing feud with Moore and Karagias.^[8][9] He was the reigning Cruiserweight Champion immediately before WCW was bought out by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).^[1] Helms' contract with WCW was one of twenty-five that were included in WWF's purchase of WCW.

World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (2001–present)

2001–2002

Before debuting in the WWF, Helms changed his ring name from Shane to Gregory, his first name. He was brought in as a part of the Invasion storyline as a 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.^[10] At the end of July 2001, Helms had another name change to Hurricane Helms and was a regular on WWF's sister shows WWF Jakked and WWF Heat. Helms briefly aligned himself with Ivory. Helms began wrestling as "The Hurricane" on August 27, and also Helms began wearing a superhero costume. That night, he won the European Championship from Matt Hardy with help from Ivory. He eventually lost the title to Bradshaw on October 22, 2001.^[11][12] 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).^[5] 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.^[13]

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 dressed as a 1950s reporter in the locker room, with glasses, using his real name, as an 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. For example, he wrestled heavyweights and attempted 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 2002 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, 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 Stone Cold Steve Austin.^[14] During 2002, The Hurricane won the WWE Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania X8. It was during this match that Molly turned on Hurricane (hitting him in the back of the head with a frying pan) and won the Hardcore Title from him.^[14] After that, they went their separate ways.

Helms was later drafted to SmackDown! following the brand extension, also cutting his long hair short and dying it green, and he won the Cruiserweight Title from Taijri and Billy Kidman in a triple threat match.^[15][16]. He lost it to Jamie Noble at King of the Ring. 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.^[17][18]

The Hurricane and Rosey (2003–2005)

In 2003, Hurricane feuded with The Rock.^[19] In backstage segments, The Rock referred to The Hurricane as "The Hamburglar" (in part because his mask was similar to the Hamburglar's).^[20] This comic feud culminated in a match on Raw, in which The Rock dominated.^[21] Hurricane, however, was able to roll up The Rock from behind after The Rock was distracted by Stone Cold Steve Austin's appearance on the ramp.^[21]

In late 2003, Hurricane "discovered" Rosey's potential as a superhero and christened him "Rosey, the Super Hero in Training". 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.^[22] On May 1, at Backlash, Hurricane and Rosey defeated La Résistance in the finals of a Tag Team Turmoil match to win the World Tag Team Championship.^[23] Not long after winning the titles, Stacy Keibler joined Rosey and The Hurricane as their sidekick, Super Stacy.^[24] In August 2005, Rosey and The Hurricane lost Keibler as their sidekick when she and Christy Hemme were traded to SmackDown!^[25] On September 5, 2005 Hurricane and Rosey were defeated by Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch during their debut match on Raw.^[26] 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 storyline "stinger" and allowed Cade & Murdoch to beat the injured Hurricane later in the match to win the World Tag Team Titles.^[27]

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 on-screen injuries.^[28][29] 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 off his mask and striking Rosey because he did not help him fend off Angle.^[30] 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 with being funny for the crowd, and that he was sick of carrying Rosey as a tag team partner. This turned him heel in the process.^[31] On the November 7 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 performing the Shining Wizard.^[32] Subsequently, Helms wrestled mostly on Raw's sister show, Heat.^[33] 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.^[34] 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's just a guy that sucks". Helms responded by slapping Lawler, who responded back in kind by punching Helms and sending him out of the ring.^[35] This confrontation led to Lawler defeating Helms in a match at New Year's Revolution.^[36]

Cruiserweight Champion and injury (2006–2007)

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. Helms won after hitting the shining wizard on Funaki.^[36] 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.^[37] 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 the cruiserweights. At this point, all the cruiserweights at the show invaded the ring and attacked Helms.^[38] 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. Helm's first defense under this new rule was against Psicosis of The Mexicools; Helms once again retained with help from the ropes.^[36]

On the March 10 edition of SmackDown!, 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 versus champion match against the United States Champion, Chris Benoit. During the match, Helms narrowly escaped a Sharpshooter and left the ring. His escape was blocked, however, by four other cruiserweights - Kid Kash, 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. The "I am better" storyline was dropped after he was injured.^[39] 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 London, Kendrick and Super Crazy in a six-man tag team match.^[40] Helms continued to defend his belt during pay-per-views,^[41] but he made more regular appearances on SmackDown!'s sister show, Velocity.^[42]

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 World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio on June 16 and United States Champion Bobby Lashley on July 7 but lost both matches.^[43][44] 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, who Helms exchanged several victories with in matches on SmackDown!.^[45][46][47] In Helms', and Hardy's, hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, at the 2006 No Mercy event, Hardy beat Helms.^[48] The two rivals also joined opposing teams at Survivor Series, where Helms was in Team Rated-RKO, and Hardy was in Team DX, but Team Rated-RKO lost.^[48]

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.^[49] The feud ended after Helms defeated him to retain the title at Armageddon in December 2006.^[48] At this point, he had held the Cruiserweight Title 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.

In 2007, Helms once again feuded 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 as the new champion.^[50] Ironically, shortly before WrestleMania 23, Helms formed a tag team with Guerrero, but they didn't win any matches as a team.^[51][52][53] On May 18, 2007 WWE reported that Helms had broken two vertebrae in his neck, one of which was pressing on his spinal cord.^[54] 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.^[6][54]

Return from injury (2008)

Helms returned on the September 19, 2008, edition of SmackDown.^[55] Throughout the show, he appeared in short video promos, called "Hurrapops", referring to himself by his old ring name Hurricane Helms, and mocked heel superstars including Shelton Benjamin and Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. 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, Helms defeated Montel Vontavious Porter in his ring return.

Personal life

Helms is currently dating TNA Knockout Velvet Sky (Jamie Szantyr) .^[1] He is also a childhood friend of Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Shannon Moore. Gregory's mother, Karen Helms, died on December 19, 2007.^[56]

Helms is a comic book fan, one of his favorite characters being 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 Green Lantern. Helms owns a motorcycle called 'The Hurri-Cycle' which he got when he was using The Hurricane gimmick, as seen on The Hardy Show. Helms also performed as the stunt double of actor David Arquette in the movie Ready to Rumble.^[1]

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 (Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Kurt Angle, and Edge), including Helms who was alleged to have obtained HGH.^[57] WWE has since made a statement on this situation, mentioning that the allegations preceded the Talent Wellness program WWE launched in April 2006.^[58] On August 30, 2007, an article by Sports Illustrated named Helms and nine other wrestlers to be given growth hormone not in compliance with the WWE Talent Wellness program. Helms was said to have received testosterone, HGH and nandrolone between November 2003 and February 2007. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Brian Adams were also discovered to have been given similar drugs prior to their deaths during this investigation, as well as former superstar Sylvain Grenier.^[59][60]

On May 6, 2008, Helms was assaulted in a club in Johnston County, North Carolina, by an acquaintance, Dustin Narron.^[4] An argument between the two of them led to Narron hitting Helms in the face.^[61] Narron was later charged with assault and battery.^[61]

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• Hurrichokeslam (Chokeslam)^[1] – 2002–2003
• Nightmare on Helms Street (WCW / WWE) / Eye of the Hurricane (WWF/E)^[3] (Modified high speed spinning headlock elbow drop)
• Shining Apprentice^[1] (Modified shining wizard) – Late 2005–present; Used as a regular move from 2001–2005
• Single knee facebreaker
• Super swinging neckbreaker
• Vertebreaker^[3] (Back to back double underhook piledriver) – 2000–2002
• Diving crossbody
• Hammerlock Russian legsweep
• Inverted facelock dropped into a modified shoulderbreaker
• Missile dropkick
• Overcast / Diving neckbreaker
• Straight jacket followed into a Russian legsweep or a sitout sleeper slam
• Swinging side slam backbreaker
• Sugarsmack (WCW) / Hurri–Kick (WWF) (Superkick) – 2000–2001
• Top Spin Facebuster (Spinning fireman's carry dropped into a facebreaker knee smash)
• Underdog Drop (Inverted double underhook mat slam)
• X–Plex – 2000–2001

• Managers

• Mike Maverick^[6]
• Ivory
• "Mighty" Molly
• Super Stacy

• Entrance themes

• "Shimmy Shimmy" (Ol' Dirty Bastard; Used while as a member of the Serial Thrillers, alongside Mike Maverick in East Coast independent promotions)
• "Doin' the Joint" (Extreme Music production library) – July 2001
• "Eye of the Hurricane" (WWE Anthology) – August 2001–2005
• "Fire Storm" (Sonoton production library) – November 2005–February 2007
• "It's Time" (WWE The Music, Vol. 7) – 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)

• NWA Wildside

• NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Shannon Moore^[62]

• New Dimension Wrestling

• NDW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• NDW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mike Maverick^[63]

• Other titles

• NAPW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts

• OMEGA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Mike Maverick^[64]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him #21 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2003.^[65]

• Southeast Championship Wrestling

• SCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• SCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mike Maverick

• Southern Wrestling Alliance

• SWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[64]

• Texas Championship Wrestling

• TCW Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Lenny Lane^[64]

• World Championship Wrestling

• WCW Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)^[66]
• WCW Hardcore Championship (1 time)^1[64]

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

• Best Gimmick (2001)

¹Helms was part of the group called 3 Count, which won the title jointly, and the WCW Hardcore Championship was defended under the Freebird Rule.^[64]

• World Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Entertainment

• WWF European Championship (1 time)^[67]
• WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2 times)^[68][69]
• WWE/World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Kane (1)^[70] and Rosey (1)^[71]
• WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)^[72]

• World Wrestling Organization

• WWO Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

References

External links

• Official Website
• WWE Profile
• Hurricane Helms at MySpace

World Wrestling Entertainment employees Raw Batista • Beth Phoenix • Candice Michelle • Charlie Haas • Chris Jericho • CM Punk • Cody Rhodes • D-Lo Brown • Dolph Ziggler • Goldust • Hardcore Holly • Jamie Noble • JBL • Jerry Lawler • Jillian Hall • Jim Duggan • John Cena • JTG • Kane • Katie Lea Burchill • Kelly Kelly • Kofi Kingston • Layla • Lilian Garcia • Manu • Melina • Michael Cole • Mickie James • Mike Knox • Paul Burchill • Randy Orton • Rey Mysterio • Ron Simmons • Santino Marella • Shad • Shawn Michaels • Sim Snuka • Ted DiBiase • Val Venis • William Regal SmackDown Big Show • The Brian Kendrick • Brie Bella • Carlito • Curt Hawkins • D.H. Smith • Edge • Eve Torres • Ezekiel Jackson • Festus • The Great Khali • Hurricane Helms • Jeff Hardy • Jesse • Jim Ross • Jimmy Wang Yang • Justin Roberts • Kizarny • Kung Fu Naki • Maria • Maryse • Michelle McCool • Montel Vontavious Porter • Mr. Kennedy • Natalya • Nikki Bella • Primo • R-Truth • Ranjin Singh • Ryan Braddock • Scotty Goldman • Shelton Benjamin • Tazz • Triple H • Umaga • The Undertaker • Vickie Guerrero • Victoria • Vladimir Kozlov • Zack Ryder ECW Alicia Fox • Bam Neely • The Boogeyman • Chavo Guerrero • DJ Gabriel • Evan Bourne • Finlay • Gavin Spears • Hornswoggle • Jack Swagger • John Morrison • Mark Henry • Matt Hardy • Matt Striker • The Miz • Ricky Ortiz • Theodore Long • Tiffany • Todd Grisham • Tommy Dreamer • Tony Atlas • Tony Chimel

Persondata
NAME	Helms, Gregory
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Professional wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH	July 12, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH	Smithfield, North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH