MSG Incident The Kliq ( sometimes spelled as Clique ) was a backstage group in the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) during the mid - 1990s , which some claim held substantial booking power , were shown favortism by owner Vince McMahon and were accused of refusing to be fair to anyone outside of the group . The group was composed of Shawn Michaels , Kevin " Diesel " Nash , Scott " Razor Ramon " Hall , Sean " 1 - 2 - 3 Kid " Waltman , and Paul " Triple H " Levesque . In 1996 , The Kliq broke character at a house show at Madison Square Garden in an incident referred to as the " Curtain Call " , an event which affected the WWF ' s subsequent storylines and development . The Kliq was also the primary catalyst for the two most controversial stables in wrestling history : nWo in WCW and DX in the WWF . History . Formation and early history . The Kliq was formed from real - life friends Shawn Michaels ( real name Michael Hickenbottom ) , Kevin Nash ( who wrestled as " Diesel " ) , Scott Hall ( then known as " Razor Ramon " ) , Sean Waltman ( who performed as " The 1 - 2 - 3 Kid " ) , and Paul Levesque ( known then as Hunter Hearst Helmsley ) . By 1995 , they had a heavy influence on the booking power — the power to schedule and decide who wins matches — in the WWF . Aldo Montoya was also close friends with the group and is sometimes referred to as a member . Michaels claims that the name " The Kliq " was originally coined by Lex Luger , due to the closeness of the five friends backstage . At the suggestion of Vince Russo , Michaels began referring to his fans as his " Kliq " . Michaels disliked the idea , and claimed that it " was not a huge hit " with the fans . In October 1995 , The Kliq complained about a decision to let Shane Douglas ( wrestling as Dean Douglas ) win the WWF Intercontinental Championship from Michaels at . Expanding upon a legit injury , Michaels was booked to forfeit the title to Douglas ( sparing Michaels having to put Douglas over ) , but then Douglas had to lose it to fellow Kliq member Scott Hall ( Razor Ramon ) . Douglas was so enraged by the events that he threatened to sue the company and went to work for the rival promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling . Another incident occurred shortly after at a live event in Montreal , Quebec , Canada involving Carl Ouellet , who was working under the name Jean - Pierre Lafitte . Lafitte was booked to win a match against then - WWF Champion Kevin Nash , as Montreal was Lafitte ' s hometown . Shortly before the match , however , Lafitte was involved in a backstage argument with Michaels as Lafitte did not want to make Nash look good by losing to him . The match between the two ended in a double - countout . In his book , Michaels said that " we buried him " as he did not want to put Nash over . Lafitte was released soon after . Contrary to rumors , Michaels also stated that WWF Chairman Vince McMahon did not fire Lafitte . Bret Hart claims in his autobiography , " Hitman " , that he was actually asked if he wanted to be part of the group , as his relationship with Michaels was far less adversarial back then : " The thing I remember most about that tour was Shawn , Razor , and Nash talking to me in Hamburg about the idea of forming a clique of top guys who strictly took care of their own . " Hart declined the offer . Curtain Call : The MSG Incident . One of the more talked - about actions involving The Kliq took place on May 19 , 1996 at Madison Square Garden . At the time , Hall and Nash were about to leave the WWF for rival WCW . At a major WWF live event , Levesque ( as the villain ous Helmsley ) wrestled the fan favorite Scott Hall ( as Razor Ramon ) . Later that night , Michaels , then a fan favourite , wrestled Nash ( as the heel Diesel ) in a steel cage match . Immediately after the match , Scott Hall entered the ring and hugged Michaels , which is not seen as a problem as both were fan favorites at the time . However , Levesque joined the hug , despite working a match earlier in which he was a heel . Their actions , also dubbed the " Curtain Call " , scandalized WWF management , who at the time wanted to maintain the illusion that the antipathy between fan favorites and villains was real and that they were not friends outside the ring . WWF Chairman , Vince McMahon was reported to be initially okay with the incident , but did not expect them to take it so far . McMahon also did not expect a fan in the audience to sneak a camcorder into the event and capture the entire incident on tape , which was later procured by the WWF and aired on the October 6 , 1997 episode of " Raw is War " by Michaels and Levesque who , in storyline , used the footage to irritate McMahon . Because Michaels was the WWF Champion at the time and was one of the promotion ' s biggest drawing cards , he could not be punished . Hall and Nash were soon to leave for WCW , so they also escaped punishment . The punishment fell solely on Levesque , who was demoted from being a championship contender to wrestling inexperienced or lesser experienced wrestlers . The Undertaker stated in " HHH : The Game " DVD that when Levesque first arrived in the WWF , he saw him as an arrogant person who only looked out for himself , but when Levesque took his punishment and did not complain , he earned his respect . This punishment turned out to have a major impact on the WWF ' s future . Before the " MSG Incident " , Levesque had been booked into the finals of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament during the following summer , but his place - and the push that usually went with it - would instead go to Steve Austin , igniting his and helped the WWF defeat WCW in the Monday Night Wars . Levesque ' s punishment only delayed his rise to prominence in the business , as he would go on to win the following year ' s King of the Ring tournament and later went on to become a thirteen time world champion , beginning with his WWF Championship victory over Mick Foley the night after SummerSlam in 1999 . The nWo and D - Generation X . Because WWF officials disliked the Kliq and their influence in booking matches , Hall and Nash ' s contracts were allowed to expire to break up the group . When Hall and Nash went to WCW , they formed the New World Order ( nWo ) stable , along with Hulk Hogan . When Waltman later jumped to WCW , he also joined the nWo . Many fans criticized Kevin Nash for his booking tenure in WCW since it displayed the same self - promoting behavior associated with The Kliq on an even larger scale . Fans often pointed to Nash booking for himself to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from the then - undefeated Goldberg and the subsequent " Fingerpoke of Doom " as the most grievous of his " offenses " . Nash , however , claims that he did not have booking power at the time of the incident . Meanwhile , Levesque and Michaels began to persuade WWF management to let them pair up on screen , but management was hesitant and wanted to keep The Kliq separated on - screen . They , however , eventually aligned together in the faction D - Generation X ( DX ) , alongside Chyna . DX eventually became as influential to the Monday Night Wars as the nWo . DX ' s antics also went on to help spark The Attitude Era in the WWF . After Sean Waltman was fired from WCW , he was hired by WWF and joined DX , replacing the injured Michaels . The nWo ' s hand sign , often referred to as the " Wolf Head " , was originally used by the Kliq members in the WWF . In the nWo , Hall and Nash brought the hand sign with them , and it became widely used by the nWo members and fans worldwide . During a brief period in 1998 , after Waltman ' s return to the WWF as X - Pac , D - Generation X made numerous references to their friends in the WCW ( though mostly not referencing WCW itself by name ) in their non - match and pre - match appearances and speeches . They even went so far as to stage a protest / paramilitary take - over of the Norfolk Scope , where an episode of " WCW Monday Nitro " was taking place ( on that same night , " Monday Night Raw " was emanating from nearby Hampton , Virginia ) . Triple H , riding in a Humvee , chanted " Let our people go ! " through a megaphone during the incident . Sean Waltman also called out " we just wanted to say hey to our buddies Hall and Nash " during the WCW invasion segment . But any hope of Nash and Hall jumping ship to the WWF did not materialize until WCW eventually folded . In 2002 , after WCW had gone out of business , the nWo was reformed in the WWF with Hall , Nash and Hogan , the group ' s initial members . Hogan soon left the group after being attacked by Nash and Hall as a result of his turning into a fan favorite at WrestleMania X8 . Other former members , including Big Show and Waltman , joined the group . Later , Shawn Michaels — after years away from the ring — was introduced by Kevin Nash as the newest member of the nWo , and Michaels promised the rest of the group that he would soon deliver Triple H . Shortly thereafter , Nash suffered a torn quadriceps ( after returning the same night after time off due to a biceps injury ) during a ten - man tag - team match , and the following week Vince McMahon disbanded the nWo . Eric Bischoff ( acting as the " Raw " brand General Manager ) later tried to make Michaels Triple H ' s manager . This led to a short - lived reformation of DX , as Triple H turned on him the same night , setting off a long and heated feud that took approximately two years to resolve . The year after , Nash returned from injury as a fan favorite and sided with Michaels against Evolution ( Triple H , Ric Flair , Batista and Randy Orton ) . Recent Formations . On more than one occasion since these events , Michaels and Triple H have reformed D - Generation X , they first returned together for a match at the Vengeance 2006 pay - per - view event in a 5 - on - 2 Handicap match , versus the Spirit Squad ( Kenny , Johnny , Mitch , Nicky , and Mikey ) . In this match , Triple H and Michaels won the match after pinning Kenny and Mikey , respectively . Since that time the two captured the World Tag Team Championships the first Tag Team title reign for Triple H and Shawn Michaels ( as a tag team ) . D - Generation X would later go on to disband in March 2010 ( after losing the Tag Team Titles to The Big Show & The Miz ) . Michaels would then focus heavily on ending the winning steak of The Undertaker at Wrestlemania , having failed to do so at WrestleMania XXV , he would put his career on the line for their second Wrestlemania encounter at WrestleMania XXVI which he would go on to lose and therefore end his career . Whereas Hall , Nash and Waltman ( now working for TNA Wrestling ) would reform the nWo , in a stable called The Band , where Hall and Nash won the TNA World Tag Team Championship , but Scott Hall and Waltman were released shortly after .