Billy Gunn Believes Second Version Of DX Was Better Than Original
Billy Gunn has given his opinion on why the second version of D-Generation X with five members in the group was better than the original.
D-Generation X (aka DX) was formed initially in the fall of 1997 with the “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels, Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Chyna as the original three members. They also had Rick Rude hanging around with them in a suit although he would jump to WCW fairly soon after the group was formed. They were heels although their sense of humor made a lot of people like them.
After Michaels lost the WWE Title to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14 in March of 1998, he was forced to retire for about four and a half years due to serious back issues. That led to Triple H taking over as the leader.
With Triple H as the leader of the group with Chyna by his side, they added X-Pac after he jumped from WCW along with the New Age Outlaws tag team of “Bad Ass” Billy Gunn and Road Dogg. By that point, the New Age Outlaws were really hitting their stride with Road Dogg doing an elaborate catchphrase-filled entrance to introduce his team with Billy Gunn. The group’s popularity grew from there and they became the most popular act in WWE after Austin.
During that initial run of DX with the five-person group, they were very successful together winning multiple titles while also creating moments that lasted a lifetime. There were some twists and turns along the way over the next three years into 2000, but for the most part, the five-person core was very successful together.
On the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Billy Gunn (who works for AEW as a wrestler/coach) talked about how he thought the second five-person version of DX was better than the original. It should be noted too when he says he hates saying “their” names he is doing it as a joke.
“When the first two — I hate saying their names. I just hate saying their names. When Hunter and Shawn [Michaels] did it, it was something different. It was something new. It was something not wrestling, but it’s on a wrestling show, but it caught on because of the personalities that those two had. Those two did the same thing.”
“They fed off each other and did some silly stuff. And were — oh, this is gonna hurt, but they were pretty good. I know, that hurts so bad. I’m gonna need a lot of counseling after this show. But I think when Shawn went away, and I’m gonna hold to this to this day, DX did not get good until me and Brian got on there till we were in it.”
When he says Brian, Gunn is referring to Road Dogg, whose real name is Brian James.
Billy Gunn went on to further explain his point saying that there was a different dynamic with five people in the group.
“Because now you have five people, and it’s a whole different dynamic. Now you have everybody and anybody that could do everything and anything. And everybody played their parts so good. And as a unit, we were just unstoppable and still doing the entertaining stuff. And just doing more wrestling stuff.”
D-Generation X was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a group in 2019 with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Road Dogg, X-Pac and Billy Gunn there to accept while honoring their late friend Chyna as well.