THE KLIQ

The Kliq was a powerful WWF backstage faction that consisted of Kevin Nash, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall & X-pac.

THE MSG INCIDENT

The "MSG Incident" is considered the KLIQ's most infamous moment. Disobeying orders from WWF road agents, members of the KLIQ hugged in the ring at a May 1996 WWF show at Madison Square Garden to commemorate the WWF departures of two Kliq members.

X-pac was out with an injury and not present. The other four guys were split evenly across heel/face lines. Michaels and Hall were faces, Nash and HHH were heels. Nash and Hall were slated to leave the WWF just days later, and the four worked against each other at the show (Michaels vs. Nash in the main event, Hall vs. HHH in an undercard match).

When Michaels won the Steel Cage match, Hall and Triple H made run-ins, and all four men decided to "hug and make up" in center ring. It was considered an unspeakable breach of "Kayfabe" and WWF brass were reportedly very upset that the real-life friends would make a public display of their relationship, when they were supposed to be enemies in the storylines.

THE KLIQ GROUPS

After they went their separate ways, Hall & Nash formed the nWo in WCW and Shawn & Triple H formed D-generation X in the WWF. Meanwhile X-Pac first joined The nWo, then he joined D-generation X and in 2001 he formed the X-factor with Justin Credible, who used to hang out with the kliq, and Albert. Both the nWo and DX were very influential and very successful. The X-factor was a BIG failure.

THE KLIQ/nWo ANGLE

-PRELUDE- On February 2002, Hall & Nash came back to the WWF as the nWo. Things had changed though, back in the Kliq days Shawn & Nash were Main Event performers, Scott Hall was top player in the business, while X-pac and Triple H were mid-carders. Now Shawn was retired, Nash was no longer in his prime, Triple H was the op guy in the WWF and Scott Hall had ongoing personal problems and had not wrestled a full time schedule for almost four years.

As was predicted Scott Hall was eventually fired and X-pac & Shawn joined Kevin Nash's nWo.

-THE STORY/ANGLE- At the 2002 King of the Ring, Nash, Michaels & X-pac briefly reunited with Triple H and wished him luck in his world title match. Then two weeks later on a live interview, Shawn Michaels said that Triple H needed to come back home. That he needed to come back to the Kliq by joining the nWo. The interesting came when the invitation to the nWo became a threat, as Shawn said "you have two weeks to decide wether you'll make the best decision of your life or you'll make the last decision of your life". Nash ended the inerview with this: "Hunter I know you won't turn your back on family but, if you do....then what'll do to Booker, I'll do to you." Nash was referring to a match he was having that night with the nWo against Booker and his team. The plan was to have Nash totally destroy Booker T and face Triple H at Summerslam. Unfortunately, Nash got injured during the match and the angle along with the nWo were axed. These Drastic Changes made Shawn Michaels come out of retirement to face Triple H at Summerslam.