Gregory Helms, Part 1

Ring name(s) Gregory Helms,Greg Helms,Shane Helms,Hurricane Helms,The Hurricane
Billed height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Billed weight 213 lb (97 kg)
Born July 12, 1974,Smithfield, North Carolina
Billed from Raleigh, North Carolina
Trained by Self Trained
Debut July 6, 1991

Gregory Shane Helms (born July 12, 1974) is an American professional wrestler, performing for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its SmackDown! brand. 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.

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.

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. Along the way, he had another name change to Hurricane Helms, but found little success until he began using The Hurricane character.

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 in the locker room he would dress as a 1950s reporter 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, but given his comparatively small size,comically couldn't even pick the other wrestlers up. As "The Hurricane", Helms would defeat Matt Hardy for the WWF European Championship on August 21, 2001. He would eventually lose the title to Bradshaw a couple of months later. He later picked up a sidekick, as the former Molly Holly would soon become "Mighty Molly", and the two would come to the ring in a custom "Hurri-Cycle" (with Molly in the sidecar). 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. Royal Rumble 2002 was one of the Hurricane's more memorable moments of "superhuman strength", as 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.