On May 19, 1996 an infamous incident occurred when Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Sean (1-2-3 Kid, X-Pac) Waltman, Kevin (Diesel) Nash and Scott (Razor Ramon) Hall broke character and embraced each other in the ring during a non-televised live event at Madison Square Garden because Hall and Nash were headed to WCW. It was an incident that angered WWE officials backstage and four of the members involved in the event spoke to WWE.com.
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According to the site, Triple H didn't appear to talk about it because the interview was conducted during the WWE Hall of Fame and Triple H was busy working.
Michaels discussed whether or not the five of them planned on breaking character in the ring.
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"It was talked about in Europe then it was never talked about again," Michaels told WWE.com. "We had done a European tour, then we came back and had this last run. For us, not that we needed a reason to celebrate something, but everything was the last time we'll be doing this, the last time we'll be doing that. Then, that night, as best as I can recall, it was Hunter coming up and going, "Hey, are we doing that thing we talked about?" I don't think anybody remembered it."
Added Nash: "I walked in and talked to Vince and Pat [Patterson]. You [points to Michaels] were with me and he said it was fine and we were supposed to go to [New York City steakhouse] Smith & Wollensky afterwards. And it just turned into a thing."
The site then asked them what they remembered about the incident itself.
"I remember standing in the ring and we're all there together," Hall told the site. "It was unheard of, but the people appreciated it. I remember looking at Kev, we're all hugging and I remember thinking we all made it."
Added Nash: "I remember - and I think we may have even said it in the ring that night - that we weren't disbanding The Kliq"
Michaels then said that he originally thought that Vince McMahon was okay with the events that unfolded.
"I remember Vince came up to me after and said, "Did that mean a lot to you?" I said, "Yes it did." "Then it meant a lot to me." And he was fine. It was fine that night," Michaels told WWE.com.
They then said the fallout began to occur days later and Nash said it "exposed the business."
"It was not a big deal until it became a big deal," Michaels said. "It didn't become a big deal to us until it became a big deal to Vince. What happened was the same thing that happened a lot of times - [Mr. McMahon] on the ride to wherever, getting phone calls. Honestly, it was big to the old timers in the locker room before it was big anywhere else."
Nash added that the situation wasn't "done with malice" while Waltman said they were ahead of their time with their actions.
"We had that different mentality before everyone else caught up," Waltman told the site. "We can do this and it's not going to hurt the business."
Added Michaels: "We were of the mindset that people understood what the business was, the entertainment aspect. All the stuff we do now we were trying to convince them to do back then. You know, pull the veil back a little bit. Everybody knew we were all real friends. We didn't see the harm in doing that."
Hall then looked at it from the perspective of other Superstars around the locker room.
"On the other side of the coin, I understand the talent that was still there thinking, 'What's with these dudes? They're leaving and they're trying to hurt us,'" Hall said. "That wasn't the way it was. Sorry, man, we stayed out there a long time because the fans were cheering. Had they not cheered, we'd have left. It became really emotional."
Nash then said all he needed was the four friends he had in the locker room.
"We had five of us. I don't need more than four friends," Nash said.
The full interview can be read here.
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