X Pac

X PAC

X-Pac
Real Name: Sean Waltman
Height: 6'1
Weight: 210
Also Known As: The "Lightning Kid"; The "1-2-3 Kid"; Syxx; The "Cannonball Kid"; The "Kamikaze Kid"; "The Kid".
Titles Held: Tag Team (2); European (2).
Contract Details: Expires March 2002.
Major Injuries: Waltman suffered a ruptured disk between the fifth and sixth vertebrae in his neck and underwent delicate surgery in late 1997. It is this injury that has seen him on the shelf for extended periods of time.
Sean Waltman made his pro debut in 1990 at the age of 18. It didn't take long for his rubber ball athletic style to make an impact on the professional wrestling scene and he was picked up by various independents before heading to the "Big 2". To understand why Waltman was given so much to begin with you have to understand the incredible athleticism, resiliency and dedication Waltman gave to his craft. He was an example of someone who wanted something so badly for so long that he pretty much dedicated his entire life to it. This kind of attitude made a big impact on the WWF then and Waltman was given considerable chances to shine. And shine he did. The WWF hooked him up in a feud with Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) and forced Hall to job to Waltman on Raw. This set Waltman up. As the "1-2-3 Kid" Waltman and Hall went through a huge feud which was well done and which resulted in one of the funniest matches I've seen where the match stipulation was that the loser had to be diapered like a baby. Hall won and covered Waltman with talcum powder, put the diaper on him and shoved an oversized bottle in his mouth. It was most amusing. Anyway, Hall and Waltman ended up teaming up after their extensive feud in a move that was good for both their careers. The "Razor Ramon" character was way over the "1-2-3 Kid" was a big baby face. Anyway, as these things happen, Waltman turned on Hall and joined Ted Dibiase's "Million Dollar Corporation". And they feuded again. Sort of reminds me of the 'Taker/Kane saga. One minute they're together, the next they're feuding and so on. All that feuding came to a halt, though when Waltman left the WWF unexpectedly. I'm not quite sure if he was released or if he asked for his release. Prior to Waltman's departure, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (Diesel) had jumped ship to WCW for a lighter workload and more money. It seems that Waltman decided to join them. His new character in WCW was "Syxx" which is actually a pretty cool name. Whoever came up with it added 1+2+3 together to come up with 6 and hence "Syxx". A stroke of genius on WCW's behalf. But that's as far as the genius went in WCW. The pulled some pretty stupid stuff with Waltman and screwed him around a lot. He was a part of the original nWo and jumped on the big pushes for the newly arrived Hall and Nash to get the Cruiserweight title. His neck injury forced him out for a while and it was while he was out that he was fired from WCW. Much was made of the fact the Eric Bischoff sent him a letter telling him he was fired. "I was fired through the f*cking post" Waltman was heard to say repeatedly. Then he was re-hired. He came back as a member of the nWo again until Bischoff not only kicked him out of the nWo, but booted him out of WCW as a "message" to Hall and Nash. That part was probably work, but Hall and Nash were pissed about it then and in a recent interview, Hall said he was still pissed about the way WCW had treated Waltman. Even so, I'd say that part of it was that Waltman got sick of being treated like crap by WCW and requested his release. Bischoff being the bonehead that he is, granted it and worked his leaving into storylines. Waltman quickly signed a four year deal with the WWF and made his reappearance on the Raw after Wrestlemania XIV when he showed up to join Triple H's newly reformed DeGeneration X as X-Pac. He had a beard and according to the WWF "a new mean attitude". The phrase "The kid has grown up" was bandied around a lot. Perhaps they were referring to Shawn Michaels. Just kidding. DX jumped into feuds with The Nation and X-Pac himself had a fun feud with Jeff Jarrett which cumulated in a "Hair vs Hair" match. Jarrett lost and X-Pac got to shave his head on live TV. It was a great match. X-Pac started to concentrate on the European title which was a pretty decent little title until Shane McMahon was allowed to carry it off and turn it into a joke. It's starting to regain some of its deserved reputation now, thank goodness. Anyway, X-Pac beat D'Lo for the title in a good match. Both D'Lo and Waltman are good workers, so they are able to pull off interesting matches. Soon after this, Waltman was reportedly injured at "In Your House: Breakdown" during a tag team match up against Jeff Jarrett. I think the injury was reported as "eye damage", and Waltman dropped the title soon after to D'Lo. I don't know how much of a work the injury was, as it is well known around the wrestling scene that Waltman has a few suspected drug problems which have resulted in him supposedly spending some time in rehab. This could have been one of those times, but I don't really know. X-Pac picked up the title again at "In Your House: Judgement Day". He also got a shot against the Rock for the WWF title at "Capital Carnage" in December of 1998. It was supposed to be Triple H's shot, but as Capital Carnage was Helmsley's first match back after his knee injury he and Waltman swapped matches. Waltman did a pretty good job against the Rock and the match ended in the Rock winning by DQ. This whole match started a feud between DX and the Corporation. If you haven't seen the WWF release "DeGeneration X" which charts all the cool bits of DX, go rent it or buy it (it's only $14.95 for those of you who are cheap). It gives a lot of insight into DX and X-Pac's arrival. If you ask me, X-Pac looks totally stoned in his segments. Anyway, X-Pac still held the European Title when Shane McMahon started getting interested in it. On the Raw after the St Valentines Day Massacre, X-Pac and Triple H faced off against Kane and Shane. The match stipulation was that whoever pinned or forced X-Pac to submit got the European Title that X-Pac was currently holding. Chyna had dumped Helmsley before this match so she helped Shane win. I'm not sure why Waltman was chosen to be the one to fight match after crappy match against Shane McMahon. This was the period when Vince and Shane were part of every integral storyline in the WWF and everyone was yelling "overkill! overkill!" and wishing they'd both go away. Well, not Vince. But Shane? He could go away and I'd never miss him ever again. The whole Shane McMahon-X-Pac-European Title thing irritated me. Before it was over though, X-Pac demanded a rematch against Shane and it was around this time that the "Mean Street Posse" started getting into the act. Path-et-ic.

X-Pac got his chance after beating Chyna thanks to Triple H's pedigree. The shot was at Wrestlemania XV and X-Pac had practically won when the newly corporate Triple H and Chyna came into the ring to pedigree the hapless X-Pac and help Shane to get the win. After Triple H's defection, X-Pac stated that DX would "live on" and that he, Billy Gunn and the Road Dogg would make it great blah, blah, blah. In my opinion there is no DX without either Shawn Michaels or Hunter Hearst Helmsley. So anyway a feud between X-Pac and Triple H developed which created some really cool matches and cumulated in that totally over booked match at Backlash 1999. After that, X-Pac and Kane started teaming up and have held the titles twice to date. Their tag team was amusingly called "the big red machine and the little green degenerate".

It was a reasonable tag team and resulted in a lot of "emotional character growth" for Kane, but X-Pac did a lot of selling for Kane. Kane is a good competitor, don't get me wrong, but everytime X-Pac would get into trouble for being a "little guy" Kane would make the save with power moves and brute strength. So Kane and X-Pac have broken up, gotten back together and broken up again until it gets so that no one really gives a shit. Kane and Tori's "romance" gave X-Pac an opportunity to beat Tori up as well as Kane. Why does every guy I talk to think that Tori is ugly? I think she's quite pretty. Most of X-Pac's matches in the past few months have centered around Kane and Tori. Occasionally he teams up with Road Dogg and they pretend to do the whole DX crotch chopping attitude thing. . DX just isn't the same without him. And Road Dogg and X-Pac aren't the right too people to keep DX on track. The Road Dogg is lost for a tag team partner while the original ass himself, Billy Gunn, is out for quite some time with a shoulder injury. X-Pac has nothing going on since the feud he was having with X-Pac fizzled out. So the great creative minds at WWFE put the two together and occasionally uses them in tag team competition or in singles wrestling-without-storyline-on-Heat sort of crap. But X-Pac will come back. He's got a lot talent and even though he is a bit of a try hard, the whole "attitude" thing suits him. He works it well. A lot of people wonder if X-Pac will ever be champion and my opinion, for what it's worth, is no. X-Pac is very talented, but he's lacking...something. He's not physically impressive and right or wrong, that's something that the WWF like to see in their champions. He's also lacking a certain charisma. His mic skills are okay, but not good enough to carry him to the top. Look for him to carry on in the tag team ranks and the European title when it gains back a little of its prestige. Personal Opinion: X-Pac is clearly talented as an athlete. He's a solid performer and a crowd pleaser. I don't like his finisher, though. There's something about the "bronco buster" that just sucks.

I thought X-Pac did a lot for the European title and I'd like to see him teaching the current Euro belt contenders a thing or two. Apparently the WWF is constantly berating Waltman for the "sexual references" he makes on screen usually in the form of "sexual gestures". How ridiculous? After all, how could any gesture be more sexual than a crotch chop accompanied by the words "Suck it!"? I say bring it on. This is sports entertainment after all.

© COPYRIGHT 2000 A Hastings.