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X-Pac Takes Credit for WWE NXT, Says He'd Fit in Well There Even Now

Sean Waltman, the wrestling legend known as X-Pac, Syxx-Pac, and the 1-2-3 Kid, appeared on WWE's The Bump live stream ahead of NXT Takeover: In Your House. We've transcribed his comments, and here's what he had to say. X-Pac talked about turning on Razor Ramon on Raw when he came back after injuring his neck at the first In Your House in 1995. X-Pac was originally meant to tag with Razor Ramon against Jeff Jarrett and The Roadie (Road Dogg), but due to the injury, the 123 Kid was replaced by Savio Vega and when X-Pac returned, he turned against Ramon. X-Pac was asked whether his neck injury changed the course of his career. "I think so. I was trying to think back. I can't remember how far in advance we talked about the turn, but that was also, that gave Savio Vega his break. He got to replace me on that. So that was great for him, and he was great in it."

Discussing parallels between his own career and the career of Johnny Gargano and Candice LaRea, X-Pac admitted there are some similarities. "Obviously, I didn't have a Candice with me at the time, but for sure. Some people might compare my style, for what it was at the time, with what Johnny has done. I gotta take my hat off for Johnny. They looked at me as the underdog, and Johnny's a smaller competitor, but I don't think he's really looked at like the big underdog like I was. He's smaller, but he goes in there toe-to-toe and no one's going, 'I don't know if he can pull it off.'"

X-Pac praised Damian Priest when asked if there's a particular superstar with whose progress he's most impressed. "I gotta say this because I used to train with him a bit at the Monster Factory, Damian Priest," he said. "He's one of my guys. Hugely impressed with him. Honestly, he's one of my favorites. I think I'm just so impressed with that guy right now."

And when asked if NXT embodies the same spirit as his in-ring workrate and whether he would want to be a part of it if he was still wrestling today, X-Pac said, "When I came to WWE in 1993, no one was doing that style. There were some smaller guys that had been there in the past, but I kinda brought a different style with me and I'd like to think that really helped shape things like NXT. I think I'd fit in really well there, even right now."

Asked if he'd rather get in the ring with Keith Lee or Johnny Gargano, he said, "I was really good at wrestling the bigger guys. The Kanes. The Bam Bam Bigelows. I wrestled Big Show a lot. Yokozuna. So I just don't know. I think I would do really well with either one of those guys for different reasons. I'm a huge fan of both though. I'm a huge Keith Lee fan."

X-Pac also talked about why Shawn Michaels and HBK are so good at running NXT. "I'm gonna make it real short and sweet," X-Pac said. "They're openminded. They're not caught up in this, 'uhhh, this stuff nowadays, back in my day it was all better.' They take the young talent, all of these guys and women that are coming into NXT, a lot of them have previous experience and they've done great in building themselves up before they got there. But Shawn, Hunter, and a lot of the people that are there mentoring them there, they take what these guys have and then they sprinkle in some of the wisdom that we have to offer and it's just an amazing recipe."

Taking a look back at his career, X-Pac was asked about his rivalry with D-Lo Brown. "Back when we were doing a lot of live events, we worked with each other on a nightly basis," said X-Pac. "One of those times that I won that European title from him, we had to call an audible on the fly, where he came up off the top rope and I caught him with the X-Factor in mid-air. That was all on the fly and that's how good he was."

But was the European title given the respect it deserved? Asked if WWE crapped on the title, X-Pac denied it was true while he was the champ. "Before that, Shawn Michaels has held it. Triple H had held it. Owen Hart had held it. Those are all big-time players. So them not taking care of that Championship, I think that came after me. I think that was still a pretty good title. Shane McMahon, he beat me for it. So I was really proud of that."

Finally, X-Pac was asked to choose who would win between Finn Balor and Damian Priest, and he turned on his old training buddy. "Earlier, I was saying I was a huge fan of Priest, but sorry Damian, I think Balor's gonna take it. I just think that's what's gonna happen. It's gonna be excellent though, because Damian Priest, and both of those guys. I'm a huge fan of both of those guys."

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