Sean Waltman Talks Working With Shane McMahon At WrestleMania XV, Being Pushed As The 1-2-3 Kid

Sean Waltman discussed his career with Inside The Ropes this past Thursday as he promoted the Viva L.A Lucha Kickstarter campaign (details available here). Highlights from the interview are as follows:

On his huge promotion upon his arrival to the WWF in 1993 as the 1-2-3 Kid, compared to talent receiving opportunities today: "Okay, they were pushing me, but this is what I don't understand. There's some guys now who are getting their opportunities and doing a lot with them, but you can't push something that doesn't propel itself. Sometimes you're limited to what you are talent wise. My angle was really unique when I came in. Usually a guy would come in with vignettes and then win some squash matches and get over that way. They seemed to have a well thought out plan for me. Plus the angle with Razor and I was the first storyline they ran on Raw so that was pretty cool."

On being told he's working with Shane McMahon at WrestleMania XV: "I didn't like it going in, I was expecting to have this big WrestleMania match. But back then If something wasn't my idea, I didn't like it, even if it was a good one. I was a bit of a spoiled brat at the time. I remember thinking I wanted to have a really good WrestleMania match, but how was I gonna do that with somebody that'd never had a match before, but I told Vince y'know, he listens to me and I'll do it but it's my way. And the agreement was he'd do the job (laughs). But the overall picture of why we did the finish of the match, you know Hunter turned on me and a lot of good things came out of that. My team with Kane came out of that, Hunter's big first championship run kinda came from that. I thought Shane did an amazing job, he really did. He rented the St Paul Civic Center, it had this little building that held 3-4,000 people called the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, he rented that and had someone in Detroit drive a ring and set it up in this empty building, so I'd go there and work out a match with him for WrestleMania. I wasn't going anywhere on my days off. I thought that was really going above and beyond, sending a ring to Detroit, Shane and I ended up being pretty tight."

Whether he watches TNA: "You know what I should, I really should, but I don't. I don't know why or what it is but it just doesn't feel like must see TV to me."

Thoughts on going down to NXT: "From where it was a couple of years ago it's so much better, so much better. I actually think quite often it's the best thing on TV. Sometimes I think the best stuff comes off of that show. Triple H is working closely with that too. "

Waltman also discusses Bob Backlund, Kane, WCW, The Kliq and more. The full interview is available here.