Sean Waltman On The Big Winners Coming Out Of WWE NXT WarGames, Fans Believing In Rhea Ripley, More
WWE Hall of Famer Sean "X-Pac" Waltman discussed the WWE NXT "Takeover: WarGames 2019" event on the latest episode of his X-Pac 12360 podcast. You can find the episode above, or download it via Apple and Spotify. The show also sent us highlights, found below.
Regarding the big Takeover event on Saturday night, Waltman said Keith Lee and Rhea Ripley were the big winners coming out of the event.
"Keith Lee really stood out to me in this match," Waltman said. "He did a lot of really cool stuff in the match and it fit. To me of this recent last couple of weeks, Rhea Ripley and Keith Lee are the big winners, the biggest winners. Everyone's a winner, but to me those two are overnight sensations."
Waltman talked more about Ripley and why she's getting over with the fans. Waltman said fans buy what is being sold to them. He recalled how Ripley got a huge pop at a NXT live event in Florida that he attended last month.
"It's more than them just trying to portray it that way," Waltman said of Ripley getting over with fans. "It's the people that are buying it that way, you can try and push something on people and they are going to buy it or they're not. They buy her. I mean in a huge way. It's barely gotten started. So when I was down at NXT last month and they had, it's called the Coconut Show run, it's all the local Florida [shows], when they stay in Florida for their live events. So on one of those she came out unannounced and she got the biggest pop of anyone on the entire show and it wasn't even close, it was insane, it's just one of those things where you go. 'Oh s–t, this is indicator right here.' I mean lets be honest, she was blessed with some amazing genetics. She is a big girl, a big strong girl. You see her stand toe-to-toe with [NXT Women's Champion] Shayna [Baszler] and you're like, 'Okay, yeah.'"
Waltman also discussed the Finn Balor vs. Matt Riddle match at Takeover and said he's ready for more of the feud.
"You can't just bring everybody over and just beat everybody and just to try and say, 'See our NXT guys are on the same level.' It's Finn Balor," Waltman continued. "If you're gonna lose a match, Finn Balor is just fine to lose a match to. I don't really think this f–ks with Matt's momentum or anything. They had a great match and I am ready for more of Balor and Matt Riddle. That's what makes you care about the match. Like okay, none of these guys can really afford to lose. It was hard to call, I had no idea, no idea which way they were gonna go with that. I guess if I had to put money on it honestly I would have said, 'Okay they're going to put Balor over.' Because I think they are trying to get him ready for Adam Cole, maybe?"