Sean Waltman On WWE Possibly Honoring All Living NWO Members At The HOF, Past Heat With Ric Flair

WWE Hall of Famer Sean "X-Pac" Waltman appeared on the Notsam Wrestling podcast with Sam Roberts this week. You can see the full podcast above, or download it via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, notsam.com, and other podcast platforms. The show also sent us quotes from the interview, which you can find below.

Waltman will be going into the WWE Hall of Fame for a second time in 2020 as he and the nWo will be inducted. When WWE announced the induction, they noted that the "four core members" of the super stable will be honored – Waltman, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash. There's been a lot of talk about how Waltman, who came in as Syxx, wasn't the 4th member of the group. He addressed this during the interview and said he wished it wasn't worded like that.

"I wish they wouldn't have put it that way," Waltman said. "Like the fourth original member. Because like, it took me a while to get there. Originally it might have ended up that I was the first person to show up and then you know, Scott and then Kevin. That's how it very well may have if, if I hadn't missed my window of opportunity on my 90 day notice."

Sam asked Waltman the story behind the jump to WCW, and if the "collective thinking" was that Hall and Nash left WWE for WCW, and then Waltman followed suit.

"OK, yeah, and that's how it happened," Waltman said. "But what happened is, I was out here in LA and I met with super agent Barry Bloom about some movie roles, potential movie roles. And, you know, he brought up to me, you know, everything going on with WCW and Bischoff getting the power of the purse. And uh, we had never thought, we never thought about leaving. We never thought about leaving. We complained a lot about conditions and business being down and you know, creative and all that, but never did we think about actually leaving, you know. And Eric said that, and I got on the phone with Scott, and that started the whole thing, just to make a long story short."

Waltman also recalled how Hall "kept him alive" while he was out with an injury.

"I don't know if you remember after I got hurt and I'm out, like, you know, every week they did the big... all the nWo guys in the ring and Hogan's talking and then Scott's doing a survey, yada yada. Like every week Scott made everyone wear a Syxx-ball shirt, like Hogan or Mach or, or Dusty, somebody shouting out to me every week, keeping me alive, keep my name alive," Waltman said. "I was away for almost a year, you know, like 10, 11 months before I showed back up at WWE, but you wouldn't have thought it because they were talking about me every week and you know, shouting me out every week. So I was still fresh on WCW TV in a way."

Roberts asked Waltman if he's thought what it would look like to have every living member of the nWo on the stage at the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Waltman said it's not a bad idea.

"That's not a bad idea at all," Waltman said. "I don't know if it's going to happen, but I definitely at least thought it would be right to mention some of the names of the people that really helped make a lot of those guys. Everyone that put on a shirt contributed."

Waltman was also asked about his favorite nWo-era opponents in WCW. He name-dropped Dean Malenko and WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, noting that he recalls having good live event matches with them. Roberts brought up how Waltman was aware that Flair "hated you in real life" and was "pissed at you just for being there," and asked how he was still able to go out and have great matches with him.

"Oh my God, it didn't matter," Waltman said. "And I didn't like him either at the time, but I loved the idea of being in there with 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair, it was amazing. That's separate man. That's Nature Boy, and he's the greatest of all time and I'm in there with him, you know."