Sean Waltman Recalls How Low His WWE Pay Got At Times

Sean "X-Pac" Waltman recently held a "Ask X-Pac" episode on his podcast X-Pac 12360 where fans got to ask the WWE Hall of Famer whatever questions they wanted. One question that he was asked was why he left WWE for WCW.

"The money was bad at the time, but I really think if I was creatively satisfied, I would have stayed," Waltman revealed. "I wouldn't even think about leaving. I would have tried to keep asking for a raise. I never even thought about leaving when creative was good, even when money was tough or bad. It was bad at one point.

"There was a point where we used to get draws on the road and a draw is a cash advance. When business got bad, $200 was the limit you could get and sometimes, if you didn't get the $200 draw, you might have got $150 on your check. So, yeah, it was tough like that, especially on the Florida runs."

Waltman also explained his relationship with Vince McMahon. He discussed how he was always able to talk to Vince, but he admitted that there was some intimidation when talking to him as well.

"I mean, I'm not in Vince's head. So, this is the way it seemed to me," Waltman prefaced. "He saw the value in me at the level he was using me at. Some of that had to do with my outside the ring antics, my substance issues, and different things like that. If it wasn't for being kind of connected, the whole Kliq thing, may or may not have to put up with a lot of that from me to be honest with you. Then again, other people had just as much bad problems as I did or worse. They were used just fine, creatively.

"It definitely took from me to leave and make my own way somewhere else to get Vince to look at me in the light that I so desperately wanted. My good relationship with Vince, he was always open and willing to talk to me, but I was really intimidated at one point for quite a long time. It all worked out in your head like, 'Okay, this is what I'm going to do when I get in there'. Then, once you get in there, that sh-t's out the f–king window. I even told him one time, 'I come in here and once I get in here, there's this power dynamic thing'."

Touching more on The Kliq, Waltman talked about if he was in contact with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall or if he made the WCW deal with Eric Bischoff. He talked about his contract situation at the time and how he was supposed to debut earlier than when he did.

"I tell the story quite a bit, but I'll touch on it again. I was the first one," Waltman noted. "I was supposed to be the first one to go, but I let my contract roll over and Barry Bloom handled all of that. I didn't talk to Eric until I was supposed to debut at Sturgis. I got there, and WWF just sent the release for Linda's office and they didn't like the wording of it. So, I didn't debut. It was a little bit later and they never changed the wording. Finally, WCW just kind of said, 'Okay'."

Waltman also compared his relationship with Bischoff and McMahon. He stated that his relationship with Bischoff was "standoffish", but he noted that they had a friendly relationship but not like the one he had with McMahon.

"I had this energy I got from Eric when I was there. It was a little but standoffish," Waltman described. "It's not like we didn't get along, but always had that in the back of my mind. It wasn't like with Vince, but it was a little weird."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit X-Pac 12360 with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.