In its latest episode, “With Six Feet Under The Undertakerpodcast, Mark Callaway sat down with Shawn “X-Pac” Waltman, where the two looked back on their early years in the wrestling industry. Both recalled how poorly wrestling paid in the beginning, making travel difficult, so sleeping in the airport the night before a flight was just part of keeping the dream alive.
“Paying those few dues was so important and never forgetting that you’re always one day away from coming back,” Calloway recalls, noting how volatile it was to make your mark in the industry back then. Although things are different today, Callaway believes there was something to be learned from the experience. “I think some of these guys are missing some of the craziness because they don’t have to do it.”
Callaway compared the whole concept to a double-edged sword, something Waltman agreed with. Waltman also expressed how grateful he is that wrestlers today don’t have to go through the things they did, while admitting that those experiences shaped him as a wrestler, noting how long it took him to make it in professional wrestling, specifically; the night he defeated Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) as the 1-2-3 Kid in 1993..
“The second most important moment of my career so far. there is such a gap between that (moment) and “1-2-3 kid”. It’s not even funny,” he pointed out, suggesting that the years between his breakthrough as the 1-2-3 Kid and his later career as X-Pac were “years to pay.”
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