Sean Waltman

Sean Michael Waltman (born July 13, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and martial artist.

He is currently signed to WWE under a legends contract.

He is best known for his appearances for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) under the ring names 1–2–3 Kid and X-Pac; World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Syxx; and NWA Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA) as Syxx-Pac and under his real name.

Sean Michael Waltman was born in Minneapolis on July 13, 1972.

He had a self-described troubled childhood.

He was raised by a single mother and has called himself "unsupervised from age five".

He claimed he was molested several times as a child.

He joined his school wrestling team in ninth grade, but quickly quit when they told him he needed to cut his hair in order to wrestle.

He soon dropped out of school entirely.

A love of professional wrestling and limited career opportunities led to him working in local wrestling promotions for free, setting up rings and doing other odd jobs before eventually wrestling himself.

After training under Boris Malenko, Joe Malenko, Masami Soronaka, and Karl Gotch, Waltman began his career as "The Lightning Kid".

He worked his way through various independent promotions, including Pro Wrestling America (PWA) and the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), winning the PWA Light Heavyweight title, the PWA Iron Horse TV Title and the GWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

During this time, Waltman worked extensively with Jerry Lynn in North America and Japan.

During this time, he was part of The Kliq, a backstage group that was known for their influence on WWF storylines in the 1990s.

He is recognized by WWE as the only wrestler to have been "an active member of both the nWo and DX during their heydays" in the 1990s.

While working for Larry Sharpe and Dennis Coralluzzo's WWA Promotion on November 28, 1992, in Clementon, New Jersey, his opponent "The Kamikaze Kid" Bill Wilcox overshot a suicide dive and landed on Waltman's head, driving it to the concrete and causing a blood clot near his brain.

He was hospitalized for three days, could not work for four months, and was advised to give up wrestling completely.

Waltman began his career in the WWF in 1993, where he performed under several monikers as a jobber, until he was branded the 1-2-3 Kid after an upset victory over Razor Ramon on Raw.

They often wrestled each other, but also teamed up to win the PWA Tag Team titles twice in 1993.

He also appeared in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Top of the Super Juniors in 1993, facing the likes of Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Jushin Liger.

As The Lightning Kid, Waltman had his WWF tryout match in Phoenix, Arizona, in April 1993, the day after WrestleMania IX, lost to fellow hopeful Louie Spicolli (soon known as Rad Radford in the WWF).

He reminisced that he was lucky to have an opponent with a vested interest in an impressive match, rather than (as was then typical) a disinterested WWF veteran jobber like Virgil or Jim Powers.

After earning a contract, he made his television debut as "The Kamikaze Kid" on Monday Night Raw on May 3 (taped April 26), losing to Doink the Clown.

He quickly became "The Cannonball Kid", losing to Mr. Hughes.

He then became simply "The Kid", scoring an upset pinfall on Razor Ramon on the May 17, 1993, episode of Monday Night Raw, thus becoming "The 1–2–3 Kid".

Razor challenged him to a rematch, wagering $2,500, then $5,000 and finally $10,000 of his own money.

Kid accepted the challenge, but grabbed the money and ran from the arena during the match.

Ted Dibiase, who was feuding with Razor, taunted him over losing to a nobody and losing his $10,000.

This angered Kid, and led to a match in which he upset Dibiase as well.

Razor turned face shortly after and took Kid under his wing.

The 1–2–3 Kid made his pay-per-view debut at SummerSlam, losing to Dibiase's tag partner Irwin R. Schyster after Razor had defeated Dibiase.

As 1-2-3 Kid, he held the WWF Tag Team Championship twice and challenged Bret Hart for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in July 1994 in what was ranked by WWE as the third-best match ever aired on Raw.

During the Monday Night Wars, Waltman left the WWF in 1996 to join Kliq members Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (formerly known as Razor Ramon) as Syxx in WCW, and held the WCW World Tag Team Championship with them as part of the New World Order (nWo), as well as becoming a one-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion.

After being released from WCW in 1998, he returned to the WWF during its Attitude Era, where he was re-branded as D-Generation X (DX) member X-Pac and held the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and WWF European Championship twice each, while also holding the WWF Tag Team Championship two more times while paired with Kane.

After WCW went out of business in 2001, X-Pac held the WCW Cruiserweight and WWF Light Heavyweight Championships simultaneously during The Invasion, before departing the company after a brief nWo reunion the following year.

He subsequently performed sporadically for several promotions, notably TNA (where he became a one-time TNA X Division Champion and was a member of The Band), and on the independent circuit.

Waltman has won a dozen championships between WWE, WCW, and TNA, the majority being cruiserweight and tag team titles.

He is the only wrestler to have held the TNA X Division Championship, the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, and the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

He was the final WWF Light Heavyweight Champion before the title was retired in favor of the Cruiserweight Championship he simultaneously held.

Additionally, he is a two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee and the only inductee to be inducted two years in a row (2019 and 2020) as a member of DX and the nWo respectively.