X-Pac 1,2,360
Guest: Kevin Nash
Release Date: October 12, 2017
Recap By: Sean McGraw
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Top Newsworthy Items:
- X-Pac think that if Neville walked out the way the reports say, then it was a bad decision
- X-Pac claims to be the first person to suggest that Sami Zayn should turn heel
- X-Pac and Kevin Nash think The Young Bucks don’t need the Too Sweet to get over
- Kevin Nash once saved X-Pac’s life
- Kevin Nash tells a story of when they were tripping on mushrooms
Show Rundown
Starting with the introductions, X-Pac “impresses” everyone with his “rapping skills.” Original scheduled guests were supposed to be John Morrison and Taya Valkyrie, but they will be on next week instead. Kevin Nash filled in as a last minute replacement. X-Pac says he doesn’t schedule his close friends as guests and likes to keep them in his back pocket in case he needs them.
Go around the table introducing Jimbo/Denise Salcedo/Bill Hanstock/TK Trinidad. Before he gets the show started proper, X-Pac wanted to take a minute to remember standup comic Ralphie May, who tragically passed away at the age of 45. X-Pac says that the world lost one hell of a human being in Ralphie. Ralphie was a huge wrestling fan and was a friend of his and to a lot of people. He loves Ralphie and thanks him for making people laugh and being a charitable human being. He teased a story that he didn’t want to share about Ralphie being arrested in Guam for weed.
Before they get to the news, X-Pac says he had a good time over the weekend wrestling for Big Time Wrestling. He pointed out getting to spend time with Chris Masters/Adonis, Bret Hart and his son Dallas. They spent a lot of time talking about old stories involving Owen. He’s grateful for getting to spend time with people that you just don’t see enough.
Bret seemed to be in good spirits. Pac downplays the “KLIQ didn’t like Bret” thinking. He also said that the KLIQ is five separate people with five separate minds that think independently and that he loves Bret. X-Pac confirmed that he modeled his gear after him and the “Calgary influence.” He says that Bret got soured on doing interviews because people overblow and take out of context what gets said.
6:59 – News
They discuss the rumor that Neville asked for a release and walked out on Raw. X-Pac said he wants to tread lightly because he doesn’t know the details. They talk about the conflicting Neville rumors, as to what the details were storyline-wise and if it was Neville or Kalisto who was supposed to face Enzo on Raw. Either way, it didn’t seem like Enzo was going to hold on to the belt for long anyway.
X-Pac believes they should have kept the belt on Enzo a little longer. He thinks Enzo has done well with the belt and more people have been watching the cruiserweights because of it. For all the things that people may not like about Enzo, he wants to give credit where it’s due. He doesn’t know what the official plans were and would only be speculating.
Regarding Neville, X-Pac said he talked to him a few months back and he seemed VERY frustrated with how things were going. You can be making money and paying the bills – but if you love doing this and it means as much to you as it does to someone like Neville, creative satisfaction is right up there, whether it should be or not, and it can drive you crazy if you’re creatively frustrated.
X-Pac thinks that Neville made the wrong decision by reacting instead of taking his time and letting cooler heads prevail. It’s fine if you want your release, but don’t walk out. If you do they are going to take their time and not make it easy for you. If you walk out, they win automatically because you can’t effectively change anything.
In terms of creative, anybody can go to the bosses and say anything, but it’s all in how you do it. X-Pac says that it’s important to know how to do it effectively. He admits that he did not and things came out sideways for him back then. He doesn’t know if Neville feels negatively that Enzo has brought more relevance to the division than when he did as the champion. They bring up the Bullet Club jokingly offering Neville a shirt and X-Pac says that the way this is going, if he really is trying to leave – the way that it was done – it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Next thing you know, your money is being messed and the way you pay your bills. X-Pac point out that he purposely does not call and go snooping for information and says that he’ll never do it.
16:47: Hell in a Cell discussion
Usos tag match – they say it was the best match and point out the crazy spots. (I agree with this. The way The New Day used the kendo sticks in that corner spot – trapping their opponent was very inventive and something I’ve never seen before.)
X-Pac says he loved getting whipped with kendo sticks and still has marks. He tells a story of one time he was in Mexico and the tip broke off the stick and it started ripping his skin. There was a miscommunication where he would tell his opponent if he said “more” that would mean to lay into him harder. So his opponent thought he kept saying harder when the tip was ripping the skin.
They bring up that The Usos are so much better now than where they were a year ago. They said the babyface Usos were a little boring and had gotten stale. The Usos being able to be themselves kind of freshened up the tag division as well. X-Pac is a big fan of both New Day and Usos and because of that he was afraid they’re close to jumping the shark with these two teams facing off. He also says there’s plenty more to do but they have to be clever about it.
Main event – this is one of maybe three matches that stood out to him. When asked how this match compared to him and Shane, X-Pac says that he wouldn’t compare them because of the face/heel dynamics that applied to each match. They all expressed that they were on the edge of their seats – especially with the spots on the top of the cell.
X-Pac brings up Shane’s kids smiling during the parts of the match when Owens was taunting them. He said that they should smarten the kids up to help out the performance. (I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment – especially when you plop them in the front row and have them stick out with the same outfits as Shane and give them camera time. If they’re smiling while Shane is getting beaten up it takes the viewer out of the moment.)
They talk about Sami Zayn’s involvement in the match and they liked that Zayn is going to get a heel turn. X-Pac brings up that a while back he was thinking it was a shame they weren’t really doing anything with Zayn because he’s one of the best guys there. So he texted HHH and said that they should turn Zayn heel. He says HHH totally s**t on that idea. Pac is taking credit for the idea to turn Zayn heel. X-Pac jokes that there will be negative comments for him taking credit for the idea and he could really care less. He says he doesn’t know if it’ll be a tag team situation or if this will help propel Zayn to some sort of a title shot. They bring up a Survivor Series rumor that there will be a Team Kevin vs. Team Shane/Anti-Authority vs. Authority thing and everybody seemed to be interested in seeing that.
Nash Interview
X-Pac and Nash start off with some small talk before X-Pac turns it over to the rest of the crew to ask questions, because he and Kevin could go for an hour with inside baseball talk.
Denise asks Kevin about working with TNA guys like Eric Young, Bobby Roode and AJ Styles that are now having success in WWE and if he saw their star potential back then. Nash jokes that he was instrumental in teaching them to chain wrestle which got a good laugh. He says that TNA had so much talent and it reminded him of when they got to WCW and they had Eddie and Dragon and so much young good talent and the nucleus of older veteran guys to hold them down (he didn’t mean burying them).
Nash always thought Joe was special, and when he got to NXT would be a real good opponent for Lesnar. He says Roode was solid and was surprised it took him so long to get into the fold of WWE.
Bill asks Kevin about his time in the Paparazzi in TNA. He wants to know how Alex Shelley isn’t the biggest star in the wrestling world right now. Nash says he doesn’t know and puts Shelley over for being able to do everything. X-Pac says he could see Shelley being a good fit for the fashion police (I personally think he could do it but think his deal with the Machine Guns is a better fit personality wise). Kev says he likes the Fashion Police because it feels like it isn’t written by anybody. He says there’s not enough spontaneity in the WWE.
The Young Bucks
Jimbo jumps back to TNA and asks Kev to tell the story about tagging with Eric Young against Generation Me (Young Bucks) in a house show loop. Apparently Kev would always miss a big boot and never connect and Matt (Jackson) thought he (Matt) was the one that kept messing it up. Kev says no he’s just not stiff and knows how to work which got a laugh. He says the Bucks are real talented and that they get it – they know how to work people and are heat seeking magnets.
X-Pac asks Kev about the whole cease and desist situation with The Young Bucks and them using the Too Sweet. Kev gives X-Pac credit for creating the hand gesture and showing it to the KLIQ, who then adopted it. If they want to call it Too Sweet that’s fine. He says someone threw the peace sign up before and asks if anyone’s going to get intellectual rights on that? This drew a good laugh.
X-Pac and Kev agree that they wouldn’t have heard anything if The Young Bucks hadn’t staged their invasion. Kev says that it (The Young Bucks gimmicks) keeps the NWO guys alive (relevant). X-Pac says now there’s a whole new generation of young people that can now rediscover the old stuff and he likes that. Kev compared it to The Rolling Stones probably not caring if Pearl Jam wanted to cover “Satisfaction.” He says there are no true original ideas anymore since the very beginning everything can be considered a rehash. X-Pac and Kev agree that those guys would be able to get over without doing the NWO stuff and that the gestures aren’t what makes them great.
The Royal Rumble
Denise asks if Kevin was expecting such a huge pop in the 2011 Royal Rumble. Kev says WWE did a good job keeping it a secret and goes into how in the Rumble he was up against McIntyre and Sheamus and how they were laying in and probably could have fed him a little. He didn’t care in the long run and he also didn’t mind putting over Xavier Woods in TNA. He was told that by someone that they thought he gave Woods too much and he said “Don’t you think I’ve had mine?” Kev points out that for a long time he wasn’t considered a good worker but people go back and say the opposite after watching old matches. He said “I didn’t make 20 Million dollars because I was the s**ts.”
Magic Mike
Bill asks if Kev has seen the Magic Mike live show in Vegas and when the next Magic Mike movie is coming out. Kev hasn’t seen the show but has seen Thunder Down Under twice which got a laugh. He said the air might have been turned a little low that day, which also got another laugh.
Kev was remarking how much older he was than everyone on the cast and how hard it was to maintain his physique for the shooting of the movie. He goes more in-depth into the filming of Magic Mike and that people don’t get the bigger story arc that is going on with his character in the movie in terms of some of the acting choices he made, and how he was directed in terms of going through the motions when dancing etc.
X-Pac and Kev start to talk about various times that the KLIQ members would have to take care of X-Pac after being messed up. There was a particular time where Kev keeping X-Pac’s adrenaline going saved his life and that when he was sleeping Kev would sit there and watch to make sure he didn’t stop breathing. Then Kev laments that they all had to go the next town that morning and nobody slept well. By the time the car was loaded up, everyone was sleeping and Kev had to drive. Everyone ended up rocking their matches. Afterwards they went to eat and started drinking again. They talk about drinking with Mr. Perfect, where people had to gargle their shot to make sure nobody threw it over their shoulder (I think it sounds even worse than how they made it out to be).
Mushrooms
They talk about going to the gym one time while they were tripping on mushrooms. Then they had to take a ferry to Vancouver Island. They were sitting on the hood of the car waiting for the ferry and X-Pac turns to Kev and says “smooth ass ride man.” Kev says “Dude we’re in the f***ing parking lot. See that big boat, we’ll pull in and be on the boat.” X-Pac goes “Oh, no wonder it’s so smooth.” (This was a hilarious story). Then when they get on the boat, X-Pac gets a weird mix of food and walks right past the register. Kev ended up paying for the estimate of the assortment of food. They talk about working on that loop and one time Kev thought he killed Candido with a powerbomb because the ring was so slick and Sunny had heat at the time so everybody would take it out on Chris.
Vince vs. Bischoff
Kev is asked the difference between working with Vince vs. Bischoff. The first time he met Vince was at Vince’s mansion. He says it was the equivalent of having George Steinbrenner answering the door. He says when he was working for WWE, Vince was like if Eric had been Ted Turner (He’s basically saying that Vince and Ted Turner were the equivalent of each other – his checks came from Ted Turner). Kevin and Eric were both Detroit guys. Vince and Eric were both “a guy’s’ guy” and there were a lot of similarities in that respect. He said that he had heat with Eric because he told him (when Eric was an announcer) that he was going to stick around during the Vinnie Vegas gimmick and ended up leaving the next day.
Teddy Hart
Nash was asked about working for Teddy Hart. Kev said that Teddy is one of a kind and talented. He said you can make money with him – but not in WWE because there are too many restrictions. X-Pac said that when he worked and lived with Hart in Mexico it was a bit of a challenge, but it’s worth it to have a guy that talented around. Kev said brilliance and insanity is a thin line and Hart is like a Wallenda (famous tightrope walker) on it.
Bobby Heenan
Kev is asked about his memories of Bobby Heenan. Kev tells a story of how they were getting bussed into Hog Wild. The bus driver was driving like an ass and Bobby was hammered up front and promo-ed the driver for the whole bus ride. “Bobby was funny, but Bobby could be mean.” They talked about how bad of a concept Hog Wild was.
Hasbro
Kev was asked why his Hasbro action figure was never released. He said it was because he was about to come out but he had left. He talked about a new figure set coming out where the way they had his picture on the packaging made it look like he had a mullet instead of the full big hair. He said they CGI-ed him into a mullet and the “doll” doesn’t match the picture. He said any chance they can they’ll get a dig on him. He heard they are planning to release a Diesel “Mullet Intercontinental Champion” figure in the future.
CM Punk
Denise asked why the Nash/Punk match never happened. He said he wasn’t sure they ever wanted it to happen. He had never been there when they had to follow a script so religiously. He’s reading Punk’s and Punk is burying him and he didn’t have any comebacks. He said it wasn’t anything like the old Nash. He would have liked to have seen what Punk would have done had Kevin been able to give it back to him a little off script.
X-Pac said he didn’t like or understand why they brought Nash in as a heel and that people love him and don’t want to boo him. Nash talks about how there were misunderstandings about his role and how things had changed. He thought he was brought in to show the younger guys what it was like to be on the road before everybody had their own personal busses. But then he got pulled aside by HHH at the next TVs and was told he shouldn’t be doing that. X-Pac and Nash both agree that talent having their own tour busses has hurt locker room camaraderie. Nash said that back in the day everybody watched each other’s matches and collaborated together while in the car traveling to the next town together.
Nash made a comment on how he doesn’t think that the talent is getting paid a whole lot nowadays based on the lower crowd sizes. “If you’re averaging 3,000 people a night at the house shows, the payday can’t be too high. Because we averaged that, and we know what our paydays were. If you were on top you’d get $800.”
Nash is again asked about Magic Mike XXXL. He said there wasn’t supposed to be a second one. He wouldn’t say no to a third though.
X-Pac asks about Kevin’s new project. It’s a six episode comedy that airs on Sky and starts on November 2. Premise of the show is a couple with a sophomore and a senior that leave the UK and buy an RV Park in Florida sight unseen to live the American dream. They get there and it looks like a meth park. He plays a redneck 2nd amendment guy. Kev also has a movie he’s going to be shooting out called Tigerland. He plays a mentor football coach. It’s a “heartfelt Friday Night Lights” type of movie. Nash is also in a movie that Bill co-wrote that was released in the UK called Blue Line.
1:26:22 Conversations with Maria Plug
1:26:38 Pac’s upcoming appearances
Saturday Oct. 14th Weatherford Oklahoma
Saturday Oct. 21st Pro Wrestling Empire – Kevin Nash will also be at both of these shows
Sunday Oct. 22nd Powerbomb TV (live stream)
Sunday Oct. 29th Heavy on Wrestling in Duluth Minnesota
Monday Oct. 30th Seminar at Academy for Davari.
Around the table social media plugs.
Memorable Quotes:
“I didn’t make 20 Million dollars because I was the s**ts.” – Kevin Nash
“If you’re averaging 3,000 people a night at the house shows, the payday can’t be too high. Because we averaged that, and we know what our paydays were. If you were on top you’d get $800.” – Kevin Nash
Episode Rating (8/10)
Overall, this was an enjoyable episode to listen to. I really feel that X-Pac has a unique insight into the business based on his standing with the KLIQ and his struggles both in and out of the ring. He comes off as both genuine and knowledgeable. In particular, it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the Neville situation, as well as him texting HHH with the idea to turn Zayn heel (and HHH’s reaction to it). I am a big fan of Ralphie May too, so it was cool to hear X-Pac pay respect to him. As far as the Kevin Nash interview, I don’t think that there was anything that was too earth shattering that was revealed. It was still interesting to hear about Nash’s thoughts on the Young Bucks and the story about keeping X-Pac alive. The Mushroom story was hilarious as well. It’s a good listen if you’re interested in hearing two key figures in wrestling’s biggest boom period discuss those times, as well as things that are going on today.
Timestamps:
00:01-6:58 Intros and Recap of X-Pac’s latest bookings
6:59-26:32 Roundtable discussions of News and Hell in a Cell review
26:33-27:03 Tomorrow show plug
27:04-1:26:22 Kevin Nash Interview
1:26:23-1:26:38 Conversations with Maria plug
1:26:39-1:31:22 Show Wrap Up
For more, check out our archives of X-Pac 1,2,360.
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