Sean Waltman needs no introduction to true blue wrestling fans. He catapulted onto the scene in the nineties as the 1-2-3 Kid and since then went through many incarnations. His legacy speaks of epic in-ring work and restarting DX after Shawn Michaels needed to step away to work on his ailing back in 1998. Waltman had been in WCW as a member of the nWo at the time—this after his run in WWE.
He of course is an integral member of The Kliq, a backstage group that included Shawn Michaels, Triple H, the late, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.
via Too Much Wrestling on YouTube
These days, Waltman is the picture of health…spiritually, physically and mentally, God bless him, but that too was a long road, one he took to it with vigor…a need to make things right for himself, and he came back from quite the bumpy ride with drugs and other issues.
Sadly his career was marred by such experiences, but his comeback story was and is certainly something to behold and to see him in the light he’s painted in these days is great for any one of his fans that cares greatly for him as a man first, and then a pro wrestler.
I mean we care about these people, don’t we? Why else would we spend so much time reading about their lives and yes, even rooting for them when they fall?
This is from the '94 HOF Ceremony. Bret was Keynote Speaker. Scott was sharpest dressed. It was my 1st time wearing anything like a suit. I didn't even know to take the sewn on tag off the sleeve of my jacket. Bruce Prichard had to smarten me up. pic.twitter.com/JoY9g3wskk
Well, his good friend, Kevin Nash decided to look back on the harder times for Waltman on a recent episode of the Kliq This podcast. Here’s some of what he had to say:
“The next trip we have, I think we’re in Portland, ME. The first night, Kid (Sean Waltman) eats a couple too many somas. We’re in Denny’s and he’s shaking, like the full shakes. We have to bail…
We gotta get out before we get in trouble. So we get out there and Shawn (Michaels) gives Kid kind of a smack in the face, like come on, snap out of it. Scott (Hall) gives him one, and then Paul gives him one…
We’re all like, ‘Hey, motherfu*ker. It’s your first day.’ It was one of those deals where we were up all night wrestling with Kid in a cold shower, like making him go in the shower and then walk him up and down the hallway. We didn’t know if he’s gonna OD or what…
I mean, this goes on all night. He started to fade out and we’re like, come on, and he’s fighting. He’s wiry and strong, like maniac-strong. It’s taking all of us to hold him in this ice cold shower and walk up and down the hallways. We got the robe from the hotel that we’re putting him in to walk him up down the hallway…
Finally, at about six o’clock, he falls asleep. I just sat through it and I made sure he was breathing. At about nine o’clock, he woke up. I was just sitting there looking at him. He just looked at me and said, ‘Love your man. I just want to go and take this time to say thank you for saving my life.’…
He turned and went to bed. I said, ‘Don’t mention it. We’re cool. So that was Paul’s intro to traveling with us. Like the first day was, ‘What the f*ck?’”
