In 1996, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall jumped to WCW from WWE, kicking off a boom period for WCW.
Prior to them leaving WWE, they held a Curtain Call in Madison Square Garden, celebrating with Triple H and Shawn Michaels to break kayfabe at the time.
Sean Waltman, the fifth man in the Kliq, was no part of the Curtain Call as he was rehabbing from injury.
"Most likely, I would have been the first one to jump. I was the one who kind of set that whole thing up when I met Barry Bloom for the first time. He was all of our agents. I came out (to Los Angeles), and I was recuperating from an injury. I wanted to meet Barry about doing some movie stuff. I was never thinking about leaving WWE. I met him and he goes, ‘By the way, WCW is spending a lot of money right now to get talent.’ I thought of Scott, and we called Scott from Barry’s office and started all that shit. My contract rolled over. I didn’t know when my contract was up, so it automatically rolled over, so I was fucked. I was in the doghouse. I was going to come in at Road Wild," Waltman recalled on No-Contest Wrestling with O'Shea Jackson Jr. & TJ Jefferson.
He continued, "I was rehabbing when the Curtain Call was going on. I got out of there and about a month later, Vince called me and had me come in. ‘Hey, if you want to stay, you gotta do the doghouse thing like Paul [Triple H] did, but if you want to go work for that billionaire asshole, if you and your friends can get a better deal, I’ll let you out. I’ll give you a week to think about it.’ I knew right away, but it was still one of the hardest things, to tell them I wanted to leave. You were family. In the mob, almost, it felt like."
Waltman joined WCW in September 1996, immediately aligning with Hall & Nash in the NWO.
Elsewhere during the interview, Waltman commented on helping WWE ID prospects. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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