Should X-Pac have done more?

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Solid wrestler, cuts a decent promo, charismatic, showed he could get over with fans.

He could have done much more in the WWe.

[floundertime]

He gave us X-Pac heat, that alone says he did enough!

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Would he have done more if he hadn't jumped to WCW for a couple years? Could he have been Intercontinental Champion in 97, feuding with Rocky Maivia, Goldust, Helmsley?

[Deleted]

I always say that he could have easily transitioned his gimmick from X-Pac to some laidback hippie who knew how to wrestle well. When the match starts? He goes back into his wild mode. With the whole Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras you could easily say he was on some stuff, he'd stay over and he'd fully have a new gimmick. Fact is they kept him as X-Pac and before you knew it some dude's like

"I GOT EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED AND I'LL NEVER GIVE THAT BAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK"

like

"I KNOW YOU HATE X-FACTOR B-"

Yeah, you know we hated them so of course that shit wasn't gonna work.

[Mozenrath]

I think maybe a little, but injuries grounded him. He was a huge game changer, though, and at one point, wildly popular.
Like, I could see him being an Intercontinental championship mainstay, maybe, but i don't think they'd have given him the world title.

(No, seriously. I'm not kidding with the game changer comment. 1-2-3 Kid was in some respects like a Dynamite Kid in terms of being someone that was getting a style of wrestling on national TV that other people weren't doing, and influencing up and comers.)

[EyeofTyr]

Pac's biggest issues were his own demons and his injuries grounding him honestly in my opinion. If Pac could've cleaned himself up sooner or managed them better, kept a more high flying style, I think he could've done a lot better for himself. Like, imagine a still able to fully go Pac versus RVD once he came into the company, that could've been nuts and on par with his work against Lynn prior to the WWF.

I think the fans would've been more forgiving too to him if he could've still done a lot of the stuff that got him over in the first place. By the X-Factor era he had gotten so bloated and so bogged by injuries that he could barely do much of his original style that brought him to the dance.

A gimmick change would've admittedly helped him too, he had essentially been playing the same character for the better part of a decade since joining the nWo. But a gimmick change could've only done so much for the guy if he couldn't perform at a level needed to really make his matches dynamic.

[TGM]

What's with these X Pac threads?

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Never saw X-Pac as a main eventer or a potential ace, but I never loathed him the way other fans did. His matches were usually exciting, especially as 123 Kid, and he knew how to be an entertaining jackass heel.

[Jiren]

He could've been a solid IC level star but once his heel turn happened (99) it was goodnight Vienna, That killed him stone dead.

Also his demons didn't help and his inability to evolve past D-X

[cabbageboy]

The irony of wanting X-Pac vs. RVD is that I believe RVD's first match in the company was that Smackdown tag with Kidman vs. Pac and Hardy. In that match alone RVD completely outclassed X-Pac and even countered his finisher by doing the splits (which was an awesome spot). I think that was Waltman's problem. He is a quality wrestler when you have a mediocre roster, but when you add in all the dudes they added in 2000-01 then he looks pretty marginal. As in why would I seriously push that guy over Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, RVD?

As far as doing more, I suppose he could have been an IC guy in 1999. He certainly would have been better than Godfather, Road Dogg, and other bizarre booking moves.

[Deleted]

May 26, 2018 6:13:20 GMT -5 TGM said:

What's with these X Pac threads?

There's not really that many.

I only count 1, 2, 3.

Kid

[RedSmile]

I actually thought his first run in TNA was pretty damn good, and he was in that really underrated tag team with Alex Shelley in the Candido Cup. He had actually developed into a guy with veteran presence, rather than the sidekick/underdog presence he had had for so long.

[nickcave]

May 26, 2018 0:06:15 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think maybe a little, but injuries grounded him. He was a huge game changer, though, and at one point, wildly popular.
Like, I could see him being an Intercontinental championship mainstay, maybe, but i don't think they'd have given him the world title.

(No, seriously. I'm not kidding with the game changer comment. 1-2-3 Kid was in some respects like a Dynamite Kid in terms of being someone that was getting a style of wrestling on national TV that other people weren't doing, and influencing up and comers.)

His world title match against Bret Hart on one of the early Raws is an amazing match and I would still put it in the top matches to have taken place on Raw.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

May 26, 2018 9:43:20 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

The irony of wanting X-Pac vs. RVD is that I believe RVD's first match in the company was that Smackdown tag with Kidman vs. Pac and Hardy. In that match alone RVD completely outclassed X-Pac and even countered his finisher by doing the splits (which was an awesome spot). I think that was Waltman's problem. He is a quality wrestler when you have a mediocre roster, but when you add in all the dudes they added in 2000-01 then he looks pretty marginal. As in why would I seriously push that guy over Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, RVD?

As far as doing more, I suppose he could have been an IC guy in 1999. He certainly would have been better than Godfather, Road Dogg, and other bizarre booking moves.

Again, funnily enough, he was in a Fatal 4 way at No Way Out 2001 with Benoit, Jericho and Guerrero. He stuck out like a sore thumb and simply couldn't go to that same ability.

[Deleted]

Y'all gonna laugh, but I seriously thought that WrestleMania 2000 was going to be headlined by heel HHH vs X-Pac after Austin was on the shelf.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

May 26, 2018 9:43:20 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

The irony of wanting X-Pac vs. RVD is that I believe RVD's first match in the company was that Smackdown tag with Kidman vs. Pac and Hardy. In that match alone RVD completely outclassed X-Pac and even countered his finisher by doing the splits (which was an awesome spot). I think that was Waltman's problem. He is a quality wrestler when you have a mediocre roster, but when you add in all the dudes they added in 2000-01 then he looks pretty marginal. As in why would I seriously push that guy over Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, RVD?

As far as doing more, I suppose he could have been an IC guy in 1999. He certainly would have been better than Godfather, Road Dogg, and other bizarre booking moves.

I was going to say the exact same thing. X-Pac was an innovative wrestler but his time as an innovator in mainstream wrestling was incredibly brief. When he was in the WWF, they didn't have many workrate guys so he was very high level by comparison. In WCW, he was another nWo guy, then when he came back to the WWF he was still well above average but not long after the WCW workrate guys came in and suddenly he was closer and closer to the middle of the pack.

[Some Guy]

I honestly thought X-Pac died with two X-Pac threads on the first page

[Hit Girl]

Done more drugs?

[Ben Wyatt]

May 26, 2018 0:06:15 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think maybe a little, but injuries grounded him. He was a huge game changer, though, and at one point, wildly popular.
Like, I could see him being an Intercontinental championship mainstay, maybe, but i don't think they'd have given him the world title.

(No, seriously. I'm not kidding with the game changer comment. 1-2-3 Kid was in some respects like a Dynamite Kid in terms of being someone that was getting a style of wrestling on national TV that other people weren't doing, and influencing up and comers.)

People forget just how damn good he was. Pre neck injuries, he was one of the best wrestlers in the world.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

May 26, 2018 0:06:15 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think maybe a little, but injuries grounded him. He was a huge game changer, though, and at one point, wildly popular.
Like, I could see him being an Intercontinental championship mainstay, maybe, but i don't think they'd have given him the world title.

(No, seriously. I'm not kidding with the game changer comment. 1-2-3 Kid was in some respects like a Dynamite Kid in terms of being someone that was getting a style of wrestling on national TV that other people weren't doing, and influencing up and comers.)

It's also notable that he was regarded as a great litmus test for incoming talent. If 1-2-3 Kid couldn't get SOMETHING out of you, chances are you weren't gonna last too long.