10 WWE Mega-Pushes Fans Hated BEFORE Roman Reigns & John Cena

3. X-Pac

X-Pac Kane Royal Rumble 2000
WWE.com

"X-Pac heat" remains the most egregious and grossly unfair term to spring from a nascent internet wrestling community in the late-1990s, not least because it stuck around long enough for those who didn't even live through it to parrot it as canon.

The former 1-2-3 Kid dated rapidly thanks the speed of angle advancement in the Attitude Era. Wrestlers ran through opponents and career phases with the precision and acceleration of one of Sean Waltman's high kicks, with the exception of the crotch-chopping Kliq man himself.

For this crime, he was punished with a term denoting something almost nobody else had on the show in the 2000. A very particular reaction for a very particular irritant, but one WWE ignored as they continued to push anyway. Hindsight has proved them right - he was a great worker up to and including his very last run as an nWo lackey in 2002, and remained the litmus test for newcomers, but the unanimous disdain for his act and personality sadly stuck to him in spite of reasoned defence.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett