Ranking Every Major Monday Night Wars Jump From WORST To BEST

5. X-Pac

X Pac WWE Debut
WWE

An awesome (and unheralded) illustration of how white-hot the WWF was at the time, on the surface, this was an underwhelming and ambitious pitch. Syxx was a midcard act, Shawn Michaels a super-worker of a main event talent. The fact that Sean Waltman was a tremendous pro wrestler under any guise didn’t matter: he wasn’t Shawn Michaels. Nobody was.

On the surface.

But the timing was so perfect. WWF had on the night prior presented the monster that was WrestleMania XIV. The event that made formal Steve Austin’s coronation as the man, and the WWF as the cool company, re-debuting X-Pac 24 hours later was a masterstroke. His jump from WCW was yet more evidence of the shift in atmosphere. The WWF was where it was at: that’s why he was there.

X-Pac’s rant at Hulk Hogan wasn’t close to the most fire of Attitude Era promos—“Hulk Hogan, you suck pal!”—but for the first time, the weapons lobbed down south didn’t resonate as defensive.

The WWF was on the offensive, in every definition of the wor

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!