Sean Waltman Recalls Getting Interest From NJPW Before Joining WWE In 1993

Sean Waltman recently recalled how he was close to signing with NJPW before he joined WWE back in 1993. The WWE Hall of Famer spoke about that early period of his career before he joined WWE and became the 1-2-3 Kid in a video from Dr. Beau Hightower. Waltman noted that he had interest from both WCW and NJPW before WWE came calling.

“Sgt. Slaughter called me, and he even said, ‘Hey, this is Sgt. Slaughter from the World Wrestling Federation,'” Waltman remembered (per Fightful). “I figured it was him, but somehow I spaced out the part where he said World Wrestling Federation. He’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re having TV tapings the day after WrestleMania,’ and I’m still not putting two and two together. Finally, he goes, ‘Yeah, we want to bring you in,’ and finally it hits me, and I go, ‘Oh, my god!'”

He continued, “I had a tryout at WCW probably a year earlier, and it was great. It was great. I had a great match. I would have gotten hired, but they switched bosses the next day, very next day. So yeah, I wasn’t their idea, so I wasn’t coming in. So I was kind of bummed out a little bit. New Japan finally was going to bring me in. As soon as New Japan hires me, WWE calls me. So, I had a couple of different choices there.”