Sean Waltman Weighs in On Rhea Ripley’s NXT Takeover Performance, Whether Finn Balor Beating Matt Riddle Was The Right Call

– Sean Waltman discussed NXT Takeover: WarGames in the latest episode of X-Pac 1,2,360 icluding Rhea Ripley getting over with the fans and more. You can check out highlights from the discussion below:

On Rhea Ripley getting over: “That’s true. And it’s more than them just trying to portray it that way, it’s the people that are buying it that way. Like, you can try and push something on people and they are going to buy it or they’re not. You know? They buy her. I mean, in a huge way. It’s not even — I hope they don’t f**k it up. It’s barely gotten started. So when I was down at NXT last month and they had, it’s called the coconut show run, it’s all the local Florida, when they stay in Florida for their live events. They call it the coconut show run, or whatever. So on one of those, she came out unannounced and she got the biggest pop of like, of anyone on the entire show. And it wasn’t even close, it was insane. I’m like, ‘Oh s**t.’ It’s just one of those things where it’s an indicator right here, you know? And, I mean, let’s be honest. She was blessed with some amazing genetics, you know? She is a big girl, big strong, just — yeah, you see her stand toe-to-toe with Shayna {Baszler} and you’re like okay, yeah. Okay.”

On Matt Riddle vs. Finn Balor and if the right person one: “That’s a tough call. It was fine. Look, you can’t just bring everybody over and just beat everybody, just to try and say, ‘See here, our NXT guys are on the same level.’ It’s Finn f**king Balor, man. If you’re gonna lose a match, Finn Balor is just fine to lose a match to, I don’t really think this f**ks with Matt’s momentum or anything. They had a great match and it’s definitely — I am ready for more of Balor and Matt Riddle.”

On the stakes of the match: “That’s what makes you care about the match, like, ‘Okay, none of these guys can really afford to lose,’ you know? And it’s like, you don’t know who’s going to win. It was hard to call, I had no idea. I had no idea which way they were gonna go with that. I guess if I had to put money on it, honestly I would have said, ‘Okay they’re going to out Balor over.’ Because I think they are trying to get him ready for Adam Cole, maybe?”

On the standout performance from the men’s WarGames match: “Keith Lee really stood out to me in this match. There was a lot of — he did a lot of really cool stuff in the match and it fit. To me of this recent last couple of weeks, Rhea Ripley and Keith Lee are the big winners, the biggest winners. Everyone’s a winner, but to me those two are overnight sensations.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit X-Pac 12360 with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.