X-Pac Explains Why Vince McMahon Never Allowed ‘The Kliq’ To Be A Faction On WWE Television

The Kliq — which consisted of Shawn Michaels, Sean “X-Pac” Waltman, Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall, Kevin Nash, and Triple H — was one of the most powerful backstage factions in WWE history. But, while they were a well-known backstage entity in the mid-90s, they never had an on-camera presence.

On the latest episode of Chris Jericho’s podcast — Talk is Jericho— X-Pac explained why WWE chairman Vince McMahon never allowed them to be a faction on television.

“We wanted to do a group together [in WWE]. We all wanted to do it together, like The Kliq thing, but Vince hated groups. Vince didn’t want to do groups at all.”

While he didn’t debut on WCW television until much later, X-Pac was the first member of The Kliq to leave WWE, and head down south. He was followed by Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, who were very pivotal in turning the company around, and creating what would later be known as the New World Order.

Both Triple H and Shawn Michaels decided to stay in WWE after their three buddies had left, and they formed a faction called D-Generation X, which was their answer to WCW’s New World Order. Of course, X-Pac ended up getting fired from WCW, and he joined WWE’s D-Generation X shortly thereafter.

After the New World Order was formed in 1996, WWE became extremely group heavy, as they featured groups such as the aforementioned D-Generation X, the Nation of Domination, the Hart Foundation, and the Corporation. But, in the mid-90s, which is when all members of The Kliq were in WWE, there were almost no onscreen groups in the entire company.

In 2002, WWE almost did a Kliq faction, as they reformed the New World Order with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and X-Pac. Of course, Hall ended up getting released shortly thereafter, and they replaced him with Shawn Michaels. Just a few short weeks later, the group started recruiting Triple H, and the plan was for The Game to join the group, but, Nash ended up suffering a severe injury, and, as a result, the group was completely disbanded.

When D-Generation X was brought back in the mid-2000s, there was talk of having the group — which was the duo of Shawn Michaels and Triple H — take on The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. But, at the time, WWE had their qualms with bringing Hall back to the company, as he was dealing with a ton of personal and substance abuse issues at the time.

While The Kliq was never featured as an onscreen faction, there have been a ton of references to them on television over the years. In fact, the “too sweet” gesture that AJ Styles, Finn Balor, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows use is a tribute to the popular backstage faction.

Last summer, WWE put out a three-disc set on the backstage group called The Kliq Rules. It showed interviews from the members of the group and famous matches with the group’s members.

Every time someone from The Kliq gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, all members of the group greet that person onstage after their speech. We saw it happen when Shawn Michaels got inducted in 2011, when Scott Hall got inducted as Razor Ramon in 2014, and when Kevin Nash headlined the Hall of Fame ceremony in 2015.

As of right now, there are only three members of The Kliq who are still actively wrestling on a part-time basis: Sean “X-Pac” Waltman, Kevin Nash, and, of course, Triple H, who is now WWE’s chief operating officer, and second-in-command behind the chairman, Vince McMahon.

[Featured Image by WWE]