As The Lightning Kid, Waltman had his WWF tryout match in Phoenix, Arizona, the day after WrestleMania IX, against fellow hopeful Louie Spicolli (soon known as Rad Radford in the WWF). He reminisced that he was lucky to have an opponent with a vested interest in an impressive match, rather than (as was then typical) a disinterested WWF veteran jobber like Virgil or Jim Powers. After earning a contract, he made his TV debut as The Kamikaze Kid on "Monday Night Raw" on May 3, losing to Doink the Clown. He quickly became The Cannonball Kid, then simply The Kid. He scored an upset pinfall on Razor Ramon on the May 17 episode of "Monday Night Raw", thus becoming The 1–2–3 Kid. Razor challenged him to a rematch, wagering $2,500, then $5000 and finally $10,000 of his own money. Kid accepted the challenge, but grabbed the money and ran from the arena during the match. Ted DiBiase, who was feuding with Razor, taunted him over losing to a nobody.