WWE Hall of Fame, 5th April 2024

[odessasteps]

I forgot to check earlier, but Mulligan went in the WWF HOF in 2006 along with Jack Lanza. 

[Hamhock]

I wish somehow the Hall of Fame was like a combination of the Cagematch database and a video game, where every gimmick/character in a wrestler's career is inducted at the same time, and if they were in a tag team, their half of the graphic has their photo and name, while the corresponding partner is just a silhouette until they get in, whereupon the tag team unlocks and is automatically also inducted.

[zendragon]

4 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

How much of Lauper not being in is that she doesn’t want to be inducted?

She was on RAW in 2012 w/ Wendi Richter so she was on decent enough terms back then

[Dolfan in NYC]

4 minutes ago, zendragon said:

She was on RAW in 2012 w/ Wendi Richter so she was on decent enough terms back then

Yeah but... *gestures at the last two months*  

It's probably tough to explain "yeah but the rapist isn't in charge any more" to people, especially when little stuff bubbles up here and there, and god only knows if there's more lurking. 

I'd be wholly unsurprised if she wants to wait a year or two. 

[zendragon]

yhea that's kinda what I was getting at "back then".... also she should have gone in long before all this started anyway

[jaedmc]

I mean it's not really worth debating because it's Vince's Hall of Fame(until this year I guess), but she probably should've gone in before any individual in the celebrity wing. Probably should've gone in with Captain Lou in '96, but they technically didn't have a "Celebrity Wing" then.

But boy oh boy, looking over all the other "celebrities" selections and... it gets rough.

In order:

Pete Rose

Refrigerator Perry

Bob Uecker

Drew Carey

Mike Tyson

"The Predecessor"

Mr. T

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Snoop

Bawitdaba

William Shatner

Ozzy Osbourne

Andy Kaufman
 

Bit of a sausage party. 

Honestly, Maria Menounos should be in over several of those people.

...

I will say that I actually think Hunter, for all his faults, is a better steward of wrestling history than most folks that they could put in charge. It does seem genuinely important to him, based on his actions regarding the hall over the last several years.

I think him putting US Express in, highlighting their involvement in the first Wrestlemania, might be an indicator that Cyndi Lauper has to be on the short list. If she doesn't want to do it, that's totally her call, and I respect it. But she 100% is significant part of wrestling history and deserves to be recognized as such.

 

[supremebve]

I cannot support putting Mike Rotunda into any hall of fame. I would support him inducting his son, but I spent too many hours of my childhood watching him do shitty chinlocks and abdominal stretches on Superstars every week to let this travesty slide. I'm about 76% joking,  but he's perhaps my least favorite wrestler of all time. 

[odessasteps]

If you can’t induct Lauper, induct old school wrestling fan Debbie Harry.

[lostinube]

Sure, let's just randomly induct Bull Nakano, one of the first people Rossy Ogawa went to talk to about leaving Stardom.

[The Great ML]

41 minutes ago, supremebve said:

I cannot support putting Mike Rotunda into any hall of fame. I would support him inducting his son, but I spent too many hours of my childhood watching him do shitty chinlocks and abdominal stretches on Superstars every week to let this travesty slide. I'm about 76% joking,  but he's perhaps my least favorite wrestler of all time. 

The only version of Rotunda that was worth a damn was Captain Mike from the Varsity Club in 1988-1989. Anything else is a hard pass.

[The Natural]

I think Bray Wyatt gets in like Eddie Guerrero less than a year after their passings. Guerrero passed November 2005, inductee April 2006. Wyatt August 2023, inducted April 2024.

I liked IRS only because my late great Mum got a kick out of him getting annoyed by the Irrrrwinnnn chants watching wrestling as a kid with her. It was on a Bret Hart VHS.

Edited March 8 by The Natural

[dogwelder]

Someone on Reddit posted 2 days ago what may have been a leaked list.  If it's true, the rest of the inductees are:

Spoiler

Muhammad Ali

Lia Maivia (Rock's grandmother)

Thunderbolt Patterson

Bray

 

[Brandon-E]

How come Dick Beyer and Crusher Lisowski aren't in the WWE HOF?

[zendragon]

Dick Beyer has pretty much Zero connection to WWF and his American wrestling stops in the early 70's

[Brandon-E]

1 hour ago, zendragon said:

Dick Beyer has pretty much Zero connection to WWF and his American wrestling stops in the early 70's

Beyer was there in 1959 back when WWE was NWA Capitol Wrestling and had matches in WWF during 1982-1983.

[odessasteps]

They’ve now put in a lot of people in those “mass inductions” for people with no connections to the company. I’m not complaining but Bob Armstrong being in the WWF HOF is odd. 

[Ace]

On 3/8/2024 at 8:10 AM, Cobra Commander said:

How much of Lauper not being in is that she doesn’t want to be inducted?

Lauper disputed this years ago.

 

[Cobra Commander]

3 hours ago, Ace said:

Lauper disputed this years ago.

well then... yeah, not sure what sort of other things have complicated the relationship

would the whole thing be potentially a little more awkward because David Wolff was the fan, and maybe the person that the WWF worked through, and once Cyndi was no longer with David Wolff, it was gonna take someone to work as an intermediary to make the deal work?

I know there was a perception that eventually Cyndi's links to the WWF hindered her music career, but that might have been exaggerated and her career sorta fizzled after a few years due to more normal music industry reasons about how labels handle female artists who aren't Madonna

If the WWE was still doing network documentaries, it feels like they could get a solid hour or so out of the whole "celebrities that were big wrestling fans once" sort of story. Triple H seems more like a Headbangers Ball guy than a 120 Minutes guy, so maybe the story of New Wave musicians liking old time WWF wrestling wouldn't appeal to him

[Ace]

Cyndi Lauper is one film adaption of Kinky Boots: The Musical from having an EGOT. She's doing alright.

 

[RIPPA]

 

[Curt McGirt]

Them having ANY kind of affiliation with Ali and not inducting him first round is the dumbest shit ever 

[RIPPA]

15 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Them having ANY kind of affiliation with Ali and not inducting him first round is the dumbest shit ever 

Eh - I mean it is logical (in the context of the illogical WWE Hall of Fame)

The very first class was designed to just honor Andre. Remember there wasn't even a ceremony that first year

Second - Ali is clearly going in as the "celebrity" and the first time they did that was in 2004

Plus it fits the the quasi theme of this year - which honoring Mania 1 (not that again Lauper doesn't)

Someone would have to double check how much they acknowledged Ali/Inoki back when Inoki was inducted

[Dolfan in NYC]

You know, I just looked, and the only one left from the original WrestleMania main event to not be in the HoF was Ali.  

And that includes the referee (Patterson), the ring announcer (Fink), the announce team (Ventura & Gorilla), and even the damned timekeeper (Liberace). 

[ChesterCopperpot]

44 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Someone would have to double check how much they acknowledged Ali/Inoki back when Inoki was inducted

they definitely made a deal of it in Inoki's HOF induction video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnw9UjqVUNU

 

[odessasteps]

You can also show the Ali/Gorilla footage.

once they put Ali in the video game, it was a no brainer.

 

Edited March 11 by odessasteps