Do you think legacy HOFers will ever get solo inductions?

[Casey Jones]

I know it's a long shot since they arent around to give speeches. But I feel people like Lou Thez and Luna Vachon deserved a bigger spotlight

[tirtefaa]

Doubtful.

The HOF is no longer really a Hall of Fame. It's a Hall of Friends. A Hall of Friends that WWE can market to a casual audience that couldn't care less about a bunch of dead people they've never heard of.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Nope. They're "in" as far as it matters anyway. If the person isn't there to accept, I really don't care. It's nice for their surviving family, but there's way, way, way, way too many dead wrestlers to make it a worthwhile project. And you don't want to attract too much attention to why all your former employe, independent contractors are dead by 35.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 15, 2023 22:04:28 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

but there's way, way, way, way too many dead wrestlers to make it a worthwhile project.

I think a way around this would be to focus on the pioneers of wrestling, maybe if they did it on some special year (WWE's 60th Anniversary or something). Have a video package each week that honors a specific pioneer wrestler, put the video on both shows along with the family receiving a plaque or something at the end of the highlights video. Then right after the video, you can have the announcers mention that those individuals will be included in the Hall of Fame class of next year. That's better than having just a large group of people inducted without any distinguishment between who they were or what they did.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Apr 15, 2023 23:18:15 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Apr 15, 2023 22:04:28 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

but there's way, way, way, way too many dead wrestlers to make it a worthwhile project.

I think a way around this would be to focus on the pioneers of wrestling, maybe if they did it on some special year (WWE's 60th Anniversary or something). Have a video package each week that honors a specific pioneer wrestler, put the video on both shows along with the family receiving a plaque or something at the end of the highlights video. Then right after the video, you can have the announcers mention that those individuals will be included in the Hall of Fame class of next year. That's better than having just a large group of people inducted without any distinguishment between who they were or what they did.

Between all the steroids and mercury filled fish eats, I’d be doing a fertility dance Rock doesn’t die before 60.

[Eunös ✈]

Thankfully it looks like WWE have dropped this.

It would annoy me if guys like Bam Bam and Earthquake went in this way.. They deserve their own outright induction.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

No, because then you can't get footage of them saying a catchphrase in a really rehearsed way so that wrestling YouTubers can include that clip in tribute videos

[Hulk With A Mustache]

If WWE didn't give enough of a shit to give them proper inductions at the ceremonies, then why would they give enough of a shit to give them a second induction?

[Jindrak Mark]

Apr 15, 2023 23:25:04 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

Apr 15, 2023 23:18:15 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

I think a way around this would be to focus on the pioneers of wrestling, maybe if they did it on some special year (WWE's 60th Anniversary or something). Have a video package each week that honors a specific pioneer wrestler, put the video on both shows along with the family receiving a plaque or something at the end of the highlights video. Then right after the video, you can have the announcers mention that those individuals will be included in the Hall of Fame class of next year. That's better than having just a large group of people inducted without any distinguishment between who they were or what they did.

Between all the steroids and mercury filled fish eats, I’d be doing a fertility dance Rock doesn’t die before 60.

Hogan and Vince must have done an insane amount of steroids and coke though the years and they're both somehow here at 69 and 77. Hell, even Scott Steiner has made it to 60 which would probably have shocked me if you told me 20 years ago.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Apr 16, 2023 9:34:17 GMT -5 Hulk With A Mustache said:

If WWE didn't give enough of a shit to give them proper inductions at the ceremonies, then why would they give enough of a shit to give them a second induction?

In Luna’s case they didn’t give enough of a shit to give her a proper run and threatened to fire her if Sable got a bruise or a scratch.

[tafkaga]

I like what Steve Keirn recently said about the HoF.

"I get asked all the time about the Hall of Fame," he said. "But I keep going back to [the fact that] this business is a work. This business isn't real. When people go into the Hall of Fame — don't get me wrong — they all deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but they're not all there [for] being great workers though ... I don't put any merit in there. It is an honor and that's great that those guys [are] in it. If it makes them better and if they get a little boost in their life or their ego or their career or anything that helps out of it, God bless them."

"If I was to be asked to be put in a Hall of Fame, the first thing that I would want to say is 'Why?' Why now?" he asked. "Maybe when I'm dead it'll be more useful to you because you could use it somehow or another, but why? I didn't do anything exceptional. I just spent my whole life doing this business, but that doesn't mean you qualify to be inducted into a Hall of Fame. I wish I could embellish it a little bit more, but it was a work."

[MolotovMocktail]

Some might, like El Santo. But for the really old school guys (like 1800’s-early 1900’s), there’s not much commercial appeal despite their importance. In some cases, it may be difficult to track down a living relative, and they may or may not want their ancestor associated with the WWE show biz style (though a check might help make up their mind). And when you have a deceased wrestler, they usually have their friends or family sharing memories of them. I don’t see how having Frank Gotch’s great-great-grandchildren who may not have a personal connection reading a list of his accomplishments would get the sentiment these types of inductions go for.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

I would think no. If they were going to get a solo induction they would have given them a solo induction.

They either think they didn't have enough for a speech to be interesting to the audience or didn't really have anyone that could give a full speech that was still like directly connected to them.

Apr 17, 2023 13:22:39 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

I like what Steve Keirn recently said about the HoF.

"I get asked all the time about the Hall of Fame," he said. "But I keep going back to [the fact that] this business is a work. This business isn't real. When people go into the Hall of Fame — don't get me wrong — they all deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but they're not all there [for] being great workers though ... I don't put any merit in there. It is an honor and that's great that those guys [are] in it. If it makes them better and if they get a little boost in their life or their ego or their career or anything that helps out of it, God bless them."

"If I was to be asked to be put in a Hall of Fame, the first thing that I would want to say is 'Why?' Why now?" he asked. "Maybe when I'm dead it'll be more useful to you because you could use it somehow or another, but why? I didn't do anything exceptional. I just spent my whole life doing this business, but that doesn't mean you qualify to be inducted into a Hall of Fame. I wish I could embellish it a little bit more, but it was a work."

as I've always said in a worked sport "merit" isn't really something you can induct people based on.

Like you can't say "you can only come in if you won x number of matches, or won at least x number of titles or whatever else you can think of" because... it's all scripted.

If you put a title requirement in then ok... Jake Roberts can't be inducted ever, hell someone like Piper probably wouldn't even qualify.

You can't like base it on "match quality" cause that's massively subjective... and would also leave people out that 100% belong in a hall of fame.

the ONLY real qualities in professional wrestling that aren't pre-determined like that are... 1. were you influential either backstage or on camera, 2. do people remember who you are, 3. can you get the crowd to react to y

that's really it and some of that is even subjective, but there's no real "merit" to be had in a sport where the outcomes are predetermined.

[avenger]

Apr 15, 2023 21:48:58 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Doubtful.

The HOF is no longer really a Hall of Fame. It's a Hall of Friends. A Hall of Friends that WWE can market to a casual audience that couldn't care less about a bunch of dead people they've never heard of.

The Hall of Fame was never a Hall of Fame. Andre was effectively a Legacy HOFer. No ceremony, no presentation, just a video on WWF TV. The next three years were all about creating HOFers, so they could be shown on TV and PPVs, presumably to show that some wrestlers did make it into retirement. Once they had enough, they didn't induct anyone for eight years.

[tirtefaa]

Apr 19, 2023 5:22:56 GMT -5 avenger said:

The Hall of Fame was never a Hall of Fame. Andre was effectively a Legacy HOFer. No ceremony, no presentation, just a video on WWF TV. The next three years were all about creating HOFers, so they could be shown on TV and PPVs, presumably to show that some wrestlers did make it into retirement. Once they had enough, they didn't induct anyone for eight years.

It's true that it was never a legit Hall of Fame.

But for a while, it was nice to see the return of some of the all time greats. The people you grew up watching. There was a legit curiosity to who would be going in. Seeing guys like Bret Hart or Ultimate Warrior on WWE programming after years of being away felt special. Then you had guys like Verne Gagne or Bill Watts, not necessarily guys you'd think of when you think of WWE, but it was nice to not see them forgotten.

But it really feels like in recent years it's more about just putting in people who are tight with the company, and less about honoring those who have paved the way. It's even worse now that they're inducting active members of the roster, something they should have never started with Flair.