Having made peace with Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan will finally be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at Wrestlemania 21 next month. Call it the wrestling equivalent of Pete Rose going into Cooperstown (although Rose was, in case you forgot, inducted into the wrestling Hall last year as a publicity stunt).
Also going in this year: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Jimmy Hart, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, and "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Piper I can understand, and possibly Pope The Iron Sheik as well- but the rest? To return to the baseball metaphor, this is like a Cooperstown class fronted by Jim DeShaies, Denny Walling, Dennis Rasmussen, and John Vander Wal.
Posted by Stephen Silver at March 9, 2005 11:18 PMSteve:
Are you kidding, those are all of the 'originals' of the WWF. Piper and his kilt, Volkoff the 'evil enemy' during the waning Cold War years, etc.
Most of those guys brought wrestling into the forefront of entertainment at the time.
Posted by: John B. at March 10, 2005 08:35 AMJimmy Hart deserves to be there, for what he's done behind the scenes as well as writing virtually every wrestling theme song for the 80's. Three words: Girls. In. Cars.
Orton is probably a favor to Randy, and I guess Volkoff and Orndorff are "iconic".
Posted by: Gib at March 10, 2005 08:41 AMbecause after allllll .... you're my vander wallllllll
Posted by: LilB at March 10, 2005 11:12 AMI can't believe you compare wrestling to baseball. Hulk Hogan going into the hall is more like Mick Jagger going into the Rock and Roll Hall.
It takes more than talent to be Hulk Hogan. As much as I disliked wrestling (and still do), you've got to respect what the Hulk has done. No one can rip a shirt off in public without having to pay royalties to the Hulk. He was an entertainer before wrestling was supposed to be known for its entertainment.
Obviously Pete Rose had talent, but that was it. No common sense, some personal awareness of baseball situational play. But what did he do (besides all the hits - which Ichiro has now trivialized with his slap style play)? Here's what he did - he is famous for sliding into a base in the most dangerous, stupid, and idiotic way possible.
Posted by: Jeff S at March 10, 2005 07:05 PM