WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016 Will Be Smaller than 2015’s

The WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016 will be smaller than 2015’s according to new reports. As previously reported, the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony gave WWE officials a few headaches, especially with how long the event lasted, which was just over four hours.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE may be planning on having fewer inductees in 2016 in order to cut back on time. It was said that WWE officials, notably Vince McMahon, was upset with the length of the 2015 induction ceremony.

Meltzer claims that WWE officials were upset with some of the things said during the 2015 ceremony, but were also aggravated with the amount of time each speech took. Next year’s inductees will also likely be encouraged to keep it “short and sweet.”

Meltzer writes,

“The Hall of Fame is a funny deal. Those involved in the process have outright said it is not meant to be taken seriously, in the sense it is purely marketing, yet even those same people have pushed for their favorites to get in. This year’s class closed one controversy and opened another. Randy Savage, one of the biggest stars of the last 30 years, and one of the era’s biggest no-brainer candidates, was put in, after a deal was cut with brother Lanny Poffo.

Even that wasn’t without controversy. Poffo for years had noted it was his brother’s wish that he would only go in if it was part of the Poffo family, noting that all of the Von Erich family, including Mike and Chris, who had very limited wrestling careers, were put in together. But that was part of a deal to purchase the family’s tape library. Lanny Poffo doesn’t appear to have any kind of an ego problem regarding his own career, and if anything, underplays his in-ring ability. If there is a legitimate standard for a Hall of Fame wrestler as being an elite in their profession, Lanny Poffo is not in the discussion for the Hall of Fame, but he’s also worlds ahead of Chris Von Erich, and well ahead of Mike. In the end, it was about Randy’s loyalty to his father, Angelo, who Randy was able to get into the now-forgotten WCW Hall of Fame. Randy also never forgot a slight to his father when WWF would not book Angelo, as Randy’s request, into a Legends Battle Royal at the Meadowlands Arena in 1987.

Lanny Poffo pulled a 180 on the subject, saying that he knew he was going against his brother’s wishes, but agreed to do it anyway. His claim was that WWE made it clear it would not induct the Poffo family, that he wasn’t going to be able to outlast Vince McMahon in a showdown, and that he was now the oldest male in the family and was doing it for the fans. He did admit his mother was strongly against it, citing Randy’s wishes. Judy Poffo did not attend the ceremony, which they said was due to age. Lynn Poffo, Randy’s wife, also didn’t attend, although Lanny in his speech claimed she was watching from home.

Hulk Hogan handled the induction, which also had its controversy, given that Savage had made it clear for most of the last decade of his life that he hated Hogan. Hogan claimed, and this was something he told to friends before Savage’s death even though he never said so publicly until after, that the two had made up. At different times it was said that Lanny Poffo wanted Hogan to induct him, or that Lanny Poffo thought he was the one who should have inducted his brother. Either way, the WWE Hall of Fame and inductions were long since established when the company refused to allow Lance Russell to induct Jerry Lawler, per his wishes. The company then made the call for it to be William Shatner, who did a minor TV vignette on January 9, 1995, with Lawler. Hogan is a huge star. He was, by far, Savage’s biggest rival and the wrestler most associated with him on WWF television.

Elizabeth couldn’t go in with Savage because of the awkwardness of their divorce, and the decision to only have one deceased person go in this year.

That also eliminated Ray Stevens, the biggest wrestling star in Northern California history, and generally considered the best in-ring worker of the 1960s, from consideration. Stevens was personally requested by Pat Patterson, who was Stevens’ tag team partner for years when they were considered the best tag team in the world, and had been at first approved. Company officials had gone to the people they go to looking for photos and memorabilia requesting items on Stevens for this year’s list.

The ceremony is always a mixture of real emotion and stories, some of which are real and some of which aren’t.

Rikishi (Solofa Fatu), was a star during the Attitude Era, the peak of company popularity and a period they heavily market on the network. He’s also the father of two wrestlers on the current roster.

Larry Zbyszko (Larry Whistler) fit the mold as a former enemy of the state, who now helps HHH at developmental shows. Plus, it was a way to get Bruno Sammartino involved with the show.

The rule is to have a woman inductee. Madusa (Debra Ann Miceli) inducted not so surprisingly as Alundra Blayze, a name she used in WWE but was not the name she was best remembered as during a long career that extended long past wrestling and into the monster trucks world, fit the bill here. But it was made clear that to get inducted, she would have to do a skit where she would pull the old WWF women’s title belt out of the garbage can, to make amends for one of the stories WWE has been pushing as this major thing in its version of the Monday Night Wars history.

Conor Michalek was the feel good moment, even though that ended up with some controversy after the fact because former WWE ring announcer Jason Roberts, who may have been the company employee closest to Michalek, was erased from the story for not being enough of a celebrity. However, Conor’s father, Steve, did acknowledge him in his acceptance speech. Later, when people were critical of Roberts for being critical of WWE for what he said was twisting the real story of Michalek and WWE, Steve Michalek again defended Roberts when he could have just remained quiet on the subject. Still, in a world that is often not very real, the Bryan Danielson speech leading to this induction was the most real thing on WWE programming of the year.

Danielson said it himself to start the speech, saying, “Everything I’ve done is fiction. It’s not real. If I’ve inspired any of you, that’s great, but when you talk about inspiration, I’m talking something that’s very real, somebody who inspired me was Conor.” WWE officials in editing the show for replay viewings, edited out Danielson’s saying that everything he’s done is fiction.

The Bushwhackers, Luke & Butch (Brian Wickens & Robert Miller), provided comedy. And Miller, crippled from his decades in the ring, came through like a champion, completely with his trying to do the old Bushwhacker walk with a cane.

Tatsumi Fujinami was, well, who knows what that was or why. As far as being a pro wrestler, Fujinami is as deserving of being a Hall of Famer as anyone inducted, including Savage. One of the best in-ring wrestlers of his era, until back injuries plagued him in the latter stages of his career, he had a combination of the ability to draw out emotion in a crowd, to go along with top tier skill and intensity. But he’s also a virtual complete unknown to the modern WWE audience. And building his induction around his NWA title win over Ric Flair in 1991 at the Tokyo Dome contradicts WWE’s own version of Flair as a 16-time world champion, since Flair’s winning it back is not one of those 16 wins.

Savage did not go on last, even though he was clearly the biggest star. He went on third from last, before Arnold Schwarzenegger, a legitimate celebrity icon, and Kevin Nash, who they counted on to close the show with the annual kliq reunion. What’s notable is that of all those involved, it was the non-wrestler, Schwarzenegger, who came across as the biggest storyteller of all, in speaking about growing up and idolizing Austrian wrestler Otto Wanz, when Wanz’s career as a wrestler didn’t start until after Schwarzenegger had already moved to California to work for Joe Weider. There was a report that John Layfield spoke to Schwarzenegger, and talked about his time in Germany and Austria working for Wanz, who was the lead promoter there, and Wanz was both promoter and the star wrestler and perhaps that’s where the Wanz reference came from.

Shawn Michaels and Nash closed the show. Nash held his ground since WWE wanted to induct him as Diesel and unlike Scott Hall as Razor, Madusa and others, he stood up for what he wanted and got his way at the end. Nash is a natural B.S. artist, but he quoted Ric Flair as saying the only two things real in wrestling are your first world title win and the Hall of Fame. If that’s the case, you’d want to go as yourself, not a character you played for a few years that was not even the biggest period of his career. And perhaps it’s more pragmatic, since he also said that if using the Hall of Fame as a marketing tool, when he does personal appearances, he goes as Kevin Nash, and he can now be Hall of Famer Kevin Nash.

The show went four hours, one hour longer than they had hoped for. Fans never complain about the length of the show, but those in the company constantly do. In the past, when trying to keep it on a strict schedule (one year they even put a timer clock on speeches that was in public view), we had the still embarrassing deal of Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk, going in together in Texas, having five minutes total for both of them to talk about their entire lives in wrestling. The same was to happen for Bill Watts, but Watts gave a long speech without pausing once so they never had a half second to cue his music to signal he had to leave.

In this case, nobody went so long. Fujinami went very short, but given the audience not having a connection to him, and him struggling with English, that was probably the best thing. The feeling is that next year, to make it to three hours, they’ll cut down on inductees next year in Dallas.

As far as who goes in, Undertaker and Sting are obvious possibilities, particularly if the show is sold as one or both men’s farewell match. It was a big surprise to me when The Fabulous Freebirds didn’t go in when they were in Atlanta, but the highlight program of The Freebirds career was in Dallas against the Von Erichs. There were no local stars in this year’s class. One could argue in Dallas for Gary Hart, Bruiser Brody, Wahoo McDaniel or Johnny Valentine all of which are very legitimate Hall of Famers but have no connection with the modern WWE audience. There will always be the Danny Hodge push, but that ship may have sailed when he didn’t go in when they were in New Orleans, as that was one of Hodge’s key markets, while he didn’t work Dallas a lot.”

Editor’s Note:

God forbid this inductees are allowed to say what they want…as they’re being “immortalized” by WWE. #Joke