Top 250, Future, and Celebrity lists (July 2012)

First off, glad to see the fringe list off the table right now. At best it should only have been used for pioneers like Frank Gotch, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Rikidozan, or backstage technical people like Jim Johnston or Kevin Dunn. People WWE do not have footage of or just support staff who can't easily be ranked with the talent or promoters.



The celebrity list with William Shatner replacing Mike Tyson is good. He has hosted RAW, did a storyline angle with Lawler in the mid 90s and inducted Lawler into the Hall of Fame. If he just appears at a pay-per view, he could solidify his spot. However I still have reservations about Dennis Rodman. Again, he was a WCW celebrity who no-showed a lot of events and rubbed people the wrong way. I don't think WWE is in any hurry to induct him nor needs to. His spot would be better served with Tom "Tiny" Lister or Leslie Nielsen.



The Future list.... it's sort of all over the place. Marcus Bagwell? Bobby Lashley? Not sure how they are future Hall of Famers. Maybe Bagwell could get ranked in the top 250...in the back. Sting should be ranked in the top 250 as he's going into the TNA Hall of Fame and WWE tried to induct him into their Hall of Fame in 2011.

The future list should be guys like John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Stephanie McMahon, Vickie Guerrero, Michael Cole, Santino Marella, The Great Khali, The Miz, and other current superstars who have pretty much earned their place or are on the clear path to the Hall. Batista too, though he's off doing movies. Guys like X-Pac, Teddy Long, Great Muta, Chavo Jr, D Lo Brown and so on can get ranked however high or low they should be. Guys like Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Kane, are probably worth ranking given they made it big long before the likes of Cena or Orton, but if not they too can stay on the futures list. Guys like Christian, Mark Henry, and the Hardy Boys could be added too.

Perhaps the biggest move from the future list should be Vince McMahon. Frankly, I think he should be ranked number 1 on the top 250, followed by Sammartino and Savage.




The Top 250. Toots Mondt, Jack Tunney, Gory Guerrero, Edouard Carpentier, Angelo Savoldi, Linda McMahon, Sky Low Low, Leroy McGuirk, Hans Schmidt, and Danny Hodge should be added. Joey Styles, Lance Russell, Harvey Whippleman, George Crybaby Cannon, Bulldog Brower, Gene LeBell, Paul Boesch, The Crocketts, Bruce Prichard and Willie Gilzenberg are also worthy.

Scott Irwin, Eric Embry, Bunkhouse Buck, Chris Kanyon, Marc Mero, Jose Estrada Sr, Iceman King Parsons, Tojo Yamamoto, Giant Haystacks, Tor Kamata, Hard Boiled Haggerty, Mark Rollerball Rocco, Gino Hernandez, Jay Youngblood, Buzz Sawyer, Chris Adams, Brad Armstrong, Jacqueline, Otto Wanz, and Kendo Nagasaki can probably be replaced. Haystacks I'd consider more of a fringe person anyways since he's foreign, dead, and never worked for WWE. Same could be said about Shinya Hashimoto or Mitsuharu Misawa. In fact, there are a lot of Japanese guys on the list who probably will never make it. But I figured I'd mention Toshiaki Kawada and Aja Kong as potential replacements too. Kong at least is still alive and worked briefly for WWE.

Still think guys like Slick, Lord Alfred Hayes, and the New Age Outlaws should be in the top 100 while guys like Jody Hamilton, Shane Douglas, and Ole Anderson should be bumped back.





Those are my current thoughts. What's everyone else thinking?

Always great to see expert analysis, Dr. Forrester. In the not too distant future, I'd love to see a lot of this come to fruition in regards to the actual HOF.
Does Vince McMahon really need to be ranked? He is It, The Man, The Reason Why. I'm curious what his actual opinon on his HOF induction would be. He's the one doing the choosing, right? It's his HOF, ultimately.
Lord Alfred Hayes should be in, even if his personna was cartoon-like. Hayes, post-WWF, actually was a heel commentator for an organization called the AWF, with the highlighted feud a rehash of Tito Santana-Greg Valentine over their "world" title. I wonder if moving on has hurt his candidacy, especially if he never returned to the fold before he passed.

After Lord Alfred Hayes died, they did the ten bell salute on RAW and had Jim Ross say some kind words before showing a tribute video which I believe can still be found on youtube. They said he was a member of the WWE family. So I don't think his post accident worked was frowned upon.

As for McMahon, I do believe he should be ranked. They'll either induct him while he's alive or while he's dead. But either way he'll go in. If they do it while he's alive, it'll probably originate from Stephanie McMahon and Triple H's brains.

Thanks. It is good to know Hayes was duly recognized. It was weird hearing him as a heel announcer, as short lived as that organization ran.

McMahon will undoubtedly go in, and, I agree, at Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's insistence. If he does ever step down, that would be a good time, IMO. It should probably happen at the time he does retire, without an waiting period.

Yeah. Hayes switched back and forth between heel and face even within the WWF on commentary. Basically playing the part when needed.

This is the video they played. Before it, Jim Ross spoke kind words regarding Hayes being part of the WWE family.






The other two I mentioned that should be moved up (the New Age Outlaws & Slick) appeared on the RAW 1000th episode celebration just a week or so ago with significant screen time. Not just anyone got that treatment. They truly have a better shot at the Hall of Fame than the likes of Shane Douglas or Jody Hamilton at this point.

Undoubtedly, the New Age Outlaws belong. The DX reunion was the best part of RAW 1000, to me. Especially because only a couple years ago they were just bashing Triple H at every opportunity. I don't know if inducting Road Dogg's father went a long way toward mending fences or some sort of reason came to them along the way but it was good to see all five members together (even if Michaels was not wrestling when James, Gunn and X-Pac were part of the group.) I can see DX as a unit, though, especially with the reception they got.
Slick belongs, as well. I don't know his back story, but remember how he just took over for Freddie Blassie and the transition was seemless.

I too see DX going in as a unit like the Horsemen and no doubt the Freebirds (Hayes, Gordy, Roberts, Garvin) soon. It'll be after Triple H gets his singles induction though. So we're probably still looking at another 5 years, but they certainly deserve top 100 on this list.

Yeah, Slick took over Freddie Blassie's wrestlers when he retired. Slick really found his stride when he started managing the Twin Towers. Such a big feud that was with the Mega Powers. They keep flying Slick in for events like WrestleMania 23, Raw Old School, and now Raw 1000th episode. The latter in which he performed the marriage ceremony for hot stars AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan because he's a real life Reverend. It's only a matter of time before they induct him.

Ah, the Twin Towers. One Man Gang was one wrestler who survived the transition from many strong regional promotions to a couple of large national promotions. I remember when I started following wrestling, in the mid-80's, and guys like Tommy Rich, Brad Armstrong, Dick Slater and Ron Bass were major players because of what they were doing in their respective territories. When Jim Crockett decided to take on Vince McMahon, many of those stars were reduced to minor storylines for the bigger promotions. OMG pulled it off, as ridiculous as the Akeem gimmick seems. And that mohawk he sported before he became "Africanized" was part of a great look of a true monster heel. He and the Bossman should both be in. no question.

It's true. You would think a gimmick like Akeem was designed to fail, but somehow it worked. Also the One Man Gang/Akeem was great at taking bumps for a big man. He gets overshadowed by Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Van Vader, and King Kong Bundy crowd but he really was in their league. While he was a former UWF champion and United States Champion, he was the type of guy who didn't need a title. Much like Andre the Giant. He was a great territorial monster in the CWF, Mid South and WCCW. If WWE had turned him face at the end of 1990, he probably could have gone even further with the company.

He certainly deserves induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Dr wrote:

It's true. You would think a gimmick like Akeem was designed to fail, but somehow it worked. Also the One Man Gang/Akeem was great at taking bumps for a big man. He gets overshadowed by Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Van Vader, and King Kong Bundy crowd but he really was in their league. While he was a former UWF champion and United States Champion, he was the type of guy who didn't need a title. Much like Andre the Giant. He was a great territorial monster in the CWF, Mid South and WCCW. If WWE had turned him face at the end of 1990, he probably could have gone even further with the company.

He certainly deserves induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Mentioning the UWF makes me wonder if I'm missing something. Is Cowboy Bill Watts ranked here? I didn't see his name listed. He gets a lot of criticism for what he did with WCW and the WWF, but I think what he did with UWF is as worthy as any promoter. The first three "world" champs were all heels. Heck, it was a heel-dominated territory. And some great feuds and storylines in the short time they had between Mid-South and the WCW takeover.