With all respect to James Dudley, the first real African American manager of note in the WWE was “The Doctor of Style”, Slick.  The jive talking street hustler was one of the more fun characters, but he was rarely paired with a wrestler who complimented his style.  Slick had a decent run, but it has to be wondered if an updated version of his character (even though there is no real manager of note today) could take off better now.

The Great Kabuki may have only competed one match for the WWE (The Royal Rumble in 1994) but he had competed in multiple promotions in the United States long before his lone match for Vince McMahon.  Kabuki was of course always cast as a heel (as all Japanese or like looking performers were from his era), but he holds the claim to fame for popularizing the “Asian Mist” in wrestling.  Kabuki did do well in his native Japan as well as the U.S., though this will not likely be enough to make him the next Japanese wrestler inducted.

It could easily be argued that Lance Storm was one of the top technical wrestlers of whatever promotions he was in.  Considering that he competed in ECW, WCW and the WWE, the above statement becomes even more impressive.  Lance Storm had main even talent but he was mainly used in the mid card.  This isn’t to denigrate what he accomplished in the ring (as few reach the elite level), but he was such a natural talent that excelled at making people look good while making a victory over him seem important.  Few could do that, though if “we could be serious for a moment”, we would have loved to have seen him in a World Title program.  He deserved that opportunity.

Some have argued that Chris Adams’ greatest contribution to wrestling was training a young Steve Austin.  We will argue against it as the “Gentleman” was a major star in World Class and a part of the some of the most memorable angles of that promotion’s history.  With his spectacular “superkick” and ability to work as a pure baby face or despicable heel, Chris Adams did well in both Dallas and Memphis.  Adams however he was basically a jobber in WCW and had many personal demons that would eventually do him in.  A posthumous induction seems unlikely at this stage.