WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony 2017 discussion thread

[DAMN iNATOR]

Bet Rollins is revealed as being back to 100% on Sunday.

[A.J.K]

All of these speeches have been amazing. Kurt's is going to be Tremendous.

[Nicky Fives]

WTF is the legacy HOF?

[DAMN iNATOR]

:lol: That pic of Haystacks Calhoun and Happy Humphrey...those two would DEGINITELY break the rings of today.

[Droford]

WTF is the legacy HOF?

They started it last year its basically all the people from the early 1900s who were involved in pro wrestling

[DAMN iNATOR]

WTF is the legacy HOF?

They added a "Legacy Wing" last year to acknowledge the contributions of people (I would guess) long gone who made their mark pre-WWWF or outside Capitol/WWWF. I think it's awesome.

[Dark One]

I hope Kurt Angle talks for 5 hours.

[Droford]

I saw kurts last match in ECW here at an ecw house show, so this is weird

[DAMN iNATOR]

I hope Kurt Angle talks for 5 hours.

I've got nothing else to do (of course, right?! LOL)...

[Droford]

LOL at Miz

"ME?"

[Dark One]

John Cena really does look tired.

[Dark One]

That injury was a BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK, John.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Cena didn't say it right...he won an Olympic gold medal WITH A BROKEN FRIGGIN' NECK! :mad:

[DAMN iNATOR]

Any Vegas odds on a "one more match!" chant from the crowd?

[Dark One]

http://s1.totalprosports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wrestling-fan-tears-of-joy-gifs-of-wrestling-fans-being-wrestling-fans.gif

[Dark One]

https://whatistheexcel.com/wooobooru/_images/4577bc61a3fee89b96afc2d0696b16df/8247%20-%20Raw%20autoplay_gif%20clapping%20crying%20gif%20paul_heyman%20wwe.gif?

[Emperor Smeat]

Crowd chanting "You Suck" at a Hall of Fame ceremony is hilarious even if its in tribute.

[Dark One]

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6019479/TbOi9j9.0.gif

[A.J.K]

Any Vegas odds on a "one more match!" chant from the crowd?

:y:

[Emperor Smeat]

:lol: at Angle trying to get a "never lose a match" stip added to his contract

[Dark One]

An Owl somewhere just had an aneurysm.

[Emperor Smeat]

Bet Vince almost had a heart attack when Angle suddenly wanted to thank 2 dead people were very helpful in his career.

[Evil Vito]

Huge "DELETE!" chant just at a Hardys reference. And that's why WWE are nuts if they don't bring them back with that gimmick.

[Nicky Fives]

DELETE!

[Dark One]

Bet Vince almost had a heart attack when Angle suddenly wanted to thank 2 dead people were very helpful in his career.

"And I'd really like to thank Chris Benoit."

[Evil Vito]

Bet Vince almost had a heart attack when Angle suddenly wanted to thank 2 dead people were very helpful in his career.

Think to this day Flair is the only one to mention Benoit in his speech, and that wasn't even a year after he'd passed.

[Dark One]

Kurt Angle has a huge future in Southpaw Regional Wrestling with that wig as Chett's replacement Ted Tedderson.

[Nicky Fives]

Kurt looks like he's having so much fun.

[Dark One]

I hope Kurt Angle talks for 5 hours.

[Emperor Smeat]

Love that Angle is having soo much fun with his speech right now.

[Droford]

that was awesome

[Droford]

He needs to pull out a milk truck and spray the crowd down

[Dark One]

Kurt Angle just the fucking best.

[Droford]

damnit

[Dark One]

I am 95% sure I would let Kurt Angle break my ankle and then thank him for it.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Love that Angle is having soo much fun with his speech right now.

If you can't laugh at yourself, you've got no right laughing at anyone else. At least that's how I always looked at it.

[Emperor Smeat]

:y: Milk celebration

[Dark One]

I would have preferred Kurt go on for another 4 hours, but god damn, I am so fucking happy for him.

Dude has been through hell and back, and even if a lot of it has been of his own making, so fucking great to see him on top of his life and the world again.

[Evil Vito]

Was hoping Angle would mention the battles he had with Styles and Sting in TNA only for it to get bleeped

[Nicky Fives]

As great as it would be (if rumours were true) of Angle being back on TV as a GM, I think they are missing the boat with him not being in the ring to help put young guys over....If he's healthy and can go, a partial schedule for a year would be a great send-off.

[Dark One]

Give Kurt Angle literally all the belts.

[Emperor Smeat]

Lots of really great Hall speeches tonight from both the inductees and people doing the inductions.

[Evil Vito]

97% sure I enjoyed this night more than I will enjoy WrestleMania

[Dark One]

Lots of really great Hall speeches tonight from both the inductees and people doing the inductions.

For sure.

Beth and Kurt's were both phenomenal. DDP's pretty good too. Probably best all around HoF in a long time if not ever.

[Dark One]

I am feeling super uncomfortable with how happy I am after seeing how crazy happy kurt Angle was to be back at home, in front of all of those people.

I am supposed to be miserable and crabby. I feel lost.

[Evil Vito]

DDP's speech was still my personal favorite. Could listen to him do impressions for hours.

But there was not a bad one in the bunch.

[Emperor Smeat]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EJmJl6Vwock" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Dark One]

Man. Maryse must really love Miz if she married him despite the fact he's going to turn into that in 20-30 years.

[Emperor Smeat]

Supposedly a fight broke out during tonight's show around the time of the Warrior Award segment. Started around the end of Beth's speech and had police show up at one point.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They also said the argument between all 3 started at the end of Beth's speech and escalated into a fight by Warrior Award portion.</p>&mdash; Ryan Satin (@ryansatin) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/848035976555266048">April 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

That might go down as the greatest Hall of Fame show ever.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Weird they didn't cut to Roman Reigns the only time Samoans were brought up. Sabotaged the Rock N' Roll.

[A.J.K]

Not going to lie, i was in tears most of time. DDP's speech about his work with Jake and Scott, Dusty mentions; The Warrior Award, Beth's speech, Kurt doing his classic skits, Laughed crazy when the APA mentioned Teddy owing them money.

One of the best hall of fame classes in recent memory.

[A.J.K]

:lol: Also Tony Chimel being brought on stage for announcing Edge.

[Gerard]

Was Nash on something last night? Just about anytime he was on Camera he was sort of sitting forward in his chair with a blank expression on his face. :wtf:

[Jordan]

Was Nash on something last night? Just about anytime he was on Camera he was sort of sitting forward in his chair with a blank expression on his face. :wtf:

I think he's just a dick and has a negative perspective on about anything in the business when the spotlight isn't on him.

[Jordan]

Couple thoughts.

Very engaging show top to bottom. Eric and DDP were really great. Loved Rock 'n Roll Express but zoned out during Jim Cornette. Ricky and Robert were amazing. Dave was critical because they were reading from paper, saying it came off too scripted, but obviously they needed some structure otherwise they'd have just rambled and rambled. When they got to to speak from the heart it was fantastic. Beth's speech was very nice but way too long. Didn't really care for APA or Teddy Long, don't really think he's a HOF worthy inductee. Ricky Steamboat was awkward but suitable. His segment kinda missed the mark in my opinion. However his son's speech was fantastic. Dana was really good per usual and Eric Legrande was very touching, very deserving of such recognition. Even thought that's not what the award was intended to be for, it's a better use of that spot than a behind the scenes employee. I didn't really think Cena was the best choice to induct Kurt and I still agree. Should have been Austin or maybe even Jericho. John spoke highly of Kurt but I didn't feel a strong personal connection which left his speech flat for me. Kurt however was incredible and closed the show perfectly. Love that guy and it's great to see him so happy doing what he loves.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Reigns ended up leaving the show because of the booing. Probably due to him realizing the constant camera cuts to him were causing a distraction to the event because of WWE's stupidity.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If anyone's wondering, Roman left the HoF</p>&mdash; Benjamin Tucker (@BTuckerTorch) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTuckerTorch/status/847993479519244293">April 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He's honestly smarter than WWE a lot of times.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

https://j.gifs.com/WnAQzJ.gif

[Gerard]

https://j.gifs.com/WnAQzJ.gif

Wonder if he'll look quite so smug when Vince finds someone else to get a hardon over and reigns finds himself dumped to mid card level. :|

[Maluco]

Wonder if he'll look quite so smug when Vince finds someone else to get a hardon over and reigns finds himself dumped to mid card level. :|

He is actually a brilliant dickhead tbh. Just look at that glance...It's Rick Rude-esque.

I know all this meta crap and "he already is a heel lol" stuff is en vogue to say, but they should stop the balancing act and just go all out. He would be a hundred times more entertaining as a heel and faces like Balor, Rollins etc... would only benefit from someone like that.

A huge face turn after he has won over the naysayers and they have a bankable face that everyone can get behind.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Seriously, Roman with less scripting could be like Rock even if he's not as good. WWE just can't seem the long term though.

From what I read, he left himself and not from anyone's advice. He's smart enough to do that.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I know all this meta crap and "he already is a heel lol" stuff is en vogue to say,


Gonna have to call my main man Destor out. One of the smartest guys on the forum but he loves to bandy this line of thinking about and it is the classic WWE cop out of having to do anything fun or right.

Jericho did it too on his podcast with Roman (which was actually fucking great).

They love to say the vocal adults will just cheer him once he's heel. First of all they don't know that.

Second of all, if that is the case, by the time he turns face again with the new wrinkles to his character, EVERYONE will be on his side. That is until they ruin him like they do everyone who is a face.

For the record. Roman is awesome. He's not a technician like AJ or Bryan but the guy is a fucking star, and a stud of an athlete.

I just don't care about him on screen, sadly.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

That's the thing, it's the same with Cena. Dude is so damn entertaining away from main WWE, just check out Southpaw. But the big problem with the PG times isn't the fact that it's PG, it's because Vince wants his protected Superman.

I get it, it leads to merch sales from kids and don't get it twisted, Roman sells a shitton of merch, but I think you can have both if you rotate the top face and lead to a better product overall.

It's that and scripting everyone. Just take a looser approach, Bray can make a script work. But Roman seems robotic with a script and he seems like an interesting dude when off the cuff. Hell, his FCW work was great on the mic. It's annoying because Romans matches when he's not spamming superman punches or overcoming the odds are fine and when he's not cutting a WWE promo, Roman is great to listen to talk. But the WWE machine is ruining it.

That fucking smug smirk is a natural heel and let him turn back face naturally, because I think people could get behind him... Or at least if the boat hasn't sailed.

[XL]

I don't think they're far off the mark with that assessment of a Roman turn. They really screwed it with him tbf. A heel run off the back of The Shield would have allowed him more time to grow into the role and would have slowed the "Super Face Pushed Down Your Throat" situation that turned the fans against him. People would have been clamouring for a face run out of him (like they did with Seth until they scewed that too).

[Theo Dious]

Edge's mom is hot THERE I SAID IT.

[#1-norm-fan]

It's easy to make a character kids love and adults hate. It takes almost no work at all. Kids will like whatever superhero character they're told they should like and adults will hate boring, horribly booked characters. He's not a heel. He's a poorly booked face. Calling him a heel, like Dale said, is a cop out and makes it sound like it's some deep, genius plan on WWE's part to get adults to hate the guy they book as a the top face.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

It's easy to make a character kids love and adults hate. It takes almost no work at all. Kids will like whatever superhero character they're told they should like and adults will hate boring, horribly booked characters. He's not a heel. He's a poorly booked face. Calling him a heel, like Dale said, is a cop out and makes it sound like it's some deep, genius plan on WWE's part to get adults to hate the guy they book as a the top face.

Oh no, it would take a character change as well, but I think he's more than got it in him.

hell, even as the cool heel, he was over in the Shield. That did mean a lack of scripted talking back then though...

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Remember when he was trying the "I'm not a good guy, I'm not a bad guy... I'm THE guy". So needy. I was actually embarrassed for him.

And what made me sad again on the podcast with Jericho (where Roman came across like a guy I would love to hang out with) is he was saying things like "I can't swear so I can't be a cool babyface."

Last I checked Jake Roberts in the late 80s didn't swear. Same with Roddy Piper during his face runs in the 80s.

You don't need to swear to be compelling. With Austin and Rock it worked because it was genuine.

Fuck, Daniel Bryan was mega over with EVERYONE and he didn't swear and was a big nerd.

It's very obvious he's not allowed to be himself. You don't need to turn him heel even (I mean I think they do him a disservice in his development in not letting him be heel), but just give him a chance to freestyle and not have him say these horrific Vince-concocted lines.



I'm looking forward to my man CyNick to tell us how we're mark ass bitches.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Remember when he was trying the "I'm not a good guy, I'm not a bad guy... I'm THE guy". So needy. I was actually embarrassed for him.

Fuck, Daniel Bryan was mega over with EVERYONE and he didn't swear and was a big nerd.

I now love that line, because it led to this with Cole and Graves corpsing:

https://streamable.com/nxuwk

(second best "package": https://streamable.com/7mee1)

Daniel Bryan just had one of those rare connections with the fans where he owned everything he did. The therapy he went through with Kane and the YES chanting when he first won the belt was all scripted, but he just owned it like Kurt was saying he did back in the day with cowboy hat and wig. Some guys can and some guys can't. It also helped both of those guys that they looked like threats in the ring while doing that doofus stuff.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

no doubt but he proved you don't need to be some raging anti-hero to be over, nor do you need to be some super man archetype. There are in betweens.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Yup, you just need to find a connection. I believe non scripted Roman could do that.

[#1-norm-fan]

I remember when The Shield first started feuding with Evolution, they did a promo on Main Event (random, I know). Triple H had cut a promo earlier calling The Shield a bunch of no-names. Ambrose and Rollins did their part and then when it came time for Reigns he just said to the crowd "No names? Let me ask you guys. Do I have a name?" and the crowd cheered. Then he was like "What's my name??" and they were like "Roman Reigns!"

It was simple. Not anything special. Not asking him to go above his means and cut a brilliant promo. He actually had some genuine swagger though. Not the manufactured, cringeworthy type they try to pull of with him now. He came off as the perfect "cool badass" type.

[Damian Rey 2.0]

It's actually funny to go back and see how universally over Reigns was when the SHIELD turned face up through his initial injury. He was a budding star.

Then they overplayed their hand and rushed him right into the main event.

[Vastardikai]

I recently read someone complain about how Jim Cornette "Unnecessarily put himself over" in his induction speech.

I'm like, huh? Cornette was one of the big draws of this Ceremony, because people wondered if he was going to go off on people. And the story of the Rock 'n Rolls is hard to tell without mentioning Cornette.

[Gerard]

Is Undertaker banned from these events or does he consider it a wrestling date he doesn't have to do? I don't think I've ever seen him at one of these HOF events. :|

[James Steele]

He's old school kayfabe and him in a tux at the HOF would kill the gimmick. Same reason he's only done a handful of interviews too.