The greatest wrestler of all time is a yes.

Roddy Piper

This is another layup as Piper was one of the best, if not the best, villains of all time.  I stand by the statement that without him there would be no Wrestlemania, due to Piper having the fans begging to see him get beaten up.  Piper had a long and successful career which resulted in him being a top star again in WCW, eleven years after his original time on top.  As great as he was on the mic, he was also an excellent wrestler who had solid matches with a ton of guys he fought.  This is another easy one as I said before.

Bob Orton Jr.

Orton is kind of the Christian of his day: he rarely was in the world title scene but he was always good for a solid performance when needed.  He was great at putting people over and acted as a bodyguard (not a life partner) to Roddy Piper during the 80s.  After that he kind of faded away a bit but he would pop up every now and then for various companies as his usually solid self.  As for putting him in the Hall of Fame though….I’m not entirely sold on that.  The problem is that Orton was always the guy behind the guy rather than the top star himself.  He did well in that role, but certainly not well enough to be considered an all time great.  Orton was one of those very solid but not great guys.

Jimmy Hart

Another short entry here as he’s one of the best managers of all time, but you can’t put him in without having Heenan in first.  Since the Brain is already enshrined, I can more than live with Hart going in.  As evil as Heenan was, Hart was kind of a step beneath him as Hart was more along the lines of annoying and a nuisance than the top evil mind.  That being said Jimmy was more than successful and played his role perfectly.  I’m fine with him going in.

Paul Orndorff

This is one of the trickiest ones on the entire list.  Orndorff was an awesome talent back in the 80s but his time on top got cut short by an arm injury.  This injury (while not as slow healing as Orton’s) was caused when he was facing Hogan in a feud so hot that he was making $20,000 a week selling out arenas.  That’s INSANE money for today and back then it’s hard to comprehend.  He’s quite good and I can accept him as a member of the Hall of Fame, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to overcome this.

WCW in 1995 was weird.

I’ll go ahead and vote yes but it’s not a for sure vote.

Nikolai Volkoff

This is one of the easiest no votes on the whole list.  At the end of the day, Volkoff is famous for losing to Hulk Hogan probably more times than anyone else in history.  There’s no reason for him to be a member of the Hall of Fame other than nostalgia.  Yeah he won some tag titles, but most of them are from a so long forgotten era that there’s no reason to care about them at all.  Volkoff was a fun character who was pretty amusing at times, but on the other hand…the guy just wasn’t that good.  This is a no and it’s not even worth thinking about.

Iron Sheik

This one however is worth thinking about.  Sheik was the WWF Champion, but it’s one of the textbook examples of a transitional reign.  He didn’t even hold the title for a month before dropping it back to Hogan, which makes Sheik a footnote rather than a top name.  I don’t think there’s enough there for him to go into the Hall of Fame, although his interviews after retiring are some of the funniest tirades you’ll ever hear.  As for a Hall of Fame induction though, I’d go no although I can see why he’s in and I don’t completely disagree with him being inducted.

This is one of the classes where they got some of the required named enshrined.  You have to have Hogan, period.  Piper being in is a very solid choice as well and the rest certainly aren’t terrible, Volkoff excluded.  They also stopped inducting so many people, but that would become a problem again in a few years.  This is a very solid class though, especially on top.

2. John Cena vs. The Rock has happened ONE TIME.  The way people are talking, you would think it was Sheamus vs. Ziggler or something that happens once a week.  It’s their second match ever, not their 19th.

3. The first match was pretty good to great.  My guess is the rematch will also produce an excellent match.

4. Punk has been defeated.  From a storytelling perspective, it makes little sense to include him.

5. Triple threats suck anyway.

KB

KB

Big John Studd

….for what?  Winning the second Royal Rumble?  I’d hardly call that a reason for putting him in the Hall.  Studd won a tag title back in the 70s under a mask, but other than that the guy doesn’t have any claims to fame in the company.  He was a pretty big star outside of WWF, but again I don’t know if he was a big enough deal to be in the Hall of Fame.  At the end of the day, he didn’t really do much other than job to Andre and Hogan about a million times.  If he’s in the Hall of Fame, it’s on one of the lowest levels you can be on.  I’d vote no here.

Don Muraco

I’m fine with this one.  Muraco was a very dominant heel back in the early 80s, winning two Intercontinental Titles when that meant a lot.  He spent the second most time ever as champion, second only to Pedro Morales.  He’s also an answer to another trivia question, as he won the first King of the Ring tournament.  Muraco was a shell of his great self by the time he turned face in late 87, which is a shame as he really was talented back in the day.  I’m fine with him going in.

Greg Valentine

You could nearly write the same paragraph here as was written about Muraco, with the only differences being Valentine won a tag title instead of another IC Title and never won the KOTR.  Valentine also had a great run in the NWA, winning nearly every major title other than the world title.  If you want to see an old school bloodbath, check out Valentine vs. Piper at the first Starrcade.  For it’s time, it’s an amazing brawl.  I have no problem with Valentine being in the Hall of Fame, but if you look up his stuff, get the matches before about 1987.  They’re WAY better.

Harley Race

This is a yes.  If you need to know who Harley Race is, watch some HHH matches and pretend it’s the 70s.  They’re practically the same guy.  If I remember right, when Race retired he was an 8 time world champion.  The second highest total at that time: three, by Lou Thesz.  Harley Race is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and has a legitimate argument for being the greatest of all time.  Race falls into the category of “guys you have to have in a wrestling Hall of Fame if you want people to care.”  As I said, this is a yes, period.

Jesse Ventura

If you have Gorilla Monsoon in the Hall of Fame, it would be a crime to not have Ventura in there as well.  These two were made to be commentary partners and they had the absolute best banter in the history of wrestling announcers.  Ventura wasn’t great in the ring by any stretch, but he more than made up for it on the microphone.  Oh and he was governor of Minnesota.  That has to be worth some points.  I’m fine with him being in the Hall of Fame, but only the WWF version.

Junkyard Dog

The JYD is one of those guys that got by almost entirely on charisma instead of skill.  By the time he got to the WWF he was a shell of his former self, but the fans still loved him no mater what.  He never accomplished that much on the main stage, but he was probably the biggest star ever in Mid-South, which was a pretty big deal back in the day.  This is one of those names that I wouldn’t go with personally, but I can see why he got in.  I’d probably vote no though, at least for the first few years.

Sgt. Slaughter

This is another name that wasn’t huge on the main stage but he was certainly big elsewhere, especially in the chin department.  Slaughter was a top star in the AWA and then won the WWF Title in a huge heel run in 1991.  He used the American military gimmick which is one of the tried and true gimmicks that almost never fails.  Slaughter was one of the top stars of the 1980s, and I have limited problems with him being in the Hall of Fame.  I’ll give him a pretty solid yes here.

Billy Graham

Here’s something you likely wouldn’t guess: Graham has the longest world title reign by a heel in WWF history.  On top of that, to call Graham influential is the understatement of the century.  Hogan used the boas and talked about having huge arms, Rhodes flat out stole some of Graham’s catchphrases, and Jesse Ventura made a running joke out of saying that Graham stole ideas from him.  Graham has since become something of a nut case, but to argue that he doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame is absurd.  This is probably the easiest layup of the year.

Tito Santana

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a big Tito Santana fan.  The guy could flat out go in the ring and was basically the Kofi Kingston of his day: he won enough titles to be credible all the time, he almost never had a truly bad match, and he never was a serious threat to the world title.  Santana and Valentine had some of the best chemistry you’ll ever see, making their matches pure treats.  He had the same chemistry with Savage so the feuds flowed very well with them.  Santana certainly belongs in the Hall as he’s one of the most consistently solid workers in history.

Bobby Heenan

He’s the greatest manager of all time but he might have been funnier on commentary.  Think about this: the guy got a DVD released about him, and he was primarily a manager.  That sums up the easy yes pretty well.

Pete Rose

Yeah whatever.  The guy took some beatings over the years so why not.

This was a pretty solid return to the concept for the WWE, but the next year was when they started nailing the idea with headliners.  That’s probably what this class is missing most, but it’s certainly not bad.

Well we’re in between the Rumble and Mania and DANG if it’s not a weird time in the WWF. There is no world champion at the moment but we’ll get to that. To begin with let’s recap the Rumble which should explain a lot. Three things happened there: Vader beat Taker with help from Paul Bearer, Shawn got the WWF Title back from Sid, and most importantly Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble in a stunning shock.

OR DID HE???

Well yes but he shouldn’t have. Your final five men were Bret, Taker, Vader, Austin and the fake Diesel (Kane). Mankind and Terry Funk were fighting on the floor which had the attention of the referees. During this fight, Hart eliminated Austin but no referee saw it. Austin got back in, eliminated Vader and Taker just after Hart eliminated Diesel. Austin took out Hart and the referees turned around to see him alone in the ring.

Austin is declared the winner and therefore the #1 contender. HOWEVER, Gorilla Monsoon doesn’t like this so he makes a match for this PPV which he dubs Final Four. Austin, Hart, Taker and Vader, the final four men in the ring in the Rumble, would have a match at the PPV for the right to go to Mania. Ok, that’s all well and good. However, there was a special Thursday edition of Raw where Shawn forfeited the title, citing a knee injury and a lost smile.

That night he had been scheduled to face Sid in a title match, so instead of just naming Sid Champion, the four way match at the PPV was now for the title with the winner facing Sid the following night on Raw for the title. Did you get all that?

That leads us here. Also on the card we have Furnas and LaFon (don’t ask) challenging for the tag belts as well as Rocky Maivia defending the IC Title that he took from HHH on the same Thursday Raw against HHH in a rematch. This is your last PPV before WM 13, so it better rock. Let’s see if it rocks or just Flex Kavanas.

Marc Mero vs. Leif Cassidy

We open with this, as in just after the recap we hear Sable’s music begin. You can tell the camera people either don’t care about this match or are just really stupid as Mero is in the ring and his pyro is going off before we even see him for the first time.

Sable has got her classic look down now: long blonde hair, one piece black leather outfit, big earrings and sunglasses. Just…dang. Anyway, Cassidy is already in the ring so how good are you expecting this match to really be? I actually like Cassidy’s stuff better than Mero’s. Let that sink in for a bit. Your psychology for this match is Cassidy works on Mero’s knee. Mero is your face here…I think.

Actually it’s more like Sable is the face and Marc is hers but that’s neither here nor there. Snow really can carry a match when he’s allowed to. It’s not something anyone cares about though as it’s Leif Cassidy vs. Marc Mero but Snow (Cassidy in case you didn’t pick up on that) is handling this very well.

Everything he does makes sense and has a point to it. There’s no noticeably stupid moves anywhere which is a very nice break. He goes after Sable though and Mero rescues her. After this he hits like three moves and no sells the knee injury to hit his shooting star press to win it.

Rating: D. If I could split this up into two ratings it would be an F for Mero and an A for Cassidy. Mero was just awful out there. He was on defense for probably 80-85 percent of the match, slams Cassidy’s head twice, hits a bad Samoan drop and his finisher to win while no selling the whole point of the match. Snow on the other hand was crisp, solid, and logical. You’re facing a high flier, keep him on the mat.

That’s smart wrestling and something that makes sense to do. He even threw in a figure four, which to be fair was the absolute worst I’ve ever seen but he was at least trying. I was impressed with him but Mero was just awful. Sable of course was the highlight with her looks, but it was close.

Now we get a double shot of weirdness. To begin with, immediately after that match, Honky Tonk Man comes out. Now, that’s not incredibly weird because based on the reaction I would assume that he’d been around a bit lately as the announcers and the crowd don’t seem stunned by his appearance.

I know he had an angle coming up that had either already started or started tonight but we’ll cover that later. The really weird part comes when he’s about to get into the ring.

We cut to a video package recapping Shawn’s forfeiting the title which shows the entire speech, Gorilla’s announcement of the title being on the line in the Four Way, and then we go to an interview with Sid. Just comes from nowhere and while it would usually be fine, why have HTM come out and then show it? He didn’t even get to have his music end.

As for the speech, here’s my take on it: you can believe him or not, and I personally think that he was at least half telling the truth, but he’s made it clear that the knee was nowhere near as bad as he implied. He had a minor surgery that could have waited but he says he very well may be retiring because of it. All I know is this: for a long stretch in that interview you could hear a pin drop in the audience.

People were on the verge of tears because Shawn might have to go. You can like Shawn you can hate Shawn you can be indifferent to him as I am for the most part, but the people loved him and that simply cannot be denied. What I believe however is that he simply didn’t want to lose to Bret at Mania 13. It was very clear that was where they were going with things, but Shawn just didn’t want to do it so he backed out.

Anyway, Sid says he’s taking the title tomorrow.

Flash Funk/Bart Gunn/Goldust vs. Nation of Domination

Flash’s entrance takes a ridiculous amount of time as he and his ladies, who are sexy in an odd way, just have to have a full dance sequence in the ring. As his illustrious partners make their way to the ring, we get a recap to explain this “feud”. Apparently all three of our jobbers have been unfairly beaten by the NOD thanks to their gang mentality. The Nation makes their entrance and look like the NWO.

I kid you not, there are 9 people in this stable. A checklist: 2 white rappers, Clarence Mason, D’lo Brown, Farrooq, Crush, Savio Vega and two guys who were apparently actors hired to look like the NOD was bigger than it really was, which is actually a good idea. That’s a huge freaking stable and their coming through the crowd and rapping their own music was genius.

This match goes under 7 minutes so this is going to be a relatively short review. Basically here all that happens is a six man tag. It’s as simple as that. This is a basic 6 man tag match. It’s not great and it’s not bad. It’s just your standard run of the mill 6 man tag. Faces start strong, heel takes over, you get a face comeback and the heels win. There is however one sick spot in it. Funk is getting double teamed by Savio and Farrooq.

They send him into the ropes for a double clothesline but he grabs their arms and in one motion backflips over them to land a double clothesline of his own. I was very impressed by this move as it just looks sick. Finish comes when Crush drops a leg on Bart to let Farrooq pin him.

Rating: C-. Now stop me if you’re heard this one before: a cowboy, a pimp and a man that is of the homosexual persuasion walk into a bar. Seriously we have those three gimmicks against a group modeled on the Black Panthers. How over the top can you get? And Vince has the nerve to wonder why the NWO was kicking his head in in the ratings at the time? Give me a break.

In the back Doc is with Steve Austin. He talks about how Austin hasn’t beaten any of the three men he’s in the ring with. Austin says he did at the Rumble and there’s a conspiracy against him by everyone in the company with any kind of power.

IC Title: HHH vs. Rocky Maivia

This is the rematch from three days prior as Rocky shocked the world and took the IC title from HHH. Helmsley has gotten to the best heel music I can remember in a long time as he comes out to Beethoven’s Ode To Joy now. Dang that’s some sweet music for a heel. He’s also dropped the random woman valet which helps a lot as well in my eyes. He’s becoming much more deadly in the ring and the HHH character is coming soon.

HHH is a twig at this point, maybe cracking 245 soaking wet. Rocky was still a rookie at this point but you could see the star in him just begging to get out with a gimmick change. HHH was on the verge of stardom but not as naturally. Early on the botch a baseball slide spot but HHH does a great improvised spot where he turns it into a drop toehold. This is a pretty good match so far with some good one liners from the King.

HHH is so rich he takes taxis to drive in movies. You could see the chemistry that these two had even this young in their careers. They knew how to get the best out of one another and that’s not something that can be taught to you by anyone. The commentators do a comparison of the people that trained both men to kill some time. JR mistakenly says that was a nice slupex by HHH so you can see him starting to slip even 12 years ago.

HHH and Hebner do their usual thing of Earl not being willing to be intimidated by HHH. HHH hits a perfect jumping knee to the face which might be the best he’s ever done. This is a very good match as it’s hard hitting and has a lot of near falls. However, they of course ruin it with the finish. Goldust whom HHH was feuding with at the time comes and stands in the aisle allowing Maivia to hit a German suplex to get the pin.

Post match Marlena gets choked out by some big woman/man with black hair that would come to be known as Chyna. Goldust says “throw her in jail.” They did a decent job of implying she was just a fan but the replay of it kind of gives it away.

Rating: B+. This was a very good match and if it had a finish could have been great. These two just put on great matches together no matter what and this was no exception. Rocky would go on to have a nice little reign with the title while HHH would go on to do nothing over the Summer but would starting hanging out with Shawn Michaels and that creature that just interfered in a little thing that would come to be called DX.

Promo for Mania airs.

Kevin Kelly interviews Vader who says he’ll be taking down all three men tonight. Paul Bearer says the same thing.

Tag Titles: Furnas/LaFon vs. Owen/Bulldog

This was a strange match. The story is that the champions have been arguing a lot lately and at the same time they lost in a Survivor Series match to these same two guys, resulting in this tag match. Now I know nothing about the challengers at all but to be fair I really hadn’t seen much of them. These guys were actually good. They were great movers out there and had some great technical stuff.

The person that stood out the most though was the referee. He was just flat out bad here. He kept taking forever as he kept wanting people out of the ring etc. and while that’s fine to try to keep going, he took it way too far. Whenever there was a cover he’d check the two partners before he went to make the count. That’s a waste of time and looks bad. Also during the match the champions kept fighting, eventually seeing Bulldog intentionally clothesline Owen hard.

Now once that happens it’s like a new match starts. The second match is far superior to the first one. Once they change gears, things get very good very fast. There was a ton of near falls and I actually believed that there would be new champions on more than one occasion. I knew who was going to win and I still believed otherwise. That my friends is compelling wrestling. The champions get hit with everything but they keep getting up every time.

Finally the end comes and it is just strange. Bulldog gets one of the guys up for the powerslam and Owen hits the guy in the head with a Slammy right in front of the referee for the DQ. What in the world? Why would you do that when your partner was about to hit his finisher which people didn’t kick out of? They fight even more afterwards with Smith throwing down the title and then even breaking the Slammy. He finally leaves with his partners.

Rating: B-. Just like in the opening match this was a tale of two matches and two separate grades. The first half was just flat out bad. It wasn’t interesting and I was wanting to just fast forward through the match and get to the end. However once Owen and Bulldog got done fighting the thing turned into a great tag match.

The ending just made no sense at all and was just to further the Bulldog/Owen angle which mostly ended with the debut of the European Title later on that month in which these two faced each other for the title.

Doc is with the Deadman in that back who says he has rediscovered his edge which makes me expect the Rated R Superstar to pop up.

WWF Title: Undertaker vs. Vader vs. Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart

Lawler keeps asking what lucha libre means (the Spanish announcers keep saying it) and JR says rough wrestling for some reason. This is actually an over the top rope battle royal but you can also be eliminated by pin or submission, which is a very interesting twist. I’m not sure if I like it or not. It takes away Vader’s weight advantage but why would you try to pin someone when you can just knock them out of the ring?

Bret of course gets a prematch interview. He says nothing can stop him from taking the title tonight. Bret’s jacket really is cool. JR says that even Wrestlemania wasn’t this exciting. Suuuuuure. Starts off with both singles feuds being renewed. Very quickly Vader and Taker figure out that going through the ropes is legal. Everyone just beats on everyone with them trading partners which further supports my orgy theory from earlier.

Leaving the ring was critical here I think as it opens up a lot of alternative possibilities for these guys which is certainly a good thing. Vader gets cut BAD around his left eye. Like it looks as if it fell out and there’s just a hole there that’s shooting blood out of it. I finally found where it was and it’s not pretty. Within a few seconds he takes a chair to the face and he hits his eye on the stairs, right on the corner.

They fight all over the arena and all fight each other at least once and in some cases twice. That’s what makes this match work as well as it is: you can keep the fighting fresh. Austin even breaks out a top rope clothesline which never stops making my head shake given how bad his knees got later in his career. After that we cut to the floor where VADER HAS BRET IN A SHARPSHOOTER. What the heck???

Those things happen within a few seconds of each other. Dang I need my medicine after seeing that. Sadly enough it was a better one that the one Rock would use later in his career. We’re at 12 minutes and no one is out yet. That’s another thing that’s making this great is all four are in there for over half of the match so far. It’s more or less Bret wrestling Austin and Taker fighting Vader now.

Bret sets Austin for a belly to back suplex and Austin BACKFLIPS out of it. DANG Austin was awesome before he got hurt. Vader’s eye is freaking sick right now. This whole thing is absolutely brutal and it’s a great match so far. We’re at fifteen minutes and it’s still all four guys in there. Just as I finish typing that Austin is thrown out as Bret Hart uses what we would now call the FU to eliminate him. Bret Hart used an FU. Sly can never see this moment.

His orgasm would flood Missouri. Taker gets knocked to the floor so we continue our orgy match with Bret and Vader getting it on for awhile. I will now pause to attempt to erase such a mental picture. Ok I’m back now as Vader goes to the top in a dumb move. Why would you do that when being knocked to the floor eliminates you?

Bret stops him and lands a superplex from the top rope which is freaking insane given A) how long they’ve been going and B) the fact that Vader’s fat needs its own zip code. Taker breaks up the sharpshooter on Vader which makes no sense at all and even the announcers question it. Austin comes back out and beats up Hart some more to pretty much secure the fact that he’ll be winning this.

Vader again goes to the ropes for a Vader Bomb but Taker sits up and hits an uppercut to the little Vaders to eliminate him so we’re down to Bret vs. Taker. Austin is still around after a chokeslam and for some reason he stops the tombstone. Taker and Hart both go for Austin but Taker is too slow.

He turns around and is clotheslined out to make Bret the champion again. Sid comes out for the staredown after Taker storms off. Sid says let’s do it right now as we go off the air in the middle of the showdown. I like that ending as it leaves us on a cliffhanger for tomorrow’s show.

Rating: A. This was a very fun match and the key to it was you knew there was going to be a new champion at the end so you had to watch all of it. Another key was that no one was eliminated until over half of the match was gone. This kept things fresh and made you want to stay until the very end to see how everyone went out. The leaving the ring was key as well as it allowed three separate one on one matches to occur throughout the match. Great match indeed and very fun.

Overall Rating: B-. First two matches were pretty bad but the other three more than made up for them. By the middle of the main event I was hooked. The second half of the show was great with another solid Rock/HHH encounter, a solid and surprising tag match and a great main event. Overall this show started slowly but kicked it into high gear at the end. Not great but certainly fun, this is worth a watch someday but don’t make it a top priority.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my 1998 Monday Night Raw Review ebook on Amazon at:

This is another one of those names that just happened to be around about twenty years before he was inducted.  Scicluna is a guy you’ll see a lot of if you watch shows from the late 70s to early 80s and odds are you won’t be that impressed.  The guy was nothing special and was a pretty generic foreign (Maltese) heel.  That doesn’t make for an interesting character but he was pretty successful in Australia.  Other than that though, I don’t see a reason for him to be in a Hall of Fame.  This is a no.

Captain Lou Albano

This is one of the few layups of this class.  Albano managed a remarkable 15 tag teams to tag titles in his day, as well as being an absolutely hated manager.  He was involved with Cyndi Lauper and more or less was the grandfather of Wrestlemania in that sense.  Albano had moderate success as a wrestler, but was FAR more successful as a manager.  When you manage the guy that ended Sammartino’s seven year world title reign, you have to have something going for you.  Albano was the top heel manager of the 70s and part of the 80s, so I have zero issue with him going into the Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Snuka

Appropriately enough, Snuka was one of Albano’s clients when he started in the WWF.  Snuka is one of those guys that is revered not because of his accomplishments but rather how influential he was.  He was the first high flier to be a star in modern wrestling and was pretty easily the second biggest star in the first half of the Hogan Era.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the legendary cage dive onto Muraco that apparently inspired about 974 different wrestlers, all of whom seemed to be in attendance that night.  I’m fine with Snuka being in the Hall of Fame, as he’s one of the characters that changed the way wrestling worked, which is far more important than winning a title here or there.

Johnny Rodz

This is another one of those guys that is in the Hall of Fame and no one is quite sure why.  He’s FAR more famous as a trainer, having trained a lot of ECW stars (Dreamer, Tazz, Dudleys), but at the time of his inductions those wouldn’t have meant anything.  Rodz was around for about twenty years but never really accomplished anything.  He was mainly a jobber to the midcard, which makes his induction all the more questionable.  This is one of the top names that really has no business being enshrined.

Killer Kowalski

Now we’re getting into something a bit better.  Kowalski was one of the top heels in the world in the 60s and 70s and was a genuine monster.  He was Sammartino’s top opponent for years in the WWF and had a ton of success in regional promotions around the country.  Kowakski was also the first man in North America to pin one Andre the Giant, which should tell you a lot about how big of a deal he was.  He trained a bunch of people you’ve heard of too, with the most famous being HHH.  This is another layup and definitely another guy you should look up if you never have before.

Pat Patterson

This is anther guy that is more well known for his contributions rather than his in ring ability, which is saying a lot as he was very skilled in the ring.  Patterson was of course the first Intercontinental Champion and held the title for a long time after first winning it.  Other than that, he had an excellent match with Sgt. Slaughter in MSG known as an Alley Fight, which we would call a street fight.  However, Patterson was much better behind the scenes as a consultant and agent.  He invented the Royal Rumble and was a master at laying them out.  If you watch the Rumble year to year, it’s very obvious when Patterson is the one that laid it out as he knows how to create a three act structure for them.  This is another layup, but not for reasons that most people would see.

Vincent J. McMahon

Aka Vince Senior, he’s the father of the Vince McMahon we see on TV every now and then.  Vince founded what would become the WWF and promoted cards for decades.  That’s more or less the main thing he’s famous for, and if that doesn’t get you into the WWE Hall of Fame, I don’t know what else would.  This is another easy yes.

Valiant Brothers

I forgot these guys when I first did this class.  Basically they’re an old school tag team that held the tag champions for awhile back in the 70s.  There were three of them (Jerry, Johnny and Jimmy) and various combinations of them held the titles in the WWF.  They were good, but as the first tag team in the Hall of Fame?  I can’t go with that.  They’re worthy of the Hall of Fame, but not as the first team at all.

The class isn’t that bad really, but at the same time it lacks the huge name that most classes have, leaving mainly questionable entries or people that don’t have a lot of importance on camera in WWE.

That wraps up the first era of the WWE Hall of Fame and it’s pretty easy to see why this went away for eight years: other than Andre, there aren’t a lot of big names in there.  We’ve got Pedro and Snuka, but other than that most of these guys just aren’t huge names.  Yeah they’re big deals overall, but in WWE they weren’t incredibly important.  In every industry that has a Hall of Fame, there are certain names you have to have to make it credible.  Most of those names are missing here and that’s what brings the original classes down.  That and there was almost no publicity for it at all, which hurt a lot.  The modern era starts tomorrow.

I’ll go with Rock to retain the title, but I’m not 100% sold on it anymore.  The promos don’t have me wanting to see the match as much as I wanted to see them last month, but it should be better now that Rock isn’t coming in seven months cold.  I think they’re heading for Rock vs. Cena II at Wrestlemania and I can’ t say I’d argue over that idea.  Rock retains.

For the other title match…..I’ll go with Del Rio winning.  The bigger question seems to be will Ziggler cash in.  He hasn’t been seen much lately at all, which may be an attempt to make us forget about him before he cashes in on Sunday.  That being said, I’ve been thinking he’ll cash in for six months now, but I don’t think he’ll do it here.  Either that or he cashes in and loses.  Del Rio walks out with the title.

This brings us to the Chamber itself.  I’m pulling for Henry to win and set up the 6’4 Mexican David vs. the guy that Goliath checks under the bed for every night.  That being said, I have a bad feeling they’ll go with Swagger for the evil xenophobia angle at Wrestlemania, which makes my head hurt.  Bryan and Kane will likely continue to self destruct which is probably the best thing for them.  Orton and Jericho are just there and might have a match at Mania out of it.  Hopefully Henry wins but Swagger is the dark horse candidate.

I’ll take the three man machine to beat Shield.  Why would you have Cena win the Rumble one month and then lose in a six man the next?  Shield goes down here.

Kaitlyn over Tamina and Cesaro over Miz in matches that make no difference whatsoever.

Elimination Chamber looks like it could fit into the category of “good because it has no expectations coming in.”  Things could change a bit at this show and odds are we’ll finally get some answers about the rest of the card at Wrestlemania.  There are a lot of options open still which is nice as opposed to the card being pretty obvious eight weeks out.  The show should be good an interesting, which is a good sign.