Wrestlemania 30 Week Part IV: HOF induction, Red Carpet & ROH After-Party

Hope you enjoyed the lengthy last entry that covered the Saturday (day) events of two very different fan conventions as well as stumbling upon yet another gem of a wrestllng promotion at Tulane University and other adventures. Now its time for the night adventures and my favorite (wrestling) event of the year.

Day 4 – April 5th (Nightime)

Ok, so after leaving the event at Tulane University we headed back downtown for my favorite wrestling event of the year, the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
It’s become a time-honored tradition the night before Wrestlemania to honor some legends and this year’s class of inductees were tailor-made for my tastes and experiences and for me, the most anticipated one yet. To unpack things just a bit, we didn’t have tickets to this and it was the event I wanted to attend the most, even more so than tomorrow’s Wrestlemania supershow.
Before coming to New Orleans we were told the event was sold out so hope against hope, we searched for parking downtown (it was now raining as well) and couldn’t believe how easy that was, and the luck continued as we made it to the box office they had good seats still for sale at a very reasonable price. We were ecstatic – after the nightmare I experienced at last year’s Hall of Fame with insane fans & ticket prices this was a total relief.
Since your reading this, you probably already know who was inducted and why and what took place at the ceremony. My hope is to give you my experience and perspective of a truly memorable event.

WWE Hall of Fame & Red Carpet arrival –  Smoothie King Arena – New Orleans

With the debut of the WWE Network a few weeks ago, it allows for more indulgent content, & along with the WWE’s ambition to constantly improve upon their product, for the first time, this year’s induction ceremony included a formal Red Carpet arrival pre-show hosted by Michael Cole & Extra’s Maria Menounos

It’s always fun at this event to watch the wrestlers (some you haven’t seen in years) and other Hall of Famers arrive proudly with their families in formal wear, so that it was now being a produced event was even more fun.

Menounos is no stranger to the WWE or the Hall of Fame ceremony as she has wrestled at Wrestlemania and inducted close friend Bob Backlund at last year’s ceremony. She is so attractive it defies logic and even seeing her in person I’m still not quite sure she’s real.
Before reaching the podium if selected for an interview with Cole & Menounos, the first person the arrivals meet is Renee Young, doing on the spot interviews with anyone she can grab. Looking all kinds of fine herself in a formal Marilyn Monroe, almost Rockabilly looking new coif for her, special to the occasion. I sang Renee’s praises in the last entry and I’ll add to it here, I think she’s the best interviewer they’ve ever had. Her personality & enthusiasm is so genuine and her laughter/smile so infectious. When she laughs/smiles it makes me laugh & smile.

If their was a belle of the ball it would have to be Summer Rae who arrived looking just dynamite. I don’t know if this was a work as part of her “woe is me I’m single” storyline for Total Divas but when the usher escorted her to her seat and she was alone and the aisle she was on empty, she quickly got up and went to the back as to not appear lonely/embarassed. Girl has nothing to be embarassed about, my goodness.

The Induction Ceremony

So after about an hour of Red Carpet arrivals & interviews, the show was about to begin, am so thrilled to be here and pleased with out seats (we were seated a few seats from SoCal Val incidentally). And to continue the tradition that started yesterday, their was no one seated on either side of us of in front of us, though the show was hardly sparsely attended), & was happy that the fans this year along with us got dressed up as well instead of last year’s heckling fans treating treating the Hall of Fame as just another wrestling show with their unfit attire. You can save the t-shirts for Sunday

This year’s Class is very personal to me and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to be here and more proud of the inductees.

Lita (Inducted by Trish Stratus)

The event kicked off with Amy ” Lita ” Dumas as the first inductee of the night, following a really awkward sounding intro speech from Trish Stratus (lots of “likes” and “right?” going on there). She did mention that Lita was the god-mother of her child & debuted and retired weeks apart from each other. She also mentioned how they were the only women to ever main event Raw. Lita came out in a long red dress (Trish said it was a first-time long dress for Lita). A “Thank You Lita” chant starts

Sadly, now being used to the truncated versions WWE televises, I was so happy that with the new WWE Network it was going to allow the inductees time to do it right. Yet still I was a bit taken back as Lita launched into a 40 minute history of her career, from bumbling around Mexico trying to get trained, to her ECW debut to her WWE career. She told stories about stealing lucha legend Rey Mysterio’s mask (even bringing it along with her) and how Arn Anderson helped introduce her to Rey Mysterio Jr. then gave Anderson the beer she owed him with Mysterio grabbing another and the two toasting in her honor.

She then talked about how she was injured while shooting Dark Angel for James Cameron, and suffered a broken neck. She was told that if she underwent surgery that she would never wrestle again. She said the one person she wanted to talk to about it was Stone Cold Steve Austin for advice. He took her to his doctor and got her fixed and she continued wrestling for awhile.
​ I was such a huge fan of hers and followed her entire career and would practically drool when her matches were on. She was a huge reason why I started watching wrestling again in 2000 after an almost decade long hiatus. Besides A.J Lee, I think she’s the best to ever do it, and am very happy for her.With my mind reeling from the length of the speech I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, but looking back it was solid and very inspired and well thought out with props etc. But I couldn’t help but think, ” There’s still six more to go, this can’t go on for 7hrs, so who is going to get their’s cut dramatically short?” –

Jake “The Snake” Roberts (Inducted by DDP)

Once everyone recovered from that, out came Diamond Dallas Page to introduce the next inductee, Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
DDP was tremendous here, good-natured and funny, and did a wonderful job energizing the crowd.and said it is his birthday and the best birthday present he could ever imagine would be then to see two of his boys rising up to receive the recognition they deserve (Jake and Scott Hall).

He told a story about how he and Kimberly let Jake live with them for a few months with the rule of no snakes. Well, Jake brought in a cobra and it got loose in their house. He said Jake taught him how to be a champion and it is a debt he has been working to pay back ever since. 18 months ago they began working together with a dream of making it here and dreams come true if you put the work in. Jake has put in the work.

Jake was already crying when he came out. “Thank You Jake.”
Although his voice is much raspier than it probably should be at 58, Roberts still had his trademark cadence and held the crowd in the palm of his hands the entire time. If you want to know why the HOF matters or why nerds like me watch this stuff look no further than this induction speech & arguable the most poignant of the night. It was a funny, and at times heartbreaking account of Roberts’ beginnings and how he let his personal demons rob him of both his family and the industry. He said the pain he caused his family is what leads to drugs and alcohol because he is so ashamed of his actions. The story then turned to a path of redemption, as he recounted DDP bringing him back from the doldrums and how his life has changed since then.

He mentioned that Dallas suggested Indie Go Go to help him have shoulder surgery. Jake said no one cared about him but fans chipped in $30,000 to help him and it made him realize that people did care. He thanked his family for giving him a second chance and then thanked the WWE for giving him one too.The kicker, though, was having his baby grandson brought on stage as he thanked his family for giving him a second chance.

​ In that moment I was reminded of why he’s a legend and of my original fandon. For the past 15 years, ever since I saw Beyond the Mat that showcased him hitting rock bottom and a slew of other downward spirals since, its been the only emotion I identify with him. It felt good to remember that back in Mid-South before he ever came to the WWE, he was one of my mine and my Dad’s favorites. Every child of the 80s had their own wrestling league with their friends and I was no exception & my finisher was Robert’s patented DDT.

They followed this up with some much needed comic relief between Hornswoggle & El Torito, who ultimately gored emcee Jerry Lawler before moving onto the induction of Mr. T –

Mr. T (Inducted by “Mean” Gene Okerlund and T’s son, T Jr.)  (Celebrity Wing)

If your reading this you might already know what happens here because surprisingly (& very oddly) it became the most talked about speech of the night.
Everyone of course was expecting the Ultimate Warrior to bring the crazy & the celebrity inductions are usually very brief & cursory – until Mr. T arrived.

Mean Gene Okerlund (surprisingly not Hulk Hogan) inducted him along with T’s son – Showed a pretty basic package and out he comes.
Everyone was expecting a brief & humble speech and the night would continue.
I for one was super excited if not for nothing but probably the only time in my lifetime that I would ever get to see Mr. T in person.
As a child of the 1980’s Mr. T and his positive influence were a crucial part of my upbringing and as essential to anything else that I equate with that wonderful time.
I had the 12″ Mr. T doll that I carried everywhere, I ate Mr. T cereal, watched his cartoon on Saturday mornings (which was just finally released on DVD btw that this nerd received as a gift for his birthday this year) and the A-Team was my favorite show.
As happy as I was that the show wasn’t blocked for time like in past years, this is where the show truly went off the rails and what played out was one of the most bizarre turn of events in an already insane climate.

He started with a prayer & T’s promised a “quick” diversion about his mother as he wanted to honor his mother before he his career took off.
Any kid of the 1980’s of course remembers his rap song Treat Your Mama Right so I was on board and thinking it was a nostalgic reference.

What followed was truly one of the most bizarre & meandering televised segments, about his mother & his faith, produced by a seemingly oblivious deliverer that went on for almost 30 minutes.
No wrestling talk, no WrestleMania memories, no nothing; just T spouting Bible verses & gushing things about his mother (whom apparently is a goddamn saint) and his family.
I kept throwing my hands up in confusion and soon enough shaking my head, in pure disbelief at what I was watching.

Surprisingly (& thankfully) the crowd cheered him on the entire time enjoying the trainwreck, and even gave him a “This is Awesome” chant.

Suddenly he was interrupted by Kane’s music and then KANE CAME OUT AND ESSENTIALLY YANKED HIM OFF.

It was done in a good-natured way, (only in the WWE would something like this happen) but I felt so incredibly bad for Mr. T.
Clinging to the good manners his mother instilled in him, he just started profusely apologizing as he left the stage.
It was heart wrenching.

William “Paul Bearer” Moody (Inducted by Kane)

Kane, sensing he was the villain after what he got forced to do, opened with a joke of having to stop Mr. T talking about his mother because it was cutting into his time to talk about his (storyline) father. Kane gave a great history of Moody’s career, including his pre-Bearer days in World Class and other territories. He then credited him with making the Undertaker such a great character & that the Kane and Undertaker saga was the best storytelling the WWE has ever done and Paul Bearer is a prime reason it was so great.
Since Bearer is no longer with us, his two sons Michael and Daniel Moody (spitting fucking images, the both of them) came out to accept. One of them did the Paul Bearer “OH YES.” in a perfect imitation of his father.

…and then the lights went out and the bell tolled. The arena filled with fog and out came The Undertaker,  to salute the image of Moody with an urn.

.

Scott Hall came out and he looks good, better than he has in years, and even did a spot with the camera where he backed away surprised then threw a toothpick at it.

He started fittingly with “Hey, Yo!” which the crowd totally gave a huge pop for. His speech, which could have reached Jake Roberts-levels of poignancy and emotion, was kept short as looking cool took precendence over honesty apparently but he thanked people and talked about being brought back from rock bottom (again by DDP). He concluded with a great line that I’m sure will get re-played forever with “Bad times don’t last but bad guys do.”
To play a joke on him they started playing music to cut him off but instead, The Kliq (Triple H, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and Shawn Michaels) surprised him and they all hugged and gladhanded each other on stage, recreating the “Curtain Call” incident from 1996 but without the consequences.

I’m sure Scott Hall is more than deserving of this honor and I’m happy for him and for his recovery. His Razor Ramon persona should have been a hit with me as Scarface (the inspiration behind it) is my all-time favorite movie. However, it always rubbed me the wrong way & I was losing interest in wrestling as his meteroic rise began. Later as I learned about him & the The Kliq as a group notorious for being bullies and burying people didn’t help matters much.

They struck again with some comedy relief with a Bad New Barrett skit, that is so completely over with the crowd as they went nuts for it.

Carlos Colón (Inducted by Carlito, Epico, & Primo)

His sons Carlito and Primo and nephew Epico came out to induct him to Carlito’s old music.

Carlito, returning after a long time, received a good ovation from the crowd and joked that it was good to hear now that he wrestled in bingo halls and high school gyms. He then smirked about how they were in the “cooldown spot” and their time had been cut, which made it feel like he had never left. SHOTS FIRED & absolutely hilarious and the spirit of what makes this event so great.  Primo then gave a wonderful & prideful introduction to his father, Carlos Colon.

Carlos’ speech was humble and straight to the point, he thanked everyone and then did the second half in his native language for the Spanish fans. A class act and someone I was almost fascinated by him as a kid because my only connection to him was what I would read about in wrestling magazines as his matches were never aired in my area.

The Ultimate Warrior (Inducted by Linda McMahon)

Ok so now after 3 + hrs, the moment we all have been waiting (18 years) for & essentially what got guys like me to New Orleans, the induction of the long-exiled Ultimate Warior.
Up until the zero hour, no one still knew who was going to induct him – We all assumed Hulk Hogan and when he didn’t induct Mr. T it seemed all but assured.
No one knew who it would be literally until it was announced onstage that it was Linda McMahon which initially sounded befuddling until you heard her speech.

Linda was his personal contact on his last tenure in the WWE. She said at one point, he called her mom & was a loner who was inspirational but was not always the easiest person to work with. An honest but loving introduction I felt.

Then it was time for the main event, the big shebang,  What would The Warrior do? What would he say? Was this going to get so real & turn so bizarre that we would suddenly forget about Mr. T’s speech?  Instead of being brought out by a pair of WWE Divas, The Warrior was escorted out by his two young daughters that I thought was truly classy and made me tear up.

“The most anticipated speech in the history of sports entertainment” –  Lots of people squirming in their seats. His mom and wife are in the audience who thanked for being awesome, causing his wife to cry profusely.
No facepaint, short hair, totally normal and in a suit.
His daughters weren’t even alive when he was the Ultimate Warrior but he wanted them to know that Mr. McMahon does a lot of awesome stuff. & that the most awesome thing he will ever do is be his their father. It was really something.

He said how inspiring it is to see how DDP Yoga is helping people to fix their “self destructive” ways, which sent a huge “Oooooohhh” through the crowd in reference to the only-one-of-its-kind total smear campaign DVD of 2005’s Self-Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior – to fully illustrate how acrimonious things were and not that long ago and how far they have come to repair what everyone assumed was an unapproachable breach.
He did take a shot by saying that people should practice his style of self destruction because after 18 years of exile, you can still come back and headline the WWE Hall of Fame. The inevietable “One More Match” chant started but he said there won’t be one more match, but there are big things coming as he has signed a long term contract to be an ambassador for the WWE and looks forward to fulfilling that. (which is you are aware of what took place a few days later makes this just the more sadder).

He thanked the ring guys who made everything work behind the scenes and asked that there would be a place in the WWE Hall of Fame for these guys behind the scenes to be honored named after Jimmy Maranda, a guy who used to help sell t-shirts at all events. He said The Ultimate Warrior is a legend and the Ultimate Warrior fans are legendary. He got passionate here and said that they tried to re-write history and the fans are the reason the truth is finally being told. “Thank You Warrior” chants was met with Warrior saying “No, Thank You.” 

Running over an hour past the announced end time and featuring longer speeches than anyone expected, the first live Hall Of Fame ceremony on the WWE Network was wonderful, funny, and at times, heartbreaking…and at other times absolutely insane.

This needs to be seen to be believed so do yourself a favor and check it out when you have the chance. I doubt WWE will ever let a HOF ceremony get this out of hand ever again which sadly is all the justification it needs to heavily script next year’s event. That’ll be disappointing.

Wrestlecon HOF After-Party – The Sugar Mill – New Orleans

Ok so WHAT ELSE COULD WE POSSIBLY DO today?!?!? – We have been to two different fan conventions, two different local cultural events including a giant crawfish boil, stumbled upon a matinee wrestling show and attended a 4 hour Hall of Fame induction ceremony. We should have just gone to bed but if you know me, my tendancy (much to the chagrin of my companions) is to take it as far as I can.

We attended WrestleCon earlier in the day and what we learned is that annual live event has taken a bit of an interesting turn from the normal cards that they host.
That endeavor is the WrestleCon supershow, a collaboration between Ring Of Honor, CZW wrestling, and $5 dollar wrestling to put together a supershow that still has the opportunity to follow each promotions current feuds. When you combine all of these independent wrestling companies with the wealth of legends & talent, you can see that it was something that we didn’t want to miss, and it only cost $5 to get in to the wrestling card, so off we went.

Since it was running concurrently with the HOF ceremony we only caught a few of the matches but it was certainly enough given what a day we had.

Funny how just earlier today we discovered the Shimmer promotion and now this evening we are seeing some of their stars wrestle for the second time of the day.

Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae vs. Sojo Bolt and Jake Manning

Great fun match and again the highlight here was Candice LeRae – she is just totally awesome and got the win for her team.

Kimber Lee vs. Kellie Skater 

Striker would follow that up by saying he was changing his ring name to Pizza and that we were welcome to cheer for him all night.  This of course led to chants of ‘Pizza!  Pizza!  Pizza!’ as well as ‘We want pizza!’ throughout the contest. I have to say that it was great seeing Corino, Striker and Pearce team up.  Helms has still got it, Riley is fun to watch and of course Luke was on point.  Luke Hawx and the gang picked up the win here following Luke’s signature blockbuster.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Colt Cabana

The comedy never stopped with these two with constant chants from the crowd and tons of fun in the ring. Good times.

Ok so that wraps ups this incredibly long and amazing day – Hope you will stay tuned to Part V documenting the big one – Wrestlemania XXX

Photos – 

Roy Turner
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