The WWE announced during RAW last night the first entrant into the 2014 Hall of Fame. The Ultimate Warrior will now be able to call himself a Hall of Famer. There was a lot of internet speculation that the Warrior would go in this year but I definitely wouldn’t have pegged him as the first person announced for the hall. I actually held out some doubt that he would go in because of the relationship that he has had with the company over the years. It is no accident that we have not seen him on WWE programming in over 18 years.
Now of course there was some confusion over the decision to induct the Warrior. Especially since guys like Randy Savage and Jake Roberts are not in the Hall of Fame yet. There is actually a list of guys that I could run down that I think are more deserving. He is not even the best Bladerunner of all time. It’s funny that even the WWE has a 90 minute DVD that pretty much trashes the guy’s reputation. So I am going to go the other route and make a small case for the man from Parts Unknown.
With Wrestlemania being in New Orleans this year he does have a connection to the area. The Warrior spent some of his early career working for Bill Watts down that territory. Despite his shortcomings and difficulty to do business with, the Warrior is still a very iconic character in the history of professional wrestling. He was able to break through as a babyface during the Hogan era. Like it or not he had half of that crowd on his side in the Skydome at Wrestlemania VI. No he was not the best worker but neither was Hogan. As wild and hard to understand as his promos were he did strike a cord and draw the fans interest.
I will agree that the machine put the perfect music and gimmick with him, it was up to the man to deliver the goods and for a time he did that. The Hall of Fame will welcome the Ultimate Warrior and like most fans I can’t wait to hear that acceptance speech.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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