411’s WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony Report

-Hello and welcome to the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony.  This is my 4th year covering the HOF and I’m always a mark for this show.  I attended 3 of them from Mania XXV-XXVII and it was a blast.  Typically this is a long night, so settle in and enjoy listening to legends and trail blazers speak about their careers.

WWE Hall of Fame: Red Carpet Show

-We are live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY for WWE Hall of Fame Red Carpet Special.  Byron Saxton welcomes us to the red carpet show and the arena is pretty empty as you would expect a hour out.  Byron is joined by Maria Menounos.

-Charly Caruso has the first guest of the night in Nakamura.  He is happy to be back in his type of town, NYC, and puts over seeing HHH go in as part of DX since he is their leader in NXT.

-Now to Dana Warrior and her children and boy do I feel old now.  Dana puts over the power of women and how they are unstoppable.  The girls put over the mom and what she has meant to them and also spend time putting over the women in the Main Event tomorrow.

-Maria and Byron are with House Hardy as Matt, Jeff, and Reby are here.  Matt talks about needing to defend his crown in the ARMBAR tomorrow and how he and Jeff may have to team up to eliminate some people to start.  They are both excited to see DX go into the HOF.

-Charly with the IICONICS and they have to be pumped to be at their first Mania.  The talk shifts to their match tomorrow and they are both excited.  The nerves are getting to them, but this has been 10 years in the makin for them.

-Back with Lashley (looking like a boss) and his family.  They then quickly throw things to Byron and Maria with Baron.  He knows the crowd is going to be angry and upset tomorrow.  He has been studying Kurt and he knows he is going to go all out in his last match.  He is ready to go a he knows his goals and what he needs to do.  He puts over seeing DX tonight and calls Billy Gunn one of his idols.  He did a lot for him in NXT and the same goes for HHH.

-Drake Maverick and his fiancé are with Charly.  He enjoys being able to walk around the town when WrestleMania invades.  He is most excited to see DX being inducted.  He says he loved crotch chopping teachers, his parents, and anyone he could.  He puts over the CW Title Match tomorrow and says it is personal.

-Ali and his wife next and Ali puts over his wife for being the one behind anything good that happens in his life.  He talks about the ARMBAR and that he is going to live up to his Ali the Giant slayer nickname and then puts over seeing the Hart Foundation.

-Byron and Maria are with Alexa Bliss and she says Mania is her show.  Byron talks about how great Maria and Alexa look.  We get the inside scoop that Alexa has more than 1 outfit for tomorrow.  Maria talks about how Alexa is the first female host in Mania history.  They kick Byron off the stage just to show it is all about the women this year.

-Titus with his boys and he nearly forgets Booker T’s name when talking about Harlem Heat.  Charly mentions that Titus has always been a big proponent of the WWE Women and now they are in the Mania Main Event.  Titus puts over how hard each of the 3 women have worked to get there.  The sons are looking forward seeing Kofi and Uncle Dave (Batista).  That’s pretty cool they have that kind of bond with Dave.

-Mandy Rose with her mom.  She is ready for the Battle Royal and mentions she did a Table for 3 with Torrie WIlson this morning.  I guess I have that to look forward to in the coming weeks.

-The Usos and Naomi are with Byron and Maria.  We find out that Harlem Heart, specifically Booker T, helped train The Usos.  They put over Sue getting the Warrior award and Naomi can’t wait to cheer for Torrie Wilson.

-Going through the comments section and I agree that not having Ambrose around is going to rd suck.  His yearly drunk interviews with Renee were always a highlight.

-Buddy Murphy is excited to see DX go in and we get a 3rd shout-out to Billy Gunn.  We find out that Buddy is a big fan of pizza and he loves pineapple on his.

-Kalisto and his mask sporting wife are next and like last year, her sporting the mask is awesome.  Another person stuck putting over the battle royal and doing what they can to hype it.

-Paige with Maria and Byron to talk about her movie.  She is so happy with the way the movie was received and talks about how it was #1 in England.  Maria asks how accurate it was and Paige says it was about 95%.  She preaches a message of staying strong and positive for all the girls out there.  They also have her talk about the Main Event tomorrow.  Paige wishes she could be part of it, but says the division is in great hands.  She puts over all 3 women and picks Becky though she wants Rousey to know she loves her, so don’t beat her up.

-Rey and Dominic next and just another thing to make me feel old as dirt.  Dominic towers over his dad which is funny to see.  Rey talks about his son following in his footsteps and that he has a way to go, but he is proud of him.  They talk about the ankle injury and Rey says that is about 95% free of pain and has around 90% range of motion, so he will be good for tomorrow.  Rey puts over X-Pac, Harlem Heat and Torrie Wilson.  FILTHY ANIMALS SHOUT-OUT!

-Tony Neese and his wife next as he puts over his wife for dressing him and he hypes his CW match tomorrow.

-Bobby Roode with his wife and he hypes the ARMBAR.

-Maria and Byron are joined on stage by Braun who is more than happy to give Mara a hug.  Don’t blame him.  He is most excited to see Sue get the Warrior award.

-Charly is with a Hall of Fame Trio: The Godfather, Teddy Long, and Ron Simmons.  Teddy is looking old which makes me sad.  Simmons has looked like a grizzled old man forever, but he could still kill you.  The Godfather puts over how great the women are and that they are better than the men in some cases.

-The Miz and family are on the main stage with Byron and Maria.  Maryse looks fantastic and I’ll point out I did meet her at Mania XXV and have a picture with her.  Miz talks about his daughter and how she just celebrated her first birthday.  Maryse says The Miz will make her proud and she wants him to kick Shane’s ass.   We then get sex talk from Maria and Maryse which should make some happy.

-Sony and her significant other are up and she hypes the women’s battle royal.  She says that if things boil down to her and Mandy they will jump out together.

-Charlotte and Andrade are out with Charly as this is their coming out party.  So things are official now for everyone that was wondering.  If Andrade wins the Battle Royal tomorrow, now we will know why.  That’s a joke! Charlotte talks about Torrie and how she thought she was the most beautiful woman alive when she was in WCW.

-Maria and Byron wraps things up as the Hall of Fame Ceremony is next.

2019 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony

-Our usual, traditional Hall of Fame opening is hijacked by DX and we get Shawn and HHH cursing and putting themselves over in classic DX schtick.

-Renee Young and Corey Graves are our hosts for the evening and wow, does Renee look fantastic.  The setup is different this year as things are set up like it would be for RAW.  This year the inductees get an entrance and walk towards the ring where they will give their speech.  Well, that’s certainly unique.

The Honky Tonk Man

-As was previously announced, Jimmy Hart is out to induct HTM into the Hall of Fame.  Jimmy is a 2005 HOF inductee.  This setup is certainly interesting as fans are now behind the inductees and presenters as they speak which means some lucky fans are going to get a ton of screen time.  Jimmy Hart, who never ages, talks about meeting Wayne as he was going to come in to the WWE.  He talks about how they cut three of his records while recording some of his vignettes.  Jimmy namedrops Steamboat, Savage, Liza, and DDP before quickly bringing out The Honky Tonk Man.  Wow, quickest presenter speech ever.

-Honky makes his entrance in a pink Cadillac.  He thanks Jimmy Hart and says he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Jimmy.  He thanks the WWE for inducting him to this year’s class.  He calls it an honor to be inducted with this class.  This is the one dream that he never thought would happen.  He says the fans probably never thought it was happen either.  A “You Deserve It” chant breaks out and HTM says they have a saying “Never say never.”  He is living proof of that saying.  He says he would do it all over again and he is so many people to thank for this journey.  He says the HTM character is a pretty good story that his kids may not even know.  He mentions his daughter is in her final year of vet school and told him he needed to lose weight before he went on stage.  Awesome!  He had a vision of the HTM character in his mind.  He was hoping the character would give his career a boost.  He got the name from a song he heard on the radio that went “I’m a Honky Tonk kind of man,” and he pitched the idea to a promoter.  The promoter asked him if he could play a guitar and he said no, and that promoter said that was even better.  He was off and running and took the character to Calgary.  That is where he learned how to be the character and at this time the WWE was doing monster crowds.  They did a show in Calgary and he was fortunate enough to get a spot on the show.  His friend who was headlining the show saw the character and said it would work well in the WWE.  It was on the recommendation of Hulk Hogan and if not for him, HTM wouldn’t be where he is today.  HTM doesn’t really mention Hogan by man, but does say “brother” and the reaction is a little muted which is intriguing.  Because of the WWE, the HTM character will never die.  That is the power of the WWE and for all this he will be forever grateful for the WWE.  Honky thanks everyone one last time and then Jimmy gets him to sing.  He has to do something with Elias tomorrow.  He sings his theme and the crowd is loving this.  Even Rousey and her boyfriend are enjoying it in the crowd.

 

Torrie Wilson

-Stacy Keibler is out to induct Torrie and oh my lord!  I love me some Stacy Keibler.  She still looks amazing and the crowd is very happy to see her.  She mentions the Main Event for tomorrow and this crowd is 1000% behind Becky Lynch as they start a chant for her.  If she loses tomorrow they are going to kill this crowd and we could get a riot.  Stacy talks about being a fan and at 19 entering a contest to be a Nitro Girl.  Her first night in WCW she was greeted by Torrie Wilson and they have been best friends since.  She puts over everyting Torrie as done in her life and how she is always reinventing herself.  Torrie has used her social media platforms to help uplift people and leave the world in a better place.

-Torrie looks like an emotional wreck and she says that it has been a tough week.  This has to be so hard for her.  For those that didn’t hear, he father passed away.  She tells a story of getting a note thrown at her in school from a boy who wanted to date her.  She hid from him as much as possible and to deal with the stress she ate over Christmas break.  After break she was waiting for the guy and when he saw her h said “what’s up fatso?  what happened to you?”  He then chased her around the playground calling her fatso and she said there she would make Terry eat is words.  She had the same anxiety her first day in the WWE when she saw starts like The Rock, Steve Austin and the Dudley Boyz running around backstage.  She has learned that fear only has 1 enemy and that is a confident persona.  Thanks to the WWE and her 10 year career she was able to find a confidence that she wouldn’t have found.  Stepping inside the ring in front of the fans gave her confidence that she wouldn’t have.  What they fans have taught her is invaluable and she wants to give that back to everyone.  First everyone needs to realize that permission is for pansies as nobody needs permission to live their life as they want.  She crushes those saying she shouldn’t be in the HOF and those who told her she sucked when she wrestled.  Torrie is just killing in her and you can see all the WWE women in the crowd hanging on her every word.  She jokes that she obviously she wasn’t hired for her wrestling skills, but she maintained the courage to keep coming back for more.  Finally, she tells everyone to summon their swagger.  Your swagger is the first thing that people see when you walk into a room.  You have to close your eyes and envision that confident badass.  She brings up Judgment Day 2003 when she had a pose off against Sable.  She calls Sable one of the sexiest and most confident women she has ever met.  She closes her eye, summoned her swagger, and survived. She points out that the women have come a long way since then.  She is sincerely grateful to everyone that she worked with in front of and behind the cameras.  She thanks Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan first as they met her backstage at a show and handed her a chance.  Next she thanks Fit Finlay and tells him that she is sorry for all the times she cried when she couldn’t get something right. She says Fit is a huge reason the women are Main Event of Mania tomorrow and the crowd starts a “thank you Finlay” chance.  She thanks Pete, AKA Billy Kidman, AKA her ex-husband.  Awesome!  She appreciates everything he did for her and she tells him that she loves him.  Next she thanks Stacy Keibler and talks about their first days in the WWF.  She thanks Stacy for doing so many things wrong that they stopped looking at her.  Next she thanks Michelle McCool and says she was her road wife before Taker got his hands on her.  Victoria: one of the craziest people you will ever meet and they cut to Victoria crying in the crowd.  Candice Michelle: She is everything Torrie wishes she could be outside the ring and talks about how she shut down all the haters.  Candice is also here and she is crying.

-She thanks her family and talks about what a tough week it has been.  She mentions her dad and breaks down as you would expect.  He passed away two days ago and they show AL on the Titantron in a nice touch.  She mentions that Dawn Marie made her dad’s life.  She loves her dad and those pictures on the Tron probably helped her get through that easier as they made her laugh.  She thanks the fans and says they are not easy to win over.  She appreciates how hardcore they are and says she knows she was part of a lot of their puberty.  THAT IS AWESOME.  BIG E AND XAVIER give her a standing ovation for that.  She thanks Terry, her 4th grade boyfriend again, for helping her face her fears.  Torrie absolutely killed that.  Amazing speech!

-The Miz gets cheered like a conquering hero while Shane gets booed out of the building.  Miz makes out with Maryse because he is so jacked with the response.  The back and forth between Shane and Miz with the crowd was fantastic.

-Legacy Hall of Fame: Bruiser Brody, Jim Barnett, Hishashi Shinma, Luna Vachon, Buddy Rose, Primo Carnera, Professor Tanaka, SD Jones, Wahoo McDaniel, and Joe Cohen.

-Joe Cohen is in the building and he is recognized by the crowd.

The Hart Foundation 

-Hmm, no presenters for The Hart Foundation as Nattie and Bret Hardt are out to accept their induction.  Nattie starts and she thanks her mom first.  She says her mom had her dad’s back every step of the way.  She thanks Bret for helping her dad find the confidence that he needed.  She thanks the fans and then mentions her dad loved facing The British Bulldogs.  She says her dad, Stu, Owen and The Bulldogs are all together again and have the best seat in the house.  She mentions her dad loved wrestling in NYC.  She namedrops the Revival, The Bar, Edge and Christian, Sasha and Bayley, Ryder and Hawkins, Teddy Hart, TJ Wilson among others as being influenced by The Hart Foundation.  She breaks down talking about a text they shared and that he told her his greatest accomplishment besides his daughters was being in the WWE and being a pro-wrestler.

-The Hitman is next and he is proud to be here.  He puts over Anvil being the tank while he was the Porsche.  He calls Jim his best friend and how he loved him.  Jim made him laugh his ass off every night and he talks about their run in 1985.  He was going to be pushed as Cowboy Bret complete with a horuse in each town and a horse action figure with his action figure.  The Anvil and Adrian Adonis laughed at the gimmick and that made Bret realize it wasn’t a good place for him.  He turned down the role and said to turn him heel and let him team with The Anvil who was being managed by Jimmy Hart.  He was told he could never be a heel because of his face.  He was told to hang in their and after a month he was going to quit.  He was then told that they were going with the plan he wanted.  The screen turns to black as someone apparently rushed the stage and tackled Bret Hart,  HOLY CRAP.  THIS IS INSANE.

-We cut back to a ton of people in the ring as it seems everyone tried to get at the guy. The crowd is chanting obscenities as him as you would expect and everyone in the ring is checking in on Bret.  Drake Maverick tells the fans to pay no attention to that man and get things back to where they were going.  Man, that was just crazy and I have no clue how they allow something like that to happen.  I still don’t know what happened as they cut away quickly.

-Back to Bret who jokes that being a heel in 1985 was kind of like what we just saw.  He thanks The Rougeaus, Killer Bees, Strike Force, Islanders, Demolition, and Bulldog as just a few of the great teams they wrestled.  Bret brings up wresting in MSG in 1986 with The Killer Bees and how his dad worked in the original MSG.  His dad hated him working as a heel and Bret says they were great heels that night that he even told his mom in the crowd “shut your mouth you old bag” and then talked trash to his dad.  That is fantastic.  Vince told him backstage it was a great match and it was the first time Vince noticed them.  He talks about Bundy riding with them after he attacked Hogan in the build to Mania 2.  They were going to get to their car after a show and saw a mob waiting for them.  Bret didn’t think much of it and just walked into them.  They pulled him back and tried a different way out.  The fans recognized Bundy in the car and tried to jump on the it.  The police told them to get out of there as the fans were pounding on the hood and windows.  Bret had no clue where he was driving and they ended up going in a circle right back to the mob.  Bundy called him a few choose words.  Great story.  Bret thanks Jimmy Hart and says he belongs up there with them.  He thanks Danny Davis for getting them the titles in a nice kayfabe joke.  He thanks more teams: The Brain Busters, LOD, The Rockers, Powers of Pain, The Nasty Boys, and he calls their match at Mania VII with The Nasty Boys possibly their greatest as babyfaces.

-Bret continues by talking about he love Jim and his wife had.  He puts over their relationship and the family they created.  Bret speaks about the friends he has lost over the years and how he has learned that not all your friends get to grow old with you.  He never once had an argument with The Anvil.  Bret says that when it is his time, he hopes he lead straight to The Anvil.  He goes over some of the The Anvils rules including the key to moderation is moderation.  Another is 99% of people don’t get to live out their dreams and Bret thanks the WWE for letting them live out their dreams.  He ends it with them being “The Best there is, was and every will be.”  They throw to a vide of The Anvil doing his signature laugh.

-The speech was very heartfelt, but, it’s going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake

-Hulk Hogan is out and the crowd is happy to see him.  He gives a Too Sweet with Nash on his way to the ring.  nWo Hall of Fame 2020! In a nice touch they have barbershop poles setup on the ring posts.  Hogan starts out with a “Let me tell you something Mean Gene.”  Very appropriate.  Hogan says that he and Brutus were fans first and always went to the armory to watch Dusty Rhodes in Tampa.  He decided to be a wrestler and after quitting he opened a bar and gym and needed help.  He called in his friend Brutus and when the bar and gym scene in the area shut down, he opted to go back to wrestling and asked Brutus to come in with him.  Brutus would learn from the other wrestlers in the ring before the shows would start and he started to pick things up quickly.  He talks about how much Brutus improved and that he had wrestling in his blood just like the fans and guys/girls in the WWE.  He mentions being up and down the road with Brutus and being there when his parents died.  He says that Brutus loves the wrestling business and he deserves his spot in the Hall of Fame.  He asks what you gonna do and that brings out Brutus.

-Brutus thanks the WWE for taking that chance on him.  They gave him his name and identity.  He is honored to receive this award and he thanks Hogan for all the good times in the past and the good times to come.  He thanks the 10 guys who told Hogan no before he finally got the call and the rest was history.  He says he is Terry’s friend to the end.  He talks about the call to come to the WWE and their initial idea was to call him Baron Beefcake the wrestling butler.  He wasn’t digging the name Baron and that gives him a chance to get in a dig at Corbin which is fantastic.  The crowd hates Baron if it hasn’t been made clear.  Hogan came up with the Brutus name and from there it took off.  Pat Patterson is the one who came up with The Barber gimmick and he hated it at first.  He didn’t want to chance the gimmick he had that was working.  Again, it was Hogan who told him to use the sleeper and then cut their hair off after the match.  He thanks Pat Patterson for the gimmick and it gave him his life.  He thanks his wife, Missy, for rescuing him when he needed it most.  He thanks his family and gives love to his daughter.  He thanks Greg Valentine and a list of people that helped him with his book.  He talks about his favorite match and thinks about the SummerSlam Main Event with Hogan against Zeus and Savage.  He tells the story of trying to cut Adrian’s hair at Mania III at Piper’s request and how the clippers didn’t work due to Adrian’s sweaty hair.  He puts over his match with Mr. Perfect at Mania VI.  He calls Perfect an amazing athlete and says that Lanny had no clue he was supposed to get a hair cut.  Backstage Randy was waiting and was ready to fight as he thought people were picking on his brother.  Fantastic!  Brutus thanks God for sparing his life in that boating accident as he was close to going out.  He thanks everyone who helped in his recovery.  He announces to the world that he has renewed his barber’s license and gives a shout-out to Shawn Michaels for letting him shave his head.  That joke kind of fell flat, but saying Shawn owes him $300 for the window he tossed Jannetty through was great.  He ends by saying he will be cutting and strutting all the way into the Hall of Fame.

 

Warrior Award: Sue Aitchison

-Dana Warrior is out to present this award as is her yearly custom.  She usually goes a bit long so we may have some time here.  She immediately talks about how her husband inspired a generation of Warriors.  She is thrilled to present this award to someone so close to the WWE family.  She brings up Warrior wanting an award to recognize those behind the scenes.  She calls Sue a firecracker that inspires everyone around her.  She has a colorful personality that would fit in any era of the WWE.  She puts over how Sue has been part of WWE’s Make A Wish program for over 30 years.  Dana then brings out John Cena who is going to do the other half of this presentation.

-The crowd immediately starts “face Kurt Angle” and Cena makes jokes.  Cena says that he learned so much from Sue over the years.  The most important thing he has learned is how can I help this place.  The crowd interrupts with a “Lets Go Cena/Cena Sucks” chant.  Let the man talk! Sue operates from the philosophy of How Can I help.  He owes everything he has done with Make a Wish to her, and now that he knows there is energy in the building he brings out Sue.

-Sue brings up that while she was being inducted she also had to handle all the travel for the others being inducted. She talks about the energy she gets from the kids she meets and brings up the first wish she helped setup was with a child and Hulk Hogan.  The child had cancer and was out of the hospital after only 2 days to meet his hero.  She mentions Connor The Crusher and how she set up his meeting with Daniel Bryan.  She mentions that Connor’s dad asked her, in years, why kids have to go through these diseases and she told him perhaps they purpose is greater this way.  She talks about the work done with Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital and in her 30 + years she has helped coordinate over 6000 wishes.  Wow!  She thanks all the WWE Superstars who bring the biggest smiles to the children when they walk in: Rollins, Ambrose, HHH, DX, Charlotte, Sasha, Warrior, Macho Man, etc.  She is blessed to have all these wonderful talents who go the extra mile.  Over the years the WWE has granted the most wishes and mentions Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and John Cena being the 4 recognized by Make  A Wish for the amount they have granted.  The Ventura one is surprising, but good for Jesse.  She makes special mention of John Cena granting the most wishes and that Justin Bieber tried to say he has the most, but Sue stopped that noise.  Big boos for Beiber.  Awesome!  Sue jokes she might make TMZ for that remark.  Again, awesome!  She is happy to say many of the children recovery and go on to live normal lives.  She introduces one of the former wish children who met The Rock 15 years ago and they have stayed in contact ever since that day.  The man gets a standing ovation and make his way into the ring.  Great moment.  He thanks everyone and ends by saying that wishes do come true.

-The camera shows Daniel and Kofi and yep, the crowd is definitely with Kofi this weekend.

Harlem Heat

-Quick note about The Harlem Heat video package as someone has a sense of humor and put in the promo where Booker called Hogan the N word, but cut off the infamous part.

-The Harlem Heat are out as they don’t get a presenter.  I don’t like this trend of not having presenters as sometimes they give better speeches than the inductees.  We need people to roast them and have a little fun,  The crowd is pretty jacked to see Booker and Stevie Ray.  Booker says the only thing that would make this complete is if their mother was her, but she is with them in spirit.  Booker says he grew up wanting to be his brother.  His brother was always his security blanket and a fan screams out spinarooni.  Booker kills that as he says he can forget that.  Ha!  They lost their parents when they were young so Stevie had to watch his back.  Booker tells the story of ending up in prison and how his brother talked to him about wrestling while he was in prison to keep his spirits up.  When he got out he asked his brother to help him get a job and his brother told him no matter the job to do it to the best of your ability. To this day he has been doing that job to the best of his ability.  He wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for his brother and says he is living his brother’s dream.  Booker says that to this day she still wants to be his big brother.  He passes the torch to his brother as you can tell Booker knows this means so much to his brother since he had his moment already.

-Stevie says it was his idea to get into pro-wrestling and his father tagged along.  They started out training at a school run by Ivan Putski.  They first promotion they were in closed down after a few months and Booker thought it was over, but they got a call to join a promotion in Houston.  From there Global took notice and they went to Dallas.  They walked into the office of Eddie Gilbert and the interview was for Stevie Ray.  Booker was in trench coat with a old cell phone in a bag.  Eddie asked who that was and Stevie said it was his brother.  Eddie came up with the idea to make them a babyface tag team.  Eddie asked if they every tagged and they lied and said yep.  Stevie says he came up with his name by combining Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.  They were given a tryout with the worst team in the promotion and thought they were being set up to fail.  They went out there and made that other team look better than they every looked in their life.  From that match they made a name for themselves and were soon in WCW.

-Booker T has them put up a picture of Sherri Martel and puts her over for really starting the Women’s Revolution.  Stevie goes back into their history and says it was Sid Vicious that brought them into WCW.  Their tryout match was terrible and they thought they would be fired, but Ole Anderson believed in them.  They thank Ole Anderson for helping them get here.  Stevie then thanks Hulk Hogan for getting them a push in WCW (man, Hogan is being thanked a lot here tonight).  From that push they became 10 time tag team champions.  Stevie talks about how Arn Anderson welcomed them in WCW and from that he learned to do the same with any new talent that came to WCW.  He learned respect for the business from Arn Anderson  Booker is ready to end things, but Stevie makes sure to work in his catchphrase.  “Suckers got to no,”  Booker puts over The Usos, The Revival, The Street Profits in NXT, and The Usos.  He shouts out Kofi-mania and tells Daniel Bryan he is going to get an ass whipping tomorrow.  Daniel plays it perfectly.  That was tremendous.  Booker thanks his wife and family.  He ends by saying he is a 2 two Hall of Famer and can you dig that sucka.

D-Generation X

-DX is out to much fanfare and glow sticks for everyone.  Road Dogg says he dares someone to hit the ring on DX.  Show is sporting a cowboy hat to cover the bald head, which is likely smart.  HHH jokes that Dogg is a professional Roadie as he does the mic check.  Dogg jokes that he is blown up at the moment and HHH cuts off his opening spiel.  HHH says he is an executive now and has a job to do.  He doesn’t know what it means, but it sounds important.  He does have to set some parameters on things tonight and says that they are rules.  The first rule is like Fight Club, in that you can’t say Vince McMahon.  That has long since been a rule as I remember Hogan breaking that rule.  They debate over what they can get away with and HHH informs them that Vince McMahon says you can’t say “Vince McMahon.”  This is pretty funny actually.  Dogg asks if the crowd can say Vince McMahon and that starts a “Vince McMahon.”  HHH says that angers Vince a bit, but “thank you Vince” is what really upsets him.  HHH swears he will come out here and tell HHH to give them all a job and fire them.  Shawn promises he will absolutely not thank Vince McMahon.  Billy says Vince can’t fire him.  HHH with shots fired as he says Vince will buy that piss ass company to fire him again.  DAMN!  I guess that’s one way to get around that elephant in the room with Billy being there.

-Shawn gets things settled as he brings up 1 member of DX that isn’t here: Chyna.  That starts a massive “thank you Chyna” chant and Shawn says the group would not be there without Chyna.  The fans start a “she deserves it” chant.  Shawn says they wouldn’t be where they are at or who they are without the contributions of Chyna.

-Dogg has someone bring up his 500 page speech and says he had help from Hill Billy Jim.  They joke about putting on their cheater glasses and it gives Shawn and HHH a chance to joke about big noses and lazy eyes.  Dogg says the relationships he has with these guys is real.  He thanks God first and foremost and thanks God for his sobriety.  He thanks God as he can stand here and be inducted in the same Hall of Fame his father was.  He thanks his wife as he put her through hell and she stood by him.  He will spend the rest of his life trying to thank her.  He says he can talk to his wife like that, but for the guy sin the ring he has a special video package.  It starts out sweet and ends up with a dog humping someone’s leg.

-Billy next as he jokes that this is the part where they actually let him talk.  He thanks The Harris Twins and Bill Demot.  He thanks his wife, kids, and the rest of his family.  Billy gets emotional and the guys do what they can to help him through it.  Gunn jokes about whipping something out and they make dick jokes, though it’s just a squirt gun that shoots blanks.  HHH tells him it happens sometimes and at their age no matter how much they pump it, it only dribbles out the tip.  Shawn continues the burns as he says once again Billy over promises and under delivers.  He does thank him for going ALL IN.  MORE SHOTS FIRED!

-X-Pac is next and a “1-2-3” chant breaks out.  HHH jokes they were going to make him come out as the 1-2-3 Kid with his eye brows shaved.  Pac says he didn’t think he would be alive to see this and he is just grateful.  Now he gets emotional as he talks about his family and how hard he worked to get a relationship back with them.  He admits he is so nervous up here and the crowd responds with “you deserve it.”  Pac gets in a plug for the WWE Network if you want to see his stuff.  He thanks Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes.  The first show he attended as a 10 year old he saw Flair/Rhodes for the NWA Title and he knew from there he wanted to be a wrestler.  He thanks the Malenko family and then Jerry Lynn  He calls Jerry one of the greatest wrestlers to ever step in the ring.  He shouts-out Razor Ramon, who gets a standing ovation, for making the 1-2-3 Kid.  He thanks the entire Kliq and says without the Kliq their is no DX or nWo.  He then makes a knee joke at Nash’s expense which is funny.  He thanks Bret for the best singles match of his career and says he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.  Next he thanks Eric Bischoff for hiring him and then firing him just in time so he could go back to the WWE on the winning side.  He thanks his fellow DX members and says how he thought it was Billy who shaved his eyebrows, but found out 25 years later it was Mr. Perfect.  He also gives a shoutout to Maria Menouno for getting him a TV show.  Finally, he thanks Chyna.  He calls her the magic ingredient in the DX recipe.  He says the Mania Battle Royal for the Women should be named after Chyna.  The crowd is all for that.  They then want a check with the truck if they can say “boobs.”  Pac says he still keeps in touch with some of the women that used to flash their tits.  It’s just an excuse to show footage of censored old women showing their saggy breasts.  Okay that joke didn’t work well.  HHH tells Pac he is done.

-Shawn says that he would thank his family, but they didn’t come.  He says his wife and kids are embarrassed by the stuff they did and before he can get fired up, HHH takes over.  He says Shawn embarrassed himself with cowboy hats and ass-less chaps.

-HHH thanks Killer Kowalski and the talent in the ring past, present, and future.  He thanks everyone who stepped in the ring with him as he would be nothing without them,  He puts over the Kliq as being DX before DX and the nWo before the nWo.  Often duplicated and never imitated.  The crowd starts the “Too Sweet” chant and HHH goes heel telling him he honestly hates that and that they never did it, but says the crowd can do their thing,  He thanks all the members of DX and says they did things to make themselves laugh.  HHH says he would no be where he is without Chyna in his career.  It is fitting in this moment that the women will main event Mania tomorrow and the night before the most impactful women to ever step foot in the ring gets inducted into the Hall of Fame.  He points out Chyna’s sister sitting in the crowd and HHH gets a little choked up.  Another “thank you Chyna’ chant and HHH says she loved the fans.  HHH thanks his 3 daughters and tell them he loves them more than they love him. He calls Vince “pop” and tells Step “forever.”  That draws an awww from the crowd.  HHH loves his family and he would be noting without them.  He says DX did a lot of things that shouldn’t have made the air.  He says Kid had no butt cheeks and that they had to shave Shawn.  “I’m a man.  I had a lot of hair.”  HHH talks about the dick jokes they made and says his mom wrote most of that stuff.  He says she is the master of the penis joke and says if you were suspended from school then blame her.

-Back to Shawn as he says they corrupted an entire generation.  He says they have nobody to blame but themselves.  He says they owe everyone an apology and that brings up the infamous DX podium and we know where this is going.  Shawn fakes crying as he takes the podium.

-Pac starts by saying “”your ass is grass and I’m going to smoke it.”  HHH says that’s not what Shawn was thinking.

-Dogg does his New Age Outlaws spiel which always makes the crowd happy.  He then apologizes and hands things over to HHH.  They do a 5 way group hug train as they joke about things being in pockets.  Now to HHH again as he needs to know one thing: ARE YOU READY?  He does his spiel and It’s Time to Suck It and if you aren’t down with that, Gunn lets us know we can suck it.  Now the super soakers work and they hose down the fans and WWE Superstars in the crowd.  That was a good mix of serious and juvenile though a couple jokes fell flat.  The shots fired at AEW were great though.

-Thanks for following along on another long night, but thankfully shorter than last year.  I found all the speeches were good to great and nothing really dragged.  The setup is likely to end next year as there’s no way a fan gets on the stage setup they had in years past.  I know this was likely done so they didn’t have to tear down from NXT last night just to set up again for RAW on Monday, but they need to either go back to NXT on Saturday or just suck it up and tear down and set up again.  I guess the other option is here better security of keep the fans off the floor.  With that said Bret handled it well and you can see it shook him up for a few moments.  The videos of the wrestlers coming to his aid shows they bond they have and kudos for those that rushed in to help.  Overall this was a fun show with some great moments and I still say Torrie killed it with the speech of the night and DX was there for the laughs and some heartfelt moments.  I never speak against anyone added to the Hall of Fame because I’ve never walked in their shoes to know what they sacrificed and went through.  Say what you want about the process, but this night is always fun and it means a lot to those honored and to their families.

-Enjoy WrestleMania tomorrow.