Brian Gewirtz Believes Andy Kaufman Belongs In WWE Hall of Fame

Andy Kafuman’s influence on professional wrestling was very large, and Brian Gewirtz believes the late comedian belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame. Gewirtz spoke with Under the Ring promoting Tales From the Territories and Young Rock and talked about Kaufman’s influence on wrestling and why he belongs in the WWE’s Hall of Fame. You can see some highlights below:

On Kaufman belonging in the WWE Hall of Fame: “He is without question — I mean look, WWE Hall of Fame is an interesting thing. Because sometimes it’s — it’s not like the Baseball Writers’ Hall of Fame where it’s just based on statistics and certain thresholds, and this person hit X amount of home runs, or get hits or wins, or strikeouts or whatever. This is kinda like forged by whatever is discussed that happened to be discussed that year. But from a pure merit standpoint, there is probably no celebrity more influential and more revered in the business than Andy Kaufman.”

On Kaufman’s influence on wrestling: “I mean, what he did in Memphis, it’s why we dedicated a whole episode to it. It’s just really extraordinary, like he had no reason other than his pure love and passion for wrestling to go down to Memphis. And of course, as we talked about on the show and as legend has it, he tried with WWF at first and Vince Sr. wasn’t into the idea. Obviously Vince Jr., Vince McMahon as we know him, obviously did pay attention to what was going down in Memphis. Because shortly thereafter, just a couple years later Mr. T is wrestling at WrestleMania and Cyndi Lauper is in the corner of Wendi Richter, and Billy Martin and Liberace, and Bob Costas, and everyone else. You know, Muhammed Ali, everyone else is involved in the first WrestleMania.”

On Kaufman’s legacy: “It’d be really nice. It’d be the right thing to do as far as cementing his legacy. But even if it doesn’t happen, his legacy is cemented. I mean, people who know, know. And people who don’t know, hopefully saw Tales From the Territories episode and got a much better, broader understanding of him.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Under the Ring with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.