Going Broadway 01.31.12: The Business Negotiation That Is The WWE Hall Of Fame

A profound and incendiary debate has flooded the wrestling scene over the years and only seems to find its peak once a new calender year begins. It doesn’t come in predictions for the next Royal Rumble winner or possible main event pushes for Wrestlemania. It is a debate seeded in the past and present generations of wrestling fans: the WWE Hall of Fame.

This year, in particular, the hostility has peaked higher than usual with the announcement of Edge being inducted only one year removed from an injury-forced retirement. Of course, it’s no real offense to Edge, personally. His commitment and contribution to the business is not in question. Somehow he emerged from being a trench coat dumpster diver and created the Rated R Superstar in the post-Attitude Era.

But it’s the fact that it’s him and not some other long retired legend getting the push to Stamford that has created the frenzy. (Truth be told, the Hall of Fame is not actually in Stamford or in any particular location for that matter like Canton for the pro football or Cooperstown for baseball.)

But it is not limited to Edge. The other announcement garnering various amounts of negative and positive attention is the fact that Ric Flair will be inducted for a second time into the Hall of Fame as part of the Four Horsemen. Undoubtedly, the Horsemen are legendary and everlasting, but does this mean other legendary stables like the NWO and Degeneration X will get similar treatments to where more stars like Flair will be doubled up? It’s precedent setting in both cases, full of contradiction and endless speculation.

Of course the irony of it all is that it’s a debate about a hall of fame built upon professional wrestling. No matter how old we get, there’s always some non-fan who will still call it “fake” and not see the point of a hall of fame for something that is predetermined. Whatever. That’s their ignorance. But to us, fans, it’s our own type of “barber shop talk,” and we create our cases for our guys.

In popular debates regarding football and baseball legends, the basis for hall of fame arguments comes down to essentially comparing championships, statistics and even some pretentious effort to assess character. In all cases, a particular voting system is in place that creates nominates and, finally, inductees. It doesn’t mean deserving athletes don’t get overlooked. It still happens. Art Monk, when he retired, was virtually second in every receiving category in NFL history but somehow took eight years after becoming eligible to be voted in.

But where there’s a concrete system to fall back on in the major sports, there isn’t one for the WWE Hall of Fame.  And you really can’t judge them on statistics because wins and losses are irrelevant. Forget championships. Those were handed out like cheap crack in the last ten to fifteen years. Thus, with the absence of a true criteria for entry, WWE has appeared to boil down its selection process to simply what a wrestler’s relationship is (or was) with the company. Edge’s aforementioned announcement struck such a cord with fans because it seemed unfair to have him headline the 2012 class ahead of Macho Man Randy Savage, who in his time was a mega star for the business and whose sudden death last year was so tragic and saddening to the wrestling community.

The reality is Savage’s relationship with the company, although slightly improved in recent years, was not in complete turnaround from the rancor following his departure in 1994. There had been reports of an improvement in that relationship, even talk of a possible negotiation to have himself and his father Angelo Poffo inducted at the same time (Why not, the Von Eric clan got the treatment.) but nothing confirmed.
 
But, obviously, WWE will still be making more announcements as Wrestlemania approaches. Savage might still get in as things get worked out behind the scenes. Even so, if he’s not the headlining inductee, it just doesn’t seem right. Savage was a big as the business and in ways bigger than it. WWE did put together a tribute after Savage’s death that was tasteful and fitting, but it’s not enough. Savage deserves more. (Hell, he’s not alone. I’m still holding out for Jake Roberts at this point as well.)

It’s a similar situation for Ole Anderson, who was not included in the Horsemen’s announcement as one of the inductees despite the fact that Anderson was a founding member of the group. But Anderson’s maintained a grizzly, angry demeanor toward the WWE for years. He hates McMahon and wants nothing to do  with him. Thus, he’s unfortunately left out in the cold. But Anderson, to his credit, holds fast that entry into the Hall of Fame is not a priority for him anyway. Like Bruno Sammartino who has gone to the next level of exclusion by adamantly refusing entry, himself, for years.

Speaking of refusing entry, Ultimate Warrior recently claimed via Twitter that he “had the balls” to turn down an invitation from McMahon to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame as well. He further tweeted “Achievements worth honoring should not also be shit upon by the very people who desire bestowing honor. That is shit this Honoree won’t eat.” Typical Warrior. Heightened sense of himself still to this day and looking to be controversial. I’m still a big fan of his claim that Heath Ledger is in Hell because he played a gay cowboy in a movie. But if there was one redeeming piece of Warrior in the present day pop culture, it’s gotta be his reality show.

But there’s also a business side linked to the process which finds a way to keep at least two noticeable exclusions from the Hall of Fame: Owen Hart and Chris Benoit. Not to put both in the same boat because obviously the circumstances surrounding both are different, and the public perception is completely different.

The root of the Hart dilemma is the continued divide between his widow Martha and WWE, which despite Bret Hart’s mending of fences with the company has not in anyway closed the fissure for his younger brother’s inclusion. But at least the perception is positive. Owen is still beloved to this day by the consensus, which keeps his hall of fame campaign churning on message boards and throughout the WWE Universe.

But sadly, the Benoit situation is so radically opposite. The circumstances surrounding his death set off such a tidal wave of cover up, it’s now become as if he never existed in the WWE Universe. To some, actually many, it shouldn’t matter. He was a great wrestler and gave so much to the business. Therefore, there’s no question to them that he should be honored. But the reality is, the negative publicity that would befall the company because of the honoring of a man who murdered his family and killed himself would sadly outweigh the incredible in-ring contribution Benoit gave to wrestling. The two images will never be reconciled regardless of your opinion on the issue.

The sad bottom line of it all is that the Hall of Fame process proves to be nothing more than a business negotiation. One giant, bloated business negotiation that is based on private handshakes and backroom agreements. Achievements and fan fare can be put by the wayside if there’s a detriment to the WWE brand that can be created.

The power, as with everything WWE, lies in the Machiavellian palm of McMahon, the modern day wrestling fusion of Charles Foster Kane and Gordon Gekko. The Xanadu that is WWE is the last palace of wrestling empires Unfortunately, admittance to the WWE Hall of Fame will not be granted, nor judged by the characters we worshiped, but only by the men and women behind them and how they made big business for the company and big nice in the board room. The great divide between realism and romanticism in “sports entertainment.”