Taking off the gloves: Ali belongs in WWE Hall of Fame

Some of the stars of WrestleMania

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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Full disclaimer, I have no idea if Ali was opposed to going in or if there's some other reason for him not being inducted.

I'm not complaining for the sake of complaining with this post. It's something I've felt strongly about for a long time, even documenting here on the blog. Muhammad Ali should have been one of the first inductees into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame. 

For years, some fans have complained about the celebrity wing arguing that Donald Trump got in before "Ravishing" Rick Rude. A long time ago I accepted the fact that the celebrity wing and the wrestling wing are separate. And when you consider WWE is a sports entertainment company, it makes sense why they have celebrities involved.

Back to my original point... In 2004 when WWE really reintroduced fans to the Hall of Fame and inducted Pete Rose, the reasoning made sense. Rose's exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame was hot news at the time and his WWE HOF induction made headlines in main stream media outlets. The next year the principles from the first WrestleMania were inducted. Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff and Bob Orton were all a part of that original main event. Since Mr. T wasn't in that class, it would have been the perfect time to add Ali (or Cyndi Lauper).

Hogan and Ali
Courtesy: WWE

Every year WWE inducts at least one wrestler, manager or announcer posthumously. They've never done that with a celebrity. I can't imagine that they would either because the point of the celebrity has always been the appeal of someone fans don't normally see at these events being a part of the show. I could be (and I hope I am) wrong about that. Ali's daughter Laila has plenty of crossover appeal and could accept on behalf of her father.

Inoki vs. Ali

Ali's history with WWE and wrestling is quite rich. He was in a boxer vs. wrestler match in Tokyo against Antonio Inoki in 1976. The buildup to that included a confrontation with Gorilla Monsoon and in ring promos with manager "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Ali was the guest enforcer referee during the main event of WrestleMania. He worked as a second for The Snowman in Mid-South as he battled Jake "The Snake" Roberts. He also appeared at WCW's Halloween Havoc in 1994.

Ali and Andre, what a pair

So obviously he has been involved enough with the business and has a high profile stature that should have put him in ahead of the likes of Drew Carey and Snoop Dog. But maybe I'm sounding like the fans who gripe that the Bushwhackers are in but not the Midnight Express...

Raw is... Entertaining???

Sean: A one time Hulkamaniac 

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

After facing reality that no matter how rash of a decision I wanted to make, I just wasn’t going to be able to make to WrestleMania this year, I decided that if I couldn’t make the 5 hour drive to San Jose, I’d make the one hour drive downtown to see the last Monday Night Raw before WrestleMania. Knowing that  attending a show alone isn’t the most enjoyable experience, I decided to ask my 
friend Sean to tag along. Sean hasn’t watched wrestling since Hulk Hogan was a cartoon character. I wanted to see how a non-fan related to the show that I am often very critical of these days. Sean agreed and on Monday night we had a more enjoyable WWE experience than I would have expected. 

Because the show was actually entertaining (maybe it was due to be in the arena instead of watching on TV) I didn’t get to question Sean to get deep analysis into the show. Instead, we just sat back, watched the show and enjoyed the ride. 

Hulkster, Snoop Dog and Axel

Without a doubt the highlight of the night was a surprise appearance from The Immortal one, Hulk Hogan. Sean was enjoying the in-ring antics of Snoop Dogg, as were the kids in front of us who kept holding up their “Keep Calm Snoop is Here” sign, when out of nowhere, “Real American” started blasting through the speakers. Sean and I looked at each other and for a split second I let go of my 
great dislike of the Hulkster and marked out like a small child reacting to John Cena. I’m curious where Axelmania goes from here but for one night it wasn’t about criticizing the booking. 

Rusev rules

The second highlight for Sean was Rusev’s destruction of John Cena. First off, I have to point out at the last Raw I attended which was in August 2014 before SummerSlam, I saw Rusev vs. Jack Swagger. Wasn’t thrilled that the booking of both guys hasn’t advanced that far in seven months to where I was watching the same match again.  The match not withstanding, the destruction of Cena was a nice sight.  Though the WWE cynic in me is now afraid Super Cena will prevail at WrestleMania. For Sean, it was flashback to his childhood when he would cheer Ivan Drago in his match against Apollo Creed. 

Everything else on the show was just kind of there. Thankfully though the crowd was into almost everything. Even Zack Ryder got a huge “woo woo woo” chant during his match.  There was one segment the fans weren’t into though. Unfortunately for WWE, that segment was the face off between the two guys fighting in the main event of the biggest stage of the year. 

Lesnar taunts Reigns

If Raw’s crowd was any indication, come WrestleMania, the audio team better have a loop of Roman Reigns cheers on standby.  There were definitely more “Let's go Lesnar” chants in the Staples Center than any cheers for Roman Reigns. The tug of war to end the show did not go off very well with the fans. Now that Brock Lesnar has announced he is sticking with WWE, I wonder if the Roman Reigns project becomes more like the 1995 Shawn Michaels project instead of the 1994 Diesel project. 

While I’m still not entirely sold on WrestleMania, after Raw, my interest is up a couple of notches. As for Sean, I don’t think he’ll be coming over to watch WrestleMania on Sunday. He said something about his girlfriend from Australia coming into town, but he did say that he did contract a full-blown case of Hulkamania.  Hopefully a couple shots of penicillin will take care of that before his skin starts to turn orange.