10 Non-Wrestlers Who Need To Be In The WWE Hall Of Fame
It's not just grapplers who deserve a spot amongst the immortals.
Wrestling isn't just about the wrestlers.
Sure, watching big, jacked up guys (and gals) knock each other silly for fifteen minutes is a lot of fun, but sometimes it's what happens outside the ring that keeps us hooked.
Wrestling history is full of managers, commentators, backstage interviewers, referees and other non-wrestling figures who have made a huge impact on the business. And what happens if a wrestler makes a huge impact on the business? Well, if they haven't tried to sue the company for concussion damages, then they usually end up in the WWE Hall of Fame.
"Mean" Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan, Jim Ross - these are just some of the big non-wrestling personalities that already sit deservedly in WWE's hallowed hall, but there are plenty of other non-grappling folk that deserve an induction.
The following ten names have contributed to the wrestling business in a big way without ever being a full-time wrestler. Some have stepped into the ring occasionally, but that was never their primary role.
Also, this is being written before the 2019 Hall of Fame class is announced, so Sod's Law dictates that at least three of these people will be named for the Hall the day after it's published. Call it prescience.
10. Ted Turner
It'll be a cold day in hell when Vince McMahon honours his greatest rival, but you can't say he doesn't deserve it.
Ted Turner is a media mogul and businessman, perhaps best known as the founder of American news network, CNN.
However, to wrestling fans, Turner is known as the man who started the Monday Night Wars.
In 1988, Turner purchased wrestling company, Jim Crockett Promotions, and transformed it into World Championship Wrestling. With Turner's money, WCW became a major player in North American wrestling and very nearly put Vince McMahon out of business.
Without Turner's investment in WCW, the WWF would have had no real competition in the 1990s. It was this competition that drove the company to take their programming in an edgier, young-adult oriented direction. In short, without Ted, we'd have had no Attitude Era.
By bringing the WWF to its knees, Ted Turner played a huge role in the world of wrestling as a whole. And he wasn't even a part of weekly television.