10 WWE Legends Who STILL Aren't In The Hall Of Fame
The WWE Hall Of Fame celebrates the biggest stars in wrestling history... with some exceptions.
A WWE Hall Of Fame induction is confirmation that your career had a unique impact on the world of wrestling. It's also a heavy politicised concept based in the imagination; there isn't a physical hall you can walk through.
Looking at the inductions each year, the Hall Of Fame is clearly divided in the same way wrestling programming is. You can pick out the main event scene, look further down at the midcard, then occasionally spot a celebrity trying to get involved. Sprinkle in a "How did that person get inducted?" and you've nailed the ceremony each year.
Sure, all sports have got a Hall Of Fame, but none of the others are based on fictional storylines. Footballers aren't tasked with coming up with a character, made to change it to what WWE wants them to be, then told if they're going to win or lose. It's not as simple as that of course; the right wrestlers can make anything work, but it's a cruel business when they don't get it right. Then you have to get through all the politics...
Perhaps that's not being fair to the inductees, but when you see who STILL hasn't been awarded their Hall Of Fame ring, you'll realise just how bizarre the concept is.
10. Paul Heyman
The Wiseman isn't just one of wrestling's greatest managers, he's a visionary who brought extreme to the mainstream.
He could've had a career as a wrestling journalist, after becoming a sports photographer as a teenager, but instead he forged the Paul E. Dangerously character and became a manager for the stars. Runs in the territories took him to World Championship Wrestling, before he left to turn the E in Eastern Championship Wrestling into extreme.
Whether it's because of the wrestling he introduced to the mainstream in the 1990s, as the voice of The Alliance during the Invasion, or because of the legends he's managed through the years, there's no doubt that every wrestling fan knows and loves this extraordinary man.
He's probably not in the Hall Of Fame yet because he's still active on TV. That didn't stop them putting Rey Mysterio in, but it wouldn't fit Heyman's character for him to wear a Hall Of Fame ring when he's advising the Bloodline. Even though he's always played a heel, fans would love to see him walk out onto the stage at WrestleMania to the ECW theme; he deserves it.
It's inevitable that Paul will go in, it's just a case of when. 'Mania XL is in ECW's old stomping ground of Philadelphia, but it still feels like it won't happen this year.