Why WWE May Never Have A Physical Hall Of Fame
Does Vince McMahon stand in the way of WWE and a physical Hall of Fame?
Vince McMahon's historic opposition to the idea is what prevents WWE from opening a physical Hall of Fame.
Per Dave Meltzer on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Vince has traditionally seen such a venture as a waste of money, despite his son-in-law, Triple H, conceptualizing the HOF as a 4-D fan experience back in 2013.
Here's what The Game told the Orlando Business Journal at the time:-
“I don’t want a Hall of Fame or some other attraction to just be something where people see some guy’s shorts. We are the WWE and we are big, so whatever we do needs to be the same. If I were to say what it could be, think of it as something that has shows or live interactive things for fans. For example, something like a 4-D experience where the fan would come face-to-face with a 3-D Andre the Giant – something along that scale.”
The topic also came up during Triple H's recent appearance on ESPN's Cheap Heat podcast. The WWE Executive Vice President said the company had contemplated the idea, doubling down on the notion that a physical Hall of Fame would need to be something big (h/t POST Wrestling for the transcription):-
"Hall Of Fames like that, physical Hall Of Fames, museums like that tend to be money pits and not do well because over time, people will [see] them and just think, ‘Well you need to make it something more’ and I think if it was interactive with technology the way that it is now, those objects were there, things that people can see and be wowed by, but also there’s reasons to keep going back. I’m of the opinion that-that means to be more than a thing you go to one time and go like, ‘Oh that was neat. I saw some boots.’ But more of a, ‘You gotta go see this. I was there. There’s a virtual this, there’s a 3D that, there’s a –’ technology takes you to another level. Like Disney, you go see these incredible things but also have these mind-blowing experiences around WWE and you can also spend the day there. You can go there and meet some legends and see people doing Q&A’s and maybe it’s a part of our developmental where there’s matches happening and there’s a lot of stuff to see, along with, so if done right."
The latest set of Hall of Fame inductions were filmed in late March and aired on WWE Network/Peacock during WrestleMania 37 week, with the likes of Eric Bischoff, Kane, and the New World Order joining.