4 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Hall Of Fame 2023

2. Stacy Gets Her Flowers

To be honest, when Stacy Keibler was announced for the Hall of Fame, this writer felt like it was WWE scraping the bottom of the barrel, reaching down to grab an Attitude/Ruthless Aggression Era star to fill the designated “women’s wrestler” spot on the slate.

But Mick Foley and Torrie Wilson did a nice job explaining Stacy’s value to the WWE product and how respected she was backstage. Probably one of the better observations came as they spoke about Keibler’s transition to mainstream pop culture attention, beginning with Dancing With The Stars and continuing with her various TV appearances, magazine covers and whatnot, calling her the first women’s wrestler to really crossover to Hollywood and the fashion and fitness worlds.

Stacy for her part gave a composed and positive speech that also traced her fandom, pointing out that she was in the audience at WCW events before she ever auditioned to be a Nitro Girl. That little tidbit was a nice touch that put her above the Divas Search contestants who came along years later and had never watched a day of wrestling in their lives.

It’s rare to say that one segment can change your thinking about a person’s career, but this induction did a solid job of changing your view of Keibler as a leggy blond eye candy during a raunchier time in WWE to someone who as Foley pointed out was just as much a pillar of the company and product as the wrestlers, and “no one turned the channel when Stacy was on.”