5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Feb 23)
R E A Double L Y WEIRD.
The WWE Hall of Fame isn't an achievement. Koko B. Ware is in it, where the likes of Toots Mondt and Rikidōzan - men who fundamentally altered the complexion of the industry and constructed it for an entire nation, respectively - were relegated to the so-called "Legacy" wing years and years later.
It's hard to be too cynical about the Hall, the selection process for which is decided entirely by Vince McMahon. The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake brought into literally sobering focus what it meant for both the subject of the documentary and Scott 'Razor Ramon' Hall. Both men battled alcoholism for years. Both made grim headlines through appearing at low-rent Independent shows as slurring, stumbling shadows of the former selves. Both were perilously close to death. Both saw the Hall as their moment of redemption. Both entered to hugely uplifting fanfare in 2014.
But it's also quite easy to be cynical about the Hall. The selection process is decided entirely by Vince McMahon. This means that, in 2009, he woke up, yukked at a bird man he hadn't booked in years, even as a nostalgia act, and saw fit to induct him ahead of Jim Londos.
The WWE Hall of Fame, then, isn't an achievement. Jeff Jarrett entering the WWE Hall of Fame is an achievement...
5. H A Double L
Don't p*ss Vince McMahon off. If you p*ss Vince McMahon off, you don't get into the Hall of Fame. That, more so than talent, drawing power or longevity, is the principal criteria for Hall of Fame induction...
...which makes the biggest news story of the week so astonishing. Jeff Jarrett is set for induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame. Wrestling apocrypha has it that Jarrett held McMahon up for a six-figure sum in order to drop the Intercontinental Title to Chyna at No Mercy 1999. Bruce Prichard has since disputed this on his podcast, but it's a wonder the man isn't a flat earther. On the same episode, he didn't see the problem with the Fabulous Moolah. She just wanted her cut!
The infamous manner in which Vince McMahon storyline fired Jarrett from WCW in 2001 - "G Double O Double N Double E, Goonnneee (?)" - told its own story. So too did the fact that the WWF went to the lengths of splicing in old footage of Jarrett to put the joke over; he didn't appear live on the RAW Nitro simulcast. Vince relished firing Jarrett with the face of a man whose daughter had just green-lit an incest angle.
Jarrett in the years since mounted a very ambitious mission to compete with WWE at the helm of TNA, mounted a stupid mission to bring together every other promotion under the Global Force Wrestling banner, and sold more for bars of gold than he did an entire generation of wrestling talent in his guise as TNA's Brock Lesnar. He even wore MMA shorts, for f*ck's sake. He goes into the Hall underneath headliner Goldberg, as the midcard act he always thought he wasn't.
Facetiousness aside, were the WWE Hall Of Fame worthy of the name, Jarrett, a great midcard workhorse in his prime and an underrated character and comedy wrestler, would be worthy of it.