8 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Hall Of Fame 2020 & 2021

2. The Warrior Award

Warrior Award
WWE.com

Rich Hering and Titus O'Neil will be covered later on. This entry isn't a reflection on them as inductees, but a necessary commentary on the naming and framing of the Warrior Award.

Dedicating an award to the life-enriching people who embody courage and compassion but might not otherwise find a way into the Hall of Fame is great. Naming it after a human being with a long, storied history of saying such reprehensible things in public is not.

As usual, last night's shows were full of fawning tributes to Warrior, who passed away in April 2014. While nothing new, the whitewashing of his name and legacy is as egregious as it was seven years ago, and it's regrettable that WWE couldn't find somebody with a better track record to name this award after.

"Queering doesn't make the world work" once came out of this man's mouth. Not long after Bobby Heenan's throat cancer diagnosis, Warrior called him a "pure two-faced bag of sh*t." He launched into a bizarre rant against "these people" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The list goes on.

Publically, the Warrior was a bigot. Let's stop celebrating him.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.