Kamala, Ivan Koloff & Dory Funk Sr. Set For WWE Hall Of Fame (WWE News)

Kamala, Ivan Koloff & Dory Funk Sr will enter the "Legacy Wing" of the WWE Hall Of Fame this year

by Michael Hamflett
Kamala WWE
WWE

WWE has announced three new names for the Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

Via WWE's and Triple H's social media and then multiple other sources, it was announced that Kamala, Ivan Koloff, and Dory Funk Sr. will be inducted as the latest Legacy inductees.

WWE posted that "Legendary Superstars Kamala, Dory Funk Sr., and Ivan Koloff will enter the WWE Hall of Fame as the 2025 Legacy inductees". As fellow 2025 inductee Levesque put it, “Each one of these performers left an indelible mark on the history of @WWE. It is an absolute privilege to honor each of them and their bodies of work.”

This marks the first time since 2021 that WWE will induct stars into the Legacy Wing, a category created in 2016 to honour influential figures whose contributions may not be as familiar to the modern WWE audience. Many believe 'The Game' himself played a key role in establishing the Legacy Wing, which aims to recognise deserving wrestlers who may not fit into the main Hall of Fame class due to their historical significance rather than their marketability.

It's not been without controversy in the past. Dave Meltzer noted in 2020 that; “This is the category they use to honour people who, for whatever reason, they don’t feel are marketable names to the modern audience to put in their actual Hall of Fame. It’s basically the answer to how you can have a Hall of Fame without Lou Thesz and Strangler Lewis—by quietly inducting them, just not listing them in the main Hall of Fame.”

WWE's Hall Of Fame 2025 will take place at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas the night before Night One of WrestleMania 41. It will air immediately after the go-home edition SmackDown, which can be viewed on an incredible 50-foot screen at the WhatCulture Wrestling live show at the HyperX Arena. Tickets are available at WhatCulture.com/tickets.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett