WWE has begun announcing names for the Hall of Fame ceremony this year, marking a historic class as the first chosen by Triple H rather than Vince McMahon. However, it appears that McMahon’s rule from years ago is still in effect.
Paul Heyman is the most well-known name, as ECW was based in Philadelphia, followed by Thunderbolt Patterson, Muhammad Ali, The US Express (Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham), and Bull Nakano.
The ceremony follows SmackDown on April 5th at the Wells Fargo Center during WrestleMania weekend.
Dave Meltzer, speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, mentioned McMahon’s rule that every class required a black wrestler and a female wrestler.
“So it’s interesting that Thunderbolt is now allotted in the WWE Hall of Fame. The one thing that we learned is when Vince McMahon picked the Hall of Fame, they had a certain quota thing, which was there has to be a black wrestler, and there has to be a woman wrestler in every class. And in the new Hall of Fame, it appears that that is the same thing. There’s one woman, which was Bull Nakano and Thunderbolt. So that’s the deal. Thunderbolt announced today, and then probably, I don’t know if it’d be tomorrow or Friday or whatever, but Lia Maivia [The Rock’s grandmother] will be announced as a promoter. Dwayne is gonna give the speech.”
