A Live Report From Saturday’s WWE Hall Of Fame Ceremony

Credit Aditya Gandhi and Prowrestling.net

The arena was about 75 percent full. There were sections that were taped off. There were a couple of notices near the entrance of the arena calling for fans to be respectful to all the inductees.

They had a small stage next to the floor seating where the red carpet hosts would sometimes broadcast from. Sitting close to where I was, there was a couple from Boston. They said that they specially flew out here just to see Randy Savage get inducted. They weren’t going to attend Mania on Sunday, and probably wouldn’t watch it live, since they’d be flying back Sunday afternoon. I thought this was pretty crazy – how a person could fly cross-country and go back without seeing Mania?

Rikishi – The Usos got a lot of cheers from the audience for their speech, and when Rikishi came out, everyone gave a standing ovation. His speech was kind of long, but was very well received, especially when he talked about his family’s legacy. Plenty of Samoans in the crowd. There were no Too Cool chants, I guess everyone forgot about them.

Larry Zbyszko – Bruno got another standing ovation from the crowd for his intro. Zbyszko’s speech was kind of start/stop, but he was still able to hold the crowd’s attention. His line about McMahon Sr. drew lots of applause.

Alundra Blayze – Hands down, the best speech of the night. Natalya’s intro was short, and I’m glad – the crowd was indifferent to her. Moderate pop for Blayze, but by the end she had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand.

Connor Michalek – Great moment for all the fans. Every person in the arena was on their feet when Daniel Bryan introduced Steve Michalek. Dana Warrior’s intro was good too – however, it was a little long for some. This was eclipsed by Bryan’s sincere delivery, and the crowed popped big for him.

The Bushwhackers – Lots of “People Power” chants for John Laurinaitis. The crowd really dug Butch and the licking at the end.

Tatsumi Fujinami – Short and sweet. The crowd was respectful to him despite not being aware of his work. Ric Flair got a great standing ovation, and surprisingly kept his speech on point. The crowd could barely hear Fujinami, but that was partly also due to the crowd applauding and him not pausing when that happened.

Randy Savage – Biggest pop of the night when they played his video on the big screen. Hulk Hogan’s speech was good, but I thought Lanny Poffo’s was better. Some of his verses went above the crowd’s head, since they were so exhausted by now (it was well into the third hour of this show), but all of his points about the Special Olympics got great cheers.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – Triple H did well introducing him, but Arnold wasn’t too over with this crowd. Huge boos when Arnold mentioned his being Governor, I guess his work wasn’t appreciated much (due to CA’s bankruptcy issues, I guess). Polite applause at the end of his speech.

Kevin Nash – Shawn Michaels got the second biggest pop of the night. Nash’s speech was good, and very honest, and the crowd liked that. They were pretty drained by now, but managed to give Nash another standing ovation. The Kliq reunion at the end drew pops but not as many since people had already seen them last year for Hall’s induction.

Overall, good show as always. But I’d say four hours is pushing it for a live crowd. Three to three-and-a-half would be just about right. I felt they always have too many inductees each year (five or six would be better).

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