It was a very long WWE Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday night in New Orleans, LA. As one wrestling site has said, these were some long-winded people. However, the 2014 class of hall of famers received their accolades.
The best speech of the night came from Jake "The Snake" Roberts who was brutally honest in reliving his career. Roberts, along with Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall, put a gold star on their roads to redemption by their inductions. Wrestling fans should be eternally grateful to Diamond Dallas Page for his DDP Yoga and how this program has literally changed lives.
By the way, it was nice to see "The Kliq" -- Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Sean "X-Pac" Waltman -- all there to support Hall.
Lita, being the first honoree of the evening, set the tone for the night with a brutally long, yet somewhat entertaining speech about her life in the business. She even gave a shout out to a local promotion in Maryland -- that was cool!
Speaking of cool, it was nice to see Carlito in the building as he joined his brother Primo and his cousin (not brother, Jerry Lawler), Epico, induct the patriarch of their family dynasty, Carlos Colon. Many people were against Colon's induction because of his possible cover up of the murder of Bruiser Brody in 1988. It has also been alleged that Colon's induction was done strictly so the WWE could obtain the video library of Colon's promotion, the World Wrestling Council.
Whatever the reason, the best part of Colon's speech was his acknowledgement of perhaps the very first Puerto Rican wrestling star, Pedro Morales. This is a name that rarely comes up when the great WWE stars are mentioned. Morales was the first man to win the "Triple Crown" of titles in the WWE -- The world title, the Intercontinental championship and the world tag team titles (with Bob Backlund).
For celebrity wing honoree Mr. T, he was not allowed to speak after a long-winded tribute to his mother, actually being taken off the stage, Sandman Sims-like by Kane. Those of us who were hoping for maybe even a burying of the hatchet with Roddy Piper, were severly disappointed.
Paul Bearer was very well-honored -- first by Kane, then by his sons, one of whom did a great Bearer voice impression (he even looked like him, eerily enough) and then by The Undertaker in a beautiful visual ceremony.
As far as the main event of the ceremony -- the induction of The Ultimate Warrior -- well, whether in or out of character, the word "coherent" has never been a part of his vocabulary. Warrior (his legal name) rambled through his speech, however, there were points that were somewhat inspirational.
I have to admit, I'm a sucker for hall of fame ceremonies in any business because it gives fans an opportunity to thank those who have been so important in their lives as fans. Congratulations to all the inductees!
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