Ahead of the 2024 WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony which will see another class of wrestling legends be enshrined, we take a look at 10 of the biggest omissions from the WWE Hall Of Fame.
True icons of the sport have been inducted in previous classes, since the Hall of Fame was created in 1993, including the inaugural inductee, Andre ‘The Giant’, Hulk Hogan, Bruno Sammartino and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
But the WWE Hall Of Fame remains a point of debate among wrestling fans as despite the bulging numbers inducted, many feel there are some obvious names left out in the cold. Former WWE Champions, tag team legends, and some female trailblazers are among our list of the 10 most glaring omissions from the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Ivan Koloff
“The Russian Bear” was the third man to hold what is now known as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and the only star to hold the belt when known as the WWWF Championship not to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.
Koloff debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1969 with Captain Lou Albano acting as his manager. As a villainous Russian character, Koloff shocked the wrestling world in 1971 when he ended the still unbeaten record seven and a half year championship reign of Bruno Sammartino.
Later in Ivan Koloff’s career, he found more success as part of the NWA, winning the NWA World Tag Team Championships on five separate occasions. During this time he had feuds with the likes of Dusty Rhodes, The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, and The Road Warriors.
Koloff was part of a lawsuit against WWE in 2015 over concussion-based injuries and this could be part of the reason that the man born in Montreal was not inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame before his death in 74. But the fact is Ivan Koloff should have been celebrated as a Hall Of Famer in WWE long before then.
Demolition
“Here comes the Ax, here comes the Smasher, no Hall Of Fame, what a disaster…” Or something similar was the opening line of the iconic music that signalled the entrance of WWE’s premiere tag team of the late eighties.
The duo of Ax and Smash first burst onto the WWE stage in 1987 with Luscious Johnny V in their corner. The original team consisted of Bill Eadie and Randy Colley – who had previously competed as Moondog Rex. Colley was soon replaced by Barry Darsow and the legend of Demolition really took off.
At WrestleMania IV, the pair won the WWE Tag Team Championship for the first time after defeating Strike Force. This first title reign of Demolition was the longest in WWE history at 478 days until The New Day broke that record in 2016 with a reign that lasted 5 days longer.
As the eighties gave way to the nineties, the pair added a third partner in the form of Crush with Ax competing in the ring less frequently. At WrestleMania VI the three-man team captured the WWE Tag Team Title for a third reign for Demolition as they defeated The Colossal Connection of Andre The Giant and Haku.
Sadly, this looks like another situation where a lawsuit has prevented the team from being inducted as both Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow were named as part of a class-action lawsuit against WWE in 2016 to do with brain injuries. This case was dismissed in 2018. Eadie and Darsow are still living while Crush, also known as Brian Adams, sadly passed away in 2007.
Miss Elizabeth
The First Lady Of Wrestling. Elizabeth Hulette is known to fans around the world as Miss Elizabeth and her partnership with husband ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage helped WWE reach its Golden Age in the late eighties.
Elizabeth first appeared by Savage’s side in 1985 when he rebuffed the advances of other eminent managers in the promotion to have his wife by his side. Miss Elizabeth remained by Savage’s side throughout his feuds with the likes of George ‘The Animal’ Steele, Ricky Steamboat, and The Honky Tonk Man.
Elizabeth was also in Savage’s corner when he claimed the WWE Championship for the first time at WrestleMania IV. The third member of The Mega Powers, Miss Elizabeth watched with pride as the team of Savage and Hulk Hogan took WWE by storm, unfortunately, trouble was brewing as Savage felt Hogan was watching Elizabeth with “lust in his eyes.”
When The Mega Powers exploded at WrestleMania V, Miss Elizabeth watched on from a neutral corner before being ejected from the arena due to interfering on both Hogan and Savage’s behalf. Elizabeth reemerged as part of Savage and his new manager Sensational Sherri’s feud with Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire.
When Randy Savage lost a retirement match against The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII, Miss Elizabeth was watching on and when Sherri turned on Savage it all got too much for Elizabeth as she ran off Savage’s wicked queen before reuniting with her man and there was not a dry eye in the house. At SummerSlam 1991 Savage and Elizabeth were married on-screen – 7 years after their real wedding.
In August 1992 Elizabeth Hulette and Savage divorced with Miss Elizabeth disappearing from the limelight before reappearing in 1996 in WCW. There she briefly managed Savage and Hogan before turning her on her ex-husband and joining Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen before going on to forge her alliance with Lex Luger.
Sadly Miss Elizabeth’s story does not have a happy ending as one month after Lex Luger was charged with battery after a domestic dispute left Elizabeth with two black eyes, she passed away at the age of 42. Ultimately Miss Elizabeth’s death was ruled an accident and caused by “acute toxicity” due to her intake of painkillers and vodka. This tragic ending may be why WWE has shied away from celebrating the life and career of Miss Elizabeth in the WWE Hall Of Fame, and Lex Luger’s as well.
Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express
It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention and when Bill Watts sought a talent trade to boost his Mid South Wrestling in the mid-eighties, his need for stars brought him Dennis Condrey, Bobby Eaton, and James E. Cornette, and The Midnight Express was born.
The Midnight’s had existed in an earlier life as part of Southeast Championship Wrestling in the early eighties that saw Condrey team with Randy Rose but it was the Mid South version of the group with The Louisville Lip acting as their mouthpiece that really set the wrestling world alight.
Feuding with The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, The Midnights were the hated villains with Cornette talking Condrey and Eaton into as much trouble as the two stars could take, eventually taking their talents to Jim Crockett Promotions. Together ‘Loverboy’ Dennis and ‘Beautiful’ Bobby captured the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express in February 1986.
Later in the year at 86’s Starrcade, The Midnights famously competed in a Scaffold Match against The Road Warriors that led to Jim Cornette blowing out his knees when he fell from the giant structure landing very badly in the middle of the ring.
The team of Condrey and Eaton came to an end when Dennis Condrey walked out of JCP in early 1987 but the story of The Midnight Express doesn’t end there as ‘Sweet’ Stan Lane came to the team’s rescue. Together Lane and Eaton captured the NWA World Tag Team Title and held the NWA US Tag Team Championship three times.
A battle then ensued between the two versions of The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette managing Lane and Eaton while a certain Paul E. Dangerously fanned the flames in the corner of Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey.
Although a controversial figure in recent years, the truth is Jim Cornette could be a WWE Hall Of Famer many times over for his work with The Midnights and later his work in WWE with WWE Champion Yokozuna and later, Camp Cornette. But there would be no more fitting tribute to his career than for him to share the spotlight once again with The Midnight Express.
Sycho Sid
Sid Vicious was a headliner in both WCW and the WWF for over a decade and is a notable absentee from the WWE Hall of Fame.
He made his name as one half of the Skyscrapers tag team in WCW, before switching to the singles ranks. He fought Sting for the NWA World Title in an infamous encounter at Halloween Havoc 1990.
He jumped to the WWF the following year and refereed the headliner of SummerSlam 1991, before entering into a feud with Hulk Hogan after Sid ejected him from the 1992 Royal Rumble match.
That led to the woeful main event of WrestleMania VIII in which Hogan defeated Sid by disqualification. The match was notable for Sid being the first man ever to kick out of Hogan’s patented Legdrop finisher.
Sid departed the company shortly after ‘Mania and returned to WCW, where he again was presented as a headline act. Unfortunately, a regrettable incident with Arn Anderson and a pair of scissors on WCW’s UK tour, saw him fired and he resurfaced again in the WWF. After feuding with WWF Champion, Diesel throughout 1995, he finally won his first World Title when he bested Shawn Michales in a terrific match at Survivor Series 1996. He won a second World Title, defeating Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart on Raw, before losing the belt in his second WrestleMania main event opposite The Undertaker. He resurfaced in WCW in 1999 where he began an undefeated streak and engaged in a bloody and intense feud with Goldberg. He then lifted two WCW World Titles in early 2000 and headlined Starrcade against Scott Steiner in December, making him one of a select number of wrestlers to have headlined both company’s flagship shows.
The following month suffered a devastating and career ending leg injury in the headliner of WCW Sin. Sid is conspicuous by his absence from the WWE Hall of Fame and will likely be inducted within the next few years.
The Rock
The Rock was the first third generation star that competed in WWE. He made his spectacular debut at the 1996 Survivor Series where he was the sole survivor for his team. He quickly ascended the ranks and just three months later defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the Intercontinental Title, kicking off a rivalry that would span for Rock’s entire full time WWE Career.
After his babyface character was rejected by the fans, The Rock turned heel and joined The Nation of Domination. He supplanted Faarooq as leader and reigned as IC Champion for a second time for an epic (by Attitude Era standards) 264 days.
The Rock won the WWF World Title by winning a won night tournament at the 1998 Survivor Series and joined forces with the McMahon family and formed The Corporation stable. He traded the belt with Mankind in a memorable series of violent matches in early 1999 before dropping the title to ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin the lone highlight of WrestleMania XV.
Despite his title loss, The Rock eventually supplanted Austin as the premier star in the promotion, which resulted in the infamous title match at WrestleMania X-7, in which a paranoid Austin joined forces with his long-time foe, Vince McMahon to screw The Rock out of the WWF Championship.
Hollywood would soon beckon for ‘The Great One’ but he still found time to have memorable matches with the likes of ‘Hollywood’ Hulk Hogan and Brock Lesnar.
‘The Brahma Bull’ did not wrestle a single match for over seven years but made his long awaited WWE comeback in 2011. He famously headlined two consecutive WrestleMania events with John Cena in 2012 and 2013 before departing the squared circle once more.
Will The Rock wrestle one more match with ‘The Tribal Chief’ Roman Reigns in 2024 and headline teh WWE Hall of Fame class. Time will soon tell.
Giant Baba
Giant Baba is a Japanese legend. Not a Japanese wrestling legend but simply a legend in Japan. In 2006, Baba featured in Nippon Television’s ‘Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan’ after the people of Japan were asked to vote for their favourite historical figures from around the globe. Giant Baba came 91st on the list, ahead of Abraham Lincoln, Frederic Chopin, and Sir Isaac Newton – not bad for a wrestler.
Baba began training for the ring at the behest of another icon in Japan, Rikidozan. Baba was soon learning in the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance dojo with another future luminary, Antonio Inoki. In 1964 Giant Baba wrestled a handful of matches for the WWWF, even challenging Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Championship inside the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden.
Inoki and Baba split away from JWA in the early seventies as a wrestling revolution swept Japan. Inoki formed New Japan Pro Wrestling while Baba formed All Japan Pro Wrestling – the two companies would dominate the wrestling world in the country for the next few decades.
Although his association with what is now WWE was fleeting, as a three-time NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion and an innovator and icon in his native Japan, Giant Baba is a glaring omission from the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Sable
Forget everything you think you know about the Attitude Era. Forget DX, forget The Nation Of Domination and The Rock, forget WCW invasions, forget The Corporation – there was one person that in terms of crowd reaction and popularity during that time and it was Stone Cold Steve Austin, but the person behind him was Sable.
Initially entering the WWE when her then-husband Marc Mero joined the company from WCW in 1996, Sable was first seen as a valet for Hunter Hearst-Helmsley as he was dominated by The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 12. With the young Triple H blaming Sable for his loss, Mero stepped in beginning their feud and beginning Mero’s on-screen relationship with Sable.
After Mero sat out some time due to injury, Sable’s star continued to rise before Mero returned, insanely jealous at his wife’s skyrocketing popularity. Mero became abusive to his wife on-screen before she broke free of his clutches, delivering a Sable Bomb to ‘Marvelous’ Marc to the delight of the crowd.
Mero soon debuted Jacqueline as his new manager and she faced off against Sable in a bikini contest at Fully Loaded in 1999. Rather than a bikini, Sable had painted hands on her prized assets giving her the approval of the crowd once again.
Sable captured the WWE Women’s Championship from Jacqueline at Survivor Series in 1998 and in April 1999 she became the first WWE star to pose for Playboy, giving the magazine one of its highest-selling issues of all time.
Two months later, however, Sable quit WWE and launched a $110 million lawsuit against the company, accusing WWE of sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions. A month later the suit was settled and in September Sable became the first woman in history to appear on two Playboy covers in the same year.
Sable returned to WWE in 2003, forming an alliance on-screen with Vince McMahon. Together they plotted to oust Stephanie McMahon as SmackDown General Manager resulting in the ridiculous I Quit match between Stephanie and Vince at No Mercy.
By August 2004, Sable was gone again this time on better terms. Now known in her real life as Rena Lesnar, she is indeed the wife of The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar. However, a WWE Hall Of Fame induction still seems unlikely as Torrie Wilson revealed that during her own induction in 2019 she was warned not to even mention Sable by name.
Lex Luger
Lex Luger is a curious omission from the WWE Hall of Fame. His WWF run from 1993 to 1995 is not particularly fondly remembered. After a strong start as ‘The Narcissist’, a role he was perfect for, he was abruptly turned face on July 4, when he body slammed WWF Champion, Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid. Despite a ton of promotion for the Lex Express Tour of the USA, Luger failed to engage the masses in his quest to terminate Yokozuna’s WWF Title reign. To make matters worse, he did not win the belt in his heavily hyped SummerSlam championship match-up.
Luger never recovered and despite co-winning the 1994 Royal Rumble with Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart, he also was unsuccessful in his title quest at WrestleMania X. He did little of note for the remainder of his WWF run.
However, Luger’s WWF run was bookended by two strong WCW runs, which are still remembered by long-time fans. Luger was a member of the Four Horsemen and a perennial contender to Ric Flair’s NWA World Title in the late 1980s. He finally won the WCW World Title, after Flair had jumped to the WWF in the summer of 1991.
The night after he wrestled for the WWF on a house show, Luger shockingly appeared on the debut episode of Monday Nitro. Presented as a superstar on night one, Luger was soon rumbling with Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title. After quickly turning face, Luger became one of the leading WCW forces against the groundbreaking nWo faction. He famously defeated Hogan to win his second WCW World Title on Nitro, before dropping it back to Hogan at the Road Wild pay-per-view event six days later.
‘The Total Package’ faded into obscurity when WCW folded in March 2001 and the WWF, still smarting from how Luger left the company six years earlier showed no interest in bringing him into the promotion.
However, two decades on and there has been a thawing in relations between the two sides and as a major star for over 15 years in both the WWF and WCW, Luger is definitely worthy of a Hall of Fame induction in the near future.
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Without him, there simply wouldn’t be a WWE Hall Of Fame, who knows if there would still be a WWE without the Chairman and CEO who has presided over an unprecedented transformation of the company from a north-eastern US pro wrestling company to a global entertainment titan. Pun intended.
There is no doubt Vince McMahon divides opinion but there is no doubt that without him the wrestling industry is unrecognisable without him. Who would take over the World Wrestling Federation after his own father’s death? Who would give Hulk Hogan the platform to become an international icon? Who would plow everything they had into putting on a show called WrestleMania complete with Muhammad Ali and Liberace?
For 40 years Vince McMahon has been the beating heart of the entire wrestling world, some say for better and some would argue for worse. But in reality, there is only one reason that we won’t see a Vince McMahon WWE Hall Of Fame induction anytime soon and that’s because of McMahon himself.
Vince McMahon is not one for platitudes, so much so that talents are told not to even thank him during their own Hall Of Fame speeches. A rule that cost writer Robert Evans his job after Bret Hart thanked McMahon during The Hart Foundation’s Hall Of Fame induction in 2019.
There is no doubt Vince McMahon will become a WWE Hall Of Famer but the likelihood is that it will happen after McMahon has passed away, an event that will shake the wrestling world to its very core.
You can watch the 2024 WWE Hall of Fame and all previous Hall of Fame classes exclusively on the WWE Network.