The 2025 WWE Hall of Fame could be altered following on from issues the previous year.
Taking place immediately after the SmackDown before WrestleMania, the annual Hall of Fame ceremony sees multiple legends officially honoured for their contributions to the industry. Those recognised are inducted by someone close to their career before giving a speech to the fans and legends in attendance.
The ceremony took place in Philadelphia in 2024 and saw Bull Nakano, The U.S. Express and Thunderbolt Patterson among the inductees. The class was headlined by Paul Heyman, who the fans were looking forward to hearing from most. However, in a change to previous proceedings, Heyman went on first.
Although The Wiseman delivered a great speech and was incredibly well-received by the Philadelphia crowd, it became apparent that Heyman was the inductee many had come for. Following Heyman’s speech, many fans left the arena, leading to those within the company unhappy as the night had only just begun.
WWE “Not Thrilled” With 2024 Hall Of Fame Ceremony
Speaking about the 2025 ceremony on Sportskeeda’s Backstage Pass podcast, WrestleVotes noted that the company were not happy about what happened last year and are looking at implementing changes in April:
“The only thing I can say is they were not happy with how everything happened last year in Philadelphia…in terms of the size of the crowd that was left even a half hour through. Once Paul Heyman was done speaking last year the majority of the crowd left and WWE was not thrilled with that.
I talked to a source that said they couldn’t really blame them because the headliner went first. It’s the start of a very long weekend for a lot of people so if you can get out of there at 10:30 you’re going to take that chance. However, WWE was not thrilled with that so I don’t think they want to do that again. So I know they’re trying to come up with different ways to present everything, I just don’t know what that is yet.”
At the time of writing, no inductees for the 2025 Hall of Fame class have been announced.
In other news, Netflix has revealed the numbers for the WWE Raw premiere.
H/t to Cultaholic.