10 Most Surprising WWE Hall Of Famers
What 'wing' did Frankie the parrot get inducted into? That's a joke, that is.
It's June 20, 2021.
You know what that means, right?
No, it's not the day of WWE's Hell in a Cell (though it is that as well I suppose) - it's Koko B. Ware's birthday! The Birdman turns 64-years-old today.
Happy birthday, Koko.
When talking about about Koko, the conversation will, invariably, turn to his controversial 2009 WWE Hall of Fame induction.
To a lot of fans, Koko B. Ware was not a Hall of Fame calibre superstar, as he mostly wrestled lower on the card, didn't win any championships and wasn't really involved in any major feuds, matches or history-altering moments.
So him getting inducted ahead of many other, more notable stars like Bruno Sammartino and Randy Savage (who were both ultimately inducted themselves) struck as surprising and lead to some condemnation.
Koko's is not an isolated case, though, and many who sit in WWE's Hall of Fame have turned heads for various reasons.
Whether their WWE careers were good but not exemplary, they publicly fell out with the company in a major way or, more surprising still, never even wrestled for WWE in the first place, there are a sizeable amount of shocking inductees.
Now, the purpose of this article is not to denigrate the careers of those in WWE's Hall of Fame, but rather to look at why they were surprising inductees and, importantly, why they were inducted in the first place (for most of them, anyway).
As for the birthday boy, he deserved to be inducted based on the strength of his pre-WWE work in various territories, being involved in the very first match in the history of Raw and for being really over having a long career where he worked an exciting, cutting-edge style.
Plus, the man came to the ring with a parrot. A parrot!
I mean, seriously, what more do you people want?
10. Alundra Blayze
Vince McMahon is notorious for giving second chances to those who he perceives to have wronged him in the past.
It might take a while but, in the end, WWE's CEO will let bygones be bygones and welcome exiled performers back into the 'WWE family', especially if there is a business incentive to do so.
It took Alundra Blayze longer than most, as she was on the outs with the company for the best part of two decades before she received the call informing her that she would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (class of 2015).
A former Women's Champion and one of the stalwarts of the mid-90's New Generation roster, Blayze thought she had completely burned her bridge with Vince when she returned to WCW on the December 18, 1995 episode of Nitro and threw the WWE Women's Championship belt in the trash right on camera.
It was deemed a major and very disrespectful shot in the burgeoning Monday Night Wars, masterminded by WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff.
Blayze (or Madusa in WCW) didn't want to do the stunt but felt that she had to and reaped the consequences.
Blacklisted for coming up twenty years, her HOF announcement was a major surprise that many didn't foresee ever happening. She has appeared sporadically since, including coming out of retirement to enter a battle royal on Evolution, WWE's first all-female pay-per-view, in 2018.
Blayze certainly deserved her induction, having been a star in the US and Japan and helping to pioneer a new, more physical style of women's wrestling at a time when that was far from being a priority.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.
