One week from tonight, the WWE will have its first mid-week Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which will be streamed on Peacock. Last year's class will go in along with this year's group. The lineup:
Class of 2020:
John "Bradshaw" Layfield: In the space of 9 years upon entering the WWE in 1995, Layfield morphed from a cowboy to an Acolyte and best selling author to a JR Ewing-esque wealthy heel, and won his only WWE title in 2004. He's also a Grand Slam champion, and is credited with creating the annual Tribute to The Troops holiday specials, which began as incorporated episodes of Smackdown (2003-4) and Monday Night Raw, the latter beginning in 2005 until NBC-Universal convinced WWE to spin Tribute off as a stand-alone special.
Jushin "Thunder" Liger: The Japanese legend is being recognized for his contributions to the industry, and had appeared briefly on NXT a few years back.
The Bella Twins: Brie & Nikki have teased a return to action, all the more to promote E!'s Total Bellas than anything else, but the Arizona natives have been polarizing figures.
The New World Order: The faction founded by Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan is acknowledged, with Sean Waltman, already in as a member of WWE's nWo clone, D-Generation X, joining his Kliq pals and Hogan. All four are now 2-time inductees.
Davey Boy Smith, aka The British Bulldog: The late Bulldog, who also competed for WCW, held the tag titles in 1986 with Dynamite Kid, then went on to win the IC title from brother-in-law Bret Hart in 1992.
Class of 2021:
Rob Van Dam: Most recently with Impact Wrestling, RVD has bounced back & forth between Impact & WWE the last several years. His stoner gimmick was the forerunner to current US champion (& Saratoga High grad) Matt Riddle.
Molly Holly: The former women's champion was moved to tears when her friend Shane "Hurricane" Helms informed her of her induction on The Bump a couple of weeks back. A beloved fan favorite, despite an all-too-long heel run from 2002-5, Molly has been cited by many of today's female competitors as an inspiration.
Kane: Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs had just announced he was running for re-election, and as the cherry on top, he goes into the Hall ahead of storyline brother Undertaker (Mark Calaway), who will likely be the headliner of the 2022 class in Dallas.
Eric Bischoff: He went from being a John Davidson clone as an announcer with AWA & WCW to running the latter into the ground because he didn't know how to properly end the nWo's initial arc, which lasted too long. Served as Raw's initial GM from July 2002-December 2005, another overlong period.
The Great Khali: Dalip Singh caught the attention of WWE after appearing with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Bill Goldberg, Kevin Nash, and Adam Sandler in the 2005 remake of "The Longest Yard". A couple of years later, Khali became the 1st Indian-born WWE champion.
And, then, there's this guy:
William Shatner: The seemingly ageless Canadian icon made a few appearances on WWE-TV in the 90's & 00's, embarrassing Jerry "The King" Lawler in one instance. Shatner will still be better known for a bazillion TV & movie roles (i.e. Star Trek, T. J. Hooker). Must be a mutual admiration society between Shatner and Vince McMahon.
Now, if they could only build a physical Hall of Fame museum.......
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