I can report that so far, the stream is excellent. I missed the red carpet stuff, so I’ll have to go back and watch it.
Here’s our live coverage of the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame:
Lita
Trish Stratus is inducting Lita. Her speech last year was pretty epic and I don’t think her husband will be on camera to be booed.
Trish says that Lita was equal 1/3 of Team Extreme. She says that Lita are as close as peas and carrots, peanut butter and jelly, and wrestlers and spray tans.
Highlights of Lita’s speech
– The crowd gets a thank you Lita chant going very quickly.
– She talks about going to Mexico (via a travel agent) so she could find lucha libra.
– She brings up CMLL, Arena Mexico, and Los Boriquas on WWE TV in 2014.
– She mentioned taking Rayo de Jalisco’s mask and propped it up.
– Arn Anderson helped her find Rey Mysterio Jr. so she could tell him she wanted to learn pro wrestling. Arn made it happen and said Lita owed him a Miller Lite so she’s paying up now. She and Trish took shots of wheat grass while Arn and Rey had the beers.
– Lita brings up her wrestling marriages to Danny Doring, Edge, and Kane. She popped the crowd by saying she gave Gene Snitsky his catchphrase of, “It’s not my fault.”
– She mentions being in such a bubble that she didn’t know who James Cameron was when he wanted her to be on his TV show. She broke her neck, but because of the business mindset, she immediately went to her autograph signing and didn’t know. She needed emergency surgery. She turned to Stone Cold Steve Austin for advice since he’d already had one. He flew with her so she could have her surgery.
– She went through her thank yous.
Overall, she didn’t look totally comfortable, but she told some fun stories. She paced her speech too slowly for some. But it was fine.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts
DDP is out to introduce Jake. He called out Dusty Rhodes as his mentor. But then says he had another mentor, who is Jake. He tells the story of when Jake moved in with him and Kimberly. Jake helped him get booked and taught him psychology, but Kimberly said no snakes.
Jake had a black cobra with him and it got lost and thus, he wasn’t living with DDP and Kimberly much longer. He said to never underestimate the power you give people by believing in them.
Highlights of Jake’s speech
– Jake says he loved pro wrestling and all the men involved in pro wrestling.
– He says manipulating emotions is addicting.
– He says he’s sad because he’s too old enough to wrestle.
– He talks about the loneliness away from the ring and talks about having just shame and pain left.
– He mentions DDP saving his life after wondering why he was even alive and saying he didn’t want to commit suicide because he’d already put his children through so much.
– He says that his heroes are his children and then brought up a little boy who I assume is his grandson who was born and barely weighed over a pound. He told Vince to be ready as the kid would be ready to main event WrestleMania in 20 years.
Jake spoke softly and held everyone’s attention. He still has it. His story is sad, but there’s hope in the end as seen by his relationship with DDP. It was a fantastic speech.
There was a lame come down segment where El Torito head butted Jerry Lawler in the groin.
Mr. T
Mean Gene introduced Mr. T’s son, T Junior who introduced his father.
Highlights of Mr. T’s speech
– T wants to give thanks to his mother in hopes of inspiring someone.
– He said underneath the tough talking persona, mohawk, and attitude is an old fashioned momma’s boy.
– He says that no one makes sacrifices like a mother.
– He talked about not loving his mother just on mother’s day, or her birthday. He went on to name just about every holiday and in between, the crowd chanted, “What!” It was like Stone Cold in his prime.
Austin cackling while Mr. T gets “What!” chants.
– He also thanks his seven brothers. He mentioned his daughther wasn’t there because she was studying for her doctorette and then said T Junior received his masters. Kane came in and cut him off. T said he was sorry.
This was amazingly bad and amazingly good all at the same time. After Jake’s speech, this is kind of what was needed.
Paul Bearer
Kane is out. He said he didn’t want to cut off Mr. T, but all the time T was talking about his momma was cutting into all the time he had to talk about his daddy, Paul Bearer born William Moody.
He tells Moody’s story of his entrance into wrestling, including the fact that he worked at a funeral home in real life. Paul Bearer was a mortician. Kane says Bearer turned him into a reluctant fan of country music. He told a story of making Kane drive to an arena. To keep his identity secret, he would wear a ski mask and when he arrived, Bearer called him out on it. He then threw it to Michael and Daniel Moody.
They didn’t do much of a speech, but one of the sons did Bearer’s “Oh yes!” in near perfect tone.
The Undertaker came out and bowed with his urn to a photo of Bearer.
Kane’s speech was great and the Undertaker coming out at the end was perfect.
Razor Ramon
Kevin Nash is out to introduce him. He said that Hall told him to speed it up. He talked about leaving WCW for WWE in 1993 and was able to learn from Shawn Michaels. He said that he was able to work with Scott Hall after just about 100 matches in the business and Hall mentored him.
Highlights of Razor’s speech
– Hall threw the toothpick at the camera.
– He mentioned having all the power when he stepped through the curtain.
– He thanks all the people who helped him and got a little choked up.
– “Hard work pays pays off, dreams do come true. Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do!”
His speech was very short and a bit unfulfilling. I hope it’s not because of Mr. T’s long speech. And then, his Kliq buddies came out.
Wade Barrett had some bad news for us and said this is as close as we’d get to the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Carlos Colon
Primo, Epico, and Carlito came out to induct their dad. Carlito made a joke about having his time cut. “And we got a time cut? It’s like I never left, ladies and gentlemen.” Epico said that ECW had to get their idea from WWC.
Carlos’ speech was also short and he simply thanked people like Abdullah The Butcher and then cut the same speech in Spanish.
The Ultimate Warrior
Linda McMahon was out to introduce Warrior. She talked about him changing his name officially to Warrior. She mentions how he wasn’t always the easiest guy to deal with or to convince that his way wasn’t the right way. His daughters walked out with him.
Highlights of Warrior’s speech
– He said it was the single most anticipated speech in the history of sports entertainment.
– He mentioned that after all the lying, he can’t believe he’s finally here.
– He wise-cracked on DDP and DDP yoga.
– He says “self-destructive ways” and then says he wasn’t supposed to use those words (since that’s what the DVD that killed Warrior was called).
– He talks about being trained alongside Steve Borden and then moving to Mid-South and fashioning his clothesline after Ted DiBiase. He said Ted and Steve Williams tried to run them off so beat them up and his Adam’s Apple was always sore.
– He had a WWF screwup that was bleeped and said he wishes they could put the “F’in” F back in. He said he can’t believe Jerry McDevitt got his ass kicked by the World Wildlife Foundation.
– Warrior says that Hogan (though he didn’t mention him by name) finally said he was a good guy and he said, yes, he was a good guy.
– He talked about the people behind the scenes who should be celebrated.
– He says that Vince allowed him to come to him with ideas and engage his creativity.
– He called out John Cena for his work with Make A Wish. And he said he heard Cena was an Ultimate Warrior mark.
– He says that WWE gives you a gear bag that has everything in it that gives you the tools to succeed in life.
– He said in 1991 after SummerSlam, Vince wrote him a letter that said Warrior thought he was a legend in his own mind. He said Vince was a fortune teller because he is truly a legend today.
Well, that was quite the speech. I enjoyed it for the first five minutes or so, but he just kept going on and on. I imagine it made Triple H and Vince sweat a little bit as he went for the jugular a few times. That’s a wrap.