Monday, March 12, 2018

Kid Rock in WWE Hall of Fame - WHY?

   I've made my feelings clear on a previous blog about how I strongly dislike the "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame.  In general, I've never been much of a fan of celebrity involvement in wrestling.  This particular news has been rumored for months now and it has been made official today.  The next celebrity inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame is Kid Rock.  No matter how I feel about his music or political views are irrelevant.  This is about him in the WWE Hall of Fame.  As far as I'm concerned, there are very few celebrities that have deserved this honor, and Kid Rock is not one of them.

   As for the current celebrity inductees, in my opinion, only 3 make sense.  Mr. T is important for his early contributions to WWE's success and one of the reasons WrestleMania became what it is today. Mike Tyson's involvement during the Attitude Era with the buildup for WrestleMania with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Degeneration X is worthy.  Despite how people feel about our current President, between hosting WrestleMania twice in Atlantic City and his "Hair vs. Hair" challenge against Vince McMahon, Donald Trump has earned his spot.  As far as WWE and wrestling goes, there is one glaring omission and that is Cindy Lauper.  She was the very reason for the rock n' wrestling connection and her contributions to WWE and WrestleMania's success make her worthy. Also, the first celebrity to have great moments in wrestling and put it more on the map was Andy Kaufman.  Another person that deserves the honor would be boxing legend Muhammad Ali.  His role in the first WrestleMania, and especially his match with Antonio Inoki, are enough to get him to the WWE Hall of Fame.

   For the most part, the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame is a joke.  I'll run through it quick! Pete Rose was only inducted as a joke knowing he would never be welcomed in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and although they were entertaining, his attacks from Kane at 3 WrestleMania events were not Hall of Fame worthy.  William "The Refrigerator"  Perry, despite his impressive Football career, only wrestled in the WrestleMania 2 Battle Royal.  Bob Uecker was a guest announcer and was choked out by Andre the Giant.  Drew Carey is just ridiculous, despite how entertaining his 2001 Royal Rumble appearance was.  Arnold Schwarzenegger, despite several appearances on WWE television, doesn't make sense.  The same can be said for Snoop Dogg, who's appearances alone are not enough.  

   To me, Kid Rock falls under the category of undeserving and doesn't make sense one bit.  His musical contributions don't warrant a Hall of Fame induction.  His ZZ Topp cover of "Legs" was used for Stacey Keibler and "American Bad Ass" was used for the Undertaker's biker persona.  First of all, they used his version of "Legs" because it was cheaper than getting ZZ Topp.  "American Bad Ass" was a complete rip off of Metallica's "Sad But True" and was only used for a very short time before Limp Bizkit's Rollin' was the theme.  Not only that, and this may be my opinion, but I absolutely hated this gimmick for the Undertaker.  At WrestleMania 25, Kid Rock performed an extremely long and insufferable concert, which made the female competitors in that night's Battle Royal seem overlooked.  

   He may have appeared once or twice and his friend Joe C had an interaction with Edge and Christian on a random Raw but I cannot get behind this induction whatsoever.  I may not like him as a musician, a politician, or even a human being but all of that is not what I'm talking about.  His involvement with WWE was not Hall of Fame worthy at all.  During that WrestleMania concert, he wasn't relevant anymore and I doubt he has much relevance today either.  My guess is that since WWE is very pro Republican, is friendly with Trump, and Linda McMahon is in Trump's cabinet, WWE decided to add Kid Rock, who also has similar political views.  You can't tell me with a straight face that the things he did for WWE remotely make him worthy of the Hall of Fame.

   I just had to get this off my chest since it was rumored so long and now it is official.  This will be my bathroom break when I watch the Hall of Fame ceremony.  I have no desire to see him and it, along with several others, is an abomination when it comes to the WWE Hall of Fame and its significance.  However, it's not the real pro wrestling Hall of Fame and it's just a propaganda tool to display who is on good terms with Vince McMahon and his company.  Anyway, I've said my peace and now I feel better.  Much like the Undertaker losing at WrestleMania, I'm just going to ignore this and pretend it never happened, so I can go on with my day.




If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.  For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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