Predicting the WWE Hall of Fame 2018 Class
By Tim Sherry
credit: wwe.com
1. The Rock – Headliner
It’s time to face facts. The Rock will most likely never wrestle in a WWE ring again. And why should he? He’s a massive movie star that has been lighting up Hollywood for the better part of the last 15 years and has made himself loads of money. Lacing up the boots again really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Not counting that nonsense against Erick Rowan at last year’s WrestleMania, The Rock has only wrestled 5 times since 2011 and at 44 years old, the chances of him stepping in the squared circle are slim.
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So what’s left for a superstar that is arguably the most popular of all time? Well, it’s time to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The Rock really is a special talent, the kind that only comes around once in a generation. That generation for the WWE was from 1996-2004. He would transform himself from Rocky Maivia, a happy-go-lucky, yet pretty quickly unpopular baby face, to The Rock, a narcissistic, smooth-talking, powerhouse. Every time The Rock grabbed a microphone, every wrestling fan was glued to their TV sets in anticipation of what he’d say next. He was a transcendent talent and his in-ring work was just as exciting as he promos and it paid off in a big way. He’s a 10-time world champion and he main evented 5 WrestleMania’s while entertaining the wrestling world with top notch feuds with almost all of the elite from his time in the company.
So who inducts The Rock? Inducting someone of this magnitude would be a massive honor and would need some major credibility to do so. Steve Austin is an option. They were the two most popular stars of their era. How about Mick Foley? Their feuds and subsequent friendship made for the some of the best television programming for the better part of 3 years. There’s Triple H. These two always seemed to run into each other on the regular, and they always performed top-caliber matches.
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But at the end of the day, the most logical choice would be John Cena. They’re both Hollywood stars who have gone down similar paths in their wrestling and entertainment careers. Plus, they headlined 2 WrestleMania’s, whether that was the popular choice or not. Cena would undoubtedly give a terrific induction speech. One, that would be needed for such a major moment.