WWE will induct several new members into its Hall of Fame on Friday night as well as some familiar faces.
Paul Levesque, Lex Luger and Michelle McCool will go into the Hall of Fame as individual members, The Natural Disasters tag team will go in as a group and an immortal moment will be enshrined for the first time. Former WWE stars Dory Funk Sr., Ivan Koloff and Kamala will also be enshrined as legacy inductees.
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Triple H arrives on the red carpet at Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, July 10, 2019. (Kirby Lee-USA Today Sports)
Levesque will go into the WWE Hall of Fame as Triple H – the famed character he morphed into one of the most-hated heels and the most-loved babyfaces when he was a member of the D-Generation X stable. The faction was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a group in 2019.
Shawn Michaels, who is the senior vice president of talent development, creative and leads the NXT brand, helped surprise Levesque at WWE headquarters as the first member of the 2025 class. Nick Khan, the president of WWE, lent Michaels a helping hand as well.
Triple H was a 14-time WWE champion, five-time WWE Intercontinental champion, two-time European champion, three-time tag-team champion, a two-time Royal Rumble winner and the 1997 King of the Ring winner.
The class will feature the first Immortal Moment – one of the best matches of all-time in Bret Hart’s match against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in a no-disqualification submission match with Ken Shamrock as the special guest referee.
WRESTLEMANIA 41 NIGHT 1 WILL FEATURE THE END OF SEVERAL EPIC FEUDS
The match took place at WrestleMania 13. Austin was bloodied in the ring and eventually Hart put him into the Sharpshooter. Shamrock stopped the match as Austin passed out. Hart continued the beatdown and caused a double turn as fans booed Hart and began to cheer for Austin.
WWE named it the second-greatest WrestleMania match of all time.
Lex Luger chats with fans at the Fanboy Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center in Tennessee on Aug. 6, 2022. (IMAGN)
Luger plays a major role in the history of the “Monday Night Wars” between WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He came to the then-World Wrestling Federation as The Narcissist at WrestleMania IX and then was repackaged as “The All-American: in an effort to build a new superstar to fill the hole left by Hulk Hogan.
He was with the WWF until 1995 before he returned to WCW, making his return on the first “Monday Nitro” shows. He would be among the pro wrestlers to join the New World Order faction and also rival the faction.
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Injuries and a spinal stroke eventually took a toll on Luger. He’s been in wheelchair with limited mobility. Luger had been working with Diamond Dallas Page’s yoga rehabilitation program and was able to stand from his wheelchair on his own.
Page is set to be the one to induct him.
Lex Luger was with the WWF until 1995 before he returned to WCW, making his return on the first “Monday Nitro” shows. (IMAGN)
McCool, whose real name is Michelle Calaway, is the only woman in the class this year. She participated in the 2004 WWE Diva Search and later became the first Divas champion. She was with WWE from 2004 to 2011 and made occasional appearances after that. She was a four-time women’s champion.
McCool is married to the WWE legend known as The Undertaker. He will be inducting her into the Hall of Fame.
The Natural Disasters are the lone tag team to be inducted this season. The group made up of Earthquake and Typhoon worked in the WWE from 1991 to 1993 before the team split up.
John Tenta, the man known as Earthquake, died in 2006. Fred Ottman, the man known as Typhoon, is the uncle of Cody and Dustin Rhodes. He is the brother-in-law of Dusty Rhodes.
The group were tag-team champions one time.
CELEBRITIES AND ATHLETES YOU DIDN’T KNOW APPEARED AT WRESTLEMANIA
WWE announced a new set of Legacy inductees, featuring Funk, Koloff and Kamala. Each wrestler had an impact on the business in different ways.
Funk was a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy before he wrestled in Texas and the central U.S. He then served as promoter in Western States Sports. He died in 1973 but was posthumously inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame.
Koloff, who was from Canada, was billed from Moscow amid the Cold War. Koloff had rivalries with Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, “Superstar” Billy Graham and Bob Backlund. He also took part in the first-ever steel cage match against Sammartino in 1975.
He was a one-time World Wide Wrestling Federation champion. He died in 2017.
Kamala, whose real name is James Harris and was nicknamed the “Ugandan Giant,” was a part of WWE at various times from the 1ate 1980s and the 1990s. He never won a championship in WWE, but his character was world famous.
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The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas on Friday. The ceremony can be seen on Peacock starting at 1 a.m. ET and 10 p.m. PT.
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