WWE Hall of Fame logo, used since 2015
|
|
Established | March 22, 1993 |
---|---|
Founder | WWE |
Members
|
105 individuals 11 groups (31 members) 9 celebrities 3 Warrior Awards recipients 16 Legacy inductees (164 total inductees) |
The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame for professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. It was announced on the March 22, 1993 episode of Monday Night Raw where André the Giant, who had died nearly two months prior, was announced as the sole inductee. The 1994 and 1995 ceremonies were held in conjunction with the annual King of the Ring pay-per-view events. In 1996, the ceremony was held with the Survivor Series event, for the first time in front of a paying audience as well as the wrestlers, after which, the Hall of Fame went on hiatus.
In 2004, WWE relaunched the Hall of Fame to coincide with WrestleMania XX. This ceremony, like its predecessors, was not broadcast on television. However, it was released on DVD on June 1, 2004. Beginning with the 2005 ceremony, an edited version of the Hall of Fame was broadcast on Spike TV (2005) and on the USA Network (2006–present); these were aired on tape delay. Since 2005, the entire Hall of Fame ceremony has been packaged as part of the annual WrestleMania DVD release, and from 2014, has been broadcast live on the WWE Network. In 2015, historical WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies became available on the WWE Network.
Although a building has never been built to represent the Hall of Fame, WWE has looked into constructing a facility. In 2008, Shane McMahon, then-Executive Vice President of Global Media of WWE, stated that WWE had been storing wrestling memorabilia in a warehouse for years, with all items categorized and dated in case a facility is created.
As of 2017, there have been 164 inductees – with 105 wrestlers inducted individually, 11 group inductions (consisting of 31 wrestlers within those groups), nine celebrities, three Warrior Award recipients, and 16 Legacy Inductees. 36 members were inducted posthumously. Ric Flair is the only Hall of Famer to be inducted twice, first individually in 2008, then as a member of The Four Horsemen in 2012, while Flair, Sting, and Kurt Angle are the only people to be inducted while still active.