5 legends we want to see in the WWE HOF

Sting will be inducted into the WW HOF this yearSting has already been announced as the first inductee to the 2016 class of the WWE HOF. Sting is indeed a legendary figure and his exploits with WCW surely warrants an entry into the overall Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, but his exploits within the WWE hasn’t been stellar.While the man who has wrestled two matches in the company and wasn’t booked to win in any of them will be inducted into the HOF in March, there are many others who are conspicuous by their absence in the HOF list.This slideshow takes a look at those wrestlers, many of them who should have been inducted long back.

#5 Daniel Bryan

An early retirement

This list begins with the most obvious choice from the moment he announced his retirement from the WWE, Daniel Bryan. True, Bryan might have spent just about five years with the company, but his impact cannot be understated.

The man has won every title in the WWE – the Heavyweight, Intercontinental, United States, Tag team championships – you name it, Bryan has won it. But more important than that, he was the most over superstar ever since the old days when the Rock and Stone Cold used to electrify the crowd.

WWE might have missed a huge opportunity to cash in on his popularity by foolishly booking him poorly during the majority of his tenure. Even the show featuring his retirement failed to rise to the level that a similar episode involving Edge five years prior did.

But Bryan will be remembered as a true WWE legend for how well he connected with the fans and how his popularity forced the company to alter the main event of WrestleMania. Put him in the HOF already!!

#4 Miss Elizabeth

Miss Elizabeth drew quite a lot of fans to the WWE

Miss Elizabeth revolutionized wrestling without ever being a full-time wrestler. Elizabeth’s good looks paved the way for a whole new role for women in the WWE and other promotions. Sunny may be called the Original Diva, but Elizabeth was more than just a sexual attraction to ogle at.

She was cute, charming and the typical girl next door. That fateful Raw in 1988 when Randy Savage introduced Miss Elizabeth as his manager is truly a classic WWE moment and something the ensuing generation of wrestler/model Divas should be grateful for.

Elizabeth was more than a supporting act for Savage’s feuds with George ‘The Animal’ Steele, The Honky Tonk man, Hulk Hogan and every WWE fan that time wanted a girl like Elizabeth and a life that Savage and Elizabeth lived on TV and off air.

The fairy tale story would end soon, though.

Savage and Elizabeth would end up in a divorce and Elizabeth would later move in with Lex Luger. There would be allegations of domestic abuse on Luger and in 2003, Elizabeth passed away in the home that she shared with Luger after overdosing on a mix of vodka and painkillers.

But that doesn’t mean that the WWE should be blind to her impact on the business.

#3 Davey Boy Smith

Hmm...

Davey Boy Smith has won every WWE title except for the WWE Championship. One-half of the most dynamic tag team of the 80s as the British Bulldogs – alongside the Dynamite Kid – Smith would go on to forge a successful singles career as well.

The Summerslam 92 main event match at London’s Wembley Stadium where Smith rode on a wave of nationalistic fervor to beat Bret Hart for the Intercontinental title should by itself grant Smith a place in the HOF. But Smith did an encore in another British PPV ‘One Night Only’ which he main evented with Shawn Michaels.

He lost that time and the British fans pelted the ring with garbage in protest. Smith was also a runner-up at the Royal Rumble in addition to winning titles in the WWE in three separate decades.

#2 Lou Thesz

Seven decades of main event wrestling and no place in the HOF?

Quite simply, the man who had the greatest in ring impact in pro wrestling history is Lou Thesz. An NWA legend, Thesz was a legitimate badass who wrestled in seven different decades. He was a six-time World Champion and had the combined longest world title reign in history for an unbelievable 3749 days.

He also invented many of the moves that are used frequently in the ring today including the Lou Thesz Press, the STF and even the PowerBomb.

He never stepped foot inside a WWE ring, but he has already been inducted into the NWA HOF, WCW HOF, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, to name a few. Surely, it would be an honour for the WWE to induct Thesz, not the other way around.

#1 Owen Hart

The most deserving of the lot.

Owen Hart should have been in the HOF a decade ago Click and drag to move As C M Punk said during his infamous truth promo, Vince McMahon has a number of ‘imaginary brass rings’ for every WWE performer to aspire and they are just that – ‘Imaginary’. It seems that the HOF is the most irrelevant of those brass rings when you consider the case of Owen Hart.

Hart was a great performer, a technical wrestling genius and great on the microphone. He would tragically lose his life prior to a WWE match as an equipment malfunction led him to fall several feet down onto the ring ropes from a harness during his entrance.

It happened 17 years ago, and it is absolutely disgusting that the man hasn’t been inducted into the HOF yet and the reason for this reveals how the WWE is nothing more than a corporate machine with no emotion. Owen’s widow Martha would quite understandably sue the WWE for causing Owen’s death.

The case would be settled out of court for $18 million. Martha would use the funds to create the Owen Hart foundation for helping children in need as well as low-income families.

She would again file an injunction in court preventing WWE from selling merchandise bearing resemblance to Owen and using Owen’s name or presence in WWE videos without her permission. This makes her public enemy number one as far as Vince is concerned and it is the reason that Owen might never go into the HOF.