Hall of Fame 2008

Eire 4Ever

More WWE 2008 HOF News
02/12/2008 by Ryan Clark

The hall of fame selections for the class of 2008 are said to be close to being completed. At this point, Mae Young and Ric Flair are considered to be a lock. If WWE can get The Rock for the ceremony, Rocky Johnson and "High Chief" Peter Maivia are considered strong candidates. Dusty Rhodes is pushing for legendary announcer Gordon Solie to be inducted. I know Jim Ross has unsuccessfully pushed for Solie in the past.

Under the circumstances of his dead could Benoit be an inductee this year?

EdK

How many times has that question been asked?

The answer is still no

Charlie

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

fatal

Benoit will NOT even be mentioned nevermind being inducted for the forseeable future

nevaeh-2die-4

mods please use the word benoit as a word that cant be used like when you say it comes out as b*****

Vince135792003

Some might say it wouldn't be the first time Vince inducted a murder if the story about Snuka is true.

Otis Driftwood

nevaeh-2die-4 wrote: »

mods please use the word benoit as a word that cant be used like when you say it comes out as b*****

Just refer to him as Crispin Wah.

Kane-N-Nite

nevaeh-2die-4 wrote: »

mods please use the word benoit as a word that cant be used like when you say it comes out as b*****

B*****

EdK

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Some might say it wouldn't be the first time Vince inducted a murder if the story about Snuka is true.

http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/kotdm15/listsleeze.html

Vince135792003

EdK wrote: »

http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling3/kotdm15/listsleeze.html

What's your point? I've read well respected articles on it and it's pretty clear the police should have investigated further.

I used to watch the old class shows from the early 80's on Sky Sports. Snuka was INSANELY over and I always wondered why they never shot him to the very top.

Heres one leading article on it:

SUPERFLY SNUKA AND THE GROUPIE



By Irving Muchnick

For Vince McMahon, the Hundred Million Dollar Man, wrestler Jimmy (Superfly) Snuka made for a challenging tag-team partner. The World Wrestling Federation�s second-most-popular star in the early eighties, Snuka was an illiterate immigrant from Fiji, prone to bouts with the law that threatened his green card, and a drug abuser who often missed bookings. During a Middle East tour in the summer of 1985, fellow wrestlers say, customs officials in Kuwait caught him with controlled substances taped to his body, and he was allowed to leave the country only after some fancy footwork.

But Snuka�s near-*Midnight Express* experience in the Persian Gulf was child�s play compared to what happened on May 10, 1983. That night, after finishing his last match at the WWF TV taping at the Lehigh County Agricultural Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he returned to Room 427 of the George Washington Motor Lodge in nearby Whitehall to find his girlfriend of nearly a year, Nancy Argentino, gasping for air. Two hours later, this 23-year-old wrestling fan � who'd worked as a dentist�s assistant in Brooklyn and dropped out of Brooklyn Community College to travel with Snuka � was pronounced dead at Allentown Sacred Heart Medical Center of "undetermined craniocerebral injuries."

"Upon viewing the body and speaking to the pathologist, I immediately suspected foul play and so notified the district attorney," Lehigh County Coroner Wayne Snyder told me on a recent trip to Allentown. In �83, Snyder was deputy to Coroner Robert Weir.

Yet no charges were filed in the case, no coroner�s inquest was held, and no evidence was presented to a grand jury. Officially the case is still open � meaning Argentino�s death was never ruled either an accident or a homicide � though the original two-month-long investigation has been inactive for nine years. Under Pennsylvania�s unusually broad exemptions from freedom of information laws, the Whitehall Township Police Department has so far refused my requests for access to the file.

Of particular interest would be two documents: the autopsy and the transcript of the interrogation of Snuka immediately thereafter. One local official involved in the investigation, as well as one of the Argentino family�s lawyers, told me the autopsy showed marks on the victim other than the fractured skull. And former Whitehall police supervisor of detectives Al Fitzinger remembered that the forensic pathologist, Dr. Isadore Mihalakis, confronted Snuka to ask him why he�d waited so long before calling an ambulance. Gerald Procanyn, the current supervisor of detectives, who worked on the case nine years ago, maintained that Snuka cooperated fully with investigators after being informed of his right to have a lawyer present, and was accompanied only by McMahon. Another investigator, however, saw things differently; he said Snuka invoked his na�ve jungle-boy wrestler�s gimmick as a way of playing dumb. "I�ve seen that trick before," the investigator said. "He was letting McMahon act as his mouthpiece."

Another curious circumstance was the presence at the interrogation of William Platt, the county district attorney. According to experts, chief prosecutors rarely interview suspects, especially in early stages of investigations, for the obvious reason that they may become witnesses and hence have to recuse themselves from handling the subsequent trials.

Detective Procanyn gave me the following summary of Snuka�s story: On the afternoon before she died, Snuka and his girlfriend were driving his purple Lincoln Continental from Connecticut to Allentown for the WWF taping. They�d been drinking, and they stopped by the side of the road � the spot was never determined, but perhaps it was near the intersection of Routes 22 and 33 � to relieve their bladders. In the process, Argentino slipped on mossy ground near a guard rail and struck the back of her head. Thinking nothing of it, she proceeded to drive the car the rest of the way to the motel (Snuka didn�t have a driver�s license) and, after they checked in, picked up take-out food at the nearby City View Diner. Snuka had no idea she was in any kind of distress until he returned late that night from the matches at the Agricultural Hall. Procanyn said Snuka�s story never wavered, and no contradictory evidence was found.

Curiously, contemporary news coverage, such as the front page of the next day�s Allentown Morning Call, made no mention of a scenario of peeing by the roadside; it focused, instead, on the question of whether Argentino fell or was pushed in the motel room. Nine years later the reporter, Tim Blangger, vividly recalled that at one point in his interview of Procanyn, the detective grabbed him by the shoulders in a speculative reenactment of how Snuka might have shoved the woman more strongly than he intended.

Procacyn also claimed to have no knowledge of any subsequent action by the Argentino family, except for a few communications between a lawyer and D.A. Platt over settling the funeral bill. In fact, the Argentinos commissioned two separate private investigations, and it�s difficult to believe that Procanyn was unaware of them. The first investigator, New York lawyer Richard Cushing, traveled to Allentown, conducted extensive interviews, and aggressively demanded access to medical records and other files. "It was a very peculiar situation," Cushing told me. "I came away feeling Snuka should have been indicted. The police and the D.A. felt otherwise. The D.A. seemed like a nice enough person who wanted to do nothing. There was fear, I think, on two counts: fear of the amount of money the World Wrestling Federation had, and physical fear of the size of these people."

Even so, Cushing declined to represent the family in a wrongful-death civil suit against Snuka. The lawyer cited the fact that Snuka and Argentino weren�t married, that they didn�t have children, and that she wasn�t working, which would make it difficult to establish loss of consortium. "Moreover, Vince McMahon made it clear to me that her reputation would be besmirched. As a lawyer, I had to determine if a contingency [fee] was in order; my business decision, not my moral judgment, was no. The family wasn�t pleased. They had a typical working-class family�s anger that justice wasn�t done."

Through the generosity of Nancy Argentino�s father�s boss, the family then retained a Park Avenue law firm. The report filed by its private investigator shows that Snuka was as creative outside the ring as he was inside it. To the Whitehall police officer who responded to the first emergency call, Snuka said "he and Nancy were fooling around outside the motel room door when he inadvertently pushed Nancy and she fell striking her head." An emergency room nurse heard him state that "they were very tired and they got into an argument resulting in an accidental pushing incident. Ms. Argentino fell back and hit her head." In the official police interrogation, Snuka first floated the peed-on-the-roadside theory. Finally, in a meeting with the hospital chaplain, he said he and Argentino had been stopped by the side of the road and had a lovers� quarrel: "He accidentally shoved Ms. Argentino who then fell backwards hitting her head on the pavement. They then arrived at the motel and went to bed. The next morning Ms. Argentino complained that she was ill and stayed in bed�. When he came home from the taping, he observed that Ms. Argentino was clearly in bad shape."

In 1985, the Argentinos obtained a $500,000 default judgment against Snuka in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. The family never collected a dime; Snuka�s lawyers withdrew from the case, stating that they hadn�t been paid, and Snuka filed an affidavit claiming he was broke and unemployed and owed the IRS $75,000 in back taxes. Since �83, the 49-year-old Snuka has been in and out of rehab centers and has wrestled off and on both in Japan and throughout this country. His original WWF stint extended two and a half years past Argentino�s death; his most recent ended earlier this year. According to the wrestling grapevine, he�s now trying to promote independent shows in, of all places, Salt Lake City, but my efforts to track him down there were unsuccessful.

Proving negligence, of course, is different than proving involuntary manslaughter or murder. But critics of the criminal investigation find fishy the failure of the police to examine seriously Snuka�s history of drug abuse and violence against women. Former wrestling great Buddy Rogers, who�d been hired by McMahon to serve as Snuka�s TV "manager" and to get him to important matches on time, said he stopped driving with the Superfly after he brazenly snorted coke when they were in the car together. "Jimmy could be a sweet person, but on that stuff he was totally uncontrollable," said Rogers, who was also Snuka�s neighbor on Coles Mill Road in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Snuka�s wife, with whom he had four children, befriended Rodgers� wife. "Jimmy used to beat the **** out of that woman," Rogers said. "She would show up at our house, bruised and battered. But she couldn�t leave him � he had her hooked on the same junk he was using."

Nancy Argentino�s younger sister remembered once being threatened by Snuka when they were alone at the family�s home in Flatbush. "I could kick you and put my hands around your throat and nobody would know," he allegedly said. After Nancy�s death, family members said, they received a series of phone calls from a woman who identified herself as a former Snuka girlfriend who�d tried to warn Nancy away from him. Snuka, said the woman, had once broken her ribs, and had a thing about pushing women back against walls.

Finally, there was the incident involving Snuka and Argentino at a Howard Johnson�s in Salina, N.Y., outside Syracuse, just three months before Allentown. The motel owner, hearing noise from their room, called the police, who found Snuka and Argentino running naked down the hallway. It took eight deputy sheriffs and a police dog to subdue Snuka. Argentino sustained a bruise of her right thumb. Snuka pleaded guilty to violent felony assault with intent to cause injury, received a conditional discharge on counts of third-degree assault, harassment, and obstruction of a government official, and donated $1,500 to a deputy sheriffs� survivors� fund. Whitehall police later decided this was all the result of "a nervous desk clerk," Detective Procanyn told me.

* * *

According to attorney Cushing, McMahon made a remark at one point in their discussions that was at once insightful and chilling. "Look, I�m in the garbage business," the promoter said. "If you think I�m going to be hurt by the revelation that one of my wrestlers is really a violent individual, you�re mistaken."

Six months after Nancy Argentino died, the Village Voice ran a prescient article entitled "Mat Madness" by the late columnist Arthur Bell, weather vane of the lower-Manhattan gay-arts demimonde. After attending a Madison Square Garden show headlined by a bout between Superfly Snuka and The Magnificent Muraco, Bell, who knew next to nothing about wrestling, commented on the spectacle�s graphic references to bodily functions and on its barely sublimated undercurrents of sexual dominance and sadomasochism. "Take my word," Bell declared, "by the end of 1984 wrestling will be the most popular sport in New York since mugging." He concluded with a vignette at the Garden stage exit, where a swarm of fans, led by a woman named Bea from West Orange, converged to taunt the wrestlers as they emerged in their street clothes.

"Hey, Superfly," Bea shouted to Snuka. "You goddam ****in� murderer. When are you gonna kill another girl?"

EdK

Just an entertaining list of wrestling urban myths and so, entertaining even if its BS

lizann

I'd like to see Randy Savage and Jake Roberts inducted this year.

fatal

lizann wrote: »

I'd like to see Randy Savage and Jake Roberts inducted this year.

Dream on...one is in rehab and the others name is not even mentioned around Vince-who ultimately decides who is inducted and who isn't

lizann

Flair will be inducted this year

krudler

Well its official, Flair is going in this year, i dont care where im sitting i have to get tickets for this, itll sell out in minutes, the wooooooooooos will be flying all night its gonna be one hell of a weekend

Gerard.C

God I'd love to be there when Flair gets inducted.

I'd say they'll announce Mae Young next.

EdK

Strong possibility of Gordon Solie,Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia too i hear

Mrs Roy Keane

I love to see The Ultimate Warrior but doubt it will happen

grames_bond

EdK wrote: »

Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia

they really should be inducted.....by dwane himself! btw "crispin wah", his actualy name should never be mentioned ever again, he is a scumbag and a murderer and will NEVER be in the HOF!

lets start a petition for bret the hitman hart! the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be! (clearly wont happen, or he wouldnt accept but deserves it)

flahavaj

grames_bond wrote: »

they really should be inducted.....by dwane himself! btw "crispin wah", his actualy name should never be mentioned ever again, he is a scumbag and a murderer and will NEVER be in the HOF!

lets start a petition for bret the hitman hart! the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be! (clearly wont happen, or he wouldnt accept but deserves it)

He was inducted 2 years ago.....Google is your friend.;)

EdK

Hahs petition for Bret funny stuff his speech was a good hour long how did you miss it?

grames_bond

flahavaj wrote: »

He was inducted 2 years ago.....Google is your friend.;)

wow i dont believe it! i never would have seen that one comin! not only that he would be inducted but that he would actually turn up!!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2q072_bret-hart-wwe-hall-of-fame-inductio_sport

EdK wrote: »

Hahs petition for Bret funny stuff his speech was a good hour long how did you miss it?

yeah ive been away from wrestling for a while! ooops!

EdK

Lads I dont mean to be a prick but good luck getting tickets to the HOF, Ric Flair


And THE ROCK

krudler

seating plan for the HOF^ wonder if they'll tarp off much of the arena, i cant imagine they'll have every seat available facing the stage thats too many people its better as a sort of intimate setting,you wouldnt hear a bloody thing from all the marks yelling

rossie1977

the amway arena in orlando holds 17,500 for basketball and over 18,000 for concerts, there will be plenty of tickets

EdK

Really think so? i think they will fly, its no fluke they announced Rocky will be there a few days before they are released

grames_bond

EdK wrote: »

Really think so? i think they will fly, its no fluke they announced Rocky will be there a few days before they are released

the rocks gonna be there, does this mean we can see the great one at wm?!

SuperWoody101

grames_bond wrote: »

the rocks gonna be there, does this mean we can see the great one at wm?!

I'm sure there is a chance of it but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

grames_bond

SuperWoody101 wrote: »

I'm sure there is a chance of it but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

oooh!! *gets so excited needs to go lie down*

RebelRockChick

Jake 'The Snake' Roberts to be inducted?....

Taken from ProWrestling.net

Jake Roberts is scheduled to be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame next month. Apparently he will be given a temporary release from his rehab treatment to attend the award show.

There are also rumblings that Scott Hall, who is in the same treatment facility as Roberts, might attend the H.O.F. ceremony with Roberts.

Roberts is one of the only wrestlers who openly and publicly accepted WWE's rehab offer, and even sent out a thank you letter to Vince. We don't have an update on Roberts' condition, but Scott Hall is said to be doing exceptionally well and looks forward to mending broken business relationships when he completes his treatment.

SuperWoody101

Is there any age limit for the Hall Of Fame as I want to bring my 9 year old nephew to it?

And

What site will the Hall Of Fame tickets be on sale? (ticketmast.com)??

krudler

SuperWoody101 wrote: »

Is there any age limit for the Hall Of Fame as I want to bring my 9 year old nephew to it?

And

What site will the Hall Of Fame tickets be on sale? (ticketmast.com)??

theres no age limit but its 4 hours of wrestlers he probably wont know talking so he might find it a bit boring

rossie1977

SuperWoody101 wrote: »

Is there any age limit for the Hall Of Fame as I want to bring my 9 year old nephew to it?

And

What site will the Hall Of Fame tickets be on sale? (ticketmast.com)??

i agree with krudler, the hall of fame is no place for a 9 year old, he/she will be bored to tears. I was doing 35 hours of lectures a week when i attended the hall of fame in 2004 and i still found it very tough going. I am not sure if they have tried to shorten the speeches since then but they had people like pat patterson giving 45 minute INTRODUCTIONs to hall of fame recipients :mad:

again hall of fame 2004 lasted for about 6 hours well into the morning hours, i truly hope they have shortened it, which i believe they have because hall of fame 2006 was over much earlier, most were back in the hotel by 12am-1am

krudler

i think the ceremony lasted 3 and a half hours last year, we couldnt get tickets but went to a hockey bar across the screet for the Fox theatre and spend the night drinking and watching old wrestlemanias,the place started to fill up about 11.30 with people who were over at the ceremony and it started at 7ish

Mrs Roy Keane

I know Mae Young is rumoured to be inducted but is it too soon for any other former divas like Molly Holly, Chyna, Ivory, Lita or Trish also to be inducted???

krudler

chyna is a definite no, Lita maybe in afew years she hasnt been gone long enough, same for Trish,molly never did anything to be remembered as a hall of famer,good wrestler though

EdK

Mrs Roy Keane wrote: »

I know Mae Young is rumoured to be inducted but is it too soon for any other former divas like Molly Holly, Chyna, Ivory, Lita or Trish also to be inducted???

I dont mean to sound harsh but the women over the last few years have not really achieved much have they?, Sherri Martel,Moolah Ivory hmm I dont see it.

Trish is about the only one maybe but that wouldnt be for years either unless you count a playboy cover as an achievement, Im not saying some of the women are bad wrestlers but they dont really stand out too much

What did Lita ever do or Molly really

Atleast Chyna was the first woman IC champ

krudler

EdK wrote: »

I dont mean to sound harsh but the women over the last few years have not really achieved much have they?, Sherri Martel,Moolah Ivory hmm I dont see it.

Trish is about the only one maybe but that wouldnt be for years either unless you count a playboy cover as an achievement, Im not saying some of the women are bad wrestlers but they dont really stand out too much

What did Lita ever do or Molly really

Atleast Chyna was the first woman IC champ

exactly,theres way too many spots to be filled by guys who actually did something in influencing the business, lets not forget Trish was an AWFUL wrestler for most of her career,she only really learnt how to work a decent match in the last few years,as for other inductees,where arent these guys in there yet?

Ted DiBiase
Jake Roberts
The Honky Tonk Man
Demolition
The Legion of Doom
Tully Blanchard
Arn and Ole Anderson
Ricky Steamboat

Vince135792003

EdK wrote: »

I dont mean to sound harsh but the women over the last few years have not really achieved much have they?, Sherri Martel,Moolah Ivory hmm I dont see it.

Your bracketing Ivory with Martel and Moolah?

If you want to know how awesome she was, watch some tapes of her in the Warrior/Savage feud. She was awesome.

Every year this comes up. "This person doesn't deserve to be in etc...". Bottom line, it's Vince McMahons show. He'll put whoever he wants in. He put his limo driver in sure.

krudler

Sherri Martel was an awesome heel, look at the people she manage, Dibiase, HBK, Macho Man, being with her elevated the status of the other guys, I'd def put Miss Elizabeth in there too

EdK

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Your bracketing Ivory with Martel and Moolah?

If you want to know how awesome she was, watch some tapes of her in the Warrior/Savage feud. She was awesome.

Every year this comes up. "This person doesn't deserve to be in etc...". Bottom line, it's Vince McMahons show. He'll put whoever he wants in. He put his limo driver in sure.

You obviously missed my ironic gesture

EdK

krudler wrote: »

exactly,theres way too many spots to be filled by guys who actually did something in influencing the business, lets not forget Trish was an AWFUL wrestler for most of her career,she only really learnt how to work a decent match in the last few years,as for other inductees,where arent these guys in there yet?

Ted DiBiase
Jake Roberts
The Honky Tonk Man
Demolition
The Legion of Doom
Tully Blanchard
Arn and Ole Anderson
Ricky Steamboat

I love the way your comment was pretty conservative until somebody else came in haha class

krudler

EdK wrote: »

I love the way your comment was pretty conservative until somebody else came in haha class

i didnt mean it like that just annoys me when people think Trish is the greatest womens wrestler ever when she clearly isnt,she was a great talent at the end of her run and the top femal wrestler (until Mickie James came in of course)

EdK

Trish isn't but I give her serious credit for raising her game from learning wristlocks from HHH hehe to being really very good

rossie1977

i think sunny would be a cert for hall of fame down the line, trish maybe, the rest i don't think so, molly and ivory are real nice people in person but surely no chance they will find their way in.

Chyna i think would be almost a guaranteed no-no :eek:

krudler

Sunny definitely, especially since shes reformed herself and no longer looks like a fat hooker, seriously how hot did she look at the raw 15th anniversary show?

SuperWoody101

So can we get tickets on ticketmaster.com?

krudler

yup at 3pm saturday

SuperWoody101

S**T I thought it was 9am today.

SuperWoody101

Still can't get in!!!

rossie1977

tickets available now