Dot Net reader Kevin Hudson of Aurora, Ontario attended the WWE Hall of Fame on Saturday in Atlanta, Ga. and filed the following report.

The show started off with Todd Grisham welcoming the crowd and reminding the fans that respect was expected and catcalls would be met with swift removal from the building.

Jerry "The King" Lawler was introduced as the host for the evening. He spoke of his pride regarding his induction in to the WWE Hall of Fame a few years earlier, and spoke of the "future hall of famers" in the crowd - the current WWE superstars.

Ted DiBiase came out next, and had some fun with the crowd, teasing us with the idea of dropping money from the rafters, as he did last year during his own induction. Of course, it was all a trick, just to prove that 'everyone has a price'! This transitioned into a few nice stories about Hacksaw.

Mr. Duggan came out to huge cheers of "Hooooooooooo." Jim told some fun stories about his wrestling career, including failed attempts at characters and his history with Georgia.

Shortly after, the Road Dogg Jessie James, accompanied by his brothers, made their way to the stage. Road Dogg quickly showed why he was such a popular act during the Attitude Era, as he was as sharp on the mic as ever. Bullet Bob Armstrong oozed just as much, if not more charisma once on stage, and told some great stories about his passion for the biz, and his love for the Georgia area.

Sunny was out next, and was adorable. The Divas introduced her and put over her importance in the 90's in establishing the Divas of the WWE. Sunny first mentioned how Chris Candido got her into the biz, which was met with a nice round of applause from the crowd. I think it should be noted that Sunny looked B-E-A-utiful, and mind you she was standing next to 12 or 13 twenty-something year old Divas!

A really nice speech from Tammy, as she was modest, honest and truly appreciative! One note from her speech was a great recap of how she knows all of the inductees from this year, with exception to Drew Carey, which came off as a huge burn (much to the delight of the crowd)! Also, Tammy kept to her promise made earlier this week, in that she tried her best not to tear up until the end of her speech.

Next up, Terry Funk introduced "The Butcher!" Silly, charming, brutally honest stuff from Funk, as always! Terry did a great Dusty Rhodes impression while telling a fun story from the past.

Abdullah the Butcher came out to a nice response....and then spoke. Wow! Who would have thought a guy who made his career on stabbing guys in the forehead with a fork would have such a soft, delicate voice?! Very short speech from Abdullah, but it was nice and he came off like a great guy. Can't wait to get some ribs from his joint on Monday before Raw.

Next, it was time for the Road Warriors! The crowd was really buzzing for this one, even during the video introduction. Dusty Rhodes came out to a great response from the crowd. He cut an awesome promo about the Road Warriors that was so good, it could have put Trent Barreta over! Just classic stuff from "The Dream"!

Road Warrior Animal was great! And the crowd loved him! Terrific stories, great passion, and sheer appreciation. Paul Ellering kept his bits short, and lacked the spark and articulation that really helped the Warriors get over. But it was still great to see, and very well received. The crowd loved 'em, I loved 'em....just great stuff!

In speaking of Hawk, the two had some great things to say, and upon placing a Hawk action figure on the podium, the crowd responded with huge cheers and broke out a huge LOD chant.

A video of Snooki was shown, and was met with massive boos! Going to be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to her tomorrow.

Drew Carey time... In other words, I hit the restroom now hoped to miss the whole thing. I'm kind of okay with celebrity introductions, but Drew Carey is no Bob Uecker, 'Refrigerator' Perry, or even Pete Rose.

It turns out the acoustics in the washroom are great, and I heard all of Kane's induction speech. Actually, a lot of fun, and he turned the crowd's boos into cheers. Until Drew came out, when the boos started pouring on again. He did give a great shout-out to The Miz because he's from Cleveland, but the rest of his speech was a lame attempt at stand-up...

A Rock-Cena-Miz video was shown... Rock was cheered, Cena was booed, and Miz got a great "AWESOME" pop from the crowd!

A brilliant HBK video was shown, and I was overcome with emotion. This moment, after all, is why I'm here this weekend. Shawn is the greatest ever, and my absolute favorite! The video showed career highlights, as well as commentary from WWE superstars past and present.

Triple H came out and had a wonderful introduction speech. He told some great jokes, ribbing Shawn pretty hard. But the best part was seeing how sincere and humbled he was to be delivering every word. Even with the jokes, he put over his best friend over as the greatest ever, deservedly so!!
To note, the best set of jokes came from ribbing the old HBK outfits, including a "village people motorcycle hat" joke, and a huge burn on his Playgirl shoot! He even made some lighthearted jokes about Shawn's 'googily eye'! By the end, even the Cerebral Assassin couldn't hold his tears back. It was terrific!!

Shawn gave a surprisingly short, but brilliantly humble and caring speech. He thanked the fans and put over his love of the business, even hinting at his role model/inspiration (though he couldn't name him), which was met with "wooooo's" from across the arena. A great speech, even as sad as it was to know a terrific career had come to an end.

A great night that my brother and I really enjoyed.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: