By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
“The U.S. Express” Barry Windham and Mike Rotonda have been announced as the latest inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held on Friday, April 5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Wells Fargo Center. Read the official announcement at WWE.com.
Powell’s POV: I love it. Windham and Rotondo (as it was spelled during his WWF run) were a very popular tag team during their run in 1984-1985. With apologies to the Rougeau Brothers, Windham and Rotundo were the true All-American boys and used Bruce Springsteen’s mega hit “Born in the USA” as their entrance music. They had a memorable feud with the foreign menace heel duo of Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff over the WWF Tag Team Titles, which included a match between the teams at the original WrestleMania event.
From the very first #WrestleMania… to the WWE Hall of Fame.
Mike Rotunda & Barry Windham are a legendary tag team with deep family ties to our business, and their influence will be felt for generations to come.
It was an honor to tell the US Express that they’re #WWEHOF bound. pic.twitter.com/PT4m7rQVIt
— Triple H (@TripleH) March 8, 2024
They were also the first to use “Real American” as their entrance music.
Damn!
Who’s next S.D. Jones?!
Oops!
He’s already in actually.
Are you really down on Windham and Rotunda going into the HOF? Vince’s freaking limo driver is in the HOF. I don’t know how old you are or whether you lived through it, but they were very popular at a key time in the company’s national expansion. It’s also a very nice gesture given the death of Bray Wyatt.
I am not DOWN on them going in. I do think there are better candidates to go in ahead of them though. Midnight Express, Tully & Arn, British Bulldogs, Steiners, Demolition, and a few others had more of an impact than Windham/Rotundo who weren’t really all that memorable other than their time period. And I did live through it. I understand there are outside the ring reasons for not inducting a couple of these teams, but it just seems wrong for them to be left out.
Totally with you on some of the neglected teams. It was the Vince HOF for years. I’m hoping some wrongs will be righted now that Paul Levesque is making these calls. The Midnight Express being excluded from any pro wrestling HOF is absurd.
The Steiners finally got inducted in 2022.
The Midnight Express not being in is egregious. Not sure why they couldn’t/didn’t do it the same year as the R&R went in.
I think it’s been political just in terms of Jim Cornette being in and out of favor. It’s a shitty reason, but I think that’s been the issue.