On March 31st, the WWE will present the Hall of Fame the Friday before Wrestlemania 33. Kurt Angle, Teddy Long, and The Rock N' Roll Express have been announced as inductees. Those 4 individuals reflect what makes the wrestling business great and shows what WWE is missing in today's wrestling product. Let's take a look at each inductee's contribution.
KURT ANGLE
Kurt Angle is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the world. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist from the "96 Olympics in Atlanta. After his debut in WWE at the 2000 Royal Rumble, Kurt Angle slowly rose up the ranks to become a main event superstar. Angle won the WWE European, Intercontinental, Tag-Team and World Championships. Kurt Angle gained the respect of fans with great feuds with Chris Benoit, Triple H, The Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. In those days, WWE had a deep roster full of stars. Roman Reigns is one of today's stars but he isn't the biggest star that WWE has. If Roman Reigns had that kind of roster on his side he would be a much stronger star in WWE.
THE ROCK N' ROLL EXPRESS
Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson have been a team for over 30 years. In the 1980's with their teen idol good looks, the Rock N' Roll Express were one of the most popular tag teams in the world. They first started teaming in Memphis under Jerry Jarrett. They moved to Louisiana with Bill Watts and Mid-South Wrestling where they started their most famous feud with The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey and later Stan Lane). Their greatest success came in the NWA during the 1980's with feuds with The Midnight Express, Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez, and Ivan Koloff and Krusher Krushev. One of the reasons that wrestling was so popular was because of tag-teams that have been around for many years that went back and forth from NWA/WCW to WWE from The Steiner Brothers to the Legion of Doom. WWE needs teams like that to make their tag division special. There are great teams in Ring of Honor and New Japan that are great teams that should be in WWE.
TEDDY LONG W/ BUTCH REED AND RON SIMMONS
Teddy Long has been in wrestling for over three decades. He started out as a referee for the NWA/WCW in 1985. Long turned into a villain referee and then villain manager in the late 80's with one of his most well-known tandems being Ron Simmons and Butch Reed as Doom. By 1998, Long came to WWE as a referee until 2004 when he became an on-air character as a General Manager from 2004-2008. WWE doesn't use managers much anymore with the exception of Lana with Rusev. In it's heyday managers like Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart were very entertaining and made wrestling great. WWE needs managers especially since they have such a young roster that needs help getting over.
As big as WWE is now, its popularity is down. The 2017 Hall of Fame Class shows some things that WWE could do to bring fans back in. Kurt Angle, Teddy Long, and The Rock N' Roll Express are great examples of what WWE needs right now.
Class Dismissed,
THE PROFESSOR
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