WWE Hall Of Fame - WrestleMania 23 DVD Thoughts - July 9, 2007

I finished watching the Hall Of Fame Ceremony from this year's WrestleMania 23 weekend. It was a lot of fun as always. Fox Theatre in Detroit hosted the event. Best speeches of the night were Dusty Rhodes and Jim Ross. It became a running joke after JR's speech about how long he took with his speech. JR's speech was a very fun one as he told some stories about being in the business. Austin did a great job in giving the introduction speech. I really liked his and felt it was one of the better speeches of the night as well. Austin talks about how if it weren't for Jim Ross that he might not be back in WWE right now. When Austin walked out of the company in 2002, he didn't talk to anybody. Jim Ross sent him a message later saying if you need to talk to anyone, he was there. Austin took him up on it and JR was the one that put Austin and Vince McMahon in a room together and let them hammer out the problems. Jerry Lawler's speech was ok. Lawler wasn't really wanting to go into the Hall Of Fame that early so that probably took some of the preparing out of his speech. I didn't like that William Shatner inducted him as it was really pointless. Lance Russell should have gotten to do it. Curt Hennig's family accepted the induction for Curt and it was great to see that tribute to Curt. Mr. Fuji was fun especially seeing him and Don Muraco together again. Muraco told some good stories about some of the legendary ribs that Fuji would play on people. Bobby Heenan inducted Nick Bockwinkle. Heenan was his usual funny self and it should be a requirement that Heenan has to induct someone every year so we can hear him speak and tell stories. Bockwinkle's speech was pretty much short and sweet. RVD and Sabu inducted The Original Sheik who is of course Sabu's uncle. RVD told stories of he and Sabu training with the Sheik and those were some good stories. Sheik was a tough trainer and was very committed to teaching the basics before anything else. He would be teaching RVD a headlock for most of the day and RVD joked that when Sheik would go get a phone call or something, he'd tell Sabu to stand there and go to the top rope saying "I want to try this move". Pretty funny. Dusty Rhodes wrapped up the night and this was gold. Dustin Runnels and Cody Rhodes inducted their dad. Their speech alone was great. Cody Rhodes is definitely a good talker!! Cody could be a good promo guy in the future. Dusty puts over many other stars and talks about how much they mean to the business. He puts over Triple H big and the place goes nuts for him. Triple H then applauds back to the crowd and points back at Dusty. Dusty got all mixed up at one point when putting over Austin and he said this word for word, "When that glass cracks and Stunning Stone Stunning Steve Cold Austin, is that right? And he comes out, you know it is business." They put a camera on Austin who was laughing his head off on the stage. Dusty talked about Kevin Sullivan. He said about Sullivan that "he hit me in the heart with a golden spike, if Stephanie would have been around, she'd have fired him on the spot." Dusty spent a lot of his speech putting over a lot of the legends that came up with him. He got Harley Race an ovation and told Harley to get up. He then jokingly told Harley to sit down saying that was enough applause. Dusty gets Arn Anderson a standing ovation as well when he mentions him. He also has Flair and Anderson induct him and Harley Race on that night as official Horsemen. They all put up the four fingers. At one point, Dusty says that he brought a handkerchief in case he cried during his speech. He then pulls out a polka dot handkerchief. The crowd went crazy and he gave this look of puzzlement of what's the matter? This was a great speech and just a great way for Dusty to go into the hall of fame. He was always a great talker and it's fitting that his hall of fame speech was showing of that. Overall, I really enjoyed the Hall Of Fame ceremony. Only complaint again is the fans that attend and like to yell just to yell. That gets old really fast. I'd like for them to do something about it but I don't know if you can unless you cut off the fans from attending the ceremony. Check out the Hall Of Fame if you get the chance.