Post Tagged with: "Miss Elizabeth"

Last month, I asked readers to vote for which names should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (politics aside). Much like baseball’s Hall of Fame, I said we would induct all performers who garnered at least 75% of the vote into the “very prestigious” KevinSullivanBooks.com Hall of Fame.

To say that I was shocked by the voting would be an understatement. Amazingly, only two names received enough votes to be inducted. Here’s the results, and thank you to the 963 voters. Keep in mind that voting took place immediately after Mick Foley’s induction was announced. Also, voters were allowed to vote for up to 10 names.

Hall of Famers

 

Did Not Make the Cut

 

When the WWE Hall of Fame inducts Trish Stratus this April, it will be opening its doors to just the sixth female in history. In the years that follow Trish’s enshrinement, there will undoubtedly be more deserving Divas honored. But which ones? Below you’ll find a list of women I believe are worthy of consideration. They are broken down into three categories:

Definitive Hall of Famers: Think of these as first-ballot Hall of Famers. No doubters
Hall of Famers: For sure, Hall of Famers … just not first-ballot. They’re like Jim Rice.
Borderline Hall of Famers: These could go either way without an argument

 

DEFINITIVE HALL OF FAMERS

Sable

• 1-time Women’s Champion
• Instrumental in the 1998 return of the WWE Women’s Championship
• 3-time Playboy covergirl (first to grace the cover twice in one year)

Miss Elizabeth

• The First Woman of WWE
• Played an important role in the success of Randy Savage
• Amazingly turned shyness and diminutive stature into an asset

Lita

• 4-time Women’s Champion
• Revolutionized women’s wrestling scene with lucha libre style

Chyna

• 2-time Intercontinental Champion
• 1-time Women’s Champion
• Recent personal issues may permanently prevent her induction

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HALL OF FAMERS

Madusa/Alundra Blayze

• 3-time Women’s Champion
• 1-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion
• Subject of one of Monday Night Wars’ most controversial moments
• AWA, WWE, WCW Superstar

Leilani Kai

• 1-time Women’s Champion
• 2-time Women’s Tag Team Champion (for more than 1,000 days)
• Competed at WrestleMania I and X

Vickie Guerrero

• Prominent on-air character for nearly one decade
• SmackDown & Raw General Manager

Cyndi Lauper (Celebrity wing)

• Helped kick off the 1980s Rock & Wrestling Craze
• Managed Wendi Richter to the Women’s Championship

Mildred Burke

• Held NWA Women’s World Championship for nearly 20 years
• Queen of wrestling in the 1930s and ‘40s

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BORDERLINE HALL OF FAMERS

Jacqueline

• 2-time Women’s Champion
• 1-time Cruiserweight Champion
• Instrumental in the early success of Sable

Ivory

• 3-time Women’s Champion

Pamela Anderson (Celebrity wing)

• Appeared at 1995 Royal Rumble
• Walked Diesel to the ring at WrestleMania XI

Aretha Franklin (Celebrity wing)

• Sang “America the Beautiful” at WrestleMania III and 23

Luna

• Second-generation Superstar
• Competed in ECW, WCW, WWE, and Japan (among others)
• Notably managed Bam Bam Bigelow and Goldust

Torrie Wilson

• Playboy covergirl

Stacy Keibler

• Dancing with the Stars appearance generated great publicity for WWE

Molly Holly

• 2-time Women’s Champion
• 1-time Hardcore Champion

What do you think? Is there somebody else deserving of a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame? If you think so, tell us in the comments section below.

On the eve of the release of the WWE Championship book, I thought it would be appropriate to post excerpts from one of my favorite interviews during the book writing process–Lanny Poffo (aka, The Genius).

I called Poffo to get a brother’s point of view, as his brother is, of course, former two-time WWE Champion Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Poffo’s responses to my questions were very candid. Here are some quotes I didn’t use in the book:

Were you there at WrestleMania IV to celebrate with your brother?
I wasn’t any where near Atlantic City at the time, so I don’t know what was going on there. My mother, father and myself and my wife and daughter were all very thrilled for him. It was an intense evening.

I was there in 1971 when he as ignored in the Major League Baseball draft and I was there when he made up his mind that he was going to be at a free agent tryout in Busch Stadium in St. Louis and out of 300 free agents, he was the only one signed. He signed for no bonus and $500 a month. He supplemented his income by playing cards with the bonus babies. After five years, he got cut from every team he played for. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Reds and the Chicago White Sox.

Then in 1975, he started over as a professional wrestler. Ten years later he made it to MSG. Two years after that he’s a world champion. That’s phenomenal. I’ve seen him overcome so much diversity; he’s a tremendous example to me as a younger brother. We may get disappointed, but we never get discouraged

Were you ever jealous of your brother’s success?
I speak at a lot of schools … I’m a public speaker. That’s the question that everybody asks me.

I could take the attitude to be jealous, but I would have a big hole I’m my liver right now because that’s no way to live. I also believe that God didn’t make a mistake when he made me. I’m very proud of my career and my accomplishments. At the age of 55, I consider myself healthy wealthy and free. I owe it all to wrestling. To be jealous of my brother would be ridiculous because my career would never have reached the heights that it did without him. He got me into WWE, I knew I would make it to the top spot.

One of the greatest moments of my career is when Randy Savage became Macho King Randy Savage and I wrote a poem for him. That’s the only time we were in the ring together. They kept us apart.

I believe there is no such thing as a jabroni in this business. We’re the ones who make you look good. And eventually my turn came too. I had a seven-year run and I’m not ashamed to talk about it.

How important was Elizabeth to Randy’s success?
He was going to be successful anyway because he was there three months before. Then she came and got over like brand new money. She made Randy look large and when you stand next to somebody who is diminutive, you look larger, which is something that Sensational Sherri could not do, she was a big woman. I believe Randy would have succeeded anyway. It was garnish that she was there. She became an amazing star and it’s sad to say that both of these valets are gone now. But Randy is 57 years old and he’s doing well now.

Did Randy have any apprehensions over the WrestleMania VIII storyline with Ric Flair?
[Randy and Elizabeth] put business ahead of everything. I imagine there were a couple of things they wouldn’t do, like pose nude in Playboy. They did draw the line at a few places. But they believed that the show comes first. Even if you don’t like the position that you have, you do the best you can with what you got.

Later in WCW, even after the divorce was public, since so many people were asking about Elizabeth, Randy brought her in as part of a storyline and turned her heel. No matter how they felt inside, they were never above doing things like that.

I thought the worst thing Randy did that I would have never done was let Jake Roberts’ snake bite him. He got a 103 fever and the snake died. Jake “The Snake” Roberts was the greatest talent to ever throw it all away. But he was different, unique special.

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