The voting for today’s poll question regarding whether death inside the ring should lead to automatic induction into the WWE Hall of Fame is close. Please take a moment to let us know what you think by voting and/or sending in a paragraph or two with your thoughts on the subject.

Regarding your poll question, the answer is no, but the choices were too limited. I'm not against an in-ring death leading to automatic induction simply because it diminishes the accomplishments of those who earned it. It’s hard to compare WWE to mainstream sports because most sports have different levels of honoring great players: you have team hall of fames, retired jerseys, all decade teams, a notation or honor located at the physical hall of fame, and actual induction into that sport’s hall of fame itself. After that you even had all-time teams, and the ultimate—naming an award after a player or coach.

Often times you even have an amateur level and a professional level for each type of award. In wrestling, there is being deemed a legend in a video game and/or the WWE Hall of Fame. That’s it. So until WWE has an actual Hall of Fame that people can visit where you can have a plaque or memorial, while I really don’t think an in-ring death should automatically qualify someone, there really isn’t another way to honor the fallen wrestlers, so I wouldn’t be upset if that rule were enacted either.
 
In mainstream sports if an active player dies, they usually retire his or her jersey, regardless of the accomplishments of the athlete. So, the WWE equivalent of that should be sought. In WWE, there are no jersey numbers to retire, and no home courts to raise a flag in their honor. My suggestion, would be that since whenever WWE holds a TV taping, they hang a WWE banner flag or a WWE 24/7 banner flag anyway, next to that flag, they should hang another flag, with the names of the wrestlers who have died while employed with WWE (I would probably leave out Chris Benoit), and have that be the way to honor them. Even better, they could hang an individual flag for each deceased wrestler.
 
I suppose it is a little different if you die in the ring compared to dying while simply being employed for WWE. Then again Hank Gathers isn’t in the hall of fame either. He died on national television during a basketball game and he had one of the best seasons in the history of college basketball at the time of his death.

If you have a guy who was borderline hall of fame material, or maybe just an above average star who dies in the ring or even just dies young in a method beyond his control (i.e. not drug related), then I have no problem with using the premature death as reason to push him over and induct him. That is probably where Owen Hart falls, or maybe even someone at the level of Brian Pillman (assuming you can buy that his death was from a diseased heart and not form drug use). However, there should be no hard rule about it, as you tend to get yourself backed into a corner.

Shaun Corbett

Powell replies: I’m not sure WWE wants to give up the ticket revenue they would lose by covering up the entire arena section that would blocked out by the memorial banner you mentioned. Seriously, though, I don’t think WWE wants to draw attention to the number of wrestling deaths that have occurred over the years. It’s a nice idea, but I don’t think it will ever happen.

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I totally thought the Floyd Mayweather and Big Show angle was a shoot. When something like this goes down, the celebrity usually doesn’t do anything until the big event he’s been signed to appear on. Shane McMahon sold it very well. I didn’t know the angle was fake until I read it here. That’s what pay-per-view entertainment is supposed to be like.
 
David Mattei

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