It is time for the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame. After a fantastic one-hour Red Carpet deal where different WWE stars, past and future, were interviewed (and there were some great ones), we get Jerry “The King” Lawler as the host.

2014 WWE Hall of Fame

The show then opened with a video montage of historical WWE moments played to Kid Rock music.

The first inductee is

LITA

We start with a video highlight reel of Lita in action with comments by AJ Lee, Natalya, Kofi Kingston, Naomi, Michael Cole, Michael Hayes, Tamina Snuka, Summer Rae and Trish Stratus. Then Lawler brought out Trish Stratus to induct Lita. Trish mentioned that Lita was the god-mother of her child. She also said they debuted and retired weeks apart from each other and were rivals through their entire career. She also mentioned how they were the only women to ever main event Raw.

Lita came out in a long red dress (Trish said it was a first-time long dress for Lita). A “Thank You Lita” chant starts. She starts to tell the story of heading down to Mexico to be a professional wrestling in Lucha Libre wrestling. She made her way to Arena Mexico to watch her first Lucha Libre match but it turned out that she was at a circus. Oops. Then she finally got to her first real match and convinced them to train her in CMLL with Los Boricuas, including Ricky Santana. Once she saw Rey Mysterio, she realized how she wanted to wrestle. She went to try to find Rey Mysterio, but didn’t find him but found Arn Anderson, who promised that he would introduce her to Rey. He kept his word and introduced them and Arn said that they owed him two Miller Lites. She then brought out Miller Lites and shared them with Arn and Rey. She found a wrestling school and did a six month stint at ECW, debuting at Heat Wave 99. She jokes about her marriage proposals to Danny Doring, Edge, and Kane. She then reminds the audience of the Kane-demon spawn storyline with Gene Snitsky’s “It’s not my fault” tag line. She then talks about traumatizing a little girl who knitted her a baby blanket and that Kane is actually Glen, a really nice guy. She then talked about how she was injured while shooting “Dark Angel” for James Cameron, a broken neck. She was told that if she underwent surgery that she would never wrestle again. She said the one person she wanted to talk to about it was Stone Cold Steve Austin for advice. He took her to his doctor and got her fixed and she continued wrestling. Her and Victoria had the first ever women’s steel cage match. Her last match was against Mickie James. She also mentioned how important it was to start her career with Esse Rios. She then thanked The Hardy Boyz and mentioned how she was the only girl in the TLC crew. She thanked Trish Stratus, the perfect Ying and Yang.

Great speech and great stories!

Up next is

JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS

The highlight reel saw comments by Ted DiBiase, Vince McMahon, Christian, Paul Heyman, Jerry Lawler, Hulk Hogan and JBL. Diamond Dallas Page comes out to induct Jake “The Snake” Roberts and said it is his birthday and the best birthday present he could ever imagine would be then to see two of his boys rising up to receive the recognition they deserve (Jake and Scott Hall). He then thanked Hunter for this. He said he had two mentors – Dusty Rhodes and Jake Roberts and Roberts taught him how to wrestle using ring psychology by critiquing his matches for him. He told a story about how he and Kimberly let Jake live with them for a few months with the rule of no snakes. Well, Jake brought in a cobra and it got loose in their house. He said Jake taught him how to be a champion and it is a debt he has been working to pay back ever since. 18 months ago they began working together with a dream of making it here and dreams come true if you put the work in. Jake has put in the work.

Jake was already crying when he came out. “Thank You Jake.” Jake hated wrestling growing up because he never saw his father because he was a wrestler. He could never understand that because his father neglected him and then – he did the same thing. He said that he loved wrestling, but he feels bad for neglecting his family because of it. He does not regret loving wrestling, making a child smile, making an old woman want to cut you, have a young girl flash a smile, there is nothing like it. He said it is so addictive and it hurts him because he can’t play anymore. The fans chanted “you still got it” but Jake said they are wrong because it is only his heart and mind that still wants it but there is a point where you can’t do it right. He said the pain he caused his family is what leads to drugs and alcohol because he is so ashamed of his actions. He said when your career is gone all you have is pain and shame and there is nothing left. He said that he was sometimes jealous of those friends who died and wondered why it couldn’t be him. Then, one person sticks a hand out, and that person for him was Diamond Dallas Page, who saved his life. He said that Dallas suggested Indie Go Go to help him have shoulder surgery. Jake said no one cared about him but fans chipped in $30,000 to help him and it made him realize that people did care. He said that he was so happy now. His family was in the audience. That is so amazing if you know the story. He thanked his family for giving him a second chance and then thanked the WWE for giving him one too.

Damn you Jake The Snake Roberts for bringing a tear to my eyes. Awesome speech.

Mr. T (Celebrity Wing)

The video saw Jerry Lawler, Mean Gene Okerlund, Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley talk about how important Mr. T was when Wrestlemania was first starting. The inductor is Mean Gene Okerlund. He made some jokes about how old he is and then started talking about the first Wrestlemania. He talked about the TV and movie career and about his fashion sense. He then introduced Mr. T’s son.  T Junior then came out and introduced his dad.

Mr. T then started with a prayer. He wanted to honor his mother before he got to his WWE career. His mother raised 12 kids all by herself. He was one of the youngest and it was his mother who kept them away from crime and drugs. He also wants people to understand how far he has come. Behind the tough guy, bad attitude and under the Mohawk is an old fashioned mama’s boy. He said he didn’t just love his mother on Mother’s Day but every other day of the year as well. Then he said he just wants to let people know how he feels about his mother and then gave a little smile – “This is Awesome” chant. It’s not where you come from, it’s where you go that counts. I would rather die and burn in hell than bring disrespect to my mother. Mr. T thanks his kids and then Kane’s music started and he came out to tell him that his time was up so he left.

I didn’t care for the ending of the speech being interrupted, but it was a VERY entertaining speech.

Paul Bearer

Kane came out next and they showed the video for Paul Bearer. We got comments from Vince McMahon, Big E, Jerry Lawler, Mean Gene and Daniel Bryan. Kane then said that he hated to interrupt Mr. T, but all the talk about Mr. T’s mom was cutting into his time to talk about his dad. He talked about how Paul started out his love of wrestler as a teenager. He said that he started out as Percival Pringle III before moving to the WWE as Undertaker’s manager. He then credited Paul Bearer with making Undertaker such a great character. He then said that he thinks the Kane and Undertaker saga was the best storytelling the WWE has ever done and Paul Bearer is a reason it was so great. He also joked that Paul never let him forget who “his daddy was.” He said out of all the wrestlers Paul Bearer manager, no one owes him more than Kane does, because there would be no Kane without Paul Bearer. When Paul died, the world lost a great entertainer and others lost a great fan. Paul Bearer is what all wrestlers should aspire to be – an international superstar. Accepting the honor is Paul Bearer’s sons Michael and Daniel Moody. One of them did the Paul Bearer “OH YES.” Undertaker came out after all was said and done and knelt down with the urn to honor Paul Bearer.

Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall

The video saw words from Sean Waltman, Paul Heyman, Shawn Michaels, Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder, Booker T and Hulk Hogan. Big Sexy Kevin Nash came out to induct his best friend. The WWE called Nash in 1993 and hired Nash to be Shawn Michaels’ bodyguard. He then met Razor Ramon and got to watch two of the best of all time wrestle in Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. He said that Scott Hall was a mentor to him in the ring and helped make him a star. He said at the time no one liked them, so Scott, Shawn and himself would stick together at all times. He said that he has acquired four brothers in the wrestling business. Shawn Michaels taught him how to love the business and Scott Hall kept him there. He said that Scott Hall getting into the WWE Hall of Fame is more emotional than even Shawn Michaels’ induction.

Scott Hall came out and he looks good. Hey, Yo! He attended his first wrestling show at the age of 8 years old and fell in love. In his 20s, he had his first match and learned that no matter how his life was going, when he stepped through the curtain he had power and control and he dug that. It was a powerful thing that he had a relationship to the fans when he stepped into the ring. “Thank You Razor!” Bad times don’t last but bad guys do. His music started, almost like he was being cut off early. However, then Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Triple H all came out and they did the Kliq sign together.

Nice, but I don’t like these speeches getting cut off, especially with a silly skit earlier I ignored with Hornswoggle and El Torito and then a Bad New Barrett skit. The fans booed the midget wrestlers but cheered Bad News Barrett.

Carlos Colon

The video saw words by Jim Ross. His sons Carlito and Primo and nephew Epico came out to induct him. They came out to Carlito’s old music. The fans started chanting for Carlito and he thanked them and said he is used to bingo halls, so this is nice. Then he joked about coming out between the Kliq and Ultimate Warrior and then got a time cut, so it’s like he never left. Awesome. I can’t believe they don’t let Primo and Epico talk more, they are good on the mic. Primo then said that Paul Heyman had to get his ideas for ECW from Carlos Co0lon in Puerto Rico. Carlos thanked most of the people he worked with who were in the WWE Hall of Fame like Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair and more. Most of the second half of his speech was not in English.

The Ultimate Warrior

The video saw words by Kofi Kingston, Hulk Hogan, Dolph Ziggler, Santino, AJ Lee, Christian, The Miz, Jerry Lawler, Edge, John Cena, Bella Twins and Chris Jericho. Linda McMahon was who inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame. She mentioned how he legally changed his name to Warrior. She also said he was a loner who was inspirational but was not always the easiest person to work with. Linda was his personal contact on his last tenure in the WWE. She said on one point, he called her mom and she told him that he was being a petulant child and she would put him over her knee if he was there instead of being on the phone. His two young daughters accompanied him to the podium. Awesome.

“The most anticipated speech in the history of sports entertainment. Lots of people squirming in their seats.” His mom and wife are in the audience and his wife is already crying. His dad left when he was 12 but his mom never missed a beat and made sure to raise them right. His daughters weren’t even alive when he was the Ultimate Warrior but he wanted his daughters to know that Mr. McMahon does a lot of awesome stuff. He then said the most awesome thing he will ever do is be his daughter’s father. He said how inspiring it is to see how DDP Yoga is helping people to fix their self destructive ways. He then said he didn’t mean to say “self destructive” as a joke based on the DVD they made on him in the past to embarrass him. He said that people should practice his style of self destruction because after 18 years of exile, you can still come back and headline the WWE Hall of Fame. “One More Match” chant. He said there won’t be one more match, but there are big things coming. He mentioned training with Red Bastien and name dropped Sting to cheers. He talked about Jerry Jarrett, The Fantastics, Jerry Lawler, Bill Watts, Ted DiBiase, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, David Manning, The Von Ericks. Len Denton, Tim Brooks, Bruiser Brody, George Scott, Bronco Lubich. He then said he wished it was still the WWF and made a joke about the Wildlife people winning that battle! He then thanked Jose Estrada, “The Brooklyn Brawler” Steve Lombardi, Terry Gibbs. He said that is broke his heart when people said he wasn’t liked backstage because he was a good guy and is still a good guy. He thanked the ring guys who made everything work behind the scenes and asked that there would be a place in the WWE Hall of Fame for these guys behind the scenes to be honored named after Jimmy Maranda, a guy who used to help sell t-shirts at all events. He said The Ultimate Warrior is a legend and the Ultimate Warrior fans are legendary. He got passionate here and said that they tried to re-write history and the fans are the reason the truth is finally being told. “Thank You Warrior” chants was met with Warrior saying “No, Thank You.” As he started to talk about working with Make a Wish, Warrior pointed out how much John Cena does with the Make a Wish and said he does more than anyone. He said people accuse him of not respecting the business, which he says is a lie because what he learned in the wrestling business is what he uses to make his life work. He said people still make fun of him for blowing up in the ring but he said he doesn’t care because blowing up and pushing his body to the extreme limit was the best feeling ever. He said that everyone wondered if he was going to start pointing fingers and shooting, but he said he has only given respect to everyone else and won’t say anything. He said again that the DVD was wrong about him. He also said he has signed a long term contract to be an ambassador for the WWE and looks forward to fulfilling that.