While this year’s class of WWE Hall of Famers have yet to officially be inducted (or even all of them confirmed, for that matter), it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about who should be honored in 2017. Without knowing who will retire, where WrestleMania 33’s location will be, or any other kind of direction WWE may go, it’s tough to make any legitimate predictions, but at the very least, there are plenty of names to speculate about.
When it comes to the normal wrestlers, the list is so long that it’s almost impossible to narrow it down and we could go on for page after page talking about everyone from Hillbilly Jim to William Regal, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog, Bruiser Brody, Jushin “Thunder” Liger and far, far too many others. As such, instead of breaking those down, I figured it would be interesting to talk about the three other types of candidates available: women, celebrities, and “miscellaneous” inductees, so to speak.
This will be a three part series of articles discussing potential choices for those sections, starting off first with the women of WWE’s past. Keep in mind that just because someone isn’t listed here doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ever be inducted, but that they might just be on the waiting list. A general rule of thumb I’ve applied is that nobody on the currently active roster would apply, as all of those women should theoretically have a few more years left in their careers.
That being said, which women should WWE think about inducting into the 2017 Hall of Fame?
Bull Nakano
During the mid-90s, WWE put a marginal emphasis on women’s wrestling in comparison to today, but still tried to incorporate it into the show in some fashion. For the most part, this division was built entirely around Alundra Blayze, who needed challengers to be built up from time to time. One of the most memorable of the bunch was Bull Nakano, who actually defeated Blayze to win the WWF Women’s Championship in November of 1994. She held the title for several months before dropping it back to Blayze in April of 1995.
Nakano was eventually released after being found in possession of cocaine, which would undoubtedly put a damper on her chances of being inducted, but others have been brought back into the fold despite similar circumstances. Over the years, Nakano’s name doesn’t come up too often, but when it does, she’s often spoken of fondly as a beast of yesteryear. When you factor in Nakano’s experience outside of WWE (as well as her 1994 “Most Devastating” Slammy Award), she has the history behind her to justify her inclusion in the hall at some point down the line.
Chyna
I know, I know…the likelihood of Chyna going into the WWE Hall of Fame seems slimmer and slimmer as time goes on. It seems as though every couple of months, another story comes out about Chyna causing a scene or saying something that will get her in trouble in some fashion. It’s been said before that this isn’t the only thing hindering her, but her history with the adult film industry also factors into her not being a candidate for the Hall of Fame.
However, WWE is flexible when it comes to this. Despite all her issues with drug use and arrests and now pornography as well, Sunny is still a member of the Hall of Fame. This alone shows that it’s somewhat hypocritical, and it seems suspicious that these things are weighed so heavily against Chyna more than some others. My guess is Joanie Laurer herself just has a bad relationship with the powers that be and this is more of a personal distrust rather than a professional disassociation.
We can all pitch our ideas about whether Stephanie McMahon is the one holding back the induction or maybe Triple H himself, but whatever the case may be, if you look at Chyna’s history in WWE and ignore the outside factors, she definitely deserves to be honored in the future. This woman broke so many barriers that it’s hard to remember them all. Some of those include being the first woman to ever wrestle in the Royal Rumble, the only woman to ever win the Intercontinental Championship (twice, at that) and she also has a Women’s Championship to her name. Chyna was an insanely popular character for several years to the point where she transcended into pop culture itself beyond WWE. Her choices since exiting the company are obviously not much to be proud of, but if she can clean up her act for a considerable enough time, WWE should take advantage and put her in the Hall of Fame similar to what they did with Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.
Ivory
In a time where the women of WWE focused more on sex appeal than anything else, Ivory was one of the few who tried to legitimize it more (although she was more than capable of appealing to the audience in that regard as well). Ivory was one of the better in-ring performers for a long stretch of time, which helped justify her 3 title reigns as women’s champion.
One of the most interesting aspects of her career was her character change when she became a member of Right to Censor. Oddly enough, despite this being a gimmick about restrictions, this allowed her to show off possibly the most amount of character, as she could be something different than just another face amongst the crowd of other women in the company.
On top of this, Ivory would become a trainer on Tough Enough, helping impart her knowledge on the next batch of superstars. Most recently, she was seen on an episode of Table for 3 where she spoke with Alundra Blayze and Molly Holly about their times in the business, and it was clear that she still has a lot of passion for the industry.
Jacqueline
There’s heavy speculation that Jacqueline will be announced for this year’s Hall of Fame, and it makes sense. For the most part, all that is necessary in explaining why Jacqueline should be included on this list is one sentence: she was a 2x women’s champion as well as a Cruiserweight champion—the latter of which only two other women have been able to accomplish (Daffney and Madusa in WCW).
One of her WWE title reigns was actually the first Women’s Championship reign in several years as well as the first time an African American woman ever held the title. After a quick Wikipedia search, apparently Jacqueline also held the USWA Women’s Championship a whopping 14 times, which may be the most championships of anyone on this list, overall.
Jacqueline would wrestle for several years in WWE to varying success, but she also had several stints in TNA. Although she never captured the Knockouts Championship and WWE certainly wouldn’t be acknowledging anything from TNA, this was enough to keep the wrestling industry from forgetting her, and to add more years to her tenure in the business.
Luna Vachon
Unfortunately, Luna Vachon would be one of the posthumous inductions when it comes to women, but despite this, I doubt there’s any argument to her induction. Luna was one of the most outrageously entertaining characters in the 90s, pairing up with Bam Bam Bigelow, feuding with Tatanka, Doink the Clown and others, including Alundra Blayze. She eventually came back to the company and became a new partner for Goldust (or The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust), a member of The Oddities, and even later still, the manager of Gangrel.
While Luna never won the Women’s Championship in WWE, she was ranked #14 on their list of the top 25 most impactful women. Any wrestling fan from the 90s knows for sure how big of a role Luna Vachon played during that time period and how memorable she was, as it’s hard to forget someone who off the wall crazy and weird. As an extra feather in her cap, Luna was apparently the first woman ever to be featured in a WWF video game (the SNES and Sega Genesis versions of WWF Raw in 1994).
It’s sad that she wouldn’t be able to accept the award on her own behalf, but for someone who was overlooked and should have held the belt at least once, this would be a nice means of compensation.
Mickie James
While a good portion of the fans would rank Trish Stratus and Lita as the top two women in the history of WWE, for my money (and I’m assuming many others), there’s one other woman who should be considered an equal or perhaps even superior to them, and that person is Mickie James.
For five years, Mickie was the standard-bearer in the company and the measuring stick. She was one of the few women who could actually wrestle well, had some character to her, and was still able to tap into the sex appeal market. After all, Mickie was voted the winner of an 8 month tournament crowning the sexiest woman in WWE and TNA history over at Smark Out Moment in 2012. Out of nearly 200 women including Maryse, Kelly Kelly, Sunny, The Beautiful People and more, it was Mickie James who was voted the hottest of them all. That really derails the Piggie James angle, doesn’t it?
She has held both the Divas Championship (1 time) and the Women’s Championship (5 times), is a 3-time Knockouts champion and 2013 TNA World Cup of Wrestling winner, and was named #1 in PWI’s Female 50 of 2009 as well as Woman of the Year in 2009 and 2011.
Molly Holly
You may not remember Lady Ophelia, but if you were watching WWE in 2000, you damn sure remember Molly Holly. Reintroduced as a cousin to Bob and Crash Holly, Molly Holly had a relatively short career in the company compared to some others, but she was still very memorable. Her character received several changes over the year, including her time as the superhero Mighty Molly. One of the most important parts of her career, though, was the stint where she had her head shaved after losing to Victoria at WrestleMania XX in a Hair versus Title match. This is something that has yet to be replicated in WWE and most people would consider one of the few things that will be done again, considering how much emphasis is put on the looks of the divas. If you want to talk about being bold and breaking ground, that alone is reason enough to applaud Molly.
As far as accolades go, Molly Holly has two Women’s Championship reigns and one Hardcore Championship to her name. She’s made sporadic appearances here and there and remains a fan favorite when
Sable
Along with Sunny, the biggest name in professional wrestling when it comes to women in the 90s was easily Sable, who was just a phenomenon of popularity. Looking back on her career, she was only champion once, but she has two Slammy Awards (Dressed to Kill and Diva of the Year, both in 1997) and was a highlight reel each and every week. If you were a boy in or around your teenage years during this time, Sable played a big part in your puberty for sure. Hell, she’s likely the reason a lot of older men watched the product as well, since this was an era where she would frequently strip and show off as much skin as she could get away with.
This all started when Sable came into the company as a valet for Hunter Hearst Helmsley where she would rather quickly end up overshadowing her then husband Marc Mero, becoming a much bigger character than he ever would achieve. Of course, she is now married to Brock Lesnar, so we already know who would potentially do the honor of inducting her if he so chose to (would you say no to Brock? I don’t think so.)
Criticize the Attitude Era for all of the Bra & Panties matches, Evening Gown matches and so on, Sable was incredibly instrumental in bringing in the ratings and had one of the highest selling issues of Playboy in the history of that magazine.
Stacy Keibler
Admittedly, Stacy Keibler doesn’t have as much on paper to talk about as several others on this list. She never held the Women’s Championship or any other titles, nor was she renowned for her in-ring talent or anything of the sort.
However, the WWE Hall of Fame isn’t just about those aspects, but about the entertainment aspect as well, and Stacy was one of the most popular women to ever take part in the industry. She started turning heads in WCW as Skye of the Nitro Girls and would continue to wow audiences with her stunning good looks for years to come as a manager for The Dudley Boyz, Test, Randy Orton and others (including her own run as a superhero similar to Mighty Molly under the name Super Stacy).
WWE’s Babe of the Year 2004 was able to make a name for herself outside of the company, appearing on Dancing with the Stars, How I Met Your Mother (one of yours truly’s favorite shows of all time) and elsewhere. Even dating George Clooney gave Keibler a ton of press to the point where everyone outside of sports entertainment knew of her, and WWE loves to find any way to bring outside attention to the product, so inducting Stacy would be nothing but beneficial to the brand.
Plus, let’s be honest, those legs…
Victoria
For some reason, whether you are more familiar of her work as Victoria in WWE or Tara in TNA, Lisa Marie Varon is grossly overlooked when talking about the best women of sports entertainment’s past.
When it comes to accomplishments, she touts an impressive 2 times as WWE women’s champion, 5 times as Knockouts champion, 1 Knockouts Tag Team Championship title reign with Brooke Tessmacher, was PWI’s Woman of the Year in 2004 and was ranked #5 in the PWI Female 50 of 2009.
During her time as an active competitor, few other women were on par with her in-ring work, but she also had a certain edge to her personality that was different from the rest, too, which helped her stand out. Even as one of The Godfather’s hos, she was the “head ho” among the pack! Plus, how amazing is it that she created a pizza place named The Squared Circle? That pun is HOF-worthy in itself!
So while this list was rather long, there are still several others not listed who could be in the running like Leilani Kai, Terri Runnels, Torrie Wilson and more (including Miss Elizabeth, who will be featured in a later edition, rest assured). Who would you like to see be the female inductee into next year’s WWE Hall of Fame? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
