The Hydden View: WWE Hall of Fame, Never too Early to Imagine

I know it’s only November and WrestleMania weekend s still a few months out. But, somewhere in a small office inside WWE headquarters there is a worker already stressing over the names that may be inducted next. So, why not give them a hand, I mean it’s never too early to talk about the Hall of Fame.

So assuming the first two names on the list this year are Sting and Randy “The Macho Man” Savage, which they should be, who is next? Many names have been thrown out by fans, some of the names I think yeah why not, the others I wonder if someone had been hit over the head. I decided to go back thru all the inductees, and see if any names that were absence jumped out at me. As I scrolled past names such as Tito Santana, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Koko B. Ware, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Ted DiBiase, Jake “the Snake” Roberts, and big John Studd there was one name that quickly came to mind.

This wrestler started wrestling in 1972, he had his very first stint in the WWE from 1980-1982. He even had some success in this run as a tag team champion with Tony Garea. He would leave in 1982 and go to the AWA. This where he would find his first great deal of success, by May of 1984 he was the AWA world champion. He would hold the title for 19 solid months. Think about this for a second, that’s the third longest run in AWA history with the title belt. He would leave the AWA in 1985 losing the belt to Stan Hanson.

Do you know who I am talking about yet? Well his next stop was back to the WWE, where he would spend close to a decade building his reputation. He debuted in 1986 as one half of the tag team Can-Am Connection with Tom Zenk, that’s right I am talking about Rick Martel. Martel was one of the most accomplished wrestlers of this time period. When you first think of Martel you think of the goofy “Model” gimmick, but, once you look deeper you see a wrestler who deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame.

He held seven different tag team championships for multiple promotions. He held the WWE tag titles three times. He also won three different NWA versions of the tag titles, wrestling in multiple NWA territories. He held the WCW Television Championship, and the prestige’s AWA World Championship. In al he held some form of a championship belt 20 different times. He wrestled all the greats that are already in the WWE Hall of Fame. Now I know, just wrestling a hall of famer doesn’t make you one, but he didn’t just get in the ring with them, he had 5 star matches with many of them.

I know many of you may disagree, but I truly feel only two people deserve it more than him and those are the before mentioned Sting, and Randy “The Macho Man” Savage. So please WWE put this legend into the WWE Hall of Fame so we can celebrate the career that was as beautiful as a model.