{"id":43366,"date":"2019-04-05T12:37:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T16:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=43366"},"modified":"2023-03-27T14:31:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T18:31:22","slug":"full-2019-wwe-hall-of-fame-legacy-inductees-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/04\/05\/full-2019-wwe-hall-of-fame-legacy-inductees-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Full 2019 WWE Hall of Fame Legacy Inductees Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full class of the WWE Hall of Fame Legacy Wing has been revealed and it’s full of names long overdue for the WWE Hall of Fame. Broken by PWInsider<\/a>, the WrestleMania program is now out and confirmed the ten names. The Legacy Wing was created in 2016 and so far has inducted pioneers of the industry, principally\u00a0pre-television or pre-1960s, with names like\u00a0Lou Thesz, Mildred Burke, Frank Gotch,\u00a0Rikid\u014dzan, El Santo<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Jim Londos<\/strong>\u00a0finding their way into WWE\u2019s Hall of Fame over the past three years. But if Wrestlevotes reveal is any indication, the Legacy Wing could be expanding its parameters\u00a0this year, and could be a way to get more posthumous inductees from multiple eras \u2013 WWE has long stalled on inducting deceased wrestlers in their regular ceremony due to lack of availability of family to induct that could tell proper tales of the stars. And while there\u2019s a strong argument that the four names mentioned would be worthy of the regular induction ceremony, the Legacy Wing is just that \u2013 a wing \u2013 and ultimately they are still considered WWE Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

Bruiser Brody<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A former NFL player with the Washington Redkins, Bruiser Brody<\/strong> created a prototype of what a big man could be in professional wrestling. When his football career came to an end prematurely, he trained with Fritz Von Erich<\/strong> in Dallas, and started his career in pro wrestling in 1973. A true rogue, Brody never signed exclusively with any territory or company and worked around the world, working multiple National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories, as well as World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, the precursor to WWE), New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, American Wrestling Association (AWA) and Puerto Rico’s World Wrestling Council (WWC). An innovator in his role, he was one of the biggest stars in the world. Sadly, he fell prey to a victim of terrible island politics<\/a> in Puerto Rico, where he was killed by wrestler Jose Gonzalez in 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayboy\u201d Buddy Rose<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the same vein as\u00a0Ric Flair<\/strong>, \u201cPlayboy\u201d\u00a0Buddy Rose<\/strong>\u00a0played the bleach blonde arrogant wrestler to a T and was a top star with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and NWA throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A multi-time champion in multiple NWA territories, he also worked briefly for WWF in the 1980s, including an appearance on the first\u00a0WrestleMania\u00a0<\/strong>under a mask as The Executioner against Tito Santana. He retired in 2003 and passed away in 2009.<\/p>\n

Hisashi Shinma<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Hisashi Shinma, bottom right, flanked by NJPW and WWF stars Tiger Mask, Hulk Hogan, Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chairman and booker of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan’s\u00a0Hisashi Shinma\u00a0<\/strong>also acted as the on-screen WWF President from 1978 to 1984, where he was then replaced by\u00a0Jack Tunney<\/strong>. He was a huge part of the alliance between WWWF and NJPW in the 1970s and also booked the WWF Junior Heavyweight division at that time. In New Japan, he secured the Tiger Mask<\/strong> gimmick for New Japan, putting it on the first man to wear the mask, Satoru Sayama<\/strong>. Upon his departure from NJPW in 1984, he founded the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF)<\/strong>, one of the first shoot-style promotions in Japan.<\/p>\n

JIM BARNETT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Promoter\u00a0Jim Barnett<\/strong>\u00a0got his start in the 1940s working with\u00a0Fred Kohle<\/strong>r\u2019s Chicago area promotion, eventually transitioning to co-ownership with Kohler of the NWA\u2019s Indianapolis territory. By the 1950s, he was booking in Detroit, Denver and Los Angeles. He left for Australia in the mid-1960s where he launched\u00a0World Championship Wrestling (WCW<\/strong>), Australia\u2019s largest promotion for years (and pre-Ted Turner WCW). In 1974, he returned to the US and bought into\u00a0Georgia Championship Wrestling<\/strong>, one of the NWA\u2019s flagship territories. When Georgia was acquired by\u00a0Vince McMahon<\/strong>, he became a vice president with the WWF in 1984. He left WWF in 1987 to join\u00a0Jim Crockett<\/strong>\u2018s\u00a0Mid Atlantic<\/strong>promotion, before transitioning to the new WCW as a Senior Advisor. He passed away in 2004.<\/p>\n

Joseph Cohen<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not a wrestling mind per say, but Jacob Cohen founded the Madison Square Garden Network, a huge proponent in getting WWF into cable television. Cohen was promoted to\u00a0assistant to the vice president of Operations at Madison Square Garden\u00a0from 1970-72. He rose quickly in Garden operations, becoming the director of bookings from 1973-74. In 1975, Cohen became\u00a0vice president of MSG Cable and vice president of Development for the Garden and in 1979, he was elevated to president of MSG Network, where he was responsible for advertising, sales, production and program development for MSGN.<\/p>\n

Luna Vachon<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An absolute trailblazer and pioneer for women\u2019s wrestling, the adopted daughter of\u00a0Paul \u201cButcher\u201d Vachon<\/strong>\u00a0and niece of\u00a0Maurice \u201cMad Dog\u201d Vachon<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Vivian Vacho<\/strong>n, Luna entered Canadian wrestling royalty and became one of the top\u00a0women\u2019s wrestlers of the 1990s. With her hardcore approach, she was an instant fit with ECW, where she had the first televised intergender match against\u00a0Stevie Richards<\/strong>. She would go on to work with WCW as well as WWF, where she worked regularly from 1997 to 2000. After departing the WWE, she worked the independents until 2007 before retiring. She passed away in 2010.<\/p>\n

Primo Carnera<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While best known as a pro boxer and Italy’s first World Champion, following his boxing career\u00a0Primo Carnera<\/strong> turned to pro wrestling in the mid-1940s. At 6’5″, he was one of the first true big men in the sport, and wrestled for nearly 20 more years. Before Goldberg had his streak, Carnera had his own, going undefeated in his first 120 matches, including a 1947 win over former World Champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

SD Jones<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A longtime journeyman with the NWA, SD “Special Delivery” Jones<\/strong> made his debut in 1971 and became a solid tag team wrestler throughout the 1970s, winning the NWA Americas Tag Team titles on three occasions with NWA Hollywood<\/strong>. In 1974, he began working with the WWWF, remaining a midcard talent who was still popular with the fans. While he never won any major titles, he would face the likes of Bruiser Brody, Johnny Rodz<\/strong>, and many other stars, trading wins and losses in the midcard. He most famously faced King Kong Bundy at the first WrestleMania<\/strong>, losing in nine seconds, a record that lasted for decades. He retired in 1991 and passed away in 2008.<\/p>\n

Toru Tanaka<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"
Toru Tanaka (right) with longtime tag partner and fellow WWE Hall of Famer, Mr. Fuji<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An early Asian star into the NWA territories in the 1960s, Professor Toru Tanaka<\/strong> became a tag team specialist, best remembered as the longtime tag team partner of Mr. Fuji<\/strong><\/a>, becoming 3x WWF World Tag Team Champions. He made his debut in 1967 and competed until the early 1980s when injuries piled up and he could no longer compete. He passed away in 2000 from heart failure.<\/p>\n

Wahoo McDaniel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the biggest superstars of the\u00a0National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)<\/strong>\u00a0territory days of the 1970s, former pro football player\u00a0Edward \u201cWahoo\u201d McDaniel<\/strong>\u00a0(who played for the AFL from 1960 to 1968 with the New York Jets, Houston Oilers, Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins, winning the AFL Championship in 1960) wrestled from 1961 through 1996, retiring as a 5x NWA United States Champion (and arguably its greatest champion). Wahoo passed away in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full class of the WWE Hall of Fame Legacy Wing has been revealed and it’s full of names long overdue for the WWE Hall of Fame. Broken by PWInsider, the WrestleMania program is now out and confirmed the ten names. The Legacy Wing was created in 2016 and so far has inducted pioneers of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":43383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[1206,1145,4948,4939,573],"class_list":["post-43366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-wwe-universe","tag-bruiser-brody","tag-luna-vachon","tag-sd-jones","tag-wahoo-mcdaniel","tag-wwe-hall-of-fame"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}