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The next inductees were Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda!
Taylor Rotunda aka Bo Dallas and Mika Rotunda inducted their father and Uncle but not before acknowledging Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt, who received a big "Thank you Bray" chant from Philly. They spoke about the enduring legacy of the team and the family.
The acoustics for their speech were low live in the building, so I can't make out enough to do a worthy recap. I will add one when I watch it on Peacock. I could hear Rotunda paying tribute to The Destroyer, which was great to see. They noted Dysty Rhodes teamed them up first.
At the end, Rotunda praised his son Windham and everyone raised their phones to create fireflies in his honor. He asked everyone to enjoy Wrestlemania.
Next up was Thunderbolt Patterson, who was introduced by New Day in an absolutely great speech where they said that they as Black performers get to do what they do because of Patterson and others like him.
Patterson embraced Gerald Brisco and JBL. He was brought to the ring as they played a package on his career. Radio personality Scott Spears gave a great speech about Patterson as The Jackie Robinson of pro wrestling. Patterson then gave a great speech in his old style, basically sermonizing to the crowd. You could tell it was something that was close to his heart.
The final inductee was Lia Maivia. The video package was absolutely awesome.
The Rock came out with full theme and effects. He talked about his grandparents and that when Peter Maivia passed away, his dream was to make his promotion a success. She promised she would make it a success and promote major events in Hawaii. In the early 80s, there was a lot of competition at the time, naming different promoters and even named Vince McMahon, which a lot in the crowd booed and yelled "No." Rock started naming all the stars who came to Hawaii including one of his heroes, Dusty Rhodes.
He said when it comes to The Rhodes family, he has nothing but respect for Dusty Rhodes, who was one of his heroes, but when it comes to what we are going to do this weekend - Cody stood up - The Rock said, what happens tomorrow isn't business, it's personal and he'll see Cody tomorrow. Philly chanted for Cody. He said that on behalf of his family and his mother, Ata, who he asked to stand. He said she was the real Final Boss. She got a standing ovation from all the talents at ringside. Rock joked that she'd like to smack Cody's Candy Ass. Rock thanked everyone, said goodnight and said let's get ready for Wrestlemania. I'm not sure I liked the Rock weaving storyline stuff into a tribute for his Grandmother, but hey, maybe she'd have loved it.
This was a LONG night between the Smackdown and Hall of Fame portions of the taping and really, they need to either move the HOF to Thursday of Mania week or move it to another PPV weekend. There's too much going on and the night before Wrestlemania, talents shouldn't be until 1-2 AM for the Hall. That said, a lot of the speeches were really good and Paul Heyman's segment was out of this world.
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