WWE Hall of Fame (2012) was the event which featured the introduction of the 13th class to the
WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when André the Giant was posthumously i ...
. The event was produced by
WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...
on March 31, 2012 from the
American Airlines Arena
FTX Arena (known as American Airlines Arena from 1999 to 2021) is a multi-purpose arena located in Miami, Florida, along Biscayne Bay. It was constructed beginning in 1998 as a replacement for the Miami Arena and designed by the architecture f ...
in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
. The event took place the same weekend as
WrestleMania XXVIII
WrestleMania XXVIII (also written as WrestleMania 28) was the 28th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 1, 2012, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is the hig ...
. The event was hosted by
Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler (born November 29, 1949), better known as Jerry "The King" Lawler, is an American color commentator and professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, although he has not performed as a full-time commentator since Ap ...
. A condensed one-hour version of the ceremony aired on the
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
the following Monday, before ''
Raw''. In March 2015 the ceremony was added to the
WWE Network
WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television t ...
.
Event
Mil Máscaras
Mil Máscaras (born Aarón Rodríguez Arellano, July 15, 1942) is a Mexican luchador (professional wrestler) and actor. He is regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of the lucha libre tradition in Mexico – along with El Santo and Blue Demo ...
was inducted by
Alberto Del Rio
José Alberto Rodríguez Chucuan (born 25 May 1977) is a Mexican-American professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter, sports commentator, and mixed martial artist, currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a c ...
.
Ron Simmons
Ronald Nasir Simmons (born May 15, 1958) is an American retired professional wrestler and football player. He performed for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) under his real name, and in the World Wres ...
was inducted by his former tag team partner as part of
The Acolytes Protection Agency
The Acolytes Protection Agency (APA) was an American professional wrestling tag team who consisted of Bradshaw (John Layfield) and Faarooq (Ron Simmons). They wrestled for the American promotion World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) b ...
,
John Layfield
John Charles Layfield (born November 29, 1966), better known by the ring name John "Bradshaw" Layfield (abbreviated to JBL), is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and Gridiron football, football player. He is curre ...
. The two shared stories of being on the road together, and Simmons discussed what it was like to be the first
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
World Heavyweight Champion.
Yokozuna
, or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments.
This is the on ...
was inducted by his nephews,
The Usos
The Usos (born August 22, 1985) are an American professional wrestling tag team composed of twin brothers Joshua Samuel Fatu and Jonathan Solofa Fatu, who are known professionally by their respective ring names Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso. They ar ...
, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso. The Usos discussed their "Uncle Rodney" and their confusion as kids as to why he was dressed as a sumo wrestler and was throwing salt. Due to Yokozuna's death in 2000 he was posthumously inducted by his cousin
Rikishi
A , or, more colloquially, , is a professional sumo wrestler. follow and live by the centuries-old rules of the sumo profession, with most coming from Japan, the only country where sumo is practiced professionally. Participation in official t ...
and his family.
The Four Horsemen were next inducted by
Dusty Rhodes
Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...
. Although through the years there were more members, the only ones inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame were
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair,
Barry Windham
Barry Clinton Windham (born July 4, 1960) is an American retired professional wrestler. The son of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan, he is best known for his appearances with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW ...
,
"The Enforcer" Arn Anderson,
Tully Blanchard
Tully Arthur Blanchard (born January 22, 1954) is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and manager. He is best known for his appearances with Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation in the mid-to-late 1980s as a member of ...
and
J. J. Dillon.
With this induction Ric Flair became the first person to be inducted twice (an accolade he alone held until
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
when
Shawn Michaels,
Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legend's contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling back ...
, and
Booker T were all inducted again). Flair was under contract with rival promotion TNA at the time, but they and WWE made a deal so Flair could attend the event in person; the deal saw Christian go the other way for
one night One Night or 1 Night may refer to:
Film
* ''One Night'' (2002 film), a film produced by Winchester Films
* ''One Night'' (2005 film), an Iranian film directed by Niki Karimi
* ''One Night'' (2007 film), a film featuring Christian Campbell and ...
later in the year.
Mike Tyson was inducted by
D-Generation X
D-Generation X (DX) is an American professional wrestling stable, and later a tag team, who consisted of Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
The group originated in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in the midst of the "Attitud ...
members Shawn Michaels and
Triple H
Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as ...
.
The final inductee was
Edge
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
who was inducted by his childhood friend
Christian. The two shared stories of coming up through the Canadian wrestling system and their time together in the WWE.
Inductees
Individual
* ''Class headliners appear in boldface''
Group
Celebrity
References
{{WWE Hall of Fame
WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies
2012 in professional wrestling
Professional wrestling in Miami
2012 in professional wrestling in Florida
Events in Miami
March 2012 events in the United States