The WWE Hall of Fame is a special part of WWE lore, where you can celebrate legends, embrace the nostalgia of professional wrestling, and get a chance to hear more speeches and stories from last year’s stars. The hall also became WWE money maker as an excuse to sell additional live content to broadcast, live events selling tickets, and to sell new products for retired talent.
However, since WWE moved to the two-night WrestleMania format, the Hall of Fame has also presented challenges. From 2004 to 2019, the introductory ceremony was part of WrestleMania weekend and took place on the eve of Mania. The 2020 ceremony was postponed due to Covid, and in recent years it has happened after Smackdown. This happened in the same arena a few hours from the Live Friday Night Show or another location this year. The resulting ceremony does not fulfill justice for WWE legends, talents or fans.
The WWE Hall of Fame Induction ceremony started late at night
The 2025 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony began at 10pm in the Pacific Ocean. It’s always a bit arbitrary to say that nights are too late to expect people to watch or enjoy the show, but when the program doesn’t start until Eastern time, it’s a pretty tough sell for mainstream audiences of all kinds to watch live.
Additionally, WWE staged the NXT stands starting at 10am Pacific time the following morning. As for fans who wanted to attend WrestleMania Weekend Live and attend both events, it meant just 8.5 hours between the shows. Even fans watching from their home on the East Coast meant tuning at 1pm when they woke up until 4:30am. It’s not an attractive combination.
However, the show, which is independent of the NXT event, ends at 1:30 on the West Coast, ends at 4:30 on the East Coast. It’s not just perfect for fans or the talents of WWE themselves. Perhaps most importantly, that the aging legendary population in general has gained recognition in the Hall of Fame, both must give speeches in front of an audience who are only fighting to stay awake past bedtime and keep them awake.
Another time of the year may give the WWE Hall of Fame more spotlight
One solution to Hall of Fame scheduling is to do it on another weekend. Indeed, in the 1990s, when WWE began experimenting with live guided rituals, they held them along with the King of the Ring, and the Royal Rumble. A two-night, formless major PLE inherits the ceremony and in doing so, elevates the entire PLE weekend and has all meaning in the world.
Alternatively, WWE can innovate around the Hall of Fame itself. They can retrieve pages from the WCW playbook at the old Slamboree show. This features several matches celebrating their own Hall of Fame and featuring previous talents returning to the ring in another match. The idea of a better revival of the Starrcade brand is perfect for pairing with the Hall of Fame’s own emphasis on celebrating YESTERYEAR as a unique major event that evokes nostalgia, as well as a glorious house show WWE stream.
It may make the most sense to air an introductory ceremony instead of a SmackDowngo Home Show
Some people have undoubtedly taken their prestige by watching the Hall of Fame ceremony, which will move from Hall of Fame weekend. It’s fair to see WrestleMania being the biggest event on the WWE calendar and bring out the biggest amount of fans. So the Hall of Fame feels some extra glow just associated with the showcase of the Undead.
Perhaps the easiest solution is for the ceremony to simply replace the Go-Home Smackdown before WrestleMania. Even attractions like Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale and lively promotions between Cody Rhodes and John Cena this year, the Blue Brand final show before the mania will have cards set and WWE won’t want to risk getting injured in a match that was just before the big one.
Plug the Hall of Fame into its location will make better use of time, respect WWE’s programming duties, and honor larger organic audiences in the ceremony. WWE may have to slightly reduce its induction class to fit into the Smack Down time slot, but it would be fine at the ceremony that most fans knew not to exceed three hours. For example, since you’re pairing with Andre Battle Royale, the ceremony actually has a nice ring, so perhaps that time could even include some matches.
Ultimately, there are mixed opinions about how WWE will rethink its Hall of Fame ceremony. But at least, to truly honor legends and fun fans, this important WWE content should not happen late at night on the frontend of the year’s biggest weekend.
