Eric Bischoff has a pretty strong opinion of who deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame and who doesn't. When it comes to celebrities, Bischoff does not believe that they should be in the Hall of Fame. According to Bischoff on his most recent podcast, only wrestlers and managers who put in years of work on the craft should receive the honor of induction into the Hall. That includes some celebrities who really brought a lot of faces to professional wrestling like Andy Kauffman.
Eric Bischoff on celebs in the WWE Hall of Fame
Eric Bischoff has often said that he doesn't know if he deserves to be in the Wwe Hall of Fame.
While he was instrumental in the rise of WCW behind-the-scenes and the incredible Monday Night War between WCW and WWE, he says that there are so many more people more deserving than he is. That means it should come as no surprise that Bischoff is against celebrities, or as he calls them "periphery characters," when it comes to inductions. It is the celebrity inductions that often rub the hardcore WWE fans the wrong way.
The first celebrity to enter the WWE Hall of Fame was Pete Rose, someone who was just there for Kane to chokeslam on numerous occasions but had nothing of significance to do with the WWE. Of course, the entire purpose might have been to get publicity for putting Rose in their Hall while Major League Baseball has not permitted him entrance into theirs.
Other names that seemed like wasted choices are Drew Carey (2011), Donald Trump (2013) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (2015). With names like that in the Hall, there has to be room for Andy Kauffman.
Andy Kauffman and professional wrestling
One of the reasons that Andy Kauffman is not in the WWE Hall of Fame as a celebrity is because he had nothing to do with the WWE.
Another reason might be that the company doesn't want to induct a deceased celebrity. Andy Kauffman was part of the Memphis wrestling scene when he started a feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler. Kauffman was someone who refused to ever break character on a joke and that meant carrying the feud from the wrestling ring to the media and even a controversial moment on David Letterman's show.
Kauffman started out by wrestling women and bragging he could beat any woman and named himself the Intergender Champion. This angered the serious Jerry Lawler and the two feuded with Lawler piledriving Kauffman and Andy wearing a neck brace everywhere he went after that. Outside the WWE, it was the most famous celebrity appearance in wrestling of all time.
