The long-rumoured induction of Mr. T into the WWE Hall of Fame will happen this year in New Orleans, as a part of WrestleMania XXX weekend, reports TMZ.com.
The TMZ website broke the story earlier today WWE issued a press release shortly thereafter.
“WWE is honored to have Mr. T join the WWE Hall of Fame,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO, in the press release. “His WWE appearances were instrumental in helping to establish WrestleMania as the pop-culture phenomenon it is today.”
Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) was a big part of the first two WrestleManias, thanks in large part to his stardom in Rocky III as Clubber Lang and as B.A. Baracus on TV’s The A-Team. At the first one in 1985, Mr. T teamed with Hulk Hogan against Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff in the main event. The following year, at WrestleMania II, he took on Piper in a boxing match.
The WWE Hall of Fame has long had a celebrity wing, and it includes the likes of Drew Carey, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Bob Uecker, and William “The Refrigerator” Perry.
But it was a baseball inductee from 2004 that always perturbed Mr. T and was the apparent reason he continued to turn down WWE’s attempts to induct him.
“WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can’t even get into his own Hall of Fame,” Mr. T told the Ringside blog as a part of the Mirror newspaper in the United Kingdom in 2009. “After they put Rose in they came and asked me and I said “You don’t insult me! You don’t put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame before me! I ain’t going to be a part of that.”
Other inductees at the April 5th ceremony at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans include The Ultimate Warrior, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Lita, Paul Bearer, and Carlos Colón. The ceremony will air on the WWE Network.
