Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham announced as newest WWE Hall of Fame Inductees

Adam Bazzana

Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda from the cover of a WWF program.
Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda from the cover of a WWF program.

The US Express, a tag team comprised of Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham, was announced as the latest inductees to the WWE Hall of Fame.

The pair started their careers in Championship Wrestling from Florida, which is where they first became a tag team. They were three-time NWA Florida United States Tag Team Champions before they made the move to WWF. Once they hit the WWF, the pair used “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen as their entrance music and had Captain Lou Albano as their manager. Rick Derringer, who was working with the WWF at the time, had written the song “Real American” to use as their entrance music, but after they chose to use Springsteen, “Real American” was eventually given to Hulk Hogan, who became synonymous with the song.

During their time in Florida, Rotunda made a connection, and started a relationship, with Windham’s sister Stephanie. The relationship eventually led to a marriage between the two, as well as son, Tyler and Windham Rotunda, better known by their in-ring names of Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt, and daughter Mika.

After signing for WWF in 1984, they captured the WWF World Tag Team Championship belts in January of 1985 by defeating Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch, the North-South Connection. They carried the belts into the first-ever WrestleMania but ended up losing the titles to The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. They won the titles back from the pair, before losing them again, for good, to Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake, the Dream Team. This led to the pair leaving for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for a brief time, before returning to the States and defeating the team of Stan Lane and Steve Keirn, the Fabulous Ones. That was the end of the team for a while, as Windham left the WWF, and Rotunda was paired with Dan Spivey to make The American Express.

The pair both saw their fair share of success after their US Express days were over. Rotunda went on to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Television Championship, the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Rick Steiner and Steve Williams as the Varsity Club, and went on to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship three more times with Ted DiBiase as Money Inc. He had feuds with the likes of Rick Steiner, the Undertaker and Razor Ramone. Windham went on to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United States Tag Team Championship with Ron Garvin, the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, the WCW World Television Championship, the NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Championship with Dustin Rhodes, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Tully Blanchard, the WCW World Tag Team Championship once with Curt Henning and once with Kendall Windham, the NWA New England Heavyweight Championship, and the TCW Heavyweight Championship. He was also a part of the famous faction The Four Horseman, comprised of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Windham. The Four Horseman were inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2012, though Ole Anderson was not part of the factions induction.

Triple H also took to X to post himself informing the pair that they had made it to the Hall of Fame and congratulate them.

So far Paul Heyman and Bull Nakano have been the other announced inductees for this years class of Hall of Famers, which will take place WrestleMania 40 weekend in Philadelphia.

TOP PHOTO: Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda from the cover of a WWF program.

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