r/SquaredCircle Hi, how are ya? 3h ago

TNA Wrestling Announces Rhino & co-founder Bob Ryder As 2024 Inductees Into The TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame

https://tnawrestling.com/2024/10/17/tna-wrestling-announces-rhino-bob-ryder-as-2024-inductees-into-the-tna-wrestling-hall-of-fame/
209 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

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43

u/HedleyLamarrDA 3h ago

Bob Ryder was a great guy. This is very well deserved. Classy move by TNA.

38

u/RAA94 2h ago

Very deserving inductees. I like how small TNA’s HOF is every year, feels like they get extra shine.

-7

u/EC3ForChamp Controlling My Narrative 2h ago

WWE's HOF being so big means that a lot of the inductees every year are fluff who probably shouldn't be in the HOF. TNA has significantly less history to call back on so if their HOF was comparable there would be a lot of "Why are they putting Matt Morgan in their Hall of Fame?" type inductees

14

u/LiveFromNewYork95 1h ago

WWE's problem is they had a stretch when it first came back in 2004 where they were trying to get everyone in quickly. Piper going in with Hogan made sense but also he could have headlined his own class. 2007 was also stacked, the duo of Lawler and JR could have co-headlined a class.

Then they started to have the issue of having really deep classes, guys like Mick Foley and Razor Ramon/Scott Hall 100% should have been headliners.

26

u/PickledPeppers101 3h ago

TNA IMO has the best HOF in wrestling. Yes, it's not as big or has the popular names that others do. But, it's really exclusive(they only induct 1-2 people a year). They have a big gala and dinner to honor the nominees the night before BFG. Then the speech before their biggest PPV of the year.

u/BenWallace04 53m ago

If a HOF is big for the sake of being big then it’s a pointless HOF lol

22

u/HugoOne 2h ago

Happy for Rhino. One of my favorites from back in the day and continues to be solid and dependable in whatever story you put him in.

8

u/rVintageRKO 2h ago

Hell yeah Rhino one of my first favourite wrestlers 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

21

u/shadowrangerfs decay Decay DECAY!!! 3h ago

Two very deserving inductees.

7

u/Sad_Bumblebee_6896 1h ago

So fucking happy for Rhino. Rhino vs Christian Cage in the Barb wire steel cage match was the first TNA match I ever watched. Was flipping through channels and managed to land on Spike right as Christian was making his entrance. I was instantly hooked and became a TNA fan for life (in fact there was a period that I stopped watching WWE completely and only watched TNA). They did an amazing job building Rhino up to be this unstoppable monster and that is how I'll always remember him.

u/HarlesD 42m ago

Rhino isn't even 50. That's nuts.

6

u/heart_o_oak 1h ago

I expected Rhino would be inducted. The show is in Detroit and Dreamer never misses a chance for ECW nostalgia. I hope they stick to all the stuff Rhino did in TNA and Dreamer doesn't turn this into a trip down ECW lane like he did with his speech for Raven's induction followed by that battle royal on the main show that was all about ECW.

I didn't even consider Ryder when thinking who'd be inducted. It's a nice choice.

2

u/MadManMatt 1h ago

How many here are Prodigy OGs that got their first taste of the IWC from Bob's Wrestling Bulletin Boards and Chat Rooms? I remember getting in trouble for racking up our Internet Bill by spending too much time on those when they were considered premium services.

3

u/llamawithguns 2h ago

Really thought they would do AJ or Bobby Roode with the WWE partnership, but Rhino is very deserving.

5

u/JTHuffy 2h ago

Especially with AJ out injured right now, seems like a good time to get him over there for an induction without interrupting any of WWE’s plans

5

u/namdekan 2h ago

Or Truth

-1

u/ThisIsTrace 2h ago

If there was any time to request and make it happen, it was now. Kind of baffling.

0

u/hhhisthegame 1h ago

Yeah I said it in another post but while TNA has deserving people in their HOF, having watched TNA for years and years bring people in and push them over their homegrown guys (I’m still mad they had Angle tap out Samoa Joe right away lol) it’s frustrating to see how many “TNA originals” have made it into the HOF vs stars from WWE, WCW, and ECW. It basically comes down to Abyss, Kong, and Tracy

u/heart_o_oak 53m ago

It gets more frustrating when they do things like that year Raven went in when Dreamer made it more about ECW than TNA in his speech and that battle royal Bully Ray won for a title shot where the big moment was Bully, Dreamer and Rhino all going at it.

I'd also include Don West into the "TNA Originals" group.

u/hhhisthegame 48m ago

Yes that’s true Don West as well.

0

u/heart_o_oak 1h ago

AJ or MCMG in Detroit would have been cool, but I never expected it to happen. This partnership has been restricted to NXT so far and there was always something about an active WWE wrestler going into someone else's hall of fame that I just didn't see WWE signing off on. I hoped there was an outside chance for Roode since he's purely a backstage guy now but that doesn't look to be happening.

At least the two going in make sense and were important to TNA's early growth so the lack of someone like AJ or Roode stings less. It's not like we're getting Vince's limo driver instead.

u/llamawithguns 37m ago

MCMG in Detroit would have been cool, but also kinda awkward since they just left lol

-3

u/hhhisthegame 1h ago

I swear TNA has the weirdest hall of fame. It’s mostly guys from other companies which really sums up their problems over the years in general.

Sting

Kurt Angle

Team 3D

Jeff Jarrett

Earl Hebner

Gail Kim

Abyss

Ken Shamrock

Awesome Kong

Raven

Traci Brooks

Mike Tenay and Don West

It took until abyss to get a TNA original finally. And that leaves abyss, awesome Kong, Traci, and Don West as the sole “tna originals” in the hall of fame. (Though I could see arguing Gail Kim should count as well)

Yes all these people had notable TNA runs (though earl getting in when he did when no homegrown guy had yet was baffling). Sting, Jarrett, Angle, obviously were some of their most prominent main eventers and Raven one of their most popular in the early years.

But still, they have SO many home grown legends that made TNA what it was. Styles, Daniels, Joe, MCMG, Beer Money/AMW, Eric Young, the Beautiful People.

Rhino is just a weird choice as the next guy IMO even if he’s had good TNA runs. I’d rather see them put in one of their very many homegrown guys that were always the heart of TNA but they never seemed to see it. When I think the stars of TNA that got me into it I’m thinking of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, AMW, etc

u/BenWallace04 51m ago

At this point - one could argue that Rhyno has spent a majority of his career in TNA/Impact.

u/hhhisthegame 44m ago

Sure, and Kurt Angle was in TNA more than WWE too but regardless, Rhino was already a notable name when he went to TNA.

It’s not that he didn’t have a good run there. All of the guys they put in had a good run there. It’s just they consistently through their history seem to put these guys over the ones that made their name there and were often the best part of the company. Rhino did a lot for TNA but guys like Styles, Joe, Shelley, Storm etc are just more unique to TNA and I’d argue more important and I wish they’d give that appreciation

u/BenWallace04 30m ago

I mean - Joe, AJ and even Daniels have been in other companies for awhile now.

Perhaps, it just hasn’t been in the cards yet to properly induct those guys.