X-Pac On Why Chyna Wasn’t Inducted Into The WWE Hall Of Fame: ‘They Wanted Her To Get Cleaned Up’
Just about four months ago, former WWE star Chyna passed away at the age of 46, and, like some ex-WWE stars like Randy Savage, she passed away before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
There’s no question that Chyna deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, but WWE has been against inducting her ever since her departure from the company in 2001. Of course, many WWE fans were angry with the company shortly after her passing because they finally decided to acknowledge her legendary career, but will they acknowledge it by finally putting her in the Hall of Fame next year in Orlando? We’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s pretty clear that Chyna’s well-known personal issues and post-WWE career choices are what kept her out of WWE’s Hall of Fame, but, according to Sean “X-Pac” Waltman, WWE was planning on inducting her if she ever cleaned up her life.
https://twitter.com/TheRealXPac/status/745999410727784448
Waltman recently appeared on the Steve Austin Show podcast, and he was asked about why Chyna was never inducted into the Hall of Fame while she was alive, and on top of saying that WWE would’ve put her in if she cleaned up her life, he said that it’s really important to him that she gets in sooner rather than later.
“It’s important to me that [Chyna] gets in the [WWE Hall of Fame]. I mean, she was really disappointed when it didn’t happen before when she wanted it, but [WWE] wanted her to get cleaned up, and get some help. From their vantage point, when they get someone to get up on stage and accept a Hall of Fame induction, they don’t want to worry about what they might say, and make sure they’re stable.”
Shortly after her passing, both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon said that Chyna will go into the WWE Hall of Fame someday. Of course, many fans are predicting that it’ll be this coming spring in Orlando, Florida, but there’s a chance that WWE may want to wait a couple more years before putting her in.
As for who will induct her, well, it’ll almost certainly be Triple H, because he was more affiliated with her than anyone during her time there. Sure, there’s a chance that the entire D-Generation X faction — Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H — will end up inducting her, but that’s a lot of people to bring up on stage to have talk about one person, so it’ll probably end up being just Triple H.
our beautiful chyna getting her fitness on as she always told us to do. #Chynalives #ChynaForever #GetYourFitnesson pic.twitter.com/faklRdVWmO
— Chyna (@ChynaJoanLaurer) August 16, 2016
WWE typically only has one posthumous inductee every year, and as previously mentioned, there’s a chance that next year’s posthumous inductee will end up being Chyna.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE always held off on putting Chyna into the Hall of Fame because of the Tammy “Sunny” Sytch situation.
Sytch, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011, went on to have several very public personal issues, and most recently, she decided to transition into a career in adult films, which WWE wasn’t happy about. Currently, Sytch is one of the few WWE Hall of Famers that the company refuses to acknowledge.
In an edition of Wrestling Observer Radio following Chyna’s death, Meltzer said that WWE was hesitant to induct here because they didn’t want a repeat of the Sunny situation.
Just a few months before her death, Chyna showed up at WWE’s headquarters in Connecticut, and she tried to arrange a meeting with Triple H and Vince McMahon, but both Vince and Triple H refused to meet with her. So it was quite clear then that WWE wanted nothing to do with her, even though she was trying to make it clear that she had cleaned up her life.
[Image via WWE]
