Major WWE Hall of Fame Announcement Set For Tonight (SPOILER)

– Bruno Sammartino has revealed in an interview with ESPN’s Jon Robinson that he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2013. Sammartino, who has been very vocal about his opposition toward being inducted in the past, spoke to Robinson about that as well. Check out the highlights:

On being inducted: “Being inducted into the Hall of Fame at Madison Square Gardens is the biggest thing in my life…Any time that people feel that you accomplished enough to enter into a Hall of Fame, of course this is a tremendous, tremendous thrill for me. I had a lot of my success due to appearing at the Garden. I wrestled there over 200 times, it’s where I won the title, and it’s where I picked up 630-plus pounds of Haystacks Calhoun.”

On his past opposition to being inducted: “In talking to Paul Levesque (a/k/a Triple H), I made it clear, I’ve had issues with WWE and wrestling in general, because there were other organizations,” he said. “I didn’t like the direction they had taken. It was bothersome to me…But as Paul explained to me, WWE made a lot of other changes. There’s no more profanity, there’s no vulgarity in the current product, and that stuff had bothered me as well. When Paul first spoke to me and told me all the changes, I started watching it again and I was very convinced that they are doing amazing things. I see the wrestlers and all the changes they made. There’s no profanity, there’s no vulgarity, and it’s a family-friendly program. That’s what it used to be, and that’s a huge role in the whole factor.”

Triple H also commented on the induction, saying, “From a legitimacy standpoint, it’s important for us to get Bruno in. He’s one of the biggest names there has ever been in the business. So for us to not have him in there, for the legitimacy of the whole thing, it was a major issue. For me, the more important thing was that nobody deserves to be recognized for being a big star and paving the way for the stars of today more than Bruno. Everything that we have today in the business, Bruno was a cornerstone of that foundation. He truly is a living legend…There has been this bad blood between Bruno and the WWE for years, and we’re not trying to hide any of it, but I just felt like we are at a point where a lot of it can be resolved. Our wellness program and the way our programming is now, a lot of people are unaware of it, so I felt like if I could get Bruno on the phone and I could run down a list of those things that he didn’t like, I could show him how we changed. We’re PG, family-friendly entertainment with a wellness program that is truly based on the wellness of our performers. We want them to be healthy and live long, productive lives. So I just felt that if Bruno knew about those things, he might feel differently, and eventually, that’s what came to be.”

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