WWE Not Placing As Much Importance On Hall Of Fame Ceremony This Year

WrestleMania is the biggest event of the year for WWE. This year’s spectacle marks the company’s return to AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. They say “everything’s bigger in Texas,” and WWE is staying true to that adage.

WWE recently announced that there would be both Hall of Fame and NXT events for fans during WrestleMania weekend. We now know that the NXT event will take place earlier in the day on Saturday before night one of the two-day event. The Hall of Fame will go down the day before, on Friday.

That could have fans feeling exhausted after three or four hours at the Hall of Fame ceremony, further three for NXT with a short break in between, followed by four hours of WrestleMania night one. On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Melter said that while some fans will be exhausted by the main event, it shouldn’t be a major concern for WWE.

“In theory, their talent and their audience, they want you to watch the Hall of Fame until midnight eastern and then wake up fairly early to watch NXT and then watch a full WrestleMania pay-per-view day one. And there are people who will do it, but there will be more people… I believe that most people will skip the Hall of Fame and skip NXT.

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You got two hours of that on a Friday night. I don’t see a lot of people. You know, no matter what they have. I mean, again, there will be some who will, but I don’t see… NXT will probably be in a small location for attendance. And they’ll draw because there’s going to be enough tourists there that if you go in like a 5,000 seat building, you’ll probably fill it. But, it’s asking a lot.

Again, even if you tire out 5,000 people with the NXT big show, the fact is that most of the people who go to the Saturday WrestleMania, whatever the number’s going to end up being, 70,000 or whatever, whatever the real number ends up being. Even if all 5,000 went, and it probably wouldn’t be all of them, you’re still talking about 65,000 people that’ll be fresh. I don’t think if people later use that, like if somehow WrestleMania doesn’t get a good reaction and you go, ‘Oh, the audience was tired because they went to NXT first,’ I mean, that is probably an excuse that will be made if the crowd isn’t hot for that, but it is also an excuse that holds no water whatsoever.”

Those fans who choose to attend the Hall of Fame, NXT, and both nights of WrestleMania will be committing nearly 15 hours. That doesn’t include the non-WWE events that WrestleMania weekend always brings to town. Fortunately, the number of people attending all of those events won’t be large enough to take the bite out of what should be a very excited live crowd in Dallas.

Transcription by Ringside News