Randy Anderson.

WCW seemed to have a lot of great refs. Lil Naitch still going strong.

Correct. Now who the hell is Brian Anderson?

They did. Unfortunately Randy Anderson and Mark Curtis both died of cancer before the company folded.

Speaking of which, not one referee in the WWE Hall of Fame as far as I know. That seems like a real oversight.

Tommy Young would be a good one to go in as the first referee. He was great, and Gordon Solie was the nuts at putting him (and therefore the match) over.

Young was excellent and very deserving, but it would be a big surprise if the first referee inductee wasn't a Vince loyalist.

I'd like the person who said Stan Hansen *yawn* to be banned. Thanks.

Probably backstage screaming into a headset somewhere

"TELL THE SON OF A BITCH ON STAGE TO PRAISE ME DAMNIT"

Didn't Vince personally come out from backstage to give the hook to Bob Backlund during his induction a few years ago?

It's true that he never seems to be in the crowd, so he's undoubtedly backstage micro-managing.

On screen WWE very rarely mentions the names of refs and utilizes them in the stories a lot less often in recent years. Vince will have to get off his kick of de-emphasizing the refs before wanting to put one in the Hall.

The problem with inducting a ref is that the WWE has spent a lot of time trying to deempahsize the referee. When is the last time the ring announcer or commentators have mentioned a ref by name? Outside of Lil Naitch or Mike Chioda, how many current refs can you actually name without looking it up?

I honestly think that if they were going to start inducting refs, there really wouldn't be a good choice to start with until Chioda or Robinson retire, or Earl Hebner were to come back.

As for the reason Vince isn't out there is probably because he is helping direct things back stage. I have heard people speculate that he actually prefers to "humble brag" by saying he doesn't want to distract from the show by having his presence out there, so who knows if that's part of it too.

I actually think the order is not to mention him.

Hayes very obviously thanked the other McMahons but didn't mention Vince. It seems to be deliberate.

He's also not in the hall of fame himself. Seems to be a thing he has.

I'd like to see them put Joey Marella in.

He would be another ref worthy on induction, but the first one has to be a very recognizable name. I would think Joey would be in the second tier along with Tim White and Jim Corderas' hairline

Jesse Ventura could induct him.

Now I'm going to be saying "Joey MA-RELL-A" just like Jessie all day now. My wife is going to punch me in the face

Lol

Ventura hated Marella almost as much as Hogan

I don't think that Ventura particularly needled Marella on Superstars with Vince. I think it was purely him playfully digging at Monsoon.

Would imagine Teddy Long is the first ref to get in, albeit he wouldn't be inducted AS a ref, just was one

Jim Ross was a full time ref for years.