Didn't Bret have a falling out with Owen's widow and didn't she recently sue WWE?

Owen's widow did sue a second time, but it's been settled since. Pretty sure Bret's comments came since the time of settlement. It does seem to be true that Bret and Owen's widow aren't all that friendly though.

Obviously there are no guarantees, but I'm somewhat optimistic that they eventually work something out and he gets inducted.

Usually the "let's work something out" effort gets put in with the biggest names, the headliners. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure Owen is that big of a name. It may sound bad, but if Owen hadn't died, would he be that big a deal? He seemed to have a really hard time getting over in WWE and was never really a main eventer. I wonder if it's worth the effort for them when he wouldn't be the headliner.

True confession time:

I read this and thought "really? Lord Alfred Hayes? I didn't think he was that big a deal."

It's true that he would be a second-billing level of HOFer, though he'd still be a pretty obvious one in terms of kayfabe accomplishment and in terms of being one of the best workers in the company throughout a pretty lengthy run. Can't say I agree that he had difficulty getting over, at least not as a heel, which was like 90% of his work.

Nah that commoner from the colony Georgia. Not nearly as much dignity.

Yeah. Eadie cut some fine promos as the Masked Superstar.

I always appreciated Ax's understated version of sticking his tongue out before matches. Smash would go all-out sticking his tongue out and saying "AHHHHHH" and then Ax would just sort of shrug and go "...yeah, ahhh."

His work with Bret after turning on him I would consider his peak, but aside from that....

- he teamed with Davey Boy and was just another part of Jim Cornette's stable and probably even the low man of the 3 (Him, DBS, Vader/Yokozuna)

- he reunited with Bret and was just another part of the Hart Foundation

- they tried to turn him face as the Black Hart and the last of the Harts, but that was such an epic fail that they turned him heel and threw him in with the nation of all groups where he was just another guy.

- he teamed with Jarrett and then went back to being the Blue Blazer.

Is there something I'm missing aside from his run vs Bret?

I agree with you. I think a lot of people that prop him up so high are thinking about "what he could have done", but as you mentioned, he was on a downward spiral after 94 and was irrelevant after Bret left. I doubt he was a future world champ or top guy.

He was getting pushed on some level almost constantly during most of what you describe. After a year of feuding with Bret, he was tag champion on two different teams and then was IC Champ during the Hart Foundation angle, clearly the #2 guy in the faction at that point.

When they went with the Black Hart thing, it initially got over really well (watch his initial promo) and looked to be headed for a main event program with HBK, but then Michaels/HHH politics swept it aside and the match never got to PPV, at which point they completely jobbed him out on every show (first to Shawn on a Raw match, then to HHH on several PPVs, then finally getting left down to job to X-Pac) until his heat was gone. That part of his run was ultimately a failure, which is why I specified that the heel stuff was obviously what was successful, but getting jobbed out for political reasons makes it pretty difficult to put on him.

Even after that, the heel run with the Nation was a good one. The alliance with Jarrett was nothing that great and it's unfortunate that he was stuck trying to make that work when things ended. The popular story is that he was stuck in that angle as a punishment for not wanting to do a risque angle with Debra since he was married, but who knows if that was true.

In any case he was a guy that they always had something for creatively, was on almost every PPV and got a number of title pushes back when titles weren't just jobber straps.

That's probably the best argument to win me over. Present him as an Arn Anderson type who I was a huge fan of and think would have been a big deal if he was 10 years later. The kind of guy that was a part of many successful teams. Arn was a great talker though.

I'm still not sure WWE will pony up to pay the Owen's widow whatever it will take to get him in the HOF.

Yeah, FWIW I don't really buy into the notion that Owen was ever likely to get a run with the top belt, which is why I agree that he's a second-billing sort of HOFer and nobody that would have likely headlined even had things ended less tragically. Arn is a pretty good comparison in playing second fiddle to a bigger legend while being awesome in his own right. He was a truly legendary talker while Owen was just passable on the mic, but Owen was also the better in-ring worker than Arn was.

Also wanted to add The British Bulldogs as arguably the best tag team of all time. They def should be in.

Everyone hates dynamite. Davey should get in though

Yep, they could just be waiting for Dynamite to die before they induct that team because nobody wants to honor him.

The Steiners aren't even in the HOF. One of the reasons that the mediocre guys making it is stupid is because so many elite options are available to induct.

Well, it's not like they have a limit of how many people a year they can put in.

There should be a self-imposed limit on that.

The criteria for the limit should be "whatever doesn't have us just allowing every quasi-successful wrestler ever in."

It seems to make more sense to put the obvious choices in first. But perhaps that is too much like real sports for Vince.

Vince had a conference call today to disclose quarterly stuff and field questions... bless that man for being so in tune with the audience.

Did Vince think he was in the ring as Mr. McMahon? Mocking your customers in that manner doesn't seem like good business.

Honestly, at this point, if I can't see what I really want, I'd rather see a **** show in front of a great audience who will crap all over it. Give me a good train wreck. Bring on Reigns vs Lesnar!

I'm still watching some of the oldest stuff on the Network. All Star Wrestling from 1976. The Bobo Brazil match is just pure cartoon comedy. In the aftermath, he's attacked by Captain Lou Albano, who calls in 4 guys to help him, all the while he's running around in circles with his arms up in the air, but never thinks to leave the ring. Everything is just so slow and telegraphed. The finishing move is a headbutt which a young Vince McMahon claims "nobody has ever gotten up from".

Also something I've noticed from these older shows is that when Vince has a broadcast partner, it's usually someone who can barely speak English and says about 3 things the entire show.

I actually agree with Vince. It was Left 4 Dead 2 all over again.

"for people who joined the Boycott Group on Steam ... they're actually pre-ordering the product at a higher rate than Left 4 Dead 1 owners who weren't in the boycott".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead_2#Boycott

^This. Most of the fans who dislike the story the WWE are portraying prefer the story behind the scenes and will continue to watch. It's pretty much the sole reason why WM 30's build was as good as it was. It felt like the fans got a "win" over Vince with Bryan going over when in reality, he just banked a stack of cash. Everyone that was upset with the RR still tuned in on RAW and SD to see if they were going to try and "fix" it. Fans will always watch the WWE because when they have good writing, it's great and when they don't, it's fun to critique them and read all the backstage stuff. Most wrestling fans that can afford it will keep the network just for the archive anyway.