The WWE Hall of Fame is a special part of WWE lore for the ways in which it celebrates legends, embraces pro wrestling nostalgia, and affords an opportunity to hear what are often inspired speeches and stories from stars of yesteryear. The Hall has also become a moneymaker for WWE as its an additional piece of live content to broadcast, a live event to sell tickets for, and excuse to sell new merchandise for retired talent.
Ever since WWE transitioned to the two-night WrestleMania format, however, the Hall of Fame has also presented challenges. From 2004 to 2019, the induction ceremony was a part of WrestleMania weekend, taking place the night before ‘Mania. The 2020 ceremony was postponed due to COVID, and recent years have seen it occur after SmackDown—directly in the same arena as the live Friday night show or, this year, from a separate location, hours later. The resulting ceremonies have not done WWE legends, talents, or fans justice.
The WWE Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony Has Started Too Late At Night
The 2025 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony started at 10 p.m. Pacific Time. It’s always a bit arbitrary to say what time of night is too late to expect people to watch or enjoy a show, but when a program isn’t getting started until 1 a.m. Eastern Time, that’s a pretty hard sell for any kind of mainstream audience to watch live.
What’s more, WWE staged NXT Stand & Deliver starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Time the next morning. In terms of fans who attended WrestleMania weekend live and who wanted to attend both events, that meant a mere eight and a half hours between shows. Even for fans watching from home on the East Coast, it meant staying up until 4:30 a.m., then tuning back in at 1 p.m. Even for the most hardcore fans, that’s not an appealing combination.
Even independent of the NXT event, though, a show ending at 1:30 on the west coast, 4:30 on the east coast simply isn’t a great fit for fans, nor for WWE talents themselves. Perhaps most importantly, a generally older population of legends getting Hall of Fame recognition both have to stay up way past their bedtimes and deliver speeches in front of an audience that’s fighting just to stay awake.
Another Time Of Year Might Give The WWE Hall Of Fame More Spotlight
One solution to Hall of Fame scheduling would be to do it on a separate weekend. Indeed, back in the 1990s when WWE started experimenting with live induction ceremonies, they held them in conjunction with the King of the Ring PLE and then the Royal Rumble. A major PLE without a two-night format would make all the sense in the world to inherit the ceremony and, in so doing, elevate that PLE’s weekend on the whole.
As an alternative, WWE could innovate around the Hall of Fame itself. They could take a page out of WCW’s playbook with the old Slamboree shows, built around celebrating their own Hall of Fame and featuring a handful of matches in which former talents got back in the ring for one more match. The idea of more properly resurrecting the Starrcade brand—not just with a glorified house show WWE streams, but as its own major event that invokes nostalgia could be a perfect fit to pair with the Hall of Fame’s own emphasis on celebrating yesteryear.
Airing The Induction Ceremony In Place Of A SmackDown Go-Home Show May Make The Most Sense
Some people would undoubtedly look at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony getting moved off WrestleMania weekend as a step down for its prestige. It is fair that WrestleMania is the biggest event on the WWE calendar and draws the largest volume of fans. As such, the Hall of Fame does get some extra shine just by being associated with The Showcase of the Immortals.
Perhaps the simplest solution, then, would be for the ceremony to simply replace the go-home SmackDown before WrestleMania. Even with attractions like the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and a spirited promo between Cody Rhodes and John Cena this year, the blue brand’s last show before ‘Mania felt pretty skippable, knowing the card was set and WWE probably wouldn’t want to risk major talents getting hurt in matches right before the big one.
Plugging the Hall of Fame into that spot would make better use of the time, still honoring WWE’s programming obligations and giving the ceremony a larger, organic viewership. WWE might have to shrink down its induction classes marginally to ensure they fit in the SmackDown time slot, but most fans would be fine with a ceremony they knew wouldn’t exceed three hours. Perhaps that time could even include a couple matches, as pairing the Andre battle royal, for example, with the ceremony actually has a nice ring to it.
In the end, there are pros and cons all around to how WWE might reimagine its Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. At minimum, though, for the sake of truly honoring legends and entertaining fans, this important piece of WWE content really shouldn’t happen so late at night at the front end of the biggest weekend of the year.
