The Greatest is entering yet another hall of fame – this time it’s the WWE Hall of Fame, as the company announced that Muhammad Ali will be inducted into its HOF the weekend of WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia.
For the uninitiated, Ali is no stranger to the squared circle, as Ali has been in a wrestling ring on more than one occasion.
Infamously, he took on WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki inside the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, Japan in a boxer vs wrestler match for “The War of the Worlds” exhibition bout.
In the match, a 15-round draw in front of 32,000 fans, attempted to battle through Inoki’s kicks, who laid on his back in an attempt to keep Ali at bay. A few weeks earlier, Ali also had a brief tussle with another WWE Hall of Famer – Gorilla Monsoon, after a post-match incident in Philadelphia.
Then, famously in 1984, Ali served as a special guest referee at the very first WrestleMania for the main event between Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff.
During the match, Ali had his big moment when he punched Piper with a right hand in an attempt to restore order – a role Mike Tyson would later have in 1998 as special guest referee at WrestleMania XIV in the main event match between Shawn Michaels and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Ali was also recently included as a playable character in 2K’s wrestling game, WWE 2K24, which just released on March 8th.
