WWE has a couple different ways they announce new members of their Hall of Fame these days. Since TKO took over the brand, for the most part it’s been Undertaker surprising people with the news, NFL-style. Before that, it was usually a coordinated announcement with a media or press partner.
Word of the latest member of the class of 2026 came via a partner, but it’s presented as an ESPN “scoop”. That comes from the Disney-owned brand’s top NBA insider, Shams Charania. Appropriate as he’s reporting that someone who’s already a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame:
Some more thoughts on how we got the news in general, but first Dennis Rodman’s credentials for entry to WWE’s private club: his late 1990s run with Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the nWo. That included two _Bash at the Beach_ tag matches with Hogan in 1997 and 1998, the latter of which involved fellow future NBA Hall of Famer Karl Malone, and saw Rodman skip practice to work _Nitro_ during the NBA Finals against Malone and the Utah Jazz without informing his Chicago Bulls teammates.
Outside of his three WCW PPV matches, Rodman worked an independent/all-star tour of Australia in 2000, and made a few AEW appearances with The Acclaimed in 2023. As mentioned, he’s also a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. A five-time NBA champ with the Bulls and Detroit Pistons, “The Worm” was one of the greatest rebounders — and characters — in NBA history. He excelled at getting under his opponents skin while collecting double-digit boards per game, and was a prominent pop cultural figure for his off-court adventures, which were steadily chronicled in the tabloids (what we had before the internet and social media, for you young’uns out there).
Rodman joins a 2026 WWE Hall Class that includes Stephanie McMahon, AJ Styles, and Ax & Smash of Demolition), and a celebrity wing of the Hall of Fame made up of fellow athletes like Pete Rose, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, Bob Uecker, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali, and performers like Drew Carey and Donald Trump.
This Shams “scoop” comes at an interesting time in the WWE/ESPN relationship. Amid other signs the new partners are struggling to get their businesses to make sense together, it was just recently reported that WWE pressured ESPN to drop letter grades from the sports outlet’s coverage of WWE premium live events — which since last September, air exclusively on an ESPN service in the United States.
ESPN sharing Rodman’s Hall induction as “news” and not an exclusive announcement seems like an easy way to address those issues, but that’s just this writer’s supposition.
Thoughts on Dennis Rodman: WWE Hall of Famer, or anything else surrounding today’s report? Share them below!
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