D-Generation X Announced as 2019 WWE Hall of Fame Inductees
With Wrestlemania just under two months away, six members of D-Generation X have been revealed as the first inductees to the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019.
Earlier today, ESPN broke the news that WWE would be inducting Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and X-Pac into the WWE Hall of Fame collectively as D-Generation X. With this induction, Shawn Michaels becomes only the second 2-time inductee, after Ric Flair was inducted as an individual wrestler and as part of the Four Horsemen. 'Ravishing' Rick Rude, Stephanie McMahon, and Tori are the only other official members of DX who are not being included as inductees, though Rude was inducted as an individual performer in 2017.
The inclusion of Chyna as an inductee is long-overdue in the eyes of many fans, especially since her passing in 2016. Triple H appeared on a special edition of the 'Stone Cold Podcast' for the WWE Network and addressed the idea of Chyna being inducted into the Hall of Fame, saying that her work in adult films towards the end of her life would make an induction unlikely at that time. However, now that Chyna will be recognized as a Hall of Fame talent, Triple H told ESPN,
Look, people believe what they want to believe. When I said a few years ago on the Austin podcast, or show, or whatever you want to call it, there's complexities around it. But absolutely, definitely deserves to be in there. It'd be tough to pick a female that was more impactful on the business. She did something that was completely so out of left field that it wasn't even being considered when we first brought it up for her to come in. It wasn't even a consideration ... it wasn't an easy thing, and against all odds she did all of that. She earned everybody's trust. She won over the fans. She won over the boys. She did all of it.
From that standpoint, absolutely 100 percent deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and should probably be more than once -- as a group, but individually as well. There's more complexity to that than meets the eye, but here we are. I'm just happy that it's here. I'm happy for her family, the people that she was close to, that hopefully this is super-meaningful to them. I know it would be to her. It's a great thing -- very deserving.
Recognizing the first and second line-ups of DX for this induction isn't the first time WWE has inducted multiple versions of group or faction. When inducting the Fabulous Freebirds, WWE inducted the original trio of Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts, and Terry Gordy, but also inducted Jimmy Garvin, who was part of the Fabulous Freebirds tag team in WCW with Hayes. However, when inducting The Four Horsemen, WWE chose to only recognize the 3rd iteration of the group, which featured Barry Windham as a replacement to Ole Anderson and Lex Luger.
No word yet on who will be asked to perform the induction this April.