WWE Hall of Fame 2012 inductees announced on Raw: Edge and The Four Horsemen

During last night's (Jan. 9, 2012) episode of Monday Night Raw, WWE announced two of the inductees for this years Hall of Fame (HOF) ceremony taking place the night before WrestleMania 28 in Miami, Florida.

First announced was Edge, which came as a bit of a surprise to everyone considering the fact that he just retired earlier this year and most thought he would wait for 'Mania to head back to Toronto, which it could do as early as next year. However, it shouldn't be too shocking because they're simply capitalizing on his still being relatively fresh in fans minds, plus he has a DVD coming out around the same time. Marketing and all that.

Edge reached great heights but my gut feeling is that he won't age well. By that, I mean he was a great performer who had incredible talent and was a fine worker but he wasn't the most memorable champion. In 10 years, are we really going to look back and remember Edge for his time at the top? No. It's far more likely we'll remember the man who overshadowed him for much of his main event run, John Cena, and, to a lesser extent, Randy Orton.

Nonetheless, Edge deserves to be in the HOF because he accomplished something few wrestlers ever do. He went from being a guy who was considered a career mid-carder to a guy who main evented multiple WrestleMania shows. That's extremely impressive.

His run with Christian as a tag team was as good as it gets. They accomplished as much as any other tag team in the business. He went on to win plenty of singles titles before finally making that final push into the upper tier, breaking through with the help of Cena, who put him over a few times during their various feuds. Nothing too big, of course, but Cena did help.

The credit, though, should fall mostly with Edge.

He told Arda Ocal on Aftermath Radio that if it's up to him, Christian will be the one inducting him. And really, it shouldn't be any other way.

The second inductee(s) announced last night was the supergroup from the 80s and 90s, the Four Horsemen.

There are two interesting aspects to their induction: 1) The fact that the group featured about 600 different guys at one time or another and 2) the fact that the most prominent member, Ric Flair, currently works for TNA.

Indeed, the joke already making the rounds is that if the Horsemen are in then that means anyone who was in the group at any time is in.

Which makes Paul Roma a WWE Hall of Famer.

The members shown on screen for induction on Raw were Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and J.J. Dillon. There will undoubtedly be those who are upset that Ole Anderson wasn't included but the five guys they chose work best.

Which brings us back to Flair, who was already inducted as a singles wrestler back in 2008 at WrestleMania 24. The idea of WWE giving anyone screen time on its flagship show while that wrestler is with its chief competitor is mind boggling to say the least. How they address the actual induction should be interesting. They certainly didn't shy away from talking about him, as Shawn Michaels gave him a short promo during Raw, no different than the other Horsemen.

There you have it, Cagesiders. It looks like the two main event inductees into this year's HOF are Edge and The Four Horsemen.

Thoughts?