WWE Hall Of Fame update - Warrior declines invitation, Wendi Richter accepts

In breaking news, Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com is reporting that the Ultimate Warrior was offered an invitation to be inducted into WWE's Hall Of Fame this year, as many speculated he would be given the dearth of big name wrestlers left to be inducted in the Hall who aren't still wrestling for WWE or TNA, and the proximity of the site of this year's WrestleMania to his home town of Phoenix.  However, Warrior turned the invitation down and given his track record one would assume that would be due to money and there being no love lost between Warrior and WWE. 

Warrior was fired three times by Vince McMahon in his chequered WWF career.  At SummerSlam 1991, he was fired because Vince didn't want to live up to the terms of an agreement signed under duress weeks earlier, where he would pay Warrior Hulk Hogan level money, though Vince for years spread the myth that Warrior held him up for money the night of the show and that was the reason he fired him.  Vince was spooked by the George Zahorian steroid distribution trial where Hogan, as one of his customers, was supposed to testify, before Jerry McDevitt got him off the hook, which was why he agreed to Warrior's demands in the first place.  In November 1992, Warrior was fired when Vince found out he and Davey Boy Smith were importing Human Growth Hormone from England to beat his steroid tests.  And finally, in July 1996 Warrior was fired after no showing three house show events in late June of that year in the fallout of another messy monetary dispute between the two of them.

This isn't the first time Warrior has turned down a WWE invitation.  He refused to be a part of a DVD project on his career, which led to the DVD turning into a mean spirited, albeit largely true, burial of his career and his character entitled "The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior".

This story comes off the heels of WWE's somewhat surprising announcement that Wendi Richter, ironically the first person Vince McMahon screwed out of one of his titles given the current Bret storyline, has accepted an invitation to be inducted into their Hall Of Fame this year.  In the Brawl To End It All, the first ever MTV wrestling special on July 23rd 1984, Richter was given the biggest national push of a female wrestler in America ever seen as Cyndi Lauper's protege to defeat long standing World Women's champion The Fabulous Moolah managed by Captain Lou Albano.  Despite the show drawing huge ratings, Richter's push failed to get her over as hoped for, which eventually led to money disputes with the company.  On November 25th 1985 in Madison Square Garden, after Richter refused to sign a new contract with the terms the WWF wanted, she lost the WWF Women's title in a match she believed she was going to win, when the masked Spider Lady (being played that night by The Fabulous Moolah) small packaged her and the referee counted to three, even though Richter kicked out.  She never wrestled for the company ever again.  However, this Hall Of Fame decision isn't completely out of the blue, given that last year WWE reached out to Richter to be part of a Divas battle royal at WrestleMania featuring past and present female company stars, which Richter politely declined.