Sergio here, reporting from Miami, Cagesiders.
It's been a wild weekend so far and the biggest part, WrestleMania 28, is still hours away.
Last night, I attended the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the Class of 2012 where The Four Horsemen, Mike Tyson, Yokozuna, Ron Simmons, Mil Mascaras, Edge were ushered into WWE immortality by some of their closest friends or family members.
Aside from Tyson. Why he wold someone who got knocked out by "Iron" agree to give his induction speech? Oh well, it was an excuse to see some classic D-Generation X (DX) back and forth.
WWE was planning on streaming the event via Facebook but decided to pull the plug, for whatever reason, which means some of the inductee's speeches won't ever be seen unedited and uncensored.
And trust me, that's a good thing for some speeches -- Mil Mascaras -- and a lousy one for others -- Mike Tyson.
Some live notes for you, Cagesiders, after the jump.
- Ron Simmons was the first inductee
- John Bradshaw Layfield's (JBL) induction speech killed. KILLED. Everyone in the building was wishing "The Wrestling Gawd" was still involved with WWE in some capacity.
- JBL said WWE would be wise to hook up with Stephen Hawking, invent a time machine and create a reality show about his travels with Simmons, Teddy Long and The Godfather
- Simmons' post-speech "Damn" was epic.
- Mil Mascaras' speech was a bit weird. He discussed having two wives? Because English isn't his first language, I can't be sure if there was a joke in there lost in translation.
- Dusty Rhodes inducted The Four Horsemen next and of course, Ric Flair cried. He did also make a joke at his own expense about his rampant marrying ways which got a lot of laughs.
- Rhodes made a comment about guys these days traveling on buses which seemed to me, in my conspiracy theory-addled brain, to be a dig at Punk who recently got his own.
- Arn Anderson got a standing ovation at the beginning of his speech. He put over CM Punk pretty big, calling him a "team leader" and said three years ago, he never thought he'd say.
- "Double A" also put over Randy Orton and John Cena who had been getting unmercifully booed the entire evening. The crowd somewhat cheered Cena when Anderson brought him up simply because you can't boo a man Arn freakin' Anderson is giving props to.
- Michaels and Triple H inducted Tyson next with some playful banter. They sort of played up tonight's match but nothing too much as to take away from the proceedings.
- Tyson's speech was pretty insane. At one point, he did the "you can't see me" and his Hall of Fame ring flew off.
- He mentioned his kids had no interest in attending the Hall of Fame ceremony for boxing but were all about going to WWE's event.
- Tyson then said Cena and Rhodes were both black which got a huge laugh from the audience. Joey Styles had this to say on Twitter: OMF'NG! Best #WWEHOF speech ever by @MikeTyson! Too bad you'll never see it! LOL!
- Yokozuna's induction came up next. Rikishi gave a really good speech about the deceased WWE Superstar, putting over his athleticism for a man his size. He also mentioned in the past four decades, there has always been at least one member of Anoa'i family working for WWE at any given time.
- Edge's induction closed the show and what a way to go out. Christian gave a heartfelt speech about his best friend and how they grew up in a small town together, dreaming of both making it to WWE.
- Just about everyone started getting choked up when Christian mentioned how Edge and his mother grew up with little money, scraping by to make ends meet and "The Rated R Superstar" once told Christian he had to make it in the business so he could take care of his mom and buy her a house.
- Edge's speech was equally good. He showed old photos of himself -- with terrible mullet and all -- and relayed a story about how he -- at 17 years old -- met Bret Hart on a talk show and asked how to break into the business. "Just keep plugging away," Hart told him after the show. Edge offered the same advice to his "kids," Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins.
- He also talked up Michael Hayes and showed a photo of the former Freebird's many suits throughout the years and mentioned his green suit this evening made him look like Kermit the Frog's pimp.
- The best part of the speech had to have been when Edge thanked his best tag team partner. "No, it isn't Christian. It's my mom."
- Other highlights were Brodus Clay's suit. "The Funkasaurus" was decked out in the illest all-white suit. Lars Frederiksen of Rancid was CM Punk's "date" even though many thought Lita -- who was sitting right next to Punk -- was accompanying the WWE Champion.
- Miami HATES John Cena. HATES. He is going to be booed out of Sun Life Stadium tonight.