WWE staged its annual Hall of Fame ceremony during the WrestleMania 41 festivities last weekend in Las Vegas, with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Bret “The Hitman” Hart joining the hallowed hall for their WrestleMania 13 match back in 1997.
Austin and Hart departed “Sin City” with the inaugural “WWE Immortal Moment” award.
The special guest referee for their iconic match was none other than UFC hall of famer Ken Shamrock. Despite his success in MMA, “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” spent a chunk of his competitive prime wrestling for Vince McMahon and WWE.
In doing so, Shamrock helped introduce new fans to the WWE product.
“Like CM Punk said, so properly addressed Ken Shamrock, I’d like to say thank you to Ken Shamrock,” Austin said. “He brought a lot of eyeballs to that match. The only thing that pissed me off is that the son of a bitch is so jacked up. I mean; hell, me and Bret looked like sh*t next to Shamrock, but it was great. He looked like a million bucks. Hell, he was worth the pay-per-view all by himself.”
Shamrock later admitted to using steroids to help maintain his million-dollar physique.
Now 61, the former King of Pancrase has not competed since losing to longtime rival Royce Gracie as part of the record-setting Bellator 149 event back in early 2016. Shamrock was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame ahead of UFC 45 more than 20 years ago.
Fans are hoping Shamrock eventually gets his own spot in the WWE Hall of Fame.
“Other than [WWE] inviting me to WrestleMania last year, that was it,” Shamrock told Ten Count Wrestling. “Like I said, I’m in the Wrestling Hall of Fame, MMA Hall of Fame, UFC Hall of Fame — I’m in a lot of Hall of Fames and I’m so grateful. So, this [WWE Hall of Fame induction] is gonna happen whenever it happens.”
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