“Thank You, Vince!” Crowd Erupts As Vince McMahon’s Name Mentioned at WWE Hall of Fame

WrestleMania weekend officially kicked off in WWE tonight, and now that the WrestleMania edition of SmackDown is in the history books, it was time to turn the attention to the Hall of Fame Ceremony.

As it has been for the last few years, the Hall of Fame ceremony followed the final episode of SmackDown before WrestleMania, and was attended by many current and former stars.

TNA and WWE legend, Mickie James, made an appearance at the ceremony as she accompanied her husband, the SmackDown General Manager, Nick Aldis. The Miz and Michael Cole hosted the night and introduced the first inductee into the Class of 2026.

Stephanie McMahon is a WWE Hall of Famer

Former WWE Chairperson Stephanie McMahon was announced as the first inductee into the Hall of Fame Class of 2026 at Wrestlepalooza last year, and the ceremony began with her induction.

An emotional video tribute played for McMahon, where the WWE locker room spoke about the impact she has had on the business before she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her daughters, Aurora, Murphy, Vaughn, and her mother, Linda McMahon.

All four of them delivered emotional speeches for Stephanie before she came out and thanked her mother and daughters. She then mentioned her father, Vince McMahon, in her speech as well.

She thanked Vince for allowing her to come into the business, and that drew a huge pop from the crowd. The crowd broke into chants of “Thank you, Vince” as they celebrated the former chairman of the company.

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