Vince McMahon Blamed For Iconic Tag Team’s WWE Hall Of Fame Snub
A legendary tag team believes they missed out on a WWE Hall of Fame induction as they weren’t on Vince McMahon’s “like list.”
Bill Eadie and Barry Darsaw, better known as Ax and Smash of Demolition, were a hugely popular team in WWE back in the 1980s. The pair translated that popularity into success in the ring, holding the WWE Tag Team Titles three times, with their first reign in 1988 lasting 478 days. That record stood for over 25 years, only toppled in 2015 when The New Day surpassed the team and reigned for 483 days.
Despite their legendary status, Demolition has never been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. During an appearance on Hitting The Turnbuckle, Ax speculated that they weren’t on Vince McMahon’s “like list.”
“Well, we never had an objection to going in (the WWE Hall of Fame). There was a lot of politics involved and now it’s changed like you say and hopefully, the change for the better with our relationship. But we’ve never been in contact with anybody from the office and like you said before, the only person that made the decision for anything before was Vince (McMahon), and we weren’t on Vince’s like list I guess. But, we’ve never objected to being inducted, we’ve never objected to being included in anything with WWE. So, quite possibly could happen. But one thing we haven’t done, we haven’t lost any sleep over it.”
By 2023, Triple H had taken over WWE’s day-to-day operations. Smash revealed that Demolition was invited to WrestleMania and the Hall of Fame ceremony that year but had to turn it down due to other commitments.
“Now last year at WrestleMania time, right before WrestleMania, they called us and they invited us to WrestleMania and they invited us to the Hall of Fame and that was a big change with Triple H in there. I’m sure that’s all his idea. We had to unfortunately turn them down because the person who brought us in, he paid for us to come in and we were busy doing stuff with him so it wasn’t like we could just leave and jump ship and go over there and I’m hoping they understood it and they should have. But, that was the first kind of, ‘Hey, you guys wanna come and be with us?’ So that was a good sign.”
In another interview, Smash opened up on his drastic gimmick change after Demolition went their separate ways in 1991.
Vince McMahon Put A Stop To Ex-WWE Star Shoot Wrestling
Shelton Benjamin has recalled the only time Vince McMahon yelled at him. AEW’s most recent signing explained that he legitimately threw Daniel Puder around in the ring during an amateur wrestling match when McMahon had enough and told them he had “had enough of that shoot s**t.”
H/T to POST Wrestling for the above transcription.