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WWE News
WrestleMania Backstage News: More notes on Hall of Fame, Rock, Flair, Format Changes Possible Apr 2, 2008 - 12:05:15 AM
-The Rock flew out of Orlando, Fla. on Saturday night after inducting his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was backstage after his hour-plus long speech for about another hour before leaving the venue, during which he did socialize with those who weren't seated in the audience. He left before the ceremony ended because he had to catch a flight. As reported earlier this week, there was major heat on him after the exhaustingly long Hall of Fame ceremony (clocking in well over four hours) because his speech went so long and the content had little to do with his family members, but instead was a stand-up routine or a roast of his former colleagues.
-After the Hall of Fame ceremony concluded, when everyone with WWE got on the bus to get back to the hotel to sleep before WrestleMania the next day, Rock took the brunt of the heat for the show running long. The exhausted wrestlers and personnel were also upset he didn't stick around for the Ric Flair induction, but they may not have realized he had a flight to catch to get back to filming his movie, which he arranged to get out of for a full day to attend the Hall of Fame. "There were a lot of tired, grumpy people on that bus," says one source. "It was just a really long night and people were really antsy about the next day."
-Rock was at the Hall of Fame ceremony early enough to do a rehearsal walk-through on the stage, but he didn't practice his lines out loud ahead of time. Clearly parts of his speech were scripted, such as Santino Marella. Not every target of his jokes knew the joke ahead of time.
-There are more mixed reviews of how Rock conducted himself when he did have time to hob-nob with old friends; some thought he was "aloof" and seemed "too Hollywood," but others have defended him saying he was clearly happy to be there and see old friends, but had limited time to catch up with everyone so he may have seemed like he was brushing some people off.
-Vince McMahon is talking about a major format change in the Hall of Fame next year because of how long things went this year. Everybody feels bad that Flair got the signal to wrap up several times during his speech, but nobody anticipated Rock talking as long as he did, so it set everything back. Flair was still talking when the USA Network special went on the air, so the editing crew is getting a lot of credit for the stellar job in getting his speech edited to fit TV time by the time that part of the special aired on USA.
-For more on all of the above and additional WrestleMania Weekend insider items, VIP members can check out today's Daily Keller Hotline audio show.
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