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The latest inductee for the 2024 WWE Hall of Fame class has been announced, with Thunderbolt Patterson being honored at this year's ceremony. Patterson made his wrestling debut in 1964 and won multiple championships across a 30-year career, with the majority of them being affiliated with the NWA. However, Patterson says he was blacklisted from the NWA in the 1970s for speaking out against poor working conditions, racism from promoters, and even trying to start a wrestler's union, before the ban was lifted in 1975.
Being the trailblazer that Patterson was for African American wrestlers, WWE star Xavier Woods took to X (formerly Twitter) to praise WWE for acknowledging a legend of the business who doesn't get talked about a lot. He wrote: "He did so much for professional wrestling that doesn't get talked about. Glad to see that this man get his chance to enter into the @wwe hall of fame. Congrats Thunderbolt!"
He did so much for professional wrestling that doesn't get talked about. Glad to see that this man get his chance to enter into the @wwe hall of fame. Congrats Thunderbolt! https://t.co/20jZiDblZp pic.twitter.com/958LjYHOyf
— Austin Creed (@AustinCreedWins) March 13, 2024
Patterson will join boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Japanese star Bull Nakano, the team of Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda, known better as The U.S. Express, and Paul Heyman, who will be heading up the class. The ceremony will take place immediately after the final episode of "WWE SmackDown" before WrestleMania 40 on April 5, meaning that there is still (at time of writing) time for more inductees to be announced. None of the inductees have so far announced who will induct them, but with the ceremony taking place in Philadelphia and the city being the home of ECW, the company that Heyman owned and operated during the 1990s, many have speculated that ECW alumni could be on hand to induct Heyman at least.
