With just less than two weeks to go until Bound For Glory on Saturday October 26th from the Wayne State University Fieldhouse in Detroit, Michigan TNA Wrestling announced the two names that will be inducted into the 2024 class of the TNA Hall of Fame. The two names are ECW Legend and TNA Original Rhino and co-founder of the company Bob Ryder.
Rhino is a former TNA World Heavyweight Champion winning the title at the inaugural Bound For Glory PPV back in 2005. It was at this time that TNA was still partnered with the NWA so technically Rhino is a former NWA Worlds Champion. He would also go on to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship on two separate occasions. His first run with the gold was with the faction known as Violent By Design then with former his former partner from WWE, Heath.
The Man Beast or The War Machine whichever you prefer is mostly known for his time in both WWE and ECW. It was during his time with these promotions that he would become the final original ECW World Heavyweight Champion, a two time ECW World Television Champion, a three time WWF Hardcore Champion and one half of the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions with Heath.
Bob Ryder was a pioneer when it came to online wrestling journalism. He was the head of the professional wrestling department for Prodigy. Ryder also made his being the first journalist to conduct an online interview with a World Wrestling Federation now World Wrestling Entertainment Superstars Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels during WrestleMania XI.
He would go on to found 1Wrestling.com, run the site for Extreme Championship Wrestling and worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) during the Monday Night Wars. It was at WCW where Ryder would become good friends with Eric Bishoff and Jeremy Borash.
After WCW was bought by WWE it was Ryder who convinced WWE Hall of Famer and current All Eltit Wrestling Superstar Jeff Jarrett to create Total Nonstop Action. When the company first began in 2002 it was exclusively a pay-per-view company which later created the flagship show, TNA iMPACT!
Ryder was the first and longest tenured employee of the company since he help founded the company with Jarrett until his death back in 2020. He held many hats in TNA including Director of Travel Operations.
The TNA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on the Countdown to Bound For Glory show which will stream on TNA+ and other social media platforms.
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