Brian Gewirtz Names Celebrity Who Should Be In WWE Hall Of Fame
Brian Gewirtz has some historic ties to a celebrity legend he believes is well-deserving of a WWE Hall Of Fame induction. The former WWE head writer and current executive producer of "Young Rock" on NBC joined "Under The Ring" podcast and was asked what celebrity is long overdue for a WWE Hall of Fame nod.
"WWE Hall of Fame is an interesting thing," Gewirtz said, who noted that it's unlike the Baseball Hall Of Fame which goes by statistics. "It's kind of like forged by whatever happened to be discussed that year, but from a pure merit standpoint, there is probably no celebrity more influential and more, just revered in the business more than Andy Kaufman and what he did in Memphis."
Gewirtz was the head writer for WWE back when "Raw" would have celebrity guest hosts and it was a common trend to not make that host look foolish or be embarrassed.
"Andy would have no such fear of that. He would look like a horse's ass. He'd relish in getting booed and playing the heel in Memphis and making fun of people – the women, the men."
Kaufman notoriously became known for wrestling women, but he also cultivated a long-standing feud with Jerry Lawler while working with Memphis wrestling after not being shown interest by Vince McMahon Sr. and WWE. What Lawler and Kaufman cultivated together blurred the lines and created pro wrestling history.
"Amazing to watch and so ahead of its time, so unprecedented, that yeah, obviously, Andy deserves to be in many hall of fames and WWE is definitely one of them," Gewirtz added, whose uncle serendipitously enough worked on the set of "TAXI," the sitcom that made Kaufman an A-list celebrity.