Muhammad Ali is known as the greatest boxer of all time. However, soon his name will be immortalized alongside the best ever in pro wrestling as Ali is set to be part of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024, according to a press release from WWE.
While he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee in the boxing ring, and appeared in legendary matches against the likes of Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman, Muhammad Ali was also involved in two of the most iconic pro wrestling events of all time.
In 1976, Ali went toe-to-toe with world-famous Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki in an exhibition match called “The War of the Worlds” at the Nippon Budokan Arena in Tokyo. While the fight was a disappointing draw, there were “32,000 fans in the crowd,” another 33,000 watching on closed circuit television at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, per WWE, and an estimated worldwide audience of over a billion people.
More crucially to WWE fans, Ali served as the special guest referee in 1984 for the main event of Wrestlemania I. Ali presided over the tag-team match between Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff.
Hogan and Mr. T ultimately won the match, thanks in part to Ali hitting a right hook on Piper.
Muhammad Ali will go into the WWE Hall of Fame alongside his fellow Class of 2024 inductees, such as manager and promoter Paul Heyman, pioneering women’s wrestler Bull Nakano, and legendary tag team the U.S. Express, which consisted of Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda.
The WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place April 5 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Peacock at 10:00 p.m. ET. Ali will be inducted by his widow, Lonnie Ali.
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