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Pete Rose makes WWE Hall of Fame
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Wednesday, March 3, 2004
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Pete Rose may not have a place in baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. But that does not stop the all-time hits leader from entering a different kind of hall of fame: professional wrestling.
World Wrestling Entertainment, the company that presents staged wrestling matches featuring performers including The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle, announced on Tuesday that it planned to induct Rose and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura into its Hall of Fame.
Ventura is a former professional wrestler and TV announcer.
Rose has participated in several televised pay-per-view WrestleMania events presented by WWE, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation. During one WrestleMania appearance, the WWE wrestler known as Kane picked Rose up over his shoulders and dropped him head-first onto the canvas in a move called a Tombstone Pile-Driver.
Banned from the game for life, Rose admitted to betting on baseball in his autobiography released earlier this year with the hopes of being reinstated, clearing his path to induction into the Cooperstown museum.
Rose will join nine other inductees as part of the WWE class of 2004 at ceremonies on March 14.
“Pete Rose is our first-ever celebrity inductee for the classic moments he has provided in WrestleMania matches with WWE superstar Kane,” WWE chairman Vince McMahon said on the organization’s website.
“Only a champion like Pete Rose would get into a wrestling ring with a 300-pound monster like Kane, and then have the tenacity and determination to do it again … One day Pete Rose will take his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but on March 13, Pete will officially become a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.”
