First 2024 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee Announced

Paul Heyman will headline the Class of 2024.

WWE is bringing back the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony for WWE WrestleMania 40 weekend. The honor has been synonymous with the Showcase of the Immortals for decades, with legends from yesteryear returning to be inducted into WWE's prestigious class. While WWE typically announces the first inductee of that year's WWE Hall of Fame class around WWE Royal Rumble season, mentions about the ceremony were mute throughout the first couple of months of 2024. This led to speculation that WWE would be making the 2024 class another small one, as recent years WWE has drastically decreased the number of WWE Hall of Fame inductees.

Paul Heyman Headlines 2024 WWE Hall of Fame Class

wrestlemania-38-paul-heyman-final-warning-roman-reigns-brock-lesnar.jpg
(Photo: WWE)

The Advocate will be immortalized this April.

As announced on social media, Paul Heyman will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024 this April.

"He's been a promoter, a manager, an executive, a 'Wiseman,' and now, a WWE Hall of Famer," WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque wrote. "There's more to say about Paul Heyman, but as always, it's best to let him say it himself… with a live microphone in Philadelphia."

Philadelphia is a historic location for Heyman, as the City of Brotherly Love served as the birthplace of ECW, the fan-favorite renegade promotion that Heyman ran throughout the 1990s.

There is no word on when the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place. With Saturday, April 6th and Sunday, April 7th both being dedicated to WWE WrestleMania 40 itself, Friday, April 5th seems to be the most opportune date. Last year's ceremony went on the air immediately following the conclusion of WWE SmackDown at 10 PM ET.

Paul Heyman Helped Polish Top AEW Star's Presentation

SWERVE-STRICKLAND-AEW-PAUL-HEYMAN-WWE
(Photo: AEW, WWE)

Heyman's influence extends beyond WWE. Speaking to ComicBook.com, AEW star Swerve Strickland recalled how Heyman helped polish his presentation upon his WWE exit.

"When I was let go [from WWE] and on my 90 days I filmed this jazz-style video of just me walking around Hollywood, Florida and looking at art and hearing this jazz music. I was in a suit and everything. I was still trying to really find myself and where I was really going to take things and I sent it to [Paul]," Swerve recalled. "And he said, 'Make sure you have a narrative to what you're trying to push, and don't be afraid to use your voice to push the narrative. Some people are afraid to, some people overly say too much, some people don't say enough.'

"That was one of those things. I didn't say enough in one of those videos. 'Make sure you leave the audience with what your narrative is for what you filmed.' That's one of the big things I would say I got from Paul. So now every time I get on camera, I make sure there's a narrative push to something that I'm trying to let the audience know, re-push for the people that have been watching me weekly, or make sure I punch something away with the people that have never seen me before that I watch for the very first time."