2 ECW Originals Set To Get TNA Hall of Fame Induction This Year

The official website for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) announced on October 17th, 2024 that two ex-ECW talents are set to take their rightful spot in the TNA Hall of Fame. Those talents are Rhino, who is a former 4-time World Champion (including the final ECW World Television Champion and final ECW World Heavyweight Champion (of the Original ECW), and Bob Ryder (who is best known for his work with the wrestling website 1Wrestling.com back in the 1990s and was also the webmaster for the original ECWWrestling.com website (the original ECW website for the original ECW).

Rhino first joined TNA back in 2005 and stuck around until 2010-ish, and made a brief return in 2014, and made a second return in 2019, and has appeared sporadically since then. The Detroit native will also be honored in his hometown as TNA Bound For Glory 2024 will be taking place at the Wayne State Fieldhouse in Detroit, Michigan. 

Bob Ryder was one of the co-founders of TNA back in 2002 alongside Jeff Jarrett and his father, Jerry Jarrett, and was recognized as the promotion's very 1st employee. As mentioned, prior to founding TNA with the Jarrett's, Ryder worked in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) behind the scenes and also founded 1Wrestling.com (which was one of the first really popular wrestling websites that came out back in the mid-to-late 1990s). Ryder will be inducted posthumously, as he passed away in 2020 unfortunately. 

Here is a quote from TNA's official press release:

"A former pro wrestling journalist, Bob Ryder was a pioneer in the online wrestling community as the head of Prodigy’s pro wrestling area. He founded 1Wrestling.com and was the webmaster for ECW’s website. He worked for WCW during the Monday Night War era and co-hosted the popular WCW Live with Jeremy Borash. He co-founded TNA Wrestling and was its first employee and the longest-tenured employee in history, employed from its launch in 2002 until his death in 2020. Ryder held multiple backstage positions for TNA, including director of travel operations."

The main event of TNA's Bound For Glory 2024 Pay-Per-View Event will see Joe Hendry challenge Nic Nemeth (c) for the TNA World Championship. TNA first hosted the Hall of Fame ceremony back in 2012 with Sting being the inaugural inductee. Other names who have been recognized for their contributions to the industry include fellow ex-ECW talents Kurt Angle and Team 3D (formerly known in ECW as The Dudleys (Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley), alongside non-ECW talents Jeff Jarrett, Gail Kim and the longtime TNA commentary duo of Mike Tenay and Don West.