WWE Hall Of Famer Hillbilly Jim was recently interviewed on The Toddcast Podcast to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Jim revealed that he nearly skipped out on WrestleMania 34 this year after having a difficult time in Orlando the year before. That all changed, of course, when he got the Hall Of Fame call:

“I wasn’t really gonna go to WrestleMania this year because I had such an awful time last year,” said Jim. “I said to myself, if I get home, I’m not gonna go to this again this year, I’m gonna stay off a year because we were in Orlando, Florida last year and I had the worst time getting up there and getting back from it.

“I was three hours delayed out of the airport getting in to Orlando. Then, the whole weekend down there, I was just out of sorts. Whatever I did, I seemed like I couldn’t get caught up. It seemed like it was stressful and I didn’t enjoy it. Then, lo and behold when I came back, tried to get back home, I was four hours delayed. So, I said, if I get home, I’m not going next year.”

Jim tried to avoid WWE, who were relentlessly trying to get ahold of him, as much as he could just prior to WrestleMania. He told Mark Carrano in a voicemail that he thinks he’s going to skip out on “The Show Of Shows” this year:

“8:30 that morning, [WWE] started calling me, and I was curious,” said Jim. “Cause I know [WWE], when they want something, man, they’re like the government… finally, they start calling again, I’ve gotta make a decision. I picked up the phone, and I call one of these numbers back for this guy named Mark Carrano.

“He was the one calling me, and he had Howard Finkle trying to call me and everybody. I said, I might as well handle this now. So here’s what I did on that Sunday morning. I got his machine, I said Mark this is Billy, blah blah blah. Hope you had a good Christmas and a good New Year, I haven’t talked to you a while. But look. I know you’re trying to get me for WrestleMania in New Orleans, but I think I’m gonna pass this year.”

After hanging up the phone, Carrano called Jim right back and told him something that completely changed his mind – “Vince wants you in the Hall of Fame”:

“That was like getting hit in the ear by George Foreman,” said Jim. “I wasn’t ready for that. I totally was just trying to get out of going in the first place. I had no idea about this. I did not know this was in the workings.

“I didn’t know they would offer this, I didn’t know they had this going on. And my brain just knod of shut down, and I was talking like I had marbles in my mouth. And I said, ‘Mark, I gotta reboot my brain, here. And so that’s how I found out about it.”

You can listen to Hillbilly Jim on the Toddcast Podcast by clicking this link here.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

WWE announced today that Jimmy Hart will induct Hillbilly Jim into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6th. Hillbilly Jim will be inducted alongside Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, Jeff Jarrett, Mark Henry, Kid Rock and Warrior Award recipient Jarrius “JJ” Robertson.

BREAKING: @RealJimmyHart will induct #HillbillyJim into the @WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018! #WWEHOF https://t.co/EZRSocW4uY

— WWE (@WWE) March 31, 2018

Hart said the following at the Andre the Giant documentary premiere about inducting Hillbilly Jim into the WWE Hall of Fame:

“I am so excited about doing that. First of all, I am excited about being at WrestleMania. It is a such a big thrill for me because a lot of people don’t know that Howard Finkel saw my Memphis tapes, called Hillbilly Jim and he called me to go to the first WrestleMania in New York. So that is how I really got signed up by the WWE”.

On his experiences with Hillbilly Jim:

“Well, he was my roommate on Legends’ House of course. We go back a long way, almost 34 years, can you believe that? We’ve played music together, we laughed and we cried together in the Legends’ House. I am so excited about this”.

The #MouthFromTheSouth @RealJimmyHart sounded off on inducting #HillbillyJim into the #WWEHOF Class of 2018 at the #AndreTheGiant documentary premiere in Los Angeles! pic.twitter.com/RBYdPmFhGp

— WWE (@WWE) March 31, 2018

Earlier this week it was officially announced by the WWE that former Superstar Hillbilly Jim would be inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame class.

Anytime that a Superstar is announced for the Hall of Fame, they do various interviews to talk about the announcement, reflect on their careers and what being a Hall of Famer means to them.

Hillbilly Jim recently spoke with TMZ Sports about the honor. During the interview, he noted that he took the call to let the sports entertainment company know that he wouldn’t be making the trip to WrestleMania due to the rough traveling he had in the past.

“The phone call came on a Sunday morning and to be honest with you, they had been calling me for several days prior to try and get me and I had not responded. I was sitting down at my house getting ready to have a cup of coffee and I was going to the gym when they started calling me again,” Jim added.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to take this phone call.’ I really was taking the phone call to tell them that I was not going to come to WrestleMania this year, I was going to take off a year or so because I had a rough ride last year for the one we did in Orlando. With transportation, I felt like the whole weekend I was just behind. So I said, ‘I’m just going to take off a year or so.’ And I was telling him that, I said, ‘Listen, I appreciate it, tell everybody to have a great time in New Orleans and tell the boys hello, and I’m going to take off.’ He said, ‘Well Jim that’s good but Vince McMahon wants you to go into the Hall of Fame. I actually was not expecting this because this was the last thing on my mind. Then all the memories and ramifications of this started floating in my brain, and it’s just been crazy.”

WWE holds their 2018 Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 6th in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Smoothie King Center. Bill Goldberg will headline the class. Here are the other names that have been confirmed to be inducted this year: Ivory, Jeff Jarrett, and The Dudley Boyz.

“Really I wasn’t expecting it, it hit me from the clear blue and it’s beyond belief to think that this has happened to me. It’s like the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae, man, that’s as good as I could ever hope for,” Jim said of the induction during WrestleMania 34 Weekend in New Orleans. “This is just above and beyond my dreams to get put into this Hall of Fame because I’ve already reaped all the benefits from having the business and for being in this industry and to have this happen to me, it’s just more than I needed because this has been a wonderful ride for me, something I could never envision. It’s one of them kinda things that someone kinda sits up and dreams about, but you’d never dream it quite like this.”

H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript

The following are some WWE Network exclusive interviews with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Hillbilly Jim, where they discuss this week’s edition of “Legends House.”

– WWE Hall of Famers “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Harley Race, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Hillbilly Jim and Tito Santana, participants in the inaugural Royal Rumble Match in 1988, look back at the event in interviews with WWE.com.

Duggan, winner of the inaugural match, says of his other favorite Rumble, “It was the 2009 Rumble, and I was one of the later guys coming out. I got a good pop, as a lot of the guys from my generation do. Fans remember us, which we are grateful for. I came through the curtain and stormed to the ring and, of course, one of the first guys I roll into and am nose-to-nose with is The Undertaker. When he first came into WWE, I actually contested a lot of his first matches, against him and Paul Bearer. So here I am, face to face, with the big Deadman. I give him a shot, and a shot, and a real big shot and he went down like a big tank hit him. Then, of course, Big Show came down and tossed my a** out, but I shined there for a good couple of minutes.”

– Crush is the latest addition to the Alumni section on WWE.com. All of his personas are acknowledged; third member of Demolition, fan favorite Hawaiian powerhouse turned villain, jailbird, biker thug and his time in World Championship Wrestling. His passing in August 2007, however, is not acknowledged.

– This week’s issue of The National Enquirer features a story on a wedding that took place at a recent Resistance Pro event in Chicago, Illinois.

— Live Audio Wrestling says Survivor Series is expected to take place on Sunday, November 18 at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

— Mick Foley has been announced to appear on WWE’s “Old School” themed live SmackDown episode on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. on Syfy. Other legends appearing include Dusty Rhodes, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Hillbilly Jim, Howard Finkel, Jimmy Hart, Mean Gene Okerlund, Pat Patterson, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and Tony Atlas.

Foley said of the appearance Friday on Twitter, “I WILL be on Super Smackdown, where Hacksaw Jim Duggan and I will prove, once and for all, that we are not the same person.”

Piper added, “I’m also going to do Smackdown on Tuesday!! I think it’s time to step up to the plate!”

— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s WWE.com profile is now listed among both Raw Superstars and WWE Alumni.

WWE officials held a state of the business meeting this week in Miami, Florida and it was disclosed to Variety that the organization has plans to launch a one-hour weekly television show on a yet to be announced United States television station. WWE will also produce an hour-long Spanish-language program. Details on both shows were not issued. Additional news from the meeting are as follows:

* WWE announced the following series for the forthcoming WWE Network: WWE Divas Tour Bus, WrestleMania Rewind, The Monday Night War: Raw vs Nitro and WWE Countdown.

* The official cast list for the WWE Network program WWE Legends’ House is “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Hillbilly Jim, Howard Finkel, Jimmy Hart, Mean Gene Okerlund, Pat Patterson, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Tony Atlas.

* WWE would not reveal business plans for the WWE Network nor the potential launch date. “We continue to evaluate the best approach,” said Michelle Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer of WWE.

The Variety report can be accessed here.